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What will be most interesting, will be market trading through Thursday. Precious metals are trying to put in an organic bottom and rally. The dip buying proves this. With signs that the physical market might be tightening and Indian buying about to rise, it’s not likely manipulation will succeed in keeping prices lower for much longer…
The Australian government has announced it will increase the intensity of attacks on Islamic State
– also known as Daesh – by changing the law to allow targeting of its
combat support forces, not just those actively engaged in hostilities.
Labor
offered in-principle support for the changes, which will allow strikes
on logistics and support members of Isis without the legal risk of
prosecution under Australian law.
Just
to be clear, the successful motion passed in the Senate calling on the
PM to establish a banking royal commission has no force. It is
effectively a statement from the Senate that a majority of senators want
a bank royal commission but it has no power compel the executive
government, led by one Malcolm Turnbull, to establish a royal commission.
Even
if such a motion passed both houses (it failed in the lower house
yesterday) it would not bind the government to establish a royal
commission.
Just to be clear.
Senate calls on the prime minister to establish a banking royal commission
Labor has just successfully moved the following motion:
(a) the Senate notes that:
(i)
confidence and trust in the financial services industry has been shaken
by ongoing revelations of scandals, which have resulted in tens of
thousands of Australians being ripped off, including:
(A) retirees who have had their retirement savings gutted,
(B) families who have been rorted out of hundreds of thousands of dollars,
(C) small business owners who have lost everything, and
(D) life insurance policy holders who have been denied justice;
(ii)
it is clear from the breadth and scope of the allegations that the
problems in this industry go beyond any one bank or type of financial
institution,
(iii) the Australian Labor Party, the Australian
Greens, crossbench, Liberal and Nationals parliamentarians have
supported a thorough investigation of the culture and practices within
the financial services industry through a Royal Commission, which is the
only forum with the coercive powers and broad jurisdiction necessary to
properly perform this investigation, and
(iv) Australia has one
of the strongest banking systems in the world, but Australians must have
confidence in their banks and financial institutions, making it
necessary to sweep away doubt and uncover and deal with unethical
behaviour that compromises that confidence;
(b) the Senate calls
on the prime minister to request his excellency the governor general of
the commonwealth of Australia issue letters patent to establish a
royal commission to inquire into misconduct in the banking and
financial services industry, including their agents and managed
investment schemes; and
(c) this resolution be communicated to the House of Representatives for concurrence.
Jacqui Lambie: don't go shoving this folder down my throat either
There
is currently a bun fight in the Senate over sending government
legislation to committees. We have the media reform bill, the fair work
(Country Fire Authority) bill and the budget omnibus bill all going to
committees for scrutiny. Jacqui Lambie has just given Mitch Fifield
a free character assessment. He is running the government’s agenda in
the Senate today and has tried to rush bills through without giving new
senators time to get the process.
She told him that the Coalition
was trying the same old tricks, trying to shove bills down everyone’s
throats even though crossbenchers did not have the staff or resources to
scrutinise the bills.
And don’t go shoving this folder down my throat either ... Show some bloody integrity and some bloody respect.
From Gareth: George Brandis has just demanded, in the Senate, that Labor senator Sam Dastyari
properly explain his decision to allow a company with links to the
Chinese government to pay a $1600 bill incurred by his office.
Brandis
said Dastyari had recently taken public positions on foreign policy
matters regarding China, which were “starkly at variance” with Labor’s
official position.
He wondered if Dastyari’s close relationship with Chinese interests had anything to do with it.
“Did
Senator Dastyari’s links with China influence him in presenting what he
himself called ‘The Chinese View’ in a speech in the senate?” Brandis
said.
“Senator Dastyari’s acceptance of personal benefits from an
entity or entities with links to the Chinese state and the carefully
opaque way in which the payments have been described in the register of
senators’ interests raises the inevitable question of whether Senator
Dastyari, whether advertently or unwittingly, has allowed himself to be
compromised.
“This is a very serious matter.
“It is much more serious than, for instance, the allegations which were made against the member for Fadden, Mr Robert, which caused him to lose his position in the ministry.
“Senator
Dastyari is an extremely influential matter in the alternative
government of Australia. If he has been compromised, that is a very
grave matter.
“It is incumbent upon Senator Dastyari now to
provide to the Senate a full explanation of the affair, a full account
of the nature of his dealings with these two Chinese companies, and in
particular a full explanation as to why it was that they were paying
personal debts of Senator Dastyari’s.
“It is for Mr Shorten to insist that Senator Dastyari do so.”
