Bank-Run Fears Continue; HSBC Restricts Large Cash Withdrawals

Zero Hedge
January 25, 2014

Following research last week suggesting that HSBC has a major capital shortfall, the fact that several farmer’s co-ops were unable to pay back depositors in China, and, of course, the liquidity crisis in China itself, news from The BBC that HSBC is imposing restrictions on large cash withdrawals raising a number of red flags. The BBC reports that some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it. HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November for their own good: “We ask our customers about the purpose of large cash withdrawals when they are unusual… the reason being we have an obligation to protect our customers, and to minimise the opportunity for financial crime.” As one customer responded: “you shouldn’t have to explain to your bank why you want that money. It’s not theirs, it’s yours.”

Via The BBC,

Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt.

Listeners have told Radio 4′s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.

HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.

The bank says it has now changed its guidance to staff.

…

“When we presented them with the withdrawal slip, they declined to give us the money because we could not provide them with a satisfactory explanation for what the money was for. They wanted a letter from the person involved.”

The arrogance is incredible…

20 Early Warning Signs That We Are Approaching A Global Economic Meltdown

Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse
January 24, 2014

Have you been paying attention to what has been happening in Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Ukraine, Turkey and China?  If you are like most Americans, you have not been.  Most Americans don’t seem to really care too much about what is happening in the rest of the world, but they should.

Image: NYSE (Wikimedia Commons).

In major cities all over the globe right now, there is looting, violence, shortages of basic supplies, and runs on the banks.  We are not at a “global crisis” stage yet, but things are getting worse with each passing day.  For a while, I have felt that 2014 would turn out to be a major “turning point” for the global economy, and so far that is exactly what it is turning out to be.  The following are 20 early warning signs that we are rapidly approaching a global economic meltdown…

#1 The looting, violence and economic chaos that is happening in Argentina right now is a perfect example of what can happen when you print too much money…

For Dominga Kanaza, it wasn’t just the soaring inflation or the weeklong blackouts or even the looting that frayed her nerves.

It was all of them combined.

At one point last month, the 37-year-old shop owner refused to open the metal shutters protecting her corner grocery in downtown Buenos Aires more than a few inches — just enough to sell soda to passersby on a sweltering summer day.

#2 The value of the Argentine Peso is absolutely collapsing.

#3 Widespread shortages, looting and accelerating inflation are also causing huge problems in Venezuela…

Economic mismanagement in Venezuela has reached such a level that it risks inciting a violent popular reaction. Venezuela is experiencing declining export revenues, accelerating inflation and widespread shortages of basic consumer goods. At the same time, the Maduro administration has foreclosed peaceful options for Venezuelans to bring about a change in its current policies.

President Maduro, who came to power in a highly-contested election last April, has reacted to the economic crisis with interventionist and increasingly authoritarian measures. His recent orders to slash prices of goods sold in private businesses resulted in episodes of looting, which suggests a latent potential for violence. He has put the armed forces on the street to enforce his economic decrees, exposing them to popular discontent.

#4 In a stunning decision, the Venezuelan government has just announced that it has devalued the Bolivar by more than 40 percent.

#5 Brazilian stocks declined sharply on Thursday.  There is a tremendous amount of concern that the economic meltdown that is happening in Argentina is going to spill over into Brazil.

#6 Ukraine is rapidly coming apart at the seams…

A tense ceasefire was announced in Kiev on the fifth day of violence, with radical protesters and riot police holding their position. Opposition leaders are negotiating with the government, but doubts remain that they will be able to stop the rioters.

#7 It appears that a bank run has begun in China…

As China’s CNR reports, depositors in some of Yancheng City’s largest farmers’ co-operative mutual fund societies (“banks”) have been unable to withdraw “hundreds of millions” in deposits in the last few weeks. “Everyone wants to borrow and no one wants to save,” warned one ‘salesperson’, “and loan repayments are difficult to recover.” There is “no money” and the doors are locked.

