These Items May Have Flown Beneath Your Radar Screen This Past Weekend
When news hits later on Friday or over the weekend, it's frequently placed at that time to somehow downplay the news. For example it could be:
Certain interests (government, corporation) want to slip in some news so that it flies under most people's radar; the item is sensitive, and they don't want to roil citizens, political opposition, the markets, etc. They want to keep a lid on it best they can.
On the other hand, it could be something so urgent it couldn't wait for the usual story placement on Monday.
We have an example of each kind that hit later on Friday. We've also included a "bonus" story that you'll likely agree takes the prize for most significant with the potential to - at some point - affect us all in ways we can only imagine.
This first story's one to be something that's designed to avoid upsetting a certain segment of the citizenry:
You can read the whole story HERE.
The next one's similar in desire to avoid stirring up a hornet's nest. It appears to confirm that the U.S. government did indeed engage in a quid pro quo with Iran when it lifted sanctions at the same time Iran released some U.S. citizens being held prisoner. With the upcoming election, the current Democrat administration likely wanted to keep this one under wraps as best they could so they do not upset anti-Iranian constituencies.
BTW, we're not convinced it's a potential "Lehman" type event. Not that it couldn't be, from the perspective of the actual health of the bank. But it's doubtful DB will be abandoned the way Lehman was in 2008. "Whatever it takes" will keep this baby afloat as long as possible to avoid anything vaguely resembling a replay of 2008: ECB lending unlimited amounts to provide liquidity; German government announcing it will provide "whatever is necessary"; and, as we've just seen, that to be coordinated with the U.S. government reducing the previously announced $14 billion fine it levied to a level that won't cause a financial meltdown.
As for the stories that have appeared and will appear about how DB is much more solid than Lehman was at this point in the crisis cycle, that may or may not be true. But the issue isn't whether DB survives. It's the contagion that could occur if the bank's failure triggers a contagion that infects other banks. For example, if any of the $50 trillion in derivatives for which DB serves as a counterparty become suspect to the banks' counterparties, we could have a tsunami of cascading defaults. Already hedge funds have withdrawn money they held at DB to effect or collateralize trading operations, and that set off a mini-run on Thursday. If any significant part of the $50 trillion in derivatives for which DB serves as a counterparty becomes suspect, cascading defaults could drag down the European banking system - or worse. Everything possible will be done to make sure that doesn't happen.
And so the DB can will be kicked down the road to, we suspect, appear yet again before the bank's serious problems are - if ever - resolved.
Certain interests (government, corporation) want to slip in some news so that it flies under most people's radar; the item is sensitive, and they don't want to roil citizens, political opposition, the markets, etc. They want to keep a lid on it best they can.
On the other hand, it could be something so urgent it couldn't wait for the usual story placement on Monday.
We have an example of each kind that hit later on Friday. We've also included a "bonus" story that you'll likely agree takes the prize for most significant with the potential to - at some point - affect us all in ways we can only imagine.
This first story's one to be something that's designed to avoid upsetting a certain segment of the citizenry:
A disciplinary court suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore for the remainder of his term Friday for violating judicial ethics in his defiance of federal court rulings on same-sex marriage.Conservatives won't like this. This judge has stood by his principles before. He famously refused to take down a public display of the Ten Commandments in his court house, and was suspended for that too. This time, though, having crossed one of the most powerful groups in U.S. politics, the Gay lobby, he's finished as a judge. You'd think the news would be trumpeted as a warning to others to beware upsetting the power of Gay-dome, but it may be there was a fear that conservatives would be up in arms and immediately counter this action, at least in the public's eye. But if the backlash occurs over the weekend, it will be muted. Just a guess.
You can read the whole story HERE.
The next one's similar in desire to avoid stirring up a hornet's nest. It appears to confirm that the U.S. government did indeed engage in a quid pro quo with Iran when it lifted sanctions at the same time Iran released some U.S. citizens being held prisoner. With the upcoming election, the current Democrat administration likely wanted to keep this one under wraps as best they could so they do not upset anti-Iranian constituencies.
WASHINGTON—The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison, according to U.S. officials and congressional staff briefed on the deliberations.But the biggest story to be carefully floated later Friday follows. It's in the urgent category. If you've been following the Deutsche Bank saga in recent months, you'll understand why something that eases the pressure somewhat needed to be announced, even if not at at time when most people's attention was focused on the news of the day.
The U.N. sanctions on the two banks weren’t initially to be lifted until 2023, under a landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that went into effect on Jan. 16.
The U.N. Security Council’s delisting of the two banks, Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International, was part of a package of tightly scripted agreements—the others were a controversial prisoner swap and transfer of $1.7 billion in cash to Iran—that were finalized between the U.S. and Iran on Jan. 17, the day the Americans were freed.
Relief swept over equities as Agence France-Presse reported that Deutsche Bank is near a $5.4 billion deal with the the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a probe related to bad mortgages.This one's worth watching closely in coming days and weeks.
BTW, we're not convinced it's a potential "Lehman" type event. Not that it couldn't be, from the perspective of the actual health of the bank. But it's doubtful DB will be abandoned the way Lehman was in 2008. "Whatever it takes" will keep this baby afloat as long as possible to avoid anything vaguely resembling a replay of 2008: ECB lending unlimited amounts to provide liquidity; German government announcing it will provide "whatever is necessary"; and, as we've just seen, that to be coordinated with the U.S. government reducing the previously announced $14 billion fine it levied to a level that won't cause a financial meltdown.
As for the stories that have appeared and will appear about how DB is much more solid than Lehman was at this point in the crisis cycle, that may or may not be true. But the issue isn't whether DB survives. It's the contagion that could occur if the bank's failure triggers a contagion that infects other banks. For example, if any of the $50 trillion in derivatives for which DB serves as a counterparty become suspect to the banks' counterparties, we could have a tsunami of cascading defaults. Already hedge funds have withdrawn money they held at DB to effect or collateralize trading operations, and that set off a mini-run on Thursday. If any significant part of the $50 trillion in derivatives for which DB serves as a counterparty becomes suspect, cascading defaults could drag down the European banking system - or worse. Everything possible will be done to make sure that doesn't happen.
And so the DB can will be kicked down the road to, we suspect, appear yet again before the bank's serious problems are - if ever - resolved.
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