Infinite Unknown

- Moody’s downgrades Italian banks, outlook negative (Reuters, May 15, 2012):

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the long-term debt and deposit ratings for 26 Italian banks on Monday, citing the country’s recession and rising bad debt levels.

The banks were all downgraded by at least one notch, and for some, by as many as four notches, Moody’s said, adding all of the banks affected have a negative outlook.

The moves marked another blow for Italy’s top five banks after they were asked to find some 15 billion euros by June to meet tougher capital requirements set by the European Banking Authority due to vast holdings of domestic government bonds.

Economic recession in Italy has worsened credit quality as banks come under pressure from the government to put cheap funding from the European Central Bank to work in the real economy.

“The ratings for Italian banks are now amongst the lowest within advanced European countries, reflecting these banks’ susceptibility to the adverse operating environments in Italy and Europe,” Moody’s said in a statement.

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Tags: Banking, Collapse, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Italy, Moody's, Rating

Got PHYSICAL gold and silver?

Here is why:

Flashback:

- Greek Euro Exit: 60% Currency Devaluation, Default, Banking Sector Collapse

Here is what happened to Mexico:

– Hedge Fund Manager Kyle Bass Explains The New World Order (Panel Presentation):

On Greece:

For those who think a 50% write-down on debt will fix Greece, you have lost your mind. It is only a full wipe-out of the non-TROIKA-owned debt that is the only mathematical way for Greece to have any chance.

…

Don’t believe these governments when they tell you everything is going to fine. The day before Mexico devalued by 60% they denied that they would ever devalue. They can and will never tell you the truth. Find your own numbers.

Here is what happened to Belarus:

- 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.

- Euro Officials Begin to Weigh Greek Exit as Euro Weakens (Blomberg, May 14, 2012):

Greece’s possible exit from the euro moved to the center of Europe’s financial-crisis debate, rattling markets as authorities in Athens struggled to form a government.

Meetings brokered by Greek President Karolos Papoulias were set to continue today after Syriza, the leading anti-bailout party, rejected a unity government following inconclusive elections May 6. That moved the country closer to a new vote, with at least five European central bankers broaching the once- taboo topic of its exit from the euro.

“We’re really getting to a denouement,” Michael O’Sullivan, head of portfolio strategy at Credit Suisse Private Banking, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We’re getting to the part where a decision has to be made” on whether Greece leaves the 17-nation currency union, he said.

Euro finance ministers meeting today in Brussels may discuss the bailout for Greece, as well as the situation in Spain, where the government last week made a fourth attempt to clean up banks. Getting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to weaken her demand that debt cutting be the core of the crisis response will be a key objective of new French President Francois Hollande when the two meet tomorrow in Berlin.

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Tags: Bailout, Bonds, Debt, ECB, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, Karolos Papoulias, Politics, Society

- Euro zone turmoil boosts London property stampede (Reuters, May 13, 2012):

* Euro zone turmoil pushes property buyers to London

* Buyers from southern Europe to the fore

* “The Greeks are coming”

LONDON — Worsening financial and political turmoil in southern Europe caused a surge of interest in London property last month with buyers from Greece and Spain showing strongly among investors seeking a safe haven for their money.

The number of Greeks searching for homes costing more than 1.5 million pounds ($2.4 million) on the website of property agent Savills jumped 39 percent in April compared with the average of the preceding six months, the company said.

“The reason Greeks are coming is very simple,” said Dinos Joannou, a 65-year-old Cypriot who works in the Athenian Grocery in the Bayswater district of London and has seen growing numbers arrive this year. “Greece is screwed, there are no jobs and it has been run by crooks.”

The number of Europeans buying property in London has grown steadily over the last year as the euro zone debt crisis has worsened but numbers spiked ahead of elections in Greece last weekend that failed to produce a government.

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Tags: Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, London, Politics, Real Estate, Society, U.K.

- Germany Begins Quantifying The Cost Of A Greek Exit (And Discovers Contingent Liabilities Are All Too Real) (ZeroHedge, May 12, 2012)

Tags: Economy, EU, Europe, GDP, Germany, Global News, Government, Greece, IMF, Politics

- Greece headed into ‘out of control bankruptcy’ – govt. salaries and pensions soon to go unpaid (Natural News, May 13, 2012):

The financial crisis in Greece is reaching an explosive tipping point, with the youth unemployment rate now exceeding a startling 50 percent and the government itself announcing it will be forced to stop paying salaries and pensions by June:

“We will be in wild bankruptcy, out-of-control bankruptcy,” said Theodoros Pangalos, the deputy prime minister of Greece. “The state will not be able to pay salaries and pensions. We have got until June before we run out of money.” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9262068/Greece-wil…)

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Tags: Collapse, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Greece, Pension, Politics, Society, Theodoros Pangalos

- Biderman Sums Up Europe’s Problem In 30 Seconds (ZeroHedge, May 8, 2012):

After an extended and detailed rant against the BLS and their ineptitude, which is worth watching in its own right, Charles Biderman (CEO of TrimTabs) sums up Europe’s troubles and hopes in 30 seconds. Towards the end of the clip, Biderman notes that Monsier Hollande is saying that governments should borrow more money so they can give more money to more people and THAT will create economic growth. Instead, Charles sees Europe sliding down a slippery slope faster and faster with no end in sight.