#8 Art Cashin of UBS is warning that credit markets in China “may be broken“.  For much more on this, please see my recent article entitled “The $23 Trillion Credit Bubble In China Is Starting To Collapse – Global Financial Crisis Next?”

#9 News that China’s manufacturing sector is contracting shook up financial markets on Thursday…

Wall Street was rattled by a key reading on China’s manufacturing which dropped below the key 50 level in January, according to HSBC. A reading below 50 on the HSBC flash manufacturing PMI suggests economic contraction.

#10 Japanese stocks experienced their biggest drop in 7 months on Thursday.

#11 The value of the Turkish Lira is absolutely collapsing.

#12 The unemployment rate in France has risen for 9 quarters in a row and recently soared to a new 16 year high.

#13 In Italy, the unemployment rate has soared to a brand new all-time record high of 12.7 percent.

#14 The unemployment rate in Spain is sitting at an all-time record high of 26.7 percent.

#15 This year, the Baltic Dry Index experienced the largest two week post-holiday decline that we have ever seen.

#16 Chipmaker Intel recently announced that it plans to eliminate 5,000 jobs over the coming year.

#17 CNBC is reporting that U.S. retailers just experienced “the worst holiday season since 2008“.

#18 A recent CNBC article stated that U.S. consumers should expect a “tsunami” of store closings in the retail industry…

Get ready for the next era in retail—one that will be characterized by far fewer shops and smaller stores.

On Tuesday, Sears said that it will shutter its flagship store in downtown Chicago in April. It’s the latest of about 300 store closures in the U.S. that Sears has made since 2010. The news follows announcements earlier this month of multiple store closings from major department stores J.C. Penney and Macy’s.

Further signs of cuts in the industry came Wednesday, when Target said that it will eliminate 475 jobs worldwide, including some at its Minnesota headquarters, and not fill 700 empty positions.

#19 The U.S. Congress is facing another deadline to raise the debt ceiling in February.

#20 The Dow fell by more than 170 points on Thursday.  It is becoming increasingly likely that “the peak of the market” is now in the rear view mirror.

And I have not even mentioned the extreme drought that has caused the U.S. cattle herd to drop to a 61 year low or the nuclear radiation from Fukushima that is washing up on the west coast.

In light of everything above, is there anyone out there that still wants to claim that “everything is going to be okay” for the global economy?

Sadly, most Americans are not even aware of most of these things.

All over the country today, the number one news headline is about Justin Bieber.  The mainstream media is absolutely obsessed with celebrity scandals, and so is a very large percentage of the U.S. population.

A great economic storm is rapidly approaching, and most people don’t even seem to notice the storm clouds that are gathering on the horizon.

In the end, perhaps we will get what we deserve as a nation.

If Pollution From China Affects The West Coast How Come Pollution From Fukushima Doesn’t?

Activist Post – by Chris Carrington

A new report states that pollution from China is causing smog on the West Coast of the USA.

Now you’ll have to forgive my confusion here but if we take Beijing as the starting point, the distance to The West Coast is 6,266 miles. That’s a long way for pollution to travel on the wind.

It’s farther, for example, than the 5,363 miles the wind has to travel from Fukushima.

Maybe it takes a different route when it’s carrying radiation…

This report makes it obvious that the wind has the ability to carry matter, seen and unseen matter, across oceans and spread it around the globe. This could be viewed as indirect evidence that radiation from Fukushima is indeed present on the West Coast.

From Russia Today:

Pollutants from China’s manufacturing industry are traveling across the Pacific Ocean, contributing to smog in the United States, according to a new study.

Chinese power plants and factories produce enough dirty emissions that pollutants can make it across the Pacific in around six days, exacerbating smog levels on the US West Coast, according to a scientific study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Around one-fifth of the pollution China pumps into the atmosphere comes from the production of cheap goods for export to the United States and other countries, the study suggest.

For example, based on Chinese emissions from export manufacturing, Los Angeles experienced at least one extra day of smog that exceeded federal health standards for the ozone in 2006.

