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Cluster Family Office Blog

Asset protection in the New Normal: «Debt Bomb».»

In this day and age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a safe haven for our money, and indeed for any type of asset. The safe investments of the global economic paradigm of the past no longer exist. How easy it was for the investor who wanted security, a decade or two ago, to place assets in fixed income or bank deposits, with the only worry being that inflation would not eat them up, wasn't it? (more…)

Addio, Italia, addio...

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It seems that for the moment Mr. Market's beast is asleep, or pretending to sleep. The Spanish risk premium is still in the “moderate” 400′s despite the fact that Spain is growing the dwarfs of its circus. Perhaps some events are going somewhat unnoticed by public opinion, but they will be decisive in determining what may happen in the Eurozone in the coming months and years.

On the one hand, the triad (not the Troika) of Eurozone countries that still have their AAA - Finland, the Netherlands and Germany - have backtracked on an agreement they may never have reached in a credible way. (more…)

Extortion by BancSabadell (and others) to get its customers to invest in its own products

It is common knowledge that Spanish banks resort to underhand tactics to squeeze as much as possible out of their long-suffering customers in the form of commissions and exorbitant charges of all kinds. But the pressure that some banks are putting on their customers to prevent them from investing in external funds (from other management companies) where the fees for the bank are lower is reaching levels of mafia-style extortion that are entirely reprehensible.

Below, we will look at some real-life examples of the practices being carried out by an institution such as Banco de Sabadell (despite the fact that it uses images of people of integrity in its advertising). And we know for a fact that other institutions are equally guilty of such despicable and unethical behaviour. (more…)

Why do they call it ‘risk’ when they mean ‘volatility’?

Most of you will no doubt remember the famous Spanish film entitled “Why do they call it ‘Love’ when they mean ‘Sex’?” in which Verónica Forqué plays a charming porn actress. We’ve borrowed the title of that film to name this article, in which we’ll attempt to explain the confusion (for want of a better word) that reigns in the financial sector – that is, amongst banks and their various clients and investors – when it comes to distinguishing between risk and volatility. To lighten the mood a little, we’ll be interspersing this article with a few cartoons by Forges, who is a master at laying bare the banking sector’s shortcomings. (more…)

What lies behind Draghi’s bold move?

Below is a link to our latest article, published as regular contributors to GurusBlog, in which we analyse the implications of Draghi’s announcement, looking beyond the official and politically correct comments.

«First and foremost, it is only fair to say that the announcement of unlimited purchases of distressed debt (UNWTO) by the ECB on the secondary market, whilst the ESM It is being implemented at primary level; it is the most decisive, consensual and coordinated measure put into practice to date.

Whether it is because the measures taken to date have been cowardly and futile, or because this time the person taking them is not a politician fearful of the ballot box but a financial technocrat who has been weaned on Goldman Sachs, such as the President of the ECB. The point is that we are facing the most far-reaching decision in years – which, admittedly, is not saying much. But let’s look a little beyond the newspaper headlines and the politically correct arguments.» Read the full article.

A Limbo for Europe’s periphery

paises perifería europaWhen situations seem destined to lead to bipolar outcomes, reality surprises us with balanced resolutions that are often unexpected. Experience usually shows us that solutions are rarely black and white, but rather shades of grey. They are probably less daring but perhaps also more widely accepted, more popular – for better or for worse. The same could happen in the resolution of the Eurozone crisis, where the peripheral economies can no longer coexist with those of the German-led bloc without causing each other real harm. (more…)

Rajoy’s lack of statesmanship

 

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It has been easy over the last two or three years to criticise Zapatero’s failings, as these were numerous and impossible to hide: an inability to understand and manage the economic situation, populist demagoguery, erratic financial policy, a refusal to change course and a lack of courage to reform labour policy, and a very long list of other failings that have led us to the critical situation we are all familiar with. (more…)

Politics has gone on holiday

So far, it has been a quiet August on the markets. And that is probably due to the absence of political interference in share prices. The Eurozone’s problems are still there and remain the same, albeit exacerbated by the relentless passage of time, but they seem to have been temporarily sidelined. The fact is that those responsible for the problems – namely the political class of the EU’s Tower of Babel and its Eurocrats – are on holiday. And it shows. (more…)

Investors and Gamblers

Over the last 10 years, there has been a proliferation of stock market “courses” catering to all tastes. Some purport to teach how to trade derivatives, others show how to carry out technical analysis of charts to theoretically beat the market on a consistent basis, whilst others even sell their winning trading algorithms and strategies. All of them are advertised as the panacea that will make anyone who buys them rich. There is a whole world of techniques to choose from for supposedly getting rich on the stock market, with very little effort and very quickly, as their adverts claim. However, they all have one thing in common: their sales generate profits for their creators that the latter have not been able to achieve in the markets using their own methods – at least not consistently over time. (more…)

Beer Europe vs Wine Europe

A friend of mine told me about the ‘beer border’ or ‘beer line’, referring to the imaginary boundary that separates creditor Europe – rich and productive – from debtor Europe – insolvent and in recession. In other words, the coincidences – or perhaps not – of life, and Hollande’s victory in France, have meant that the Eurozone is now divided into the rich countries, which usually consume and produce beer, and the poor countries, which have traditionally favoured – and continue to favour – wine. Two very distinct cultures and, probably, two very different ways of viewing and living life as well. (more…)

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