PPCC: Pisitófilos Creditófagos. Verano 2024

[Derby]

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/military-transport-corridor-to-be-established-in-the-north/id3046172/

Military transport corridor to be established in the north



‘The fact that Norway, Sweden and Finland are now united in NATO is good for Norwegian, Nordic and Allied security. And today we have achieved an important milestone. We have agreed to establish a military transport corridor through North Norway, North Sweden and North Finland. This will make it possible to move personnel and equipment quickly from Norwegian harbours through Sweden and into Finland,’ said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Norwegian Prime Minister Støre, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Finnish President Alexander Stubb agreed to strengthen civil and military and civil cooperation in the north of the three countries at a high-level meeting held in Bødo on 19–20 June.   

‘Now that we are all members of NATO we can work together to defend in entirely new ways. Maintaining a credible defence in the north is crucial to our security. That means we must lay the foundation for moving reinforcements in the north quickly if the situation requires. This will require close civilian and military cooperation,’ said Mr Støre. 

The defence ministers of the three countries will be leading the practical efforts in cooperation with civilian actors. Together they will identify potential bottlenecks, update the necessary regulatory and legislative framework as necessary and invest in essential infrastructure to ensure rapid and efficient military mobility.

With Finland and Sweden in NATO, Norway’s ability to receive Allied reinforcements has become even more vital. Norway has a key role to play in the defence of Sweden and Finland, and the three countries will play an even more important part of the defence of the Baltic Sea and the Baltic countries.

‘Previously, we have thought in terms of north-south when planning the transport of military personnel and equipment. Now we will also be thinking west-east to a greater extent. National infrastructure must satisfy NATO’s need to be able to move forces across the national borders,’ said Mr Støre.

Norway, Sweden and Finland will be working together even more closely to facilitate Allied deterrence and defence operations in the northern regions of the three countries.

‘Regional defence plans for this area are now being drawn up. We are implementing the measures needed for these plans to work in practice,’ said Minister of Defence Bjørn Arild Gram.

[sargento.algodon]

En esta casa se idolatra a la rata topo lampiña del Este de África, único mamífero eusocial. Un animal fascinante. 

[sudden and sharp]

[...] [Milei se jacta de ser la rata «topo que destruye el Estado desde adentro», literalmente:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INeuEL8vtCU

No entiendo por qué se da tanta importancia a lo que dicen, en general, los políticos que sólo quieren "poder formar gobierno", en todos los casos. Más si cabe, en este caso de Miley, que era --y es, no tiene mayoría en las cámaras--; un outsider... Pero sí, ha dicho eso del topo, y unas cuantas barbaridades más, en torno al aborto, por ejemplo.

Wait and see... o la táctica de esperar a ver qué hace realmente no me suele fallar. (Veremos.)

[Derby]

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/eu-to-give-ukraine-3-billion-euros-of-profits-per-year-from-russia-assets

EU to give Ukraine 3 billion euros of profits per year from Russia assets

BRUSSELS - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday transferring to Ukraine profits of 2.5 to 3 billion euros ($2.7-3.3 billion) per year generated by Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Ninety percent will be channelled through the European Peace Facility fund to buy weapons for Ukraine. The rest will be used for recovery and reconstruction.

The exact amount available for Kyiv each year will depend on global interest rates as the profits are the returns on some 210 billion euros of Russian central bank assets held in various currencies in the 27-nation EU.

On top of these profits, Ukraine will also receive every year the 25% tax that the Belgian government puts on the profits. For 2024, this is expected to amount to 1.7 billion euros, of which 1.5 billion euros will be paid this year.

The total financial contribution for Ukraine from frozen Russian assets in the EU will therefore total 4.0-4.5 billion euros this year.

Once the Commission proposal is approved by EU governments the profits are set aside for Ukraine twice a year, with a first tranche already in July.

The Russian assets are held by EU central securities depositories, mainly Belgium's Euroclear, which will keep 3% for operational expenses and temporarily retain 10% of the profits as a safeguard against legal action by Russia.

The amount temporarily retained might be raised if needed, the Commission said. After the war, all the money, unless used to cover legal claims by Moscow, will be passed to Ukraine.

