71 days ago
I start with what I will be doing tonight and looking back on the unusual birth of my daughter then I look at Technology Minerals (TM1) and why it could be a zero c/o the FCA, Eurasia (EUA), Queeld and dodgy Russians in Cyprus, AMTE (AMTE), Atlantic Lithium (ALL), Belluscura (BELL) and Nigel Wray and Nightcap (NGHT) and dates.
1771 days ago
I have warned several times that Standard Listed Chesterfield Resources (CHF) is a worthless POS. Put simply the Trudos mountains in Cyprus contains copper but not of sufficient grades and size to effect a commercial mining operation. And so today it has issued a ramptastic RNS which is utter bollocks and in that vein my translation of this nonsense is in bold.
2696 days ago
I do not use CFD's. They seem like a mugs game and indeed research by the FCA shows that 82% of clients of the big providers lose money. But then most folks lose on the horses or on betting on football so why target CFDs? It is all driven by MiFD2. We saw this take shape in Cyprus last week although Plus500 denied that it would be affected in a pathetic rebuttal to my scoop. That rebuttal was bollocks and Plus shares are among the big fallers today as the FCA has weighed in with a series of measures.
2701 days ago
I am back in the Hellenic Republic once again and it appears that there may be a few problems ahead for AIM listed Plus 500 (PLUS) in the Greek speaking world. A contact flags up developments in Cyprus where - as you can see in the attached document - Plus does much of its business.
3102 days ago
Thanks entirely to the courageous investigative journalism of the snot gobbler Dan “microscopic cojones” McCrum at the FT, ex Globo (GBO) boss Costis Papadimitrakopoulos is now formally in the soup – the company has reported him for fraud to “the appropriate law enforcement agencies in the UK, Greece and Cyprus.”
Meanwhile, after the event the chocolate teapots at the FCA have said that they are investigating Globo. Hmmm, fear not my fraudulent Greek friends, being investigated by the FCA is like being
4042 days ago
Cyprus is a small island and it was easy to ignore or play down events at first but the situation is now out of control. We live in a new world order, the post Cyprus order and you need to wake up to the reality of that fast.
The Euro was never an economic project. It was a political one. And as such the “believers” brushed aside any economic objections and sought to ensure that everyone joined the club. Some countries were not fit to join (Portugal, Eire Spain, Italy, France, Greece, and Cyprus) but that mattered little. The leaders of those countries and the ECB agreed to lie in order to gain entry.
This was a concerted lie by the political elites across Europe – a class distinct from the folks they nominally represent. And so today as the Euro collapses the political elites of Poland, Rumania and elsewhere are still applying to sign up. Hey, I know the Titanic is going down but is there any chance of me jumping off a floating currency lifeboat and getting on board your fine vessel? Madness.
And one reason that it is madness is that we have no idea how Cyprus will play out. The initial plans for state bank robbery have been shelved and so if you have less than 100,000 Euros in your bank account that money is, pro tem, safe. But it is impossible to withdraw it in more than small tranches. If you have more you will lose some of it. Perhaps 40% or 60% or potentially all of it. The idea that bondholders should lose everything if a bank fails seems fair to me. The idea that depositors should lose cash is just obscene.
What will be the effects?
For one you will see a growing scandal of how the political elite looked after its own and its friends.
4044 days ago
There is so much I could have covered in this week’s caption contest but somehow the spark of interest is missing. I cannot think of anything at all funny to say and so I was tempted not to run a contest at all but with no prize on offer I offer up the following picture taken, I gather in Wales. In honour of PR prude Kay Larsen of College Group PR who thinks that she has the right to dictate exactly where her clients are covered and how, I offer up this picture.
For what it is worth my entry is:
Sheep One: I just want to talk about pornography
The ram in the middle: I just want to shag some sheep
Sheep Two:
4046 days ago
The thoughts of my old friend the one and only and truly great Robert Sutherland Smith…
I stand on the jetty gazing onto the cold grey waters of the ponds on Hampstead Heath, a stiff breeze blowing against, around and seemingly through me, directly from somewhere deep in the Russian Arctic region - surely more than a marketing exercise by Gaszprom in promotion of the gas they sell us for warmth, at economically indefensible prices? My darting, uncomforted gaze fails to be met by that of any bobbing coot or duck. They have wisely gone elsewhere; or simply not bothered to turn up.
