Sometimes life just gets so busy, even for someone who has nowhere to go or be at any particular time (that would be me of course). So busy that important things get missed sometimes.
And so it was, that I came to miss this week’s fine word picture weekly episode from Jim Kunstler’s Clusterfuck Nation blog, which as usual came out on Tuesday (Australian time), and which carries the title Between the Loathsome and the Unspeakable that I have borrowed (as a quote) to head this post. Kunstler’s post is recommended reading.
It all centres around the 2016 US General Election which will determine who is to be the next US President. The so-called leader of the free world (chortle-chortle).
It is not clear to me just whether it is Hillary who is the ‘Loathesome’ and Donald who is the ‘Unspeakable’, or whether it is the other way around. But I suspect, I honestly suspect, that it doesn’t really matter a single iota either way.
Jim (JHK), lays out reasons as to why the result of said proceedings, what he refers to as – “the stupidest election contest in American history”, may be short lived (some sort of termination event perhaps, emanating from “the apparatus of the runaway Deep State (NSA and the military)”), or the whole thing may never happen, being overtaken (preceded) by overarching, unstoppable and grossly destabilising external events of an entirely different nature, centred around banking and financial collapse and which should provide “reason to worry that America will be too disorderly later this year to even hold the 2016 general election”. If you have been keeping up with the sort of news that could topple our already unstable global economy, you will have no problem in recognising the organisation referred to as ‘DB’ in Jim’s post. It is not an American entity.
I hope I haven’t given away too many spoilers. Just read the damn thing for yourself. Here is the link again: Between the Loathsome and the Unspeakable.
Not Something Else 
I have to go out and am in a hurry. I can’t immediately put a finger on ‘DB’. I hope by the time I get home tonight it will have hit me, otherwise you’re going to have to tell me. 😦
Well, I don’t think it is any sort of secret, so let me reveal it is Deutsche Bank. At least, I can think of no other possibility. DB, it appears, are in deep doo-doo, and since the EU (not to mention, The World) cannot afford another banking crisis (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-eurozone-cant-survive-another-banking-crisis-2016-02-17), the situation could lead to a trigger event for banking system collapse.
DB was involved in the Libor scandal and, looking back a little further, their attempts to raise capital involved going back into the US Junk debt market (http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/deutsche-bank-goes-for-the-junk-how-fedecb-interest-rate-repression-gifts-tbtf-banks/), which may go some way to explain why they are where they are at today. They wouldn’t be Robinson Crusoe among the big banks in dabbling in that sort of market either I suspect.
DB has recently needed to buy back $5 Billion of its own debt to steady the ship (http://www.cityam.com/234505/deutsche-bank-buys-back-eur3bn-of-its-own-debt-) That does not signal stability, in my book.
Anyway, there are any number of articles telling the DB story. I don’t really understand it all, but the general gist of the matter is easily grasped. Here are a few articles, mostly from earlier this month, which I suspect is why JHK brought it up:
http://on.rt.com/74im
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-16/deutsche-bank-flip-flops-now-begs-central-bank-intervention-and-ideally-more-qe (just one of many ZH articles)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-02-16/european-bank-nightmare-far-from-over-as-fines-and-fintech-loom
http://www.theguardian.com/business/deutschebank (a whole list of articles)