European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Russia was being held to account for the massive damage it had caused.

"Our proposal will redirect substantial windfall revenues from frozen Russian state assets for the benefit of Ukraine and its people, to the tune of up to 3 billion euros a year," he said.

Dombrovskis said the EU had coordinated its move with the G7 countries - the United States, Canada, Britain and Japan.

The EU proposal does not envisage, for now, the confiscation of the capital of the Russian assets, only the use of the profits they generate.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv expected the EU and G7 countries, which together hold the equivalent of some 260 billion euros of frozen Russian assets, to take a further step and to confiscate the capital itself.

"We insist on the full confiscation or other use of all frozen assets... Europe and the world need an effective precedent for making the aggressor pay a heavy price for the destruction it has caused in Ukraine," he told a news conference in Brussels. REUTERS

[Derby]

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/21/forever-21-seeks-rent-concessions-facing-financial-struggles.html

Forever 21 seeks rent concessions as fast-fashion brand faces financial woes

KEY POINTS
*Forever 21 is asking some landlords for rent concessions as high as 50% as it faces financial difficulties, according to people familiar with the matter.
*The legacy fast-fashion player, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019, isn’t weighing a second filing, the people said.
*The company is struggling to manage its sprawling store footprint and compete with savvier digital upstarts.(...)

[Derby]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/world/europe/ukraine-war-draft-dodgers-conscription.html

As Ukraine Expands Military Draft, Some Men Go Into Hiding

Fearful that conscription is a one-way ticket to bloody trench warfare, the men spend their days holed up at home to avoid draft officers who roam the streets.

(...)While many Ukrainian men have answered the call to serve, some others have tried to evade conscription. Even before the latest mobilization push, thousands of men had fled the country to avoid service, some of them swimming across a river separating Ukraine from Romania. Now, as officers scour the country’s cities to draft men of military age, currently 25 to 60, many people like Vladyslav have gone into hiding, fearful that conscription is a one-way ticket to the front line.

It is not clear how many men are hiding out, but in big cities like Kyiv and Lviv, social media groups alerting members to the movements of draft officers include tens of thousands of members.

Interviews with a dozen men who say they are staying at home to avoid conscription revealed a range of reasons. All expressed fear of dying in a conflict characterized by bloody trench warfare and devastating bombings. Many also said that they opposed conscription because of what they described as harsh draft tactics and a lack of sufficient training.

“I’m afraid I won’t get enough training and then I’ll be moved closer to the front and then I’ll die senselessly,” said Mykyta, a 28-year-old web designer from Lviv, in western Ukraine.

Those fears are backed by some military analysts, who say that Ukrainian troops often lack adequate training, which makes it difficult for Kyiv to hold its lines as they are quickly sent into battle to replace combat losses.(...)

[Derby]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/inheritance/troubling-rise-in-inheritance-legal-challenges/

How ‘selfish and entitled’ millennials are capitalising on a £71 trillion goldmine

As baby boomer parents die, a record number of wills are being challenged in the courts

Millennials are about to inherit the biggest fortune ever to be reaped by a generation as their baby boomer parents die and they bank decades of house price growth.

However, these inheritors can expect not only lump sums and family homes, but lawsuits and relationship-ending fallouts.

Record numbers of wills are being contested, with some 10,000 people now disputing their inheritance every year. More than double the number of probate disputes were brought before the High Court in the first nine months of 2023 than the equivalent period of 2016. This is thought to be a fraction of the real figure, as most are settled out of court.

According to Kieran Osborne, managing director at estate planners Squiggle Consult, the reason for this significant jump in litigation is simple: “people are more entitled”.

He believes that “expecting inheritance is selfish” – yet the number of his clients who do and are willing to begin ruinously expensive court battles for it, has made things more volatile than ever.



Given the “seismic” windfall millennials are set to inherit – £71 trillion in assets in the UK alone, or more than £500,000 apiece for those inheriting from the wealthiest 10pc, according to Knight Frank – the future looks contentious.

