Italy – Page 26 – Infinite Unknown

Bond Vigilantes Are Here: US Net Notional CDS Outstanding Surpasses Greece For The First Time

July 20, 2011 by Infinite

– The Bond Vigilantes Are Here: US Net Notional CDS Outstanding Surpasses Greece For The First Time (ZeroHedge, July 20, 2011):

While the CDS market for various insolvent European names whose credit default swaps are trading 10 or more points upfront has become more or less nothing but noise, and the only true way to hedge risk exposure, courtesy of ISDA’s advance warning that no matter what a CDS will never be triggered, is to sell cash bonds, the market for default risk is quite active for those names which still trade in a reasonable range: such as between 50 bps and 200 bps. And while the Bloomberg chart below demonstrates on an absolute basis the US is due for a two notch downgrade by S&P based on the recently observed spike in US default risk, it is DTCC data that is more troubling.

As the first chart below shows, of the Top 25 CDS outstanding net notional names tracked by DTCC, there is one name that is a big outlier on both a month over month and year over year basis: the United States of America. The first thing to note is that in the past week, US net notional CDS outstanding just hit $4.8 billion, an increase from $4.5 billion in the past month, a 5.4% increase (the biggest over all top 25 names), pushing the net risk on the US above that of Greece for the first time (Greece declined from $5 billion to $4.6 billion). More disturbing is that on a percentage basis, the year over year change in US net CDS outstanding is the biggest of all, more than doubling at 108.6%, followed only by China and Japan, at 96.7% and 80.9% respectively. Yes: the CDS itself has not blown out yet, but the stealthy increase in the net notional in the troika of “most stable countries” means that the smart money is already quietly positioning itself for the biggest and most significant blow out ever. It also means that the spreads of such countries of Greece and Portugal (a major drop in net notional M/M and Y/Y) not to mention Italy, are yesterday’s news. As most revel in the latest nonsensical Group of 6 plan, the bond vigilantes are already quietly setting the trap.

Below is the biggest percentage change in net CDS notional on a monthly and annual basis:

And here is Bloomberg’s take on where the US rating should be based on its CDS spread:

A Bloomberg Brief CDS implied credit rating model, which compares composite credit ratings against the cost of CDS, shows that investors may be expecting a downgrade to as low as ‘AA’ for the U.S. The world’s largest economy has already been placed on credit watch by both Moody’s and S&P. The cost of protecting against a U.S. default rose to 54.4 basis points yesterday from less than 40 in April.

The composite credit rating — on the y-axis — is calculated by quantifying the three primary ratings agencies’ (S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch) ratings, where available, and averaging the results. A score of one indicates the highest rating ‘AAA’; a score of 10 or better indicates that a country is investment-grade. The cost of fiveyear CDS — on the x-axis — is the amount traders are willing to pay to protect against a debt default.

The current implied credit rating for the U.S. is 2.7, compared to 2.2 back in March, equivalent to approximate ly ‘AA’ on S&P’s scale. That is two levels below the U.S.’s current rating. March was the last time Bloomberg Brief looked at these implied credit ratings. At that time, the three most likely candidates to be downgraded were Portugal, Belgium and Spain.

Both Portugal and Spain have been downgraded. Spain is also the most likely candidate for a downgrade at present, with a composite rating of 2.7 versus a CDS implied rating of 9.1, equivalent to ‘BBB’ on S&P’s rating scale.

Italy And The Euro On The Edge: By Engulfing Italy, The Euro Crisis Has Entered A Perilous New Phase – With The Single Currency Itself Now At Risk

July 16, 2011 by Infinite

– Italy And The Euro On The Edge: By Engulfing Italy, The Euro Crisis Has Entered A Perilous New Phase – With The Single Currency Itself Now At Risk (The Economist, July 14, 2011):

FOR more than a year the euro zone’s debt drama has lurched from one nail-biting scene to another. First Greece took centre stage; then Ireland; then Portugal; then Greece again. Each time European policymakers reacted similarly: with denial and dithering, followed at the eleventh hour with a half-baked rescue plan to buy time.

This week the shortcomings of this muddling-through were laid bare (see article). Financial markets turned on Italy, the euro zone’s third-biggest economy, with alarming speed. Yields on ten-year Italian bonds jumped by almost a percentage point in two trading days: on July 12th they breached 6%, their highest since the euro was created. The Milan stockmarket slumped to its lowest in two years. Though bond yields subsequently fell back, the debt crisis has clearly entered a new phase. No longer confined to the small peripheral economies of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, it has hurdled over Spain, supposedly next in line, and reached one of the euro zone’s giants. All its members, but especially Germany, face a stark choice.

