Cyprus Is not Even In Big Bank offshore Haven

Cyprus foreign bank deposits surged more than 60 percent, reaching $ 40 billion, over five years, setting the stage for the financial crisis after the bank invested in Greek bonds and securities.Think other risks are scary? Throughout the world, with about $ 2.7 trillion in offshore banking havens recorded and the Cyprus crisis shows how little progress has been made in bringing the situation under control.The largest economy in the world stepped up their effort to find the hidden land account. To combat money laundering and tax evasion, banking havens they have pressured to sign a bilateral agreement to share the record of deposits other regulatory authorities approve such disclosure countries.After, some traditional havens such Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Channel Islands have seen their foreign bank deposits decreased. 

Deposits with foreign banks on the island of Jersey, for example, has dropped nearly 60 percent since 2008, according to a study by economists last autumn in Paris School of Economics and the University of Copenhagen.But their refusal was offset With increased foreign deposits in other countries signed an agreement on relatively small, the study found. Cyprus, for example, signed two agreements, compared to 15 or more agreements signed by other banking havens and foreign deposits increased by over 60 percent. Panama and Macao, too, entered into a relatively small and experienced a sharp increase in foreign deposits. "Our results indicate that taxpayers moved to havens deposits not covered by agreements with their countries of origin," wrote economist Gabriel Zucman and Niels Johannesen the study, noted that the total global offshore deposits , $ 2.7 trillion is the same as in 2007. "The crackdown led to the transfer of deposits to benefit following havens." Until now, most efforts to rein in offshore banking havens has focused on the potential for money laundering and tax evasion. German and European creditor countries have complained that Russia regularly use the Cyprus banks to launder illicit funds, although the Cypriot government says it is enacting anti-money laundering law to comply with European Union regulations.Global Integrity Financial , a group based in Washington, estimated that more than $ 120 billion flows between Russia and Cyprus each year by the "round-tripping" setting, where the Russian currency deposits in Cyprus and then reinvesting it in Russia, as a means of lowering their tax liability in the home Cyprus crisis., though, suggests that gorging on foreign deposits pose a risk to the banking havens, too. And Cyprus is no means the largest or even the largest offshore-havens. Banks in the Cayman Islands save more than $ 500 billion in foreign deposits, Netherlands Antilles and banks with more than $ 300 billion, according to the Bank for International settlement. "All of these countries think that party will go on forever," says Dev Kar, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist who now economist at Global Financial Integrity. "There is no inspection lot." Now as Cyprus as an offshore haven display, which can slap a hefty tax on foreign deposits to raise the money needed for the bailout. No other offshore haven that has become such a problem. But, Kar said, "There is a substantial risk" of similar problems in other areas.

Angry About High Gas Prices? Oil refineries shut blame

Average price of gas by more than 10 percent since the beginning of this year, a point made repeatedly during the Wednesday Republican Presidential debate. Predictably, the four GOP candidates blame President Barack Obama for the steep increase.Actually, the president does not like it pricing power. More likely reason behind the rise in prices, though definitely less interesting as a political argument, the recent spate of refinery closures in the U.S. In recent years, the refinery margin squeeze classic encounter. 

The price for Brent crude lost, but the demand for gasoline in the U.S. are at 15-year lows. That means refineries to be able to deliver a higher price for their customers.As result, the company chose to close a small number of large refineries rather than continue to lose money on them. Since December, the U.S. lost about 4 percent of Refining capacity, said Fadel Gheit, senior oil and gas analyst for Oppenheimer. In it, two large outside Philadelphia refinery was closed: Sunoco plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., and a factory in the nearby ConocoPhillips Trainer, Pa. .. Together they account for about 20 percent of all gasoline produced in Northeast.This week, then close the HOVENSA refinery in St.. Croix. Mill processed 350,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and go approximately $ 1.3 billion over three years, or nearly $ 1 million per day. The St Croix plant was hit by the double whammy of price pressures. Not only dealing with higher prices for Brent crude oil, but it also does not have access to cheap natural gas, an important raw material for the refinery. None of the advantage of the low price of natural gas, down 50 percent from June 2011, refinery probably have to close down.the U.S. Refining industry is divided into two. On one side of the older refineries, especially on the East Coast, which is set up to handle only high quality Brent "sweet" crude oil, a benchmark derived from a mixture of 15 oil fields in the North Sea. Brent is easier to fix, because it has a low content of sulfer, although it has got a lot more expensive recently. (Of course, another reason for the higher gas prices.) After the plant to repair heavy, sour crude is cheap stuff from western Canada, deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and South America. This refinery is likely to be gathered in the Midwest such as Oklahoma, Louisiana, and out of Chicago. This refinery also tend to have access to West Texas Intermediate crude oil, a sweet grade oil similar to Brent, but it's made in North America. East Coast refineries lack of access to WTI, leaving them at a disadvantage. While the price of Brent crude closed at over $ 120 per barrel in recent days, WTI trading at close to $ 106. 

That simple difference is the reason that the old refinery on the East Coast bleeding cash and off, while the refineries in the Midwest growing. "The U.S. Refining Industry is undergoing innovation, large area," said Ben Brockwell, director at Oil Price Information Service. "If you look at refinery utilization rates in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, they are running at nearly 95 percent capacity, and on the East Coast it's more like 60 percent," he said. This is primarily why the cheapest gas prices in the country in states like Colorado, Utah, Montana, and New Mexico, while New York, Connecticut, and Washington, DC, has some of the highest prices.