Osborne finds these total family breakdowns over money “heartbreaking”. He is currently handling the case of a grandmother who left £250,000 to her 18-year-old grandson, cutting out her daughter, the executor of the will, altogether. (Osborne says skipping a generation is becoming more common, as the oldest worry about the fate of the youngest.)

Dismayed to have been left without a penny, “she just ran off with her son’s inheritance”. When her son began legal action, her argument was that paying for his upbringing up to that point in fact “weren’t gifts… I was lending him the money”.

Five years later the case is ongoing – but “the problem we’ve got is she has spent the money, or at least we can’t find the money”, Osborne says.

He has told his client, who hasn’t spoken to his mother since, that “we could try and fight for your grandmother’s inheritance, but we need to make sure that the money’s there, because otherwise you’re fighting just to make your mum bankrupt, and there’s an element of that which could be a pointless exercise”.

For now, there is an offer on the table of £70,000 – less than a third of the amount he was due, along with the irreparable hole where their relationship used to be.

Solicitor and Telegraph columnist Gary Rycroft says today’s avalanche of fallouts are due to the fact “there’s more of a culture of litigation” now. He adds that “millennials will be facing more disputes” than the record numbers currently entangled.

According to Savills, the percentage of first-time buyers obtaining financial help from family rose from 46pc in 2022 to 63pc last year. Younger generations’ inheritances have almost doubled in value every 20 years since 1979, according to a report from think tank Demos.



An average £372,000 awaits the top 20pc of millennials, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found. At the same time, the chasm between the haves and have-nots is rising ¬ while annual inheritance transfers will rise a third to £145bn by 2033, one in 10 millennials won’t receive a penny.

With so much more at stake, the number of people wanting a piece of the pie is growing. “It’s much more likely than the generation before that your parents may have divorced, that you might have step-siblings, half-siblings, blended families, and I think that will be a driver,” Rycroft says, of these “competing interests”.

At his practice “half the time is preparing wills and trusts…and the other half is dealing with disputes that arise when it goes wrong”.(...)

[sargento.algodon]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/inheritance/troubling-rise-in-inheritance-legal-challenges/

How ‘selfish and entitled’ millennials are capitalising on a £71 trillion goldmine

As baby boomer parents die, a record number of wills are being challenged in the courts

Millennials are about to inherit the biggest fortune ever to be reaped by a generation as their baby boomer parents die and they bank decades of house price growth.

However, these inheritors can expect not only lump sums and family homes, but lawsuits and relationship-ending fallouts.

Muerte e impuestos...

En 2001 se concedió un Ig-Nobel a un invetigador de la Universidad de Michigan que estudió la relación en las modificaciones del Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y la elasticidad de la mortalidad. En breve, si la gente se moría o "la morian" más ante una subida de impuestos de sucesiones. Sus conclusiones fueron que no había un incremento significativo de muertes ante un anuncio de subida de tipos, pero sí había una bajada, seguida de un incremento, ante el anuncio de una bajada de los tipos impositivos. Es decir, que la gente no prefería morirse antes de pagar más impuestos pero si prefería vivir un poco más para llegar a ver una bajada de impuestos.

https://improbable.com/2010/01/13/slemrod-sees-us-taxdeath-experiment/

[volem volente]

Maencantao eso que dice el señor Balbuena, que estudió Económicas , de los propietarios de pisos en Gijón:
"Hay jubilados que alquilan pisos (en plural) para completar la pensión"

[Derby]

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/21/synapse-collapse-nearly-109m-in-yotta-customer-deposits-vanish.html

Nearly $109 million in deposits held for fintech Yotta’s customers vanished in Synapse collapse, bank says

KEY POINTS
*Ledgers of the failed fintech middleman Synapse show that nearly all the deposits held for customers of the banking app Yotta went missing weeks ago, according to one of the lenders involved.
*A network of eight banks held $109 million in deposits for Yotta customers as of April 11, Evolve Bank & Trust said in a bankruptcy court letter filed late Thursday.
*About one month later, the ledger showed just $1.4 million in Yotta funds held at one of the banks, Evolve said.
*In a letter sent Thursday, bankruptcy trustee Jelena McWilliams pleaded with five U.S. regulators to get more involved in the Synapse collapse.