Former prime minister Bob Hawke with Anthony Albanese at the launch of a
the biography Albanese: Telling it Straight by Karen Middleton, right.
Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
U.S. stocks closed lower Wednesday, the last trading day of the month,
as investors digested falling oil prices and looked ahead to Friday's
jobs report.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index
wended Wednesday provisionally down 0.3 percent with only three sectors
in positive territory. The basic resources sector was the worst
performer, down 2.7 percent. Markets were unmoved earlier in the morning by data showing that the euro zone inflation rate remained at 0.2 percent in August,
unchanged from the previous month. The region's unemployment rate for
July also remained unchanged from the previous month, at 10.1 percent.
Meanwhile
later in the session, a U.S report showed job creation at the company
level rose about in line with expectations in August, despite weakness
in manufacturing and construction. The ADP report is seen as a warm-up
for the all-important U.S. jobs data due on Friday. The non-farm
payrolls report will be eagerly watched by the U.S. Federal Reserve and
could determine whether the central bank increases interest rates in
September.
"The U.S. jobs data is the main macro focus of the
week. The markets are pursuing an approval to back up Janet Yellen's
hawkish stance on the macro front," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior market
analyst at London Capital Group, said in a note.
In opening trade on Wall Street, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broader S&P 500 were down around 0.2 percent.
Commerzbank up 4%
Which insurance firm will outperform its peers into year end?
Total Votes:
Not a Scientific Survey. Results may not total 100% due to rounding.
Shares of Commerzbank were up around 3.5 percent after a German magazine report suggested that Deutsche Bank had considered a merger with its German rival. The German Manager Magazin did not cite sources. Neither Deutsche Bank nor Commerzbank would comment on the report. Shares of Deutsche Bank were up around 3.5 percent.
Meanwhile, French industrial group Bouygues'
share price was up 2.29 percent after it reported a 73 percent rise in
first-half current operating profit despite a slip in sales, Reuters
reported. The family-controlled company also announced preparations for
the succession of chairman and chief executive Martin Bouygues.
In other news, French Economy Minister Emanuel Macron resigned on Tuesday
in order to work on his plan "to transform France" but there is
speculation that he will run in the 2017 presidential election.
Meanwhile, British consumer confidence bounced back in August after a Brexit blip, a survey by GfK showed on Wednesday.
When
I was the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush,
I asked many prospective administration officials if they would sell
stock in companies, give up stock options, step down from nonprofit
boards or make other painful choices to enter public service. Some
balked. I told them that someone more important than I was, perhaps the
president or the White House chief of staff, would ask them, “Do you
want this job or don’t you?”
I
know about the difficult questions, and entanglements, that crop up in
public service. I believe that Hillary Clinton has asked and
successfully answered those questions as they pertain to the Clinton
Foundation. There is little if any evidence that federal ethics laws
were broken by Mrs. Clinton or anyone working for her at the State
Department in their dealings with the foundation. Unfortunately, the
foundation is still fuel for Mrs. Clinton’s persistent critics.
These
critics have yet to point to any provision of the federal statutes or
ethics regulations that was violated by Secretary Clinton or her staff
in their dealings with the foundation and its principals, agents and
donors. Was there favoritism? Probably, yes. But laws were not broken.
If favoritism by political appointees toward outside persons and
organizations were illegal, the United States government would be quite
different than it is today.
White
House political appointees and members of Congress show favoritism
regularly, from how quickly they return campaign contributors’ telephone
calls to which meeting requests they honor to who gets what they want
in the policy arena.
Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail last month.
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
This
kind of access is the most corrupting brand of favoritism and pervades
the entire government. Under both Republican and Democratic presidents,
top ambassadorial posts routinely go to campaign contributors. Yet more
campaign contributors hound these and other State Department employees
for introductions abroad, preferred access and advancement of trade and
other policy agendas. More often than not the State Department does
their bidding.
Meanwhile,
those of us who know and are frustrated about the way our government
works breathe a collective yawn at the unsurprising news that the
Clinton Foundation or some other nonprofit also gets what appears to be
favorable treatment by a government agency. Lots of people and groups
get favorable treatment, and most of these are interested in making
money rather than giving it away.
The
problem is that it does not matter that no laws were broken, or that
the Clinton Foundation is principally about doing good deeds. It does
not matter that favoritism is inescapable in the federal government and
that the Clinton Foundation stories are really nothing new. The
appearances surrounding the foundation are problematic, and it is and
will be an albatross around Mrs. Clinton’s neck.
Mrs.
