You can’t make this stuff up!
- Friday Humor Part Dois – Banco de Portugal “Wink Wink” Edition (ZeroHedge, Feb. 3, 2012):
… the following seminar announcement from the Banco de Portugal, of all places, is truly priceless…
Source: Banco de Portugal
Tags: Banco de Portugal, Banking, Bonds, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Portugal
- Romanians stop paying benefits to anyone who owns gold jewellery (Daily Mail, Feb. 2, 2012):
Romanian officials have denied targeting gypsies under tough new laws introduced to cut back on the amount of benefits paid – by refusing to pay benefits to anyone who owns gold jewellery.
Under the regulations introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions, any person claiming any sort of social benefit will be excluded if they declare that they own jewellery, or have more than 100 grams of precious metal, works of art, porcelain or crystal objects, fur coats or designer products.
Tags: EU, Europe, Global News, Gold, Government, Politics, Romania, Silver
Now who will tell them to protect their assets with physical gold and silver?
- 45% Of Greeks Have Never Used The Internet (ZeroHedge, Feb. 3, 2012):
If one were to consider that nearly half the population of a given country has never had the pleasure of killing otherwise efficient time with the likes of Facebook, and other fad internet sensations, one would assume that the efficiency of the population would be far higher than other places whose citizens spend every waking hour gazing at a monitor. One would be wrong. As the following chart from Eurostat via Goldman shows, about 45% of the Greek population has never used the internet. Surprisingly the balance of the PIIGS is not far behind, with Portugal, Italy and Spain hot on Greece heels (which 5 years ago had two thirds of its population never interact with the web). Is it possible that sitting in front of a computer, uploading millions of pics and “liking” this and that does indeed do miracles for globalization and corporate efficiency? Was Zuckerberg’s letter, gasp, 100% correct?
Tags: EU, Europe, Global News, Greece, Internet, Italy, Portugal, Society, Spain
YouTube Added: 30.01.2012
Description:
http://www.ellismartinreport.com
http://www.jsmineset.com
https://twitter.com/#!/EllisMartinRprtBreaking News: January 30, 2012. In this unedited interview with Ellis Martin, Jim Sinclair reveals an impending undeclared default of 5 major US banks this week per the ISDA International Swaps and Derivatives Association related to events in Europe. Listen and learn.
Tags: Banking, cds, Collapse, Derivatives, Derivatives market, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, ISDA, Obama administration, Politics, U.S.
… as intended by the elitists.
- Greece Warns It Will Soon Be In “Condition Of Absolute Poverty” (ZeroHedge, Feb. 1, 2012):
And while the bankers (on both sides of the table) haggle about how to best leech Greece even dryer (with a solution due any hour, day, week now), the actual people are starting to wave the white flag of surrender. Because the opportunity cost of every additional coupon payment is having a direct, immediate and increasingly more dire impact on virtually every aspect of the economy. Kathimerini reports that “about 160,000 jobs will be lost this year in the commerce sector, according to the National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE) as the constant decline in disposable income has led to a sharp drop in turnover and a steep rise in the number of enterprises shutting down.” Indicatively, the latest Greek employment figures per the IMF, show that 4.156MM people are employed. So commerce alone is about to lead to a 4% drop in total jobs. As the chart below shows, net of just this sector, Greek jobs are about to go back to 2010 levels. What this means for the Greek unemployment rate, and for GDP we leave to our readers, although the ESEE does a good job of summarizing what to expect: the “ESEE warns that soon Greece will be in a condition of absolute poverty.” And that, ladies and gents, is how Europe slowly but surely reentered the Feudal age, and what every other country in the European periphery that has a massive debt load, and no surplus (actually make that every country in the world), has to look forward to: absolute poverty, aka debt slavery.
From Kathimerini:
The jobs to be lost concern 60,000 employers and 100,000 employees in the sector, ESEE expects. Given the data for a 6.2 percent fall in household consumption in 2011 and the Eurostat forecast for a further decline by 4.3 percent this year, ESEE warns that soon Greece will be in a condition of absolute poverty.
With 60,000 enterprises having shut down since the start of the crisis to date, their number is set to double by the end of this year, ESEE estimates.
Once again, it appears that Chuck Palahniuk will be proven right when stating that it’s only after we’ve lost everything, that we are free to do anything; and it will be up to the Greeks to prove him right.
Tags: Collapse, Economy, ESEE, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, Politics, Poverty
“I was personally present when the deputy economics minister of Iran was talking to a foreign society in Berlin”
“And the gentleman said very openly to the shocked audience ‘OK.