Ledgers of the failed fintech middleman Synapse show that nearly all the deposits held for customers of the banking app Yotta went missing weeks ago, according to one of the lenders involved.

A network of eight banks held $109 million in deposits for Yotta customers as of April 11, Evolve Bank & Trust said in a bankruptcy court letter filed late Thursday.

About one month later, the ledger showed just $1.4 million in Yotta funds held at one of the banks, Evolve said. It added that neither customers nor Evolve received funds in that time period.

“These irregularities in Synapse’s ledgering of Yotta end user funds are just one example of the many discrepancies that Evolve has observed,” the bank said. “A detailed investigation of what happened to these funds, or alternatively, why the Synapse-provided ledger reflected money movement that did not actually occur, must be undertaken.”

Evolve, one of the key players in a deepening predicament that has left more than 100,000 fintech customers locked out of their bank accounts since May 11, has been attempting to piece together with other banks a record of who is owed what. Its former partner Synapse, which connected customer-facing fintech apps to FDIC-backed banks, filed for bankruptcy in April amid disputes about customer balances.

But Evolve itself was reprimanded by the Federal Reserve last week for failing to properly manage its fintech partnerships. The regulator noted that Evolve “engaged in unsafe and unsound banking practices” and forced the bank to improve oversight of its fintech program. The Fed said the enforcement action was separate from the Synapse bankruptcy.

Evolve has been trying to separate itself from Synapse since late 2022 because of ledger problems it has found, a spokesman for the Memphis, Tennessee-based bank said, declining to comment further.

Yotta CEO and co-founder Adam Moelis said in response to this article that Synapse has said in court filings that Evolve held nearly all Yotta customers deposits. Evolve and Synapse disagree over who holds the funds and who is responsible for the frozen accounts.

“According to the Synapse trial balance report provided on May 17, there are $112 million of customer funds held at Evolve,” Moelis said.

Unclear timeline

Despite mounting pressure on the banks involved to unfreeze all the locked accounts, the messy records and a dearth of funds to pay for an outside forensic analysis has created uncertainty over when that will happen.

Evolve maintains that because of discrepancies in the ledgers, it is hesitant to allow payments to be made to many customers until a full reconciliation of the mismatched ledgers is complete, in particular related to a group of banks used in the Synapse brokerage program.

Synapse moved most of the fintech customer funds held at Evolve to a group of banks affiliated with its brokerage program in late 2023, Evolve has said in court filings.

Last week, the court-appointed trustee, former FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams, noted that a “full reconciliation to the last dollar with the Synapse ledger” may not be possible.

Even the total shortfall in funds owed to all impacted depositors isn’t known. Earlier this month, McWilliams pegged the amount at $85 million; but in subsequent reports stated that it was between $65 million and $96 million.

Pleading with regulators

Meanwhile, the disruption to thousands of fintech customers has stretched into its sixth week. Many Yotta customers contacted by CNBC said they used the service as their primary checking account, and have had their lives turned upside down by the situation.

In a letter sent Thursday, McWilliams pleaded with five U.S. regulators to get more involved in the Synapse collapse, asking for resources to help impacted customers understand where their funds are held and to aid communication with banks.

“The impact of Synapse’s bankruptcy on end-users has been devastating,” McWilliams wrote to the regulators. “Many end-users are unable to pay for basic living expenses and food. I appreciate your prompt attention to this request and respectfully request that your agencies act on it as quickly as possible.”

McWilliams is scheduled to present her latest status report in the bankruptcy case during a hearing starting 1 p.m. E.T. Friday.

[sudden and sharp]

Escándalo en UK: el adelanto electoral pilló a todos por sorpresa... menos a quien apostó 7.000€
https://www.elconfidencial.com/mundo/2024-06-21/escandalo-uk-adelanto-electoral-sorpresa-golpe-policia_3907809/
Cargos cercanos a Sunak dentro del partido conservador apostaron de golpe que el país adelantaría elecciones para este julio, en un caso que está siendo investigado por la policía





Estos topos no son de disimular... mucho, no.     

[asustadísimos]

[Todo heredero quiere vender y hacer su vida, no la de sus papás.]