“Rising emissions produced in China are a key reason global emissions of air pollutants have remained at a high level during 2000–2009 even as emissions produced in the United States, Europe, and Japan have decreased,” the study’s leaders wrote. “Outsourcing production to China does not always relieve consumers in the United States – or, for that matter, many countries in the Northern Hemisphere – from the environmental impacts of air pollution.”

The team of scientists – based in the US, China and the UK – used data from 2006 to weigh how much of the air pollution from China that reached the US came from the production of goods ultimately exported to the United States and other countries. Scientists followed the route of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and black carbon, through the atmosphere to gauge their effects outside China.

Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared. Wake the flock up!

http://www.activistpost.com/2014/01/if-pollution-from-china-affects-west.html

The majority of the world’s meth begins in China

Rebecca Winters
January 18, 2014
Naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) In the biggest meth bust so far this year, over 180 people were recently arrested when more than three tons of crystal methamphetamine worth $230 million was seized in the Chinese village of Boshe earlier this month. The massive raid involved 3,000 officers equipped with helicopters, motorboats and drug-sniffing dogs.

Another 22 tons of raw materials were also seized from the rows of houses in Boshe, a place where a fifth of all households are reportedly involved in illegal drug operations. According to the LA Times, “Piles of waste reportedly littered the town, and residents openly stored the raw ingredients beside their homes.” Those living in Boshe complained that the noxious fumes from the immense drug cooking operation had thoroughly polluted the soil in the area to the point where people could no longer get any crops to grow. Over nine tons of illegal drugs have been confiscated from that area in the last six months alone.

Although many are aware that China already holds the title of the world’s largest exporter, most wouldn’t even consider that to include the tons of precursor chemicals used in illegal drug manufacturing that the nation ships out every year. Thousands upon thousands of pounds of these chemicals, originating in China, are seized annually. Even though many of the drugs smuggled into the U.S. come from Mexico, when people in Mexico want to make those drugs, China supplies much of the cheap chemical components with which to do so.

In the summer of 2012 alone, Mexican authorities intercepted 900 tons of meth-making chemicals shipped from China, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized two shipments containing 5,700 pounds of methylamine chloride, another common meth component, worth $40 million attempting to enter the country from China at LAX airport. That same year, Belize authorities also stopped a single shipment of meth from China worth an estimated $10 billion. The South China Morning Post just reported that the Hong Kong triads – China’s mafia-style organized crime syndicate – are also the major suppliers of Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa cartel.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043566_China_methamphetamine_illegal_drugs.html#ixzz2qqJIaCRX

Who Are The Top Holders Of US Treasurys

Zerohedge.com
January 17, 2014

Yesterday, when the Treasury released its TIC data early by mistake, the update that China’s holdings rose to a record $1.317 trillion caused a stir. This was confusing, since while China, which as we reported yesterday, now has a record $3.8 trillion in reserves having grown by $500 billion in 2013, has barely invested in US paper, and in fact going back to 2010, its holdings were a solid $1.2 trillion. In other words, its Treasury holdings have increased by a modest $100 billion in three years. Hardly anything to write home about. And certainly nothing to write home about when one considers the soaring Treasury held by the largest holder of US paper… everyone knows who that is. For those few who don’t, and for everyone else too, here is the most recent breakdown of the top holders of US paper.

And now a question: with the Fed already “tapering” its purchases of Treasurys, and thus no longer the failsafe backstop bidder of first, last or any resort, how much interest in “money good” paper will everyone else have?

China Tests Hypersonic Aircraft

Agence France-Presse
January 16, 2014

Artist’s rendition of DARPA’s Hypersonic Technology Vehicle HTV-2, which would likely share similar characteristics.

China has for the first time tested a hypersonic missile vehicle designed to travel several times the speed of sound, according to the Pentagon.

The test makes China the second country after the United States to conduct experimental flights with hypersonic vehicles, a technology that could allow armies to rapidly strike distant targets anywhere around the world.

“We’re aware of the test of the hypersonic vehicle but we are not commenting on it,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Pool, a Pentagon spokesman.

