EU

Nicolas Sarkozy DID Take $50 Million Of Muammar Gaddafi’s Cash

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Sarkozy and Gaddafi pictured in Paris in 2007

– Nicolas Sarkozy DID take $50 million of Muammar Gaddafi’s cash, French judge is told (Independent, Jan 3, 2013):

Documentary proof exists that France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy took more than €50m from the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, a French judge has been told.

The claim, leaked today, was made just before Christmas by a Lebanese-born businessman, Ziad Takieddine, who has been a fixer for legal – and allegedly illegal – dealings between France and the Middle East for 20 years.

Expanding on claims already made by one of Mr Gaddafi’s sons and a French investigative website, Mr Takieddine told an investigative judge that he could show him written proof that Mr Sarkozy’s first presidential campaign in 2006-7 was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli. The payments, he said, continued after Mr Sarkozy became President.

In total, he said, they exceeded the €50m in illegal payments to Mr Sarkozy claimed by Mr Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam just before the demise of the Libyan regime – thanks partly to French and British airstrikes – in 2011.

Read moreNicolas Sarkozy DID Take $50 Million Of Muammar Gaddafi’s Cash

Euros Discarded As Impoverished Greeks Resort To Bartering (Guardian)

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Communities set up local currencies and exchange networks in attempt to beat the economic crisis


Stall-holders at a bartering market in the central Greek city of Volos, where shoppers use Tem coupons to exchange services or products. Photograph: Despoina Vafeidou /AFP/Getty Images

– Euros discarded as impoverished Greeks resort to bartering (Guardian, Jan 2, 2013):

It’s been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies.

But not a single euro has changed hands – none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped.

“It’s all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times,” enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. “You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro.”

In this bustling port city at the foot of Mount Pelion, in the heart of Greece’s most fertile plain, locals have come up with a novel way of dealing with austerity – adopting their own alternative currency, known as the Tem. As the country struggles with its worst crisis in modern times, with Greeks losing up to 40% of their disposable income as a result of policies imposed in exchange for international aid, the system has been a huge success. Organisers say some 1,300 people have signed up to the informal bartering network.

Read moreEuros Discarded As Impoverished Greeks Resort To Bartering (Guardian)

New Year’s Eve In France: 1,193 Vehicles Burned Within A Few Hours

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– As Cars Burn In France, The Industry Of Hope Booms (Testosterone Pit, Jan 3, 2013):

New Year’s Eve was the main event. And it didn’t disappoint: 1,193 vehicles were burned in France in the course of a few hours, said Interior Minister Manuel Valls. Up 4% from 2009, when 1,147 vehicles were burned. A tradition no one has the balls to explain. In the days leading up to the annual rite, Valls had promised “complete transparence,” in contrast to the Sarkozy government, which had hushed up the numbers since 2009. But it’s a year-round event: 40,244 vehicles were burned during 2011 and 43,568 the year before. Even Valls was “shocked” by these numbers.

But the massive destruction of functional vehicles (most of them paid for by insurance) wasn’t nearly enough to bail out the automakers. New vehicle sales for the year 2012 dropped 13.9% from the already miserable levels of 2011. Only 1.89 million vehicles were sold, a low not seen since 1997, despite the growth of the population. Particularly alarming: sales by French automakers collapsed, PSA Peugeot Citroen by 17.5%, Renault by 22.1%. All hopes had been riding on their new models—the Peugeot 208 and the Renault Clio 4—which hit the market in the fall, but those hopes have since evaporated.

Other automakers got clobbered as well: Ford was down 19.8%, Fiat, which hardly anyone is buying anymore, fell 23.7%, only to be outdone by GM’s beleaguered Opel, down 23.8%. But there were winners: BMW was up 2.3%, Mercedes 5.3%, and Hyundai-Kia 28.2%! So the French automakers, like other French industries, have a complex problem: uncompetitive products in a morose market with unemployment that has been climbing with incessant brutality, and a tax quagmire of unprecedented proportions [“Trench Warfare” Or “Civil War” Over Confiscatory Taxes In France].