Clinton’s critics — many of whom have spent more than 20 years
exploiting every opening the Clintons give them (of which there are
many) — will continue to hound Mrs. Clinton about the foundation
throughout the campaign and, should she win, during her presidency.
This
is not the typical foundation funded by family wealth earned by an
industrialist or financier. This foundation was funded almost entirely
by donors, and to the extent anyone in the Clinton family “earned” the
money, it was largely through speaking fees for former President Bill
Clinton or Hillary Clinton when she was not secretary of state. This
dependence on donations — a scenario remarkably similar to that of many
political campaigns — means that the motivations of every single donor
will be questioned whenever a President Clinton does anything that could
conceivably benefit such donors.
Removing Bill Clinton from the foundation, and leaving Chelsea in place, as the foundation currently intends to do
if Mrs. Clinton wins, does not solve the problem. Such an arrangement
not only suggests a strong possibility of Bill’s and Hillary’s returning
after a Hillary Clinton administration is over, but also that the
foundation is being used to further Chelsea’s career and financial
ambitions. The truth may be the other way around. But truth matters
little in Washington, particularly when one group of politicians and
their supporters accuses another of being “unethical.”
This
may be a difficult choice for the Clintons, but the answer is obvious.
The family should promise now that if Hillary is elected president, all
of the Clinton family members will step down from all positions with the
foundation and they will not return. The foundation should continue to
go about its business, but the Clintons should do something else. And in
the meantime, between now and the election, the foundation should
immediately suspend all fund-raising and acceptance of donations, not
just foreign donations, as it has already done.
As
for Chelsea Clinton, anti-nepotism laws, strengthened after President
Kennedy appointed his brother Robert as attorney general, could prevent
her mother from appointing her to some of the highest government
positions. But she could give her mother informal advice, and there are a
great many government jobs for which she would be eligible. She does
not need the Clinton Foundation to succeed in life.
Millions
of American voters will want to know whether Hillary Clinton really
wants this job, which is the highest office in a government that spends
more money in a single day than the entire net worth of the Clinton
Foundation.
I’m
a Republican, but I believe that Hillary Clinton is the only qualified
major party candidate in the race and she should become president. Yet
to win, and certainly to succeed as president, she needs to demonstrate
that she understands how much appearances matter, as well as facts and
law, and that the president should not unnecessarily open herself up to
attack.
U.S.
stock futuresedged lower on Wednesday, following a report of monthly
private-sector employment that came in slightly better than Wall Street
expectations, potentially adding more reasons for the Federal Reserve to
follow through with talk of lifting interest rates.
U.S.
stocks were facing another choppy session on Wednesday, with investors
carefully staying on the sidelines ahead of the jobs report later in the
week, which could weaken or strengthen the case for a Federal Reserve
interest rate hike in September.
It’s just a drop in the bucket for Apple, with its cash pile
of more than $230 billion. But the company nonetheless described the
ruling by Europe that Ireland should recoup 10 years’ worth of back
taxes, or about $14.5 billion, as a “devastating blow” to the rule of law.
Markets
in Asia traded mixed on Wednesday, with Japanese shares gaining on the
back of a weaker yen, while traders awaited the key August U.S. nonfarm
payroll data due Friday.
The
European Union may not be particularly popular with the bulk of the
British press, but the last week has shown that the EU is one of the few
organisations prepared to take on another favourite hate figure for
much of the media – Silicon Valley.
U.S. stocks closed lower Tuesday, with utilities falling 1 percent, as
investors analyzed strong consumer data while keeping an eye on Federal
Reserve ahead of Friday's jobs report.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the award of
more than $22 million to a whistleblower whose detailed tip and
extensive assistance helped the agency halt a well-hidden fraud at the
company where the whistleblower worked.
More than nine out of 10 small banks are likely to pay less for
deposit insurance beginning in the current quarter, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said on Tuesday.
In
the usually bleak debate over the economic health of average Americans
and the utility of the finance industry, here’s a happy statistic: A
private-sector wealth-transfer machine has saved average investors $1
trillion. That machine is Vanguard, and its model is worth highlighting
-- and maybe even emulating.
European stock indexes closed higher on Tuesday, with the exception of the U.K.'s benchmark FTSE 100, which was knocked by the weak performance of mining stocks.
What will be most interesting, will be market trading through Thursday. Precious metals are trying to put in an organic bottom and rally. The dip buying proves this. With signs that the physical market might be tightening and Indian buying about to rise, it’s not likely manipulation will succeed in keeping prices lower for much longer…