The initial BLS rant is worthwhile but from 3:45, Biderman bashes Europe’s hope…

YouTube

Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Society, U.S., Unemployment

- Marc Faber Sees A 1987-Like Crash Approaching (ZeroHedge, May 10, 2012):

When given the opportunity to expand on his thoughts, Marc Faber, of the Gloom, Boom, & Doom Report, provides dismally clarifying detail on the state of the world. In this excellent (must-watch on a day when nothing changed but European stocks dead-cat-bounced) Bloomberg TV interview, the admittedly ursine Faber reflects on the US (slowing of revenue growth and the real linkages to European stress) noting that unless we get a huge QE3, there will be “a crash, like in 1987″ noting he believes we have seen the highs for the year; on the likelihood of QE3 (agreeing with us that the Fed won’t act unless asset markets plunge first); on Greece’s exit of the Euro and whether policy-makers can manage the exit properly “bureaucrats in Brussels and the media are brainwashing everybody that if Greece exited the euro, it would be a disaster. My view is the best would be to dissolve the whole euro zone“; on the difference between investment markets and economic reality (thanks to financial repression); and on the global race-to-debase “I do not have a high opinion of the U.S. government, but the bureaucrats in Brussels make the government in the U.S. look like an organization consisting of geniuses. The bureaucrats in Brussels are completely useless functionaries“.

Faber on whether he still thinks that profit margins will shrink and record profits seen will be no more for U.S. corporations:
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Tags: ECB, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, France, GDP, Global News, Greece, Italy, Marc Faber, Obama administration, Politics, S&P 500, Spain, Stock Market, U.S.

Especially about those idiots who think that they are prepared if they have guns & ammo and are planning to acquire whatever they may need in an economic/financial collapse situation by using them.

- Economic Alert: If You’re Not Worried Yet…You Should Be (Alt-Market, May 8, 2012):

For the past four years I have been covering the progression of the global economic crisis with an emphasis on the debilitating effects it has had on the American financial system.  Only once before have I ever issued an economic alert, and this was at the onset of the very first credit downgrade in U.S. history by S&P.  I do not take the word “alert” lightly.  Since 2008 we have seen a cycle of events that have severely weakened our country’s foundation, but each event has then been followed by a lull, sometimes 4 to 6 months at a stretch, which seems to disarm the public, drawing them back into apathy and complacency.  The calm moments before each passing storm give Americans a false sense of hope that our capsized fiscal vessel will somehow right itself if we just hold on a little longer…

I don’t have to tell most people within the Liberty Movement that this is not going to happen.  Unfortunately, there are many out there who do not share our awareness of the situation.   Debt implosions and currency devaluation NEVER simply “fade away”; they are always followed by extreme social and political strife that tends to sully the doorsteps of almost every individual and family.  The notion that we can coast through such a tempest unscathed is an insane idea, filled with a dangerous potential for sour regrets.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Collapse, Economy, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Government, IMF, Obama administration, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Society, U.S.

Change!

YouTube Added: 07.05.2012

Description:

The mass media is promulgating the notion that the election of Socialist French President Francois Hollande represents some kind of massive sea change and is a direct challenge to the European Union, and yet Hollande’s past and the people he surrounds himself with confirms the fact that he is merely another committed globalist and an enthusiastic supporter of the dictatorial EU’s sovereignty-stripping ethos.

“In the whole of Europe it’s time for change,” Hollande told cheering crowds who gathered to hear his victory speech in Paris early Monday,” reports the L.A. Times.
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Tags: Bilderberg, EU, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, Global News, Politics, Society

Change!

Efforts to save the euro under threat after EU leaders’ strategies collide with the wishes of voters in Greece and France

German chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted Athens must comply with the stringent terms of its €130bn (£100bn) bailout. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

- Eurozone crisis: Merkel tells Athens and Paris to stick to spending limits (Guardian, May 7, 2012):

Europe’s 30-month effort to save the euro by slashing spending and debt levels risks turning into a crisis of political legitimacy after EU leaders’ strategies collided spectacularly with the wishes of voters in Greece and France.

The impasse was most graphically demonstrated when Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, insisted Athens must comply with the stringent terms of its €130bn (£100bn) bailout even though more than 60% of the Greek electorate had voted for parties rejecting those terms.

Following a French election campaign in which she strongly backed the loser, Nicolas Sarkozy, and snubbed the president-elect, François Hollande, Merkel stressed her opposition to Hollande’s central campaign pledge: reopening the euro’s new rulebook, or fiscal pact.

“That’s just not on,” she told a Berlin press conference called to address the huge shift from right to left in France.

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Tags: Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, Germany, Global News, Government, Greece, Lucas Papademos, Politics