Read moreNew Year’s Eve In France: 1,193 Vehicles Burned Within A Few Hours

Total Desperation: Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt

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– Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt (ZeroHedge, Jan 3, 2013):

With Spanish 10Y yields hovering at a ‘relatively’ healthy 5%, having been driven inexorably lower on the promise of ECB assistance at some time in the future, the market has become increasingly unsure of just who it is that keeps bidding for this stuff. Well, wonder no longer. As the WSJ notes, Spain has been quietly tapping the country’s richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last resort for Spanish government bonds – with at least 90% of the €65 billion ($85.7 billion) fund has been invested in increasingly risky Spanish debt. Of course, this is nothing new, the US (and the Irish) have been using quasi-government entities to fund themselves in a mutually-destructive circle-jerk for years – the only difference being there are other buyers in the Treasury market, whereas in Spain the marginal buyer is critical to support the sinking ship. The Spanish defend the use of pension funds to buy bonds as sustainable as long as it can issue bonds – and yet the only way it can actually get the bonds off in the public markets is through using the pension fund assets. The pensioners sum it up perfectly “We are very worried about this, we just don’t know who’s going to pay for the pensions of those who are younger now,” or those who are older we would add.Via Wall Street Journal: Spain Drains Pension Fund In Borrowing Spree

Spain has been quietly tapping the country’s richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last resort for Spanish government bonds, raising questions about the fund’s role as guarantor of future pension payouts.

Read moreTotal Desperation: Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt

Poland Bans Cultivation Of GM Maize And Potatoes

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– Poland bans cultivation of GM maize, potatoes (France 24, Jan 2, 2013):

Poland on Wednesday imposed new bans on the cultivation of certain genetically modified strains of maize and potatoes, a day after an EU required green light for GM crops took effect.The centre-right government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk imposed farming bans on German BASF’s Amflora strain of potato and US firm Monsanto’s MON 810 maize or corn, according to a government statement Wednesday.

The ban on specific strains essentially uses a legal loophole to circumvent the EU’s acceptance of such products.

Global environmental watchdog Greenpeace hailed the move, which will take effect on January 28.

“The government has kept its promises,” Greenpeace Poland said in a statement.

Read morePoland Bans Cultivation Of GM Maize And Potatoes

50 Predictions For 2013

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– 50 Predictions For 2013 (Economic Collapse, Jan 1, 2013):

Are you ready for a wild 2013?  It should be a very interesting year.  When the calendar flips over each January, lots of people make lots of lists.  They make lists of “resolutions”, but most people never follow through on them.  They make lists of “predictions”, but most of those predictions always seem to end up failing.  Well, I have decided to put out my own list of predictions for 2013.  I openly admit that I won’t get all of these predictions right, and that is okay.  Hopefully I will at least be more accurate than most of the other armchair prognosticators out there.  It is important to look ahead and try to get a handle on what is coming, because I believe that the rest of this decade is going to be extraordinarily chaotic for the U.S. economy.  The false bubble of debt-fueled prosperity that we are enjoying right now is not going to last much longer.  When it comes to an end, the “adjustment” is going to be extremely painful.  Those that understand what is happening and have prepared for it will have the best chance of surviving what is about to hit us.  I honestly don’t know what everybody else is going to do.  Many of the people that don’t see the coming collapse approaching will be totally blindsided by it and will totally give in to despair when they realize what has happened.  But there is no excuse for not seeing what is coming – the signs are everywhere.

So with that being said, the following are 50 bold predictions for 2013…

Read more50 Predictions For 2013

France Seeks Other Ways To Impose Top Income-Tax Rate Of 75%

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Before:

– French Constitutional Court Strikes Down 75% Millionaire Tax, Finds It ‘Unfair’

So Obelix will not return:

– Depardieu ‘Shrugged’ – Open Letter To French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault (From Gerard Depardieu)

– Gerard Depardieu Is Latest Refugee From French Millionaire Tax, Escapes To Belgium

– France Seeks New Path to High Tax (Wall Street Journal, Dec 31, 2012):

PARIS—The government of Socialist President François Hollande on Sunday said it would consider other ways of imposing a top income-tax rate of 75% on high-wealth individuals after the country’s top constitutional authority scrapped the plan.

The Constitutional Council’s decision is a political blow to Mr. Hollande, who had vowed to shift to the rich the burden of efforts to improve the country’s finances.