Read more

China Threatens Military Seizure of South China Sea Island from Philippines

John J. Xenakis
breitbart.com
January 16, 2014

Up until recently, Vietnamese policy was to very carefully avoid offending China, even to the point of using security forces to crush any civilian anti-China protests. However, Vietnam has apparently now completely reversed that policy.

The occasion is the anniversary of a naval clash between South Vietnamese and Chinese naval forces on January 19, 1974. China’s superior naval power crushed the Vietnamese forces, and China seized some of the Paracel Islands controlled by Vietnam and has occupied them ever since.

For forty years, Vietnam has never mentioned the battle for fear of offending China; it’s not even included in modern history books. Now, however, Vietnam’s state media is publicly marking the event and printing numerous articles on the subject, describing how the islands were taken by China by force and the heroic actions of the Vietnamese sailors. Public meetings have been held to commemorate the battle, and there are calls to recognize the “martyrdom” of the fallen soldiers and offer support to their families.

Read more

China Mobilizes 100,000 Troops In Preparation For Korean Peninsula Crisis

PLA source says number of troops involved is unusually rare

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 16, 2014

In what PLA sources are describing as an unusually high figure, China has mobilized 100,000 troops to take part in a border exercise as part of preparations for a Korean Peninsula crisis.

 

“The drill is a normal military exercise to train soldiers to fight in winter and long-range conditions, according to national state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). However, a source from the People’s Liberation Army said that it is very rare to see 100,000 military personnel mobilized for a regular exercise. The 39th Army Group has only just completed its “Iron Flow 134″ exercise in the region late last year, the source added,” reports the Want China Times.

The exercises have been launched in response to the execution of Jang Sung-taek, former vice chairman of North Korean National Defense Commission, which caused consternation in Beijing because Jang was seen as a trusted mediator between North Korea and China.

Taking place just 220 kilometers away from North Korea’s Sinuiju Special Administrative Region, the drills are designed to be a show of force to assert China’s influence over the troubled region.

As we have highlighted on a number of occasions, Beijing’s aggressive military posturing has intensified over recent months.

Earlier this week reports emerged out of state media suggesting that China was set to attack the Filipino-occupied Zhongye Island, with Beijing determined to seize the island by force as part of a skirmish that could enflame the entire South China Sea region.

A lengthy editorial which appeared in Chinese state media last month explained how the Chinese military’s current reformation process was part of a move by President Xi Jinping to prepare the People’s Liberation Army for war in response to US aggression in the Asia Pacific, developments which have prompted “major changes” in China’s national security situation.

Amidst tensions over the disputed Senkaku Islands, Beijing has also aimed some of its strident rhetoric at the United States, bragging about China’s ability to attack US military bases in the Western Pacific, as well as releasing of a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear strike launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

China Set to Seize South China Sea Island by Force

Beijing claims island “illegally occupied” by the Philippines

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 13, 2014

Reports out of Chinese state media indicate that Beijing is set to invade an island in the South China Sea “illegally occupied” by US ally the Philippines, stoking concerns that the tension filled region could explode.

Image: People’s Liberation Army Marines (Wikimedia Commons).

The article originally appeared at qianzhan.com under the headline, ‘Sudden major move of Chinese troops this year to recover Zhongye Island by force’, and was translated by the China Daily Mail.

Relying on US support, the Philippines is so arrogant as to announce in the New Year that it will increase its navy and air force deployment at Zhongye Island, a Chinese island that it has illegally occupied for years.

It will be an intolerable insult to China

According to experts, the Chinese navy has drawn a detailed combat plan to seize the island and the battle will be restricted within the South China Sea.

The report goes on to state that the “battle” will not include a Chinese invasion of Filipino territories, although the Philippines will undoubtedly view Beijing’s attack on Zhongye Island as precisely that since it has been occupied by Filipino troops for over 40 years.

“Of course, claims that “battle will be restricted” are nothing but taunting and should China launch an offensive here, we suspect the already dry and brittle tinder box in the South (and East) China Sea could rapidly escalate,” reports Zero Hedge.