You don’t want to buy our goods. Well, the Chinese do.”
– Christoph R. Horstel
- Iran, Gold and Oil – The Next Banksters War (Batr, Jan. 29, 2012):
Remember the real reason why Moammar Gadhafi is dead. He dared to propose and started creating an alternative currency to the world reserve U.S. Dollar. The lesson learned in Libya is now ready for teaching in Iran. Forget all the noise about going nuclear, the true message is that the banksters rule and nation states serve their ultimate masters. The hype and disinformation that surrounds the push for war is best understood by examining the viewpoint of Iranian MP Kazem Jalali. The Tehran Times quotes him in saying,
“The European Union must be aware that it can never compel the Islamic Republic to succumb to their will and undermine the Iranian nation’s determination to achieve glory and independence, access modern technologies, and safeguard its rights, through the intensification of the pressure.”
“The European Union is seeking to politicize the atmosphere ahead of nuclear talks with Iran and is aware that sanctions on Iran’s oil exports cannot be implemented since the world is not limited to a number of European countries”
Many political commentators warn that an embargo is an act or war. Chris Floyd provides this observation of the recent oil embargo against Iran.
“This week, the warlords of the West took yet another step toward their long-desired war against Iran. (Open war, that is; their covert war has been going on for decades — via subversion, terrorism, and proxies like Saddam Hussein.) On Monday, the European Union obediently followed the dictates of its Washington masters by agreeing to impose an embargo on Iranian oil.
The embargo bans all new oil contracts with Iran, and cuts off all existing deals after July. The embargo is accompanied by a freeze on all European assets of the Iranian central bank. In imposing these draconian measures on a country which is not at war with any nation, which has not invaded or attacked another nation in centuries, and which is developing a nuclear energy program that is not only entirely legal under international law but is also subject to the most stringent international inspection regime ever seen, the EU is “targeting the economic lifeline of the regime,” as one of its diplomats put it, with admirable candor.”
The most important aspect of the Iranian response lies in the way that changes oil settlement for delivery and the futile effect of the US/Anglo/EU imperialist dictates have in the marketplace.
Debkafile reports that India (and probably China) will pay for Iranian oil in gold.
Tags: Dollar, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Government, Iran, Libya, Military, Muammar Gaddafi, Obama administration, Oil, Oil Prices, Politics
- This is Europe’s Scariest Chart (ZeroHedge, Jan. 30, 2012):
Surging Greek and Portuguese bond yields? Plunging Italian bank stocks? The projected GDP of the Eurozone? In the grand scheme of things, while certainly disturbing, none of these data points actually tell us much about the secular shift within European society, and certainly are nothing that couldn’t be fixed if the ECB were to gamble with hyperinflation and print an inordinate amount of fiat units diluting the capital base even further. No: the one chart that truly captures the latent fear behind the scenes in Europe is that showing youth unemployment in the continent’s troubled countries (and frankly everywhere else). Because the last thing Europe needs is a discontented, disenfranchised, and devoid of hope youth roving the streets with nothing to do, easily susceptible to extremist and xenophobic tendencies: after all, it must be “someone’s” fault that there are no job opportunities for anyone. Below we present the youth (16-24) unemployment in three select European countries (and the general Eurozone as a reference point). Some may be surprised to learn that while Portugal, and Greece, are quite bad, at 30.7% and 46.6% respectively, it is Spain where the youth unemployment pain is most acute: at 51.4%, more than half of the youth eligible for work does not have a job! Because the real question is if there is no hope for tomorrow, what is the opportunity cost of doing something stupid and quite irrational today?
Tags: ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, GDP, Global News, Greece, Portugal, Society, Spain, Unemployment
Message to the people of Greece:
Got physical gold and silver? Protect yourself from any devaluation threat NOW.
Flashback:
- Belarus Devalues Its Currency By 56% Overnight, Against Every Currency Out There:
Luckily for those who held their “money” in the form of gold and silver, they just got an instantaneous 56% value preservation and a relative boost in their purchasing power with just one central bank announcement.
- Commerzbank’s Mueller Recommends Greece Exit Euro Zone – Report (FOX Business/Dow Jones Newswires, Jan. 31, 2012):
FRANKFURT – The Supervisory Board Chairman of Germany’s Commerzbank (CBK.XE) said he recommends that Greece leaves the euro zone, according to a pre-release of an interview by TV broadcaster Deutsches Anleger Fernsehen.
“I am strongly convinced that Greece needs a massive devaluation which it can’t carry out within the euro,” Mueller is quoted as saying, and “we can’t compensate for this with transfer payments.”
