Skall Goldman Sachs slakta Glencore för att utlösa finanskrisen?

2015-09-26 22:29

Zero Hedge har ett intressant inslag:

"Is Goldman Preparing To Sacrifice The Next "Lehman"?

Man måste dra sig till minnes att den första delen av finanskrisen under september 2008 utlöstes genom fallet av investmentbanken Lehman Brothers. Detta gjordes med flit av Wall Street/Goldman Sachs för att bli av med en obekväm konkurrent och för att ha kraschen av fiat-money finanssystemet under kontroll, en slags finansiell kontrollerad rivning. Vad de flesta inte vet, inte ens Zero Hedge, är att just Lehman valdes därför de hade den största Europa-affären. På så sätt kunde den finansiella löpelden sprida sig snabbast till Europa och resten av världen.

Nu verkar Goldman ha hittat ett nytt slaktoffer: Glencore.

Glencore Xstrata plc är ett brittiskt-schweiziskt råvaruhandelsbolag och gruvföretag med huvudkontor i Baar, Schweiz. Företagets huvudsakliga föregångare, Glencore International, var världens största råvaruhandelbolag.

"One of the more "unmentionable" conspiracy theories surrounding the demise of Lehman Brothers in 2008 is that this "shocking" event was in fact a well-choreographed and carefully scripted "controlled demolition", with the Lehman Bankruptcy - the event that officially unleashed the Great Financial Crisis - getting the express prior permission of both Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson, a former Goldman employee, whose motive was the elimination of the one firm that was then Goldman's biggest competitor in the FICC space, and whose subsequent bailout of his former employer (Goldman Sachs and all other insolvent banks) would lead to the preservation of trillions in worthless equity courtesy of the biggest taxpayer funded bailout in history, and with billions in excess reserves parked on Goldman's balance sheet smoothing the bank's transition through a historic recession.

Fast forward to this week when as we reported previously, following a surge in its Credit Default Swaps, the "doomsday" scenario for Glencore is now on the table, because the market suddenly realized that Glencore's most valuable asset, not its mines, or its trading operations, but its investment grade rating, could be stripped away.

This is what we said, after we noted that GLEN CDS had just hit a multi-year wide of 464bps (precisely as we said it would over a year ago):

We expect this CDS blowout to continue.

What's worse, if the company is downgraded from investment grade to junk, watch as the "commodity Lehman" scenario for Glencore, which much more than a simple copper miner just happens to be one of the world's biggest commodity trading desks, comes full cricle leading to waterfall collateral liquidations and counterparty freeze-outs as suddenly the world is reminded that there is a vast difference between a real and a rehypothecated commodity, and that all collateral rehypothecation chains are only as strong as the weakest counterparty!

Long story short: if and when Glencore loses its Investment Grade rating, it's more or less game over, if not for the company's already mothballed mining operation then certainly for its trading group, where "junking" would lead to numerous collateral shortfalls and margin call waterfalls, reminiscent of the ratings agency downgrade of AIG that culminated with the US bailout of the insurer.

Therefore we were not surprised earlier today to see Glencore stock crash to a new record low below 100p even as the CDS blow out continued.