System-Wide Bail-In And Global Financial Meltdown

Finance 101:  when bond yields (interest rates) rise, bond prices decline.  What was considered "safe" will prove to be anything but.  Which means banks, insurance carriers and pension funds will be in deep doo-doo.

http://kingworldnews.com/system-wide-bail-in-and-global-financial-meltdown/

Big Banks and Derivatives: Why Another Financial Crisis Is Inevitable

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/01/08/five-years-after-the-financial-meltdown-the-water-is-still-full-of-big-sharks/

The Plunge Protection Team at work again

I've blogged about the President's Working Group on Financial Marks a few times in the past. It was created by President Reagan with Executive Order 12631 as a means to short-circuit a financial market meltdown, in response to the 1987 stock market crash.

The President's Working Group was dubbed the Plunge Protection Team (PPT) by Washington Post writer Brett Fromson in this 1997 article.

This recent article concludes the PPT has been working overtime to prop up the equities market since March of 2009.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/What-or-Who-is-Driving-up-etfguide-1348236303.html?x=0&.v=1

The significance isn't that the PPT exists--it's decreed in the Executive Order, after all. The fact that it's an article that has surfaced on Yahoo Finance means the PPT is no longer a figment of the imagination of conspiracy theorists, but is now being exposed to mainstream financial pundits. I will leave it up to readers to form their own judgments on the implications on financial market rallies and the overall economy. Even the phrase "jobless economic recovery" is an oxymoron.

Money market redemptions

Everybody assumes the funds in their money market accounts are liquid--easily accessible with a click of mouse or keystroke. It's a convenient and safe place to park your cash, earning a small rate of return. In fact, it is treated as cash by most depositors and investors.

In the event of a financial crisis, that assumption is no longer true. Read on and be aware.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/suspending-money-market-redemptions-now-legel-sec-approves-new-money-market-regulation-4-1-v

Money Market Funds now have the ability to suspend redemptions, courtesy of the SEC's just passed 4-1 vote. This explains the negative rate on bills: at this point, should there be another meltdown, money market investors will not, repeat not, be able to withdraw their money purely on the whim of Mary Schapiro. As the SEC noted: "We understand that suspending redemptions may impose hardships on investors who rely on their ability to redeem shares."