The place is empty and silent. I stand there a swimming trunk clad standard bearer for the a dead nineteenth century English public school tradition of privation, physical self denial and cold showers - not that I attended any such establishment myself - knowing that the late Dr. Arnold of Rugby School, no doubt now sitting on the right hand of the Creator Himself, would be proud of me! Flashman, I conjecture, now reincarnated as a minister of the Crown, will probably be turning over in a warm bed somewhere, sleeping off too much champagne from the night before and in his case, no doubt, after a sound flogging by some dominatrix in a steel lined corset.
It is strange what thoughts visit your imagination, when swimming here? March they say, comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Not this March I venture! If it makes any concession at all, it will to be to go out as a polar bear. It is April that is described as the cruelest month. But (I hear Dr. Arnold sigh as I wilfully commit the impropriety of starting a written sentence with a co-ordinating conjunction) in 2013 AD April can scarcely prove crueller than this raw and bitter March.
As I prepare to push off for a rapid dash through fowl abandoned waters, I luridly think that this forlorn scene reminds me of the Chancellor’s March ‘Autumn’ budget. If he wishes to put himself in contention as the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer of the past century, he has made a powerful case for himself.
4052 days ago
What was it that Chris Huhne, Tony Blair, Lord Howe, Paddy Pantsdown etc. said about how disastrous it would be if Britain did not join the Euro? No doubt the guilty men will apologise one day to those they labelled xenophobes for disagreeing with them. Perhaps they might care to explain to the good folk of Cyprus how they have benefitted from Euro membership?
In light of this the prize for the wittiest entry to this week’s caption contest is 1 Cypriot Euro or 2 Cupid shares – whichever is worth less. Actually I shall offer a real prize: an It’s Time to Leave T-shirt.
As ever you can buy your own it’s time to leave T-shirt as well as a range of other politically incorrect T-shirts, mugs, sweat-shorts and hoodies HERE
And brownie points to anyone who turns up at the UKInvestor Show on April 13th wearing such apparel.
So post your captions to the picture below in the comments section. The deadline for entries is next Friday morning
My entry is: “There is a surprisingly large turnout at the annual meeting of the Cyprus friends of Germany Society”
Last week I asked for captions to a picture of Ed Milliband. The standard of entries was so depressingly low (my own included) that there is no prize. And I’d rather not have another picture of this hopeless figure on this site so let’s just draw a line under the episode.
Now that he is friended me on Facebook, can Jon Pickles please return with a vengeance for this week’s contest.
4055 days ago
The prime focus of AIM and TSX Listed EMED Mining (LSE:EMED) is on restarting the huge Rio Tinto copper mine in Spain but it was set up in Cyprus (it initially targeted a small copper deposit there) and so lo and behold it still has some Cypriot bank exposure. And yesterday the company announced that as a result it will fall victim to the great EU bank robbery. The following explains...
4055 days ago
Turn down the volume, this chappie makes my language in the kitchen on a busy Friday at Real Man Pizza Company look like the output of a Swiss finishing school. I think he is mad and a little confused. But enjoy..
4057 days ago
I think sound and vision nailed once again. I am finally getting the hang of this. I am meant to be celebrating St Patrick’s Day with some Irish-for-a-day folk which means just mindless drinking. Since they were not Irish yesterday they will not understand why there is nothing to celebrate today. And so I may dodge that for some more writing. Pro tem here is the video postcard for this week
On the Agenda
Approximate Running time 10 minutes
4057 days ago
Cyprus has become the fifth Eurozone nation to get a bailout but this one is different. At the insistence of the Germans one condition of the bailout is that private citizen’s pay and they will do so via a tax of up to 10% levied on all bank deposits in the Mediterranean island. This is pure socialism in action – the idea that the legitimate savings made by an individual as a result of fully taxed income can just be seized by the State. It is a horrific precedent.
For having established that the State can effectively seize whatever it wants whenever it wants you rather accept that you have no private property or savings. You can work your socks off, pay taxes to support those who do not work, save prudently so that you will not be a burden on the State or your family in the future and then one day the State just seizes your money. Heck why stop at 10% of bank deposits? Why not seize land, houses, etc.? The precedent is now there and this is an EU precedent.
David Cameron wishes to remain part of an organisation which thinks that State sponsored theft of private wealth is acceptable. I do not and nor, I suspect, do most British people. If the Conservative party and for that matter the Lib Dems and Labour support State sponsored theft that is fine they should be honest about it and we can all vote UKIP. But will the established parties stand up to the political elite in the Evil Empire and say