Read moreFrance Seeks Other Ways To Impose Top Income-Tax Rate Of 75%

French Constitutional Court Strikes Down 75% Millionaire Tax, Finds It ‘Unfair’

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– French Constitutional Court Strikes Down 75% Millionaire Tax, Finds It “Unfair” (ZeroHedge, Dec 29, 2012):

In a crushing blow to socialism, wealth redistribution and purveyors of the “fairness doctrine” (as defined here first) everywhere, the French Constitutional Council ruled on Saturday that Hollande’s brilliant idea to tax millionaires at a 75% tax rate – a move which has since seen numerous millionaires leave France and move to Belgium – is unconstitutional. Per Reuters, the Council ruled that the planned 75 percent tax on annual income above 1 million euros ($1.32 million) – a flagship measure of Hollande’s election campaign – was unfair in the way it would be applied to different households. Which is ironic because just like in the US, so in France, the selective wealth redistribution campaign waged by the government against the “rich” (which have yet to be properly defined: those making over $250K? Over $400K? Over €1MM?) was based on the premise that it is only “fair” that the rich contribute more. Turns out fairness in the eye of the government beholder, was unfair. But the move begs the question: would the court have struck down the law had it been a merely 50% tax hike? And if the income cut off was, say, €500,000? The far bigger question is, and has been in this year of encroaching socialism, just what is the definition of “rich”, what is the definition of “fair redistribution”, and where do the two coincide. Finally, how soon until the US Supreme Court weighs in as well on any final Fiscal Cliff tax hike proposal which, like in France, will see the “rich” pay an abnormal share, and will that too be ruled unconstitutional?

From Reuters:

While the tax plan was largely symbolic and would only have affected a few thousand people, it has infuriated high earners in France, prompting some such as actor Gerard Depardieu to flee abroad. The message it sent also shocked entrepreneurs and foreign investors, who accuse Hollande of being anti-business.

Read moreFrench Constitutional Court Strikes Down 75% Millionaire Tax, Finds It ‘Unfair’

HUMOR: Top Ten Reasons Why Fiat Currency Is Superior To Gold (Or Silver) Money

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– Top Ten Reasons Why Fiat Currency Is Superior To Gold (Or Silver) Money (The Daily Capitalist, Dec 27, 2012):

By John Butler, on December 27th, 2012

In the spirit of the holidays and hope for a more prosperous 2013, I thought my readers might appreciate a little humour to partially offset the relentless doom and gloom associated with the Amphora Report. So please, don’t take this edition too seriously. But if you happen to stumble across a ‘paperbug’ or two over the holidays, perhaps you could share some of the points made here. Humour sometimes helps people realise just how hopelessly misguided they are. Cheers!

Number 10: There Is Not Enough Gold (Or Silver) In The World To Serve As Money

Let’s begin with the obvious. We know that central banks the world over have printed money at exponentially growing rates for years. There is now so much paper and electronic money floating around the world that gold (or silver) can not possibly be expected to keep up. You can’t print gold, after all, you need to find it, dig it out of the ground, refine it, etc, a hugely expensive and time-consuming process which practically ensures a stable rather than exponentially growing supply of the stuff.

Read moreHUMOR: Top Ten Reasons Why Fiat Currency Is Superior To Gold (Or Silver) Money

Mario Monti Generously Offers To Stay On As Italy’s Unelected Head

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– Mario Monti Generously Offers To Stay On As Italy’s Unelected Head (ZeroHedge, Dec 23, 2012):

Yesterday, the man planted by Goldman to be Italy’s unelected leader in November 2011, officially stepped down and shortly thereafter his government was dissolved in advance of the February 25, 2013 elections. Yet Monti, under whose helm Italy has been in deep recession since the middle of last year, where consumer spending is falling at its fastest rate since World War Two and unemployment has risen to a record high above 11 percent, and whose candidacy is vastly unpopular with the Italian population, moments ago generously offered to continue being Italy’s unelected leader: just the way Europe’s political masterclass and its central bankers want it, if not so much Italy’s people.

After all, the only thing that has stabilized in Europe, however briefly, is its peripheral bond market, which is merely a function of Draghi’s willingness to risk future monetary instability and runaway inflation in order to bring sovereign bond yields under control: yields which are only hit record highs because the local governments have proven time and again unable and unwilling to make hard structural reforms (and where austerity continues to be a widely misused synonym for government corruption and incompetence). And as long as yields represent not reality but the motives of a few unelected central-planners, nothing will truly change for the better in Europe.

From Reuters:

Read moreMario Monti Generously Offers To Stay On As Italy’s Unelected Head

Italy: PM Monti Resigns

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– Monti. Out. (ZeroHedge, Dec, 21, 2012):

The rumors have been flying around all morning, but now it’s news…

  • ITALY PRIME MINISTER MONTI RESIGNS, PRESIDENT SAYS – BBG

Italian credit spreads leaked wider all morning and EURUSD lower though the correlation to losing a technocrat is perhaps a stretch. And so the great “Mark-to-Monti” Goldman rotation (as described previously) is complete, with Goldman losing a technocratic scribe, who is no longer needed thanks to yet another Goldmanite now in charge of the ECB, but far more importantly, Goldman has now gained control over that most prized of central planner jewels: the Bank of England.

Germany: Berlin And Ruhr Area Turning Into Poverty Strongholds (Der Spiegel)

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Google translation: HERE

– Regionalstudie:  Berlin und Ruhrpott werden zu Armutshochburgen (Der Spiegel, Dec 20, 2012):

Obdachloser in Essen: Im Ruhrgebiet nimmt die Armutsgefährdung stark zu

Obdachloser in Essen: Im Ruhrgebiet nimmt die Armutsgefährdung stark zu

In Deutschlands Regionen steigt die Armut zum Teil dramatisch – das zeigt eine neue Studie des Paritätischen Wohlfahrtsverbands. Längst sind nicht mehr nur die ostdeutschen Bundesländer betroffen. Das Ruhrgebiet gehört zusammen mit Berlin zu den “Problemregionen Nummer eins”.

Hamburg – Wenn Deutschland in diesen Tagen an etwas nicht arm ist, so sind es Armutsberichte. Verschiedenste Institute und Verbände veröffentlichen kurz vor Jahresende Analysen zur Armutsgefährdung der Deutschen, die sich zum Teil deutlich widersprechen. Oft steht dabei die Situation der Gesamtbevölkerung im Fokus.

Der Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband untersucht hingegen seit Jahren die regionale Entwicklung – und die hält er für besonders besorgniserregend. Der Blick in die Regionen lasse die zum Teil “dramatischen Verwerfungen in unserem Land deutlich werden”, erklärte Ulrich Schneider, Hauptgeschäftsführer des Verbands zur Vorstellung der Studie am Donnerstag.

Dem Bericht zufolge ist mittlerweile etwa jeder siebte Bundesbürger von Armut bedroht. Erstmals habe die Armutsgefährdungsquote im vergangenen Jahr die 15-Prozent-Marke übersprungen, ein “absolutes Rekordhoch”. Mit 12,4 Millionen Menschen sei eine halbe Million mehr betroffen als noch im Vorjahr. Als armutsgefährdet gelten Personen in Haushalten, deren Einkommen weniger als 60 Prozent des durchschnittlichen bedarfsgewichteten Einkommens (Median) in Deutschland beträgt.

Read moreGermany: Berlin And Ruhr Area Turning Into Poverty Strongholds (Der Spiegel)

MUST WATCH: An Hour In The Company Of Hedge Fund Manager Kyle Bass (Video)

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– An Hour In The Company Of Kyle Bass (ZeroHedge, Dec 19, 2012):

Last year’s AmeriCatalyst interview with Kyle Bass provided much more color than the normal 30-second soundbites that we are subjected to when serious hedge fund managers are exposed to mainstream media. This year, Bass was the keynote speaker and in the following speech (followed by Q&A), the fund manager provides 60 minutes of eloquence on the end of the grand experiment and its consequences. From Money Printing and Central Bank Balance sheets to Japan and the psychology of the current situation – which in many cases trumps the quantitative data – the question remains, “when will this unravel” as opposed to “if?”; Bass provides his fact-based heresy against the orthodoxy of economic thought “On The Financial Nature Of Things” extending well beyond his recent note. Must watch (there’s no football or X-Factor on tonight).

Make sure to stay tuned to the last 2 minutes when Kyle succinctly sums up our society…


YouTube

The Economic Return Of Iceland Has Proved That The Joke Was On Ireland

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Flashback:

– The Icelandic Success Story

– Iceland’s Economy Now Growing Faster Than The U.S. And EU After Arresting The Banksters

– Here Is What Happens If You Do Not Bail Out The Banksters And Avoid Getting Raped By The IMF

– Two Thirds Of Icelanders Oppose EU Membership

– A Lesson For Europe: Why Iceland Won’t Join The Euro (Video)

– Iceland Once Again Tells IMF, UK, Netherlands To ‘Go to Hell’; ‘Ice Torture’ Repayment Scheme Collapses

– The economic return of Iceland has proved that the joke was on us (Irish Independent, Dec 16, 2012):

WAY back in the autumn of 2008, the joke in financial circles was that the only difference between Ireland and Iceland was a letter and six months. Now, with the Icelandic banks preparing to issue foreign currency bonds once again, it turns out that the joke was on us.

Remember when the Icelandics did the unthinkable and, unlike Ireland, told bank creditors to take a hike? They also imposed capital controls and allowed the value of their currency to fall – the Icelandic krona has lost almost half of its value against the euro over the past five years.

The “experts” queued up to assure us that these latter-day Vikings would be severely punished for their impertinence. While no one forecast that a hole would open up in the North Atlantic and swallow Iceland whole, some of the predictions came pretty darned close.

Meanwhile, we in Ireland did what we were told and repaid over €70bn of bank bonds at par. By doing so, even at the cost of bankrupting the State, the “experts” assured us that we would retain the confidence of the markets. Now, four years later, it is clear that, not for the first time, the “experts” have got it wrong. Catastrophically and utterly wrong.

Read moreThe Economic Return Of Iceland Has Proved That The Joke Was On Ireland

Silvio Berlusconi: ‘Italy May Be Forced To Leave The Eurozone And Return To The Lira’

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Got gold and silver to preserve your wealth in case of a necessary currency reform and devaluation?

– Berlusconi: “Italy May Be Forced To Leave The Eurozone And Return To The Lira” (ZeroHedge, Dec 18, 2012):

Reminding the world of just the kind of truthiness that got him sacked originally by that other Italian, the Ex-Goldmanite Mario Draghi, back in November 2011, and which the world has to look forward to when Silvio Berlusconi returns to power some time in 2013, even if not as PM (a position he currently has a snowball’s chance in hell of regaining based on current political polls), Reuters informs us that the Italian, who certainly has not read the Goldman book on status quo perpetuation, just said the unimaginable: the truth. To wit: “If Germany doesn’t accept that the ECB must be a real central bank, if interest rates don’t come down, we will be forced to leave the euro and return to our own currency in order to be competitive.” Berlusconi said in comments reported by Italian news agencies Ansa and Agi. The 76-year-old media tycoon has made similar remarks in the past about the possibility of Italy, or even Germany, leaving the euro, but has often at least partially rectified them later.” Not this time. Now with Germany and the Buba folding like a broken chair, Silvio is coming back and knows he can demand anything and everything, and Germany has no choice but to accept, Merkel reelection in a few months be damned.

Perhaps the former PM who recently got engaged to this 28 year old girl who obviously loves him for his personality has read our little primer on what happens in a Europe in which external devaluation (i.e., FX) is not a possibility, and where another 30-50% drop in PIIGS salaries would be neccesary to restore competitiveness. That, or a return to the Lira of course. And Berlusconi has seen that in the duel between Greece and Germany so far the former (and specifically its creditors) have gotten all the advantage. It is only a matter of time before he parlays that negotiating approach to Italy as well, and in the process destabilizes whatever artificial balance the ECB may have created.

More from Reuters:

Read moreSilvio Berlusconi: ‘Italy May Be Forced To Leave The Eurozone And Return To The Lira’

Depardieu ‘Shrugged’ – Open Letter To French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault (From Gerard Depardieu)

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– Depardieu ‘Shrugged’ (ZeroHedge, Dec 16, 2012):

Via Emmanuel Martin, Executive Director of
the Institute for Economic Studies-Europe (www.ies-europe.org) and editor of www.LibreAfrique.org.,

Last week the big story in French headlines has been the tax exile of Gerard Depardieu in Nechin, Belgium, half a mile from the French border. French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault called the French movie star’s behavior “minable” (pathetic). A socialist MP, Yann Galut, even suggested that M. Depardieu loses his French nationality. In an open letter in the Journal Du Dimanche on December 16, Depardieu, who famously starred as Obélix, the big Gallic fellow of Astérix, carrying menhirs on his back – and sometimes throwing them at the Romans, replies. With a taste of Ayn Rand’s famous character John Galt. Gerard shrugged.

Depardieu begins by saying that what is pathetic is to call his behavior pathetic. Although he does not want to justify the many reasons of his choice, he makes it clear that he leaves after paying 85% of taxes on his income this year and € 145 million through his entire life; He leaves because the French PM thinks that “success, creation and talent, in fact difference, must be punished”. He then reminds Jean-Marc Ayrault that he set up companies that employ 80 people. Depardieu says he is ready to give up his French passport and his “Social Security” (the French public health care system, which he claims he never used).

This letter is important.

Read moreDepardieu ‘Shrugged’ – Open Letter To French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault (From Gerard Depardieu)

The Price Of ‘Collective Trauma’: Greece At The Brink of Civil War

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– The Price Of “Collective Trauma”: Greece At The Brink of Civil War (TESTOSTERONE PIT, Dec 15, 2012):

“I’m wondering how much this society can endure before it explodes,” said Georg Pieper, a German psychotherapist who specializes in treating post-traumatic stress disorders following catastrophes, large accidents (including the deadliest train wreck ever in Germany), acts of violence, freed hostages…. But now he was talking about Greece.

He’d spent several days in Athens to give continuing education courses in trauma therapy for psychologist, psychiatrists, and doctors—for free, this being a country in crisis. He was accompanied by Melanie Mühl, an editor at the daily paper Frankfurter Allgemeine. And in her report, she decries how “news consumers” in Germany were fed the crisis in Greece.

It was “no more than a distant threat somewhere on the horizon,” defined by barely understood terms, such as bank bailout, haircut, billion-euro holes, mismanagement, Troika, debt buyback…. “Instead of understanding the global context, we see a serious-faced Angela Merkel getting out of dark limos in Berlin, Brussels or elsewhere, on the way to the next summit where the bailout of Greece, and thus of Europe, is to be moved forward another step” [also read… The Curse Of The “Irreversible” Euro].

But what is really happening in Greece is silenced to death in the media. Pieper calls this phenomenon a “giant feat of repression.”

Read moreThe Price Of ‘Collective Trauma’: Greece At The Brink of Civil War

Keiser Report: High Frequency Scalping (Video)

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FYI.


YouTube Added: 15.12.2012

Description:

In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert look at central banking meth heads and low level broker-dealer-thieves drinking the hand sanitizer that is the high frequency scalping of the last dregs of equity left in the markets. They also ask whether the US has it in for British banks. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to Peter Antonioni, author of the Economics for Dummies, about the policy of quantitative easing as economic homeopathy – it only works on the grounds that you believe it works and about the UK monetizing its debt after transferring QE ‘surpluses’ from the Bank of England to the Treasury.

German Population Set To Soar As Immigrants Flee Southern Europe

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– German population set to soar by 2.2m as immigrants flee southern Europe (Telegraph, Dec 14, 2012):

The German population could jump by 2.2 million people by 2017 as people make the trek from the south to Europe’s post powerful economy, researchers at the Kiel Economics have concluded.

The researchers studied net migration to Germany over 50 years, and predicted that as euro-zone countries battle with their economic woes the relative strength and low unemployment rates of Germany will become an attractive lure.

Germany is already a popular destination for young and skilled Greeks, Spaniard and Portuguese, who have grown disheartened with the high unemployment rates and struggling economies that have become hallmarks of their homelands.

The Spanish unemployment rate has hit 24 per cent, and for the under 25s it has reached 54 per cent. In contrast German unemployment stands at 6.9 per cent, and the country has experienced shortages of skilled labour.

Greek MP Calls For Firearms Crackdown, Fearing Of Parliamentary Shootout

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– Greek MP calls for firearms crackdown, fearing of parliamentary shootout (Guardian, Dec 14, 2012):

An independent MP has called for a crackdown on firearms in Greece amid allegations that a growing number of politicians are carrying weapons.

Reports of pistol-carrying deputies entering parliament have added to the febrile mood in a 300-member chamber in which hardcore Marxists sit with fascists, eurocommunists, rightwing populists, conservatives, socialists and an array of independent dissidents.

The MP, Nikos Nikolopoulos, told the Guardian he was “deeply worried” by the dramatic rise in requests for weapons licenses by parliamentarians.

Read moreGreek MP Calls For Firearms Crackdown, Fearing Of Parliamentary Shootout

US And EU Allies Use Defense Contractors To Train Syrian Rebels On How To ‘SECURE’ Chemical Weapons

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Oh, sure!

Using Al-Qaeda to ‘secure’ chemical weapons?

– Syrian Rebels: ‘When We Finish With Assad, We Will Fight The U.S.’

– US-Created ‘Syrian Opposition’ Led by Big Oil Rep

– Syrian Insurgents Reject West-Imposed Coalition, Declare Own Islamic State

– ‘Clinton & Al-Qaeda On One Side Of Syrian War Barricades’ (Video)

– The CIA’s Muslim ‘Outfit,’ – The Muslim Brotherhood (Veterans Today)

– Mossad, CIA And Blackwater Operate In Syria – Report

– Syria: Clinton Admits US On Same Side As Al Qaeda To Destabilise Assad Government (Global Research)

– U.S. Fighting On The Same Side As Three Terrorist Groups In Syria

What could possibly go ‘wrong’?

– Sources: U.S. helping underwrite Syrian rebel training on securing chemical weapons (CNN, Dec 9, 2012):

The United States and some European allies are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria, a senior U.S. official and several senior diplomats told CNN Sunday.

The training, which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey, involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.

The nationality of the trainers was not disclosed, though the officials cautioned against assuming all are American.

Read moreUS And EU Allies Use Defense Contractors To Train Syrian Rebels On How To ‘SECURE’ Chemical Weapons

The Federal Reserve Cartel: Part III: The Roundtable & the Illuminati

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FYI.

– The Federal Reserve Cartel: Part III: The Roundtable & the Illuminati (Veterans Today, Dec 10, 2012):

According to former British intelligence agent John Coleman’s book, The Committee of 300, the Rothschilds exert political control through the secretive Business Roundtable, which they created in 1909 with the help of Lord Alfred Milner and South African industrialist Cecil Rhodes.  The Rhodes Scholarship is granted by Oxford University, while oil industry propagandist Cambridge Energy Research Associates operates out of the Rhodes-supported Cambridge University.

Rhodes founded De Beers and Standard Chartered Bank.  According to Gary Allen’s expose, The Rockefeller Files, Milner financed the Russian Bolsheviks on Rothschild’s behalf, with help from Jacob Schiff and Max Warburg.

Read moreThe Federal Reserve Cartel: Part III: The Roundtable & the Illuminati

Gerard Depardieu Is Latest Refugee From French Millionaire Tax, Escapes To Belgium

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– Gerard Depardieu Is Latest Refugee From French Millionaire Tax; Escapes To Belgium (ZeroHedge, Dec 10, 2012):

Three months ago many were angry and surprised (or not at all, as realistically this was a perfectly logical move), when Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH and the richest man in socialist France, decided he had had enough, and would move to Belgium to avoid Hollande’s punitive taxes on France’s wealthiest. The indignant media’s mocking response in France was fast and furious, with many delighted to see the billionaire leave. We wonder how the media will respond as more and more wealthy Frenchmen decide, now that the seal has been broken, to do just that and leave France to its grassroots movement where it is only “fair” that those who have more income and/or wealth, pay more than everyone else to keep the myth of the ponzi scheme formerly known as the welfare state alive and well. Such as one of France’s most popular actors, Gerard Depardieu, who is the latest high profile departure to leave his native country and go to Belgium to avoid the second coming of the “fairness doctrine” (the first one of course, doing less than spectacularly with that whole USSR thing).

From The Independent:

Gerard Depardieu is to leave his French homeland for Belgium in order to pay less tax.

The actor is the latest high profile figure to leave France after a series of wealth tax hikes by President Francois Hollande.

Read moreGerard Depardieu Is Latest Refugee From French Millionaire Tax, Escapes To Belgium