Philippe Herlin

IMF says the number of non-performing loans on the european banks’ balance sheets has doubled since 2009, going from 400 to 800 billion euros.

We are aware of the problems of « Too Big to Fail » banks : They are so big that, if they were to fail, it would cause such economic havoc that they can rest assured to be bailed out by the State. And they’re taking advantage of this situation by taking on even more risk!

Why is deflation depicted as an absolute horror? Journalists, economists, politicians and central bank chairmen are all warning us against a general and durable price deflation, equating it to the Apocalypse, as they explain it. This unanimity is very troubling, so let’s stay on the alert.

Up until now, Japan was the exception among Asian countries that are hungry for gold (China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia), and even seemed odd, because Japanese people would get rid of their gold, to the point that Japan was showing a negative balance. These days seem like they are over and tha...

The Foreign Exchange (FOREX) manipulation scandal is growing in scope. In 2013 many large banks (Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC) set aside 16.4 billion euros to cover « legal expenses », e.g. the probable amount of fines they will have to pay after their t...

Funny how the Fed and Big Business are not true to their primary function (guarantee the value of the money, invest and increase profits) and would rather manipulate the tools at their disposal, for which they are responsible, that must be used to establish objective measures (dollars, stocks)in...

We’ve said it before... but here we go again : THERE IS NO RECOVERY OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY! There. This « recovery » has been touted these last few months with the mass media repeating it ad nauseam, and « no one should doubt it ». And quarterly growth numbers seemed to...

The Fed has started tapering its QE. From $85 Billion a month, the monetary press slowed down to $75 Billion a month, last month, and then down to $65 Billion a month. Ben Bernanke might have left his successor with a poisoned gift

The specter of a crisis in emerging countries is back. A veritable tsunami is sweeping through their currencies : The argentine peso has lost 20% to the US dollar since the start of the year, the turkish pound has lost 30% over the last twelve months. The mexican peso, the brazilian real and the...

Rates on the debt of Italy and Spain have reached high levels in 2011 and 2012, even 7% at times, a rate considered as « mortal », because it could snowball into quick defaults. But in 2013 and the start of this year, these rates have been around 4%, in the midst of weak volatility. Does that mea...

What kind of game are the banks and the states playing? Here are four news items that should alert anyone still having faith in the european banking system.

The French government keeps rising taxes of all sorts; one couldn’t hope for gold to escape them.

Quantitative easing causes an artificial wealth effect for the wealthiest, while the middle-class earnings are not improving

We’re here at the heart of the conflict of interests that we have denounced in the past, e.g. the central bank being the banking sector’s regulatory organism : the ECB is judge and party.

Deflation fears persist and, with it, the impact it would have on the gold price. Many observers believe the gold price would go down. Let’s try to clarify things a little.

We’ve already talked about what happened in Cyprus last April : the confiscation of bank accounts over 100,000 euros to shore up local failing banks. We also explained that it was but a rehearsal for future settlement of banking crises : directly looting depositors’ accounts. And, case in point,...

All the hooplah around bitcoin, the banking lobby maneuvers (central banks and large banks), are quite reminiscent of what is happening around gold.

According to the Bank of Italy, of the 255 billion euros borrowed from the ECB through the LTRO, italian banks only reimbursed 15%, or 38 billion euros. So, there still remains 217 billion euros to be paid in 2014... and for Spain, the amounts are just about the same.

Don’t laugh, but Ben Bernanke refutes the fact that easy monetary policy from the Fed has favored Wall Street... he even goes as far as saying it has helped the middle class! Quote : « Even though this may come as a shock, I don’t agree. Our monetary policy has helped american households to impro...

Only 40 european banks have disappeared since the 2008 financial crisis, compared to almost 500 in the United States. The governments have decided to keep their banks alive, and this has caused the healing process to slow down.