The report arrives hot on the heels of Japan’s announcement that it will “nationalize” around 280 islands in the disputed region, the latest shot across the bow in a tit-for-tat build up that experts have warned heralds the beginning of a new cold war.

China’s latest act of aggression arrives after months of military posturing and bellicose rhetoric.

In October, China sent a surveillance ship to Hawaiian waters for the very first time in an unprecedented move which was described as a provocative retaliation to the U.S. naval presence in the East China Sea.

A lengthy editorial which appeared in Chinese state media last month explained how the Chinese military’s current reformation process was part of a move by President Xi Jinping to prepare the People’s Liberation Army for war in response to US aggression in the Asia Pacific, developments which have prompted “major changes” in China’s national security situation.

Strident rhetoric about Beijing’s ability to attack US military bases in the Western Pacific, as well as the release of a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear strike launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force also turned heads.

Following discussion in state media about plans to to turn the moon into a Star Wars-style “death star” from which the PLA could launch missiles against any target on Earth, a display to promote China’s Jade Rabbit Moon rover also included a background photograph of a mushroom cloud over Europe.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

Why The Risk of World War Is Rising

Washington’s Blog
January 13, 2014

Top economic advisers are forecasting war and unrest.

Image: Chinese Guard (Wikimedia Commons).

They give the following reasons for their forecast:

• Countries start wars to distract their populations from lousy economies

• Currency and trade wars end up turning into shooting wars

• The U.S. is still seeking to secure oil supplies, and the U.S. doesn’t like any country to leave the dollar standard

Additionally, the American policy of using the military to contain China’s growing economic influence – and of considering economic rivalry to be a basis for war – is creating a tinderbox.

As the New York Times noted in 2011:

For a superpower, dealing with the fast rise of a rich, brash competitor has always been an iffy thing.

Just ask … Thucydides, the Athenian historian whose tome on the Peloponnesian War has ruined many a college freshman’s weekend. The line they had to remember for the test was his conclusion: “What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.”

So while no official would dare say so publicly as President Hu Jintao bounced from the White House to meetings with business leaders to factories in Chicago last week, his visit, from both sides’ points of view, was all about managing China’s rise and defusing the fears that it triggers. Both Mr. Hu and President Obama seemed desperate to avoid what Graham Allison of Harvard University has labeled “the Thucydides Trap” – that deadly combination of calculation and emotion that, over the years, can turn healthy rivalry into antagonism or worse.

Indeed, Allison writes:

The defining question about global order in the decades ahead will be: can China and the US escape Thucydides’s trap?

China is certainly aware of this potential dynamic for world war … and is eager to avoid it.    As Xinuanoted last July:

Greek historian Thucydides described the situation between Athens and Sparta as a combination of “rise” and “fear,” which inevitably resulted in war about 2,400 years ago. Over the past 500 years, when a rising power has challenged a ruling power, war has often followed, reinforcing the concept of “The Thucydides Trap.”

In the 21st century, however, China and the U.S. could and must avoid falling into this trap, especially against the backdrop of ever-deepening economic globalization and interdependence.

***

“The Thucydides Trap” offers a worthy caution, but it is not a tragedy that can not be avoided.

The 21st century will not necessarily mark the rise of China alongside the fall of the U.S., rather, through joint efforts, the two sides can see the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, U.S. recovery and a developing world, simultaneously.

And the China Post made a similar point last June.

Obviously, the dispute between China and Japan over oil-rich islands – with the U.S. backing Japan – is a complicated one. Indeed, Japan is threatening to seize another 280 islands whose claim is disputed.

Given that China passed Japan as the world’s second biggest economy in 2010, Thucydides’s trap could very well apply to Japan’s fear and hatred of China’s economic growth.

And China’s threat to “take back” an island occupied by another close U.S. ally – the Philippines – could be another potential flashpoint in Chinese-U.S. relations.

It seems like the U.S. and China are drifting towards war over the long-term, as proxy disputes with Japan, the Philippines and other countries cannot remain cool forever without accident or incident.

Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail on all sides …