Portugal Considers Paying Public Workers In Treasury Bills Instead Of Cash! (And This Is NOT From ‘The Onion’, But From The Wall Street Journal)

Portugal Considers Paying Public Workers In Treasury Bills Instead Of Cash (ZeroHedge, April 7, 2013):

As reported late on Friday, just as the market closed, the Portuguese constitutional court decided that several provisions of the country’s 2013 budget were not constitutional. According to the high court, cuts in wages and pensions of public employees were unfair (there’s that word again) because they targeted only the public sector. The court rejected plans to cut one of the 14 paychecks that public workers usually get each year and to slash 6.4% from pensions for retirees.  This coincided with the government warning that the court’s decision would put into question the country’s ability to fulfill its €78 billion international bailout program, which in turn would send bondholders of Portuguese sovereign debt scrambling for the exits as suddenly the country may find itself in the ECB’s “dunce” corner, with Draghi preparing to pull a “Berlusconi” on a government which can’t even whip its judicial branch in line. However, of more immediate concern is how will the government now plug a hole of up to €1.3 billion in its €5.3 billion 2013 budget. A solution has, luckily, presented itself: bypass the unconstitutional provisions by paying government workers not in cash, but in government bills! From the WSJ:

The Portuguese government is considering a plan to pay public workers and pensioners one month of their salary in treasury bills rather than cash after a high court ruled out wage cuts, a person familiar with the situation said Sunday.

“This is one of the ideas being considered,” the person said.

By paying one month of salary in T-bills to public workers and pensioners, the government would save an estimated €1.1 billion in expenses, narrowing the budget gap significantly.

Incidentally, this plan makes perfect sense: with every central bank openly monetizing its debt, it has effectively made debt and cash equivalent.

Now if only Portuguese public workers had access to the same shadow transformation pathways and government bond repo collateralization opportunities afforded to the big banks, then every bill thus obtained would be able to serve as a source of nearly infinite rehypothecation potential, and thus, a DIY fractional reserve banking system provided to every individual.

Coming next: the full convertibility of Spanish Spiderman towels backed by the full faith and credit of the Rajoy kickback scandal, and fully convertible into chorizo.

All joking aside, the fact that this absurd option is even being contemplated shows just how deep into the rabbit hole event horizon the modern completely insolvent financial system has traversed.

3 thoughts on “Portugal Considers Paying Public Workers In Treasury Bills Instead Of Cash! (And This Is NOT From ‘The Onion’, But From The Wall Street Journal)”

  1. I agree with Marilyn Gjerdrum. Look out 1929/30 is returning only larger and more devastating than ever seen in history.
    Keep reporting so we can get the truths.

    Reply
  2. UNTIL DEATH DO WE DEPART
    It is not strange to note that Margaret Thatcher, has given up the ghost. Many
    people are harboring the thought as to what passage she should take, in scheming over her travel into the unseen-void, where all political side-winders
    most likely will associate with their own bed-fellows. For sure, this lady did not raid the state treasury in hopes that England could continue funding dictatorial
    low-rated bastards, in starving tribes of nations, via the most hell-bound
    starvation with meager wages, in order to openly rape and loot these so-called
    colonies of raw materials. Yes, this once Priminister gave hell to those of whom
    fell under the spell compromising the whole gang of Parliamentary banditry. Hell has no greater fury than to have another ( spirit) moving into its territory. Whether the treasury was hijacked or not, Thatcher was bought and payed for ruling gangsters, who pick the best candidate to saddle the over-all populace. But wait, there is another side of which this lady’s political adventure roll along.

    Old friends and political shysters an ocean apart ( Thatcher and Ronald Reagan)
    sure should run into each other in the yonder life, for they were rather charmed in this world. Photographs of them riding in a buggy in London gives on lookers that moochie moochie feeling. Thatcher was a head-hunter and Reagan was a
    full-fledged liberal’s liberal. Charismatic to peer at, and a deadbeat under the vest.

    Yes, indeed, Ronald was a so-called two-party double-jointed all for one, when he, as Governor of Cal. This sweet double-talking late governor was the first political sycophant hammered down in supporting the then emerging ERA.Going a little further this con-artist comes to be a movie actor.Shocking it was, when Ronald gave a charter to the first Devil’s Church in California. Hollywood moguls
    then discovered from no wheres, other than a governors seat, a good sap to
    push communist provoking Marxism down the throats of the various un-schooled mobs that make up national society. As a pay off, the various conglomeration of Red cells in the movie industry found their man, Ronald into the presidency. And what did this political jockey do for republic–NOTHING!

    Less we forget, Ronald was the Screen-Actor’s Guild union business agent. He
    carried a 38 snub pistol under his coat doing what was natural this man from out of no where no where pulled dirty deals under the table in allowing non-union members to cross the Screen Actor’s picket lines. How much money
    was passed under the table no one will never know. It is well established that in Reagan’s final days that he was in slight dementure. No doubt about it, just how much money was under the table from controlling moguls from Ronald’s presidency. We do know that these dirt-bags, perverts did well on tax evasion.
    To sum things up, Reagan was brought before Congress concerning the communist control in Hollywood. Hollywood’s top writers, (ten) were guilty of using films to promote communism. Reagan was asked. Are you pro-communist. ” His answer was ” I don’t know what a communist is.” THIS WAS THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES. This cowardly gentleman betrayed America
    with his left-hand over his heart and his right hand in the tax-payer’s pockets.

    Reply

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