[En la recepción de la medalla que le acaba de dar el PP en Madrid, Milei no ha podido resistirse y ha vuelto a insultar al Sr. Sánchez.]

[CHOSEN]

"Si no lo vendo lo cierro" es más viejo que yo, que ya es decir.
Y por supuesto que a la generación del "todo gratis" le sigue saliendo gratis. Como para insinuarles que el grano de trigo no se puede tirar en plena hambruna!!! A ellos!!! Que corrieron delante de los grises!!! 
Hasta para tener un coche aparcado en la calle tienes que disponer de seguro obligatorio. Todos los años se revisan millones de lavaparabrisas, a ver si por un casual no salpican bien y hay que repararlos en 15 días, no vaya a ser que...
Mientras tanto, ni siquiera sabemos cuantas viviendas construidas hay en España. No hablemos ya de parámetros como metros, habitabilidad, si tienen gas o electricidad.
Bueno quizá sí podría saberse. Quizá Hacienda podría cruzar los datos con las eléctricas. O quizá con Idealista. O con su puta madre, total, ya puestos a fantasear con que alguien hará algo algún día...
Pero si esperaron a que una plataforma informática americana censara y filtrara las viviendas para saber quienes la ponían en alquiler turístico!!!
Casi 4 millones de funcionarios. Primer mundo nos llaman. 
En fin.

No se puede fantasear con una solución política ni estatal.
NO-VA-A-VENIR
Nadie tocará nada. Es mi opinión.
La bolsa americana quizás se vaya a la mierda. Quizás no. Que mas da. El macro y el micro hace mucho que se desligaron.
Hasta entonces la extremísima derecha (la de verdad) va a arrasar -ya lo está haciendo- y no porque los anteriores hayan llenado esto de ex-presidiarios africanos en la ilusión de que van a sustituir al homo-economicus-europensis en su estafa generacional, sino porque en la búsqueda de SOLUCIONES MÁGICAS, esos mismos votantes que convirtieron a partidos ecolojetas comunistoides en segundas fuerzas políticas en media Europa, ahora manifiestan su descontento junto a las dos generaciones de jóvenes taponados, que solo ven salida en el radicalismo y la fuerza.
La misma que fue ejercida sobre ellos mediante un sistema trucado que les obligaba de facto a firmar hipotecas a 40 años.

Nos ha jodido.

Si al final resultará que nadie conocía a Greta Thunberg.
 

[Derby]

https://www.ft.com/content/f9e6164f-f552-49a2-9d1e-f7023ac54207

Rating agencies give high marks to bonds financing defaulted properties

Securities backing single commercial buildings are popular with investors but several have failed to live up to top ratings


1407 Broadway in New York is facing foreclosure but maintains a AA-rating on its debt. © Google Maps

Credit agencies have mis-rated more than $100bn of commercial real estate debt in an increasingly popular segment of the market, say mortgage veterans, including at least a dozen deals that maintain top investment-grade ratings even though the borrowers are in default.

The questionable ratings are cropping up in a portion of the mortgage bond market that has evolved in the past decade or so, in which deals are backed by one loan or mortgage on a single major office building rather than on a bundle of multiple properties.

Single-loan deals now make about 40 per cent of the nearly $700bn in outstanding commercial mortgage bonds. Developers like them because they can get better terms than simply borrowing from a bank. Investors like the deals because they tend to have floating interest charges, which has insulated them from the high rate environment of recent years.

One of those deals is 1407 Broadway, a 48-storey tower in New York City’s garment district that is facing foreclosure. The owner, San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties, has not made a payment since July on the mortgage for the building, which is no longer generating enough rent to cover its expenses and interest payments.

Nonetheless, $187mn in bonds tied to the building’s debt are still put at AA by Fitch — a rating the agency says is reserved for borrowers with “very high credit quality” and debts with a “low risk” of default.

For most highly rated mortgage bonds, a single loan default might not impact its rating or an investor’s ability to be repaid. But the $350mn bond deal for 1407 Broadway, more than half of which was rated AAA, is backed by the fortunes of 1407 Broadway alone.