“Despite being a hurting process, I think Greece would be better advised to declare its exit,” as “Greece can’t be rescued within the euro,” Mueller said, according to the German broadcaster.
“Markets will understand, that, if Greece exits, this doesn’t mean who is next,” so he doesn’t expect contagion, Mueller is quoted as saying.
Banks could write down their entire exposure to Greece immediately, Mueller said, according to DAF.
“When you are at 70% or 80% and you’ll likely have to add to it, you can ask if you won’t stop it immediately, meaning write down entirely,” he is quoted as saying.
- Commerzbank CEO Says Greece Should Exit Eurozone (ZeroHedge, Jan. 30, 2012):
As if Merkel did not make it all too clear over the weekend that Germany no longer wishes Greece to be part of the Eurozone, and that the ball is now in Athens’ court to accept what is a glaringly unfeasible demand, i.e., to hand over fiscal sovereignty over to “Europe” with Merkel having the cover of saying it did everything in its power to keep Greece in the union, here comes Commerzbank’s CEO Mueller to pick up where Merkel left off:
- COMMERZBANK’S MUELLER SAYS GREECE SHOULD EXIT EURO ZONE
- COMMERZBANK’S MUELLER SPOKE TO DEUTSCHES ANLEGER FERNSEHEN
Presumably this means that German banks have sold off all their Greek bond exposure, and believe that the Eurozone would be better off without Greece in it. However, that Commerzbank, or one of the most insolvent banks in Europe, and only in line with Dexia, is confident that it can withstand the contagtion that would follow, only makes us even more skeptical that a Greek default and Eurozone departure will be contained, and in all likelihood will have scary implications for all European banks, not only German ones. Just ask DB’s Ackermann…
Tags: Banking, Commerzbank, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, Politics
This is the ‘Greatest Depression’!
- As Europe Goes (Deep In Recession), So Does Half The World’s Trade (ZeroHedge, Jan. 30, 2012):
Following the Fed’s somewhat downbeat perspective on growth, confidence in investors’ minds that the US can decouple has been temporarily jilted back to reality. It is of course no surprise and as the World Bank points out half of the world’s approximately $15 trillion trade in goods and services involves Europe. So the next time some talking head uses the word decoupling (ignoring 8.5 sigma Dallas Fed prints for the statistical folly that they are), perhaps pointing them to the facts of explicit (US-Europe) and implicit (Europe-Asia-US) trade flow impact of a deepening European recession/depression will reign in their exuberance.
From The World Bank: Golden Growth
An increasingly vigorous flow of goods, services, and finance over the last five decades has fueled European growth. Europe’s economies are the most open in the world. Before the global crisis of 2008–09, half of the world’s approximately $15 trillion trade in goods and services involved Europe (figure 2). Two-thirds of it was among the 45 countries discussed in this report. Financial flows have been equally vigorous. In 2007, for example, annual FDI in Europe exceeded $1 trillion. Big and growing trade and financial links facilitated by the single market form the core of the European convergence machine.
Tags: Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Recession, World Bank
- It’s Official: German Economy Minister Demands Surrender Of Greek Budget Policy, Says It Is First Of Many Such Sovereign “Requests” (ZeroHedge, Jan. 29, 2012):
While over the past 2 days there may have been some confusion as to who, what, how or where is demanding that Greece abdicate fiscal sovereignty (with some of our German readers supposedly insulted by the suggestion that this idea originated in Berlin, and specifically with politicians elected by a majority of the German population), today’s quotefest from German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler appearing in Germany’s Bild should put any such questions to bed. And from this point on, Greece would be advised to not play dumb anymore vis-a-vis German annexation demands. So from Reuters, “Greece must surrender control of its budget policy to outside institutions if it cannot implement reforms attached to euro zone rescue measures, the German economy minister was quoted as saying on Sunday. Philipp Roesler became the first German cabinet member to openly endorse a proposal for Greece to surrender budget control after Reuters quoted a European source on Friday as saying Berlin wants Athens to give up budget control.” And some bad news for our Portuguese (and then Spanish) readers: you are next.
“We need more leadership and monitoring when it comes to implementing the reform course,” Roesler, also vice chancellor, told Bild newspaper, according to an advance of an interview to be published on Monday.
“If the Greeks aren’t able to succeed themselves with this, then there must be stronger leadership and monitoring from abroad, for example through the EU,” added Roesler, chairman of the Free Democrats (FDP) who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Tags: Angela Merkel, Dictatorship, Economy, EU, Europe, Evangelos Venizelos, Germany, Global News, Government, Greece, Philipp Rösler, Politics, Portugal, Spain
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