Thanks To QE Bernanke Has Injected Foreign Banks With Over $1 Trillion In Cash For First Time Ever
We followed that with more analyses, showing explicitly how the Fed was providing a constant cash injection to foreign banks courtesy of the rate on overnight reserves which is the amount Fed pays to banks that hold reserves with it, as the bulk of reserves continued to end up with foreign banks - a situation set to become a huge political storm some time in 2014-2015 when the IOER has to rise and the Fed is "found" to have injected tens of billions of "interest" not into US banks but in foreign banks operating in the US, and which then can upstream the "profits" to insolvent offshore domiciled holding companies.
So it was our expectation that while if not slowing down its rate of money-creation (i.e., reserve-production) - something that won't happen for a long time as it would crash the stock market - the Fed's reserves would at least revert to being accumulated at US-based banks. No such luck. In fact as the latest H.8 report demonstrates, as of the most recently weekly data, the Fed's policies have led to foreign banks operating in the US holding an all time high amount of reserves, surpassing $1 trillion for the first time, or $1,033 billion to be precise.(charts are in the link).
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-21...-time-ever
FBI shoots Chechen dead in Florida, suspect questioned in Boston bombings - report
An FBI special agent has reportedly shot dead a Chechen man in Orlando, Florida who had been questioned in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings. The suspect was said to have known Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the slain assailant in last month’s attack
The shooting transpired just after midnight in an apartment complex, after a special agent was reportedly attacked after encountering the suspect.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed that a shooting had occurred and the suspect was deceased, but did not provide any more information.
"We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent. The incident occurred in Orlando Florida. The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time. We expect to have more information later this morning," said FBI spokesperson Special Agent Dave Couvertier.
Early on Wednesday morning, officials at the FBI headquarter in Washington dispatched a shooting-response unit to Florida to help investigators determine what had occurred.
The FBI has not released the name of the suspect, though friends identified the man who was shot and killed as Ibragim Todashev, 27.
Kushen Taramov, a friend of the suspect, said he and Todashev were interviewed by FBI agents for nearly three hours on Tuesday in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings.
“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back,” WESH Orlando quoted Taramov as saying.
http://rt.com/usa/chechen-shot-orlando-boston-627/
‘Multiculturalism failing’: Swedish PM pleas for order as riots engulf Stockholm suburbs
Hundreds youths hurling rocks, burning cars and smashing windows for the second day in a row in Stockholm say they are protesting against police brutality and inequality. In Sweden, critics of the multiculturalism policies lash out at immigration laws.
Seven policemen were injured, at least ten cars and countless containers set on fire, and dozens of windows smashed in several heavily immigrant-populated neighborhoods of the Swedish capital on Tuesday.
The police said some 300 people are now taking part in riots, which started in protest against the shooting of a man allegedly armed with a knife in the Stockholm district of Husby. The protesters also cited beatings and ‘discriminative’ derogatory remarks of the officers.
“This is a clear consequence of this multiculturalism politics that Sweden adopted around ‘80s and increased in the ‘90s... And this is not a unique one single occasion… we have had these ethnic-based riots against Swedish authorities. We have seen this in Western Europe, that is very sad, and I think we will see more of this, if we don’t change the politics,” the chairman of the Sweden’s National Democrats Party Marc Abramsson told RT.
While not elaborating on the incident that caused the current riots, Abramsson said all such incidents have a common “problem beneath” – that is, the immigrants not identifying themselves with the country’s society, nor accepting the country’s authorities, sticking only to their own ethnic group.
“Sweden has been trying harder than any of the countries in Europe to try to push for integration. We have invested virtually billions from taxpayers’ money into it, we have tried everything that the scientists have presented – and still it’s not working,” the politician argued.
http://rt.com/news/sweden-riots-multicul...rking-598/
Syria, Israel Trade Fire, Warnings Across Golan Frontier
Israeli and Syrian troops clashed today along the frontier of the Golan Heights, the third time in a week that fire has gone across the de facto border (a ceasefire line established in 1974).
No injuries were reported on either side, though there was some damage to an Israeli vehicle. The incident fueled more warnings from both sides, however, and showed how easily the border troops can end up clashing under the current state of affairs.
Israeli officials insisted that one of their vehicles came under fire first, and threatened “consequences” if the incident is repeated. Syrian officials threatened “immediate and firm retaliation” to any cross-border raids.
Exactly what happened remains a matter of dispute between the two sides, with Syria claiming the vehicle they fired on crossed the ceasefire line and was destroyed, while Israeli officials insisted it only suffered minor damage, and claimed “direct hits” on Syrian targets. Syria, for its part, says Israel’s missile attacks landed near a town but didn’t hit anything
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/05/21/syria...-frontier/
CIA will continue drone operations in Pakistan for now: Sources
WASHINGTON: US drone strikes in Pakistan would continue to be conducted by the CIA for the time-being to keep the program covert and maintain deniability for both the United States and Pakistan, several US government sources said on Monday.
The sources added that US President Barack Obama’s administration has decided to give the Pentagon control of some drone operations against terrorism suspects overseas that are currently run by the CIA. Four US government sources told Reuters that the decision had been made to shift the CIA’s drone operations to the Pentagon, and some of them said it would occur in stages.
Drone strikes in Yemen, where the US military already conducts operations with Yemeni forces, would be run by the armed forces, officials said. However, the administration’s goal would be to transfer the Pakistan drone operations to the military, one US official said on condition of anonymity.
The internal debate within the administration about whether to switch control of drone strikes to the military has been going on for months. Obama is under heightened pressure to show that his administration is transparent, after a series of scandals about civil liberties and allegations of government overreach broke last week.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/552331/cia-w...w-sources/