Deals like 1407 Broadway are causing people like Rod Dubitsky, a former Moody’s and Credit Suisse credit analyst, to make comparisons with the problems that led up to the financial crisis, in which rating agencies like Moody’s and S&P handed out AAA ratings to bonds that were almost entirely backed by subprime borrowers.


Bonds that financed 600 California Street in San Francisco trade for 74 cents on the dollar but were originally rated AAA. © Jason Henry/Bloomberg

“It is probably and easily the worst example of mis-rating of major securities that is out there today,” says Dubitsky, who publishes articles on social media as The People’s Economist. “The integrity of the ratings process has improved very little [since the financial crisis].”

Observers say rating agencies are loath to admit they have mis-rated a AAA deal, and are therefore reluctant to lower the rating.

Fitch, through a spokesperson, said the agency did downgrade the 1407 Broadway bond, from AAA, and had put it on watch for further downgrades. As to the quality of its single-loan deal ratings, the Fitch spokesperson said the firm could not comment on industry-wide data and that approaches differed between rating agencies.

Moody’s and S&P, which also issue ratings on single-asset bonds but did not rate 1407 Broadway, declined to comment for this article.

AAA ratings are supposed to indicate that the risk of a borrower defaulting is extremely low. Of companies in the S&P 500, just two are rated AAA, software giant Microsoft and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.

“You should never have a loss on a AAA-rated bond,” says Ethan Penner, an investment banker who helped create the first commercial mortgage bond in the early 1990s. “The three letters ‘AAA’ next to a bond imply that the world could end and you will not have any losses.”

Nonetheless, a number of AAA-rated deals are looking increasingly risky. Dubitsky, the former Moody’s credit analyst, has a created a list of bond deals, which he calls the “Dirty Dozen”, that were either initially rated AAA or still are, even though the borrower is either delinquent or in default. Ark Capital Advisors, for instance, fell behind on its mortgage on San Francisco office tower 600 California Street in March 2023 and now owes more than $9.5mn in back payments. The bonds, which were originally rated AAA, now trade for 74 cents on the dollar, according to Bloomberg.

In addition to 1407 Broadway, Shorenstein is also behind on its mortgage on 1818 Market Street, a tower in downtown Philadelphia with 1mn square feet of office space. Shorenstein first missed its loan payment in August, and is now more than $3mn behind. This month, the mortgage servicer moved to declare Shorenstein in default, after the borrower asked to modify the loan. Yet, 1818 Market Street’s $75mn single-loan bond sold to investors in 2021 is still rated AAA by both S&P and DBRS Morningstar.

Critics have warned that the ratings on commercial mortgage bonds backed by a single loan, because they lack diversification, are not as trustworthy as other bond ratings. Marc Joffe, who worked for Moody’s rating mortgage debt in the mid-2000s and who is now a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, wrote about his concerns about single-asset deals in 2015 in relation to risks associated with older shopping malls, which were being used to back these deals then.

The Federal Reserve in mid-2020 refused to accept single-loan CMBS bonds as collateral for short-term loans in a Covid-era emergency lending facility.

Scrutiny of these deals increased recently after investors lost 26 per cent of their initial investment in a bond originally rated AAA and backed by a single building — the former Manhattan headquarters of insurance firm MONY, at 1740 Broadway. The building was bought by Blackstone for $605mn in 2014 but was recently sold in foreclosure for just $186mn.

“I think the rating agencies have to take the responsibility, like we did with residential mortgage securities and the financial crisis,” said Joffe. “We have an asset class that has been proven to be defective and yet we still have more deals going out there and getting AAA ratings that they don’t deserve.”

[sudden and sharp]

[...] [En la recepción de la medalla que le acaba de dar el PP en Madrid, Milei no ha podido resistirse y ha vuelto a insultar al Sr. Sánchez.]

No obstante, al final de su discurso, sí ha habido una alusión directa a Sánchez. Parafraseando a Friedrich Hayek, ha subrayado que «si los socialistas entendieran de economía, no serían socialistas». Aquí, ha apuntado que «una de las excepciones a la regla es Sánchez, que a pesar de estudiar economía, o no entendió o le gusta mucho el Estado».

No me parece insultante, la verdá.