Consider the stakes. Italy has the biggest sovereign-debt market in Europe and the third-biggest in the world. It has €1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) of sovereign debt outstanding, 120% of its GDP, three times as much as Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined—and far more than the €250 billion or so left in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the currency club’s rescue kitty. Default would have calamitous consequences for the euro and the world economy. Even if the more likely immediate prospect is sustained stress in the Italian bond market, that will surely prompt investors to flee European assets, making the continent’s recovery ever harder. Meanwhile in the background there is the absurd pantomime of Barack Obama and congressional Republicans feuding over how to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling to stave off an American “default” (see article). That may have distracted American investors briefly; once they realise how much is at stake in Italy, it will not help.

From Rome to Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin

Read moreItaly And The Euro On The Edge: By Engulfing Italy, The Euro Crisis Has Entered A Perilous New Phase – With The Single Currency Itself Now At Risk

Emergency Summit: European Leaders Consider Greek Default

July 13, 2011 by Infinite

‘BTFD!’ (Buy the f****ing dip!)

I am talking about gold and silver.

Protect yourself.

Without protection:

– 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.

Spain is too big to bail out! (Unless they turn on the unconstitutional ECB printing press again.) This would be THE END, which is why the European leaders are panicking.

– Europe considers Greek default, leaders to meet (Reuters, July 12, 2011):

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders are poised to hold an emergency summit after finance ministers acknowledged for the first time that some form of Greek default may be needed to cut Athens’ debts and to stop contagion spreading to Italy and Spain.

“There will be an extra summit this Friday,” a senior euro zone diplomat told Reuters, suggesting policymakers have been seized with a new sense of urgency after markets started targeting Italian assets.

Worsening political tensions between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti have caused markets to focus on Italy’s shaky banks and chances its budget deal could stumble, and to look afresh at Spain, the euro zone’s fourth largest economy.

Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citi and a former UK central banker, said there now was a clear danger of the debt crisis spreading beyond Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the three nations bailed out so far.

Read moreEmergency Summit: European Leaders Consider Greek Default

Italy And Spain Dragged Into Greek Crisis

June 18, 2011 by Infinite

Spain is to big to bail out, unless Europe turns on the Weimar printing press.

– Italy and Spain dragged into Greek crisis (Irish Independent, June 17 2011):

CONTAGION fears returned yesterday as both Italy and Spain were dragged into the debt crisis that has engulfed Greece.

The failure to manage the crisis in Greece is now shaking investor confidence in markets in countries that had been left relatively unscathed by the financial crisis.

Bond yields for Spain rose sharply yesterday to the highest level in more than a decade, and the country struggled to sell its government bonds for the first time this year. Following the Irish bailout, Spain was ranked as on of the weakest of eurozone bond issuers but this year the country successfully “de-coupled” from the distressed periphery.

Read moreItaly And Spain Dragged Into Greek Crisis

Eurozone Debt Crisis Deepens: Greece’s 10 year government debt has surged to 16.98%, Portugal’s to 9.6% and Ireland’s to a new record at 10.76%. The yield on Italian 10-year government debt is up 9bp to 4.85% after S&P cuts its rating outlook on Italy’s sovereign debt to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’. The Spanish 10 year bond has risen 11 basis points to 5.57%.

June 21, 2017May 23, 2011 by Infinite

– Eurozone Debt Crisis Deepens Sending Euro Lower And Gold To New Record At EUR 1,080/oz (ZeroHedge):

Eurozone Debt Crisis Deepens Sending Euro Lower and Gold to New Record at EUR 1,080/oz

The euro, global equities and bonds in peripheral Eurozone countries are all lower this morning on heightened concerns about the debt crisis in the Eurozone. The euro has fallen against all currencies and is now at a record low against gold at EUR 1,080.21/oz. Silver is lower against most currencies but is higher against the Australian dollar and the euro ( EUR 24.80/oz).

Greece’s 10 year government debt has surged to 16.98%, Portugal’s to 9.6% and Ireland’s to a new record at 10.76%. The yield on Italian 10-year government debt is up 9bp to 4.85% after S&P cuts its rating outlook on Italy’s sovereign debt to “negative” from “stable”. The Spanish 10 year bond has risen 11 basis points to 5.57%.
Equity markets in Europe have followed their Asian counterparts lower. Asian equities fell due to Eurozone debt concerns but also inflation concerns and the risk that the US economic recovery is faltering. Italy’s stock market (FTSE MIB) is down 3% while Spain’s IBEX is down 1.7%.

Besides sovereign debt risk, gold is also being supported by geopolitical risk as seen in the increasingly unstable nuclear armed Pakistan where armed militants attempted to take over Pakistan’s naval air force headquarters.

There is increasing tension between the U.S. and Pakistan after what the U.S regards as Pakistan’s failure or collusion regarding Osama Bin Laden.

China has increasing economic and military ties and interests in Pakistan and has vowed to standby Pakistan and has called on the world to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Separately, in an interview with the Financial Times on Saturday, Henry Kissinger has warned of a world war involving Pakistan and India.

And for Gerald Celente ‘THE GREAT WAR’ has already started (and I totally agree with him):

– The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente’s Dire Warning For The World (Video – Must-see!)

– Gerald Celente Special Trend Alert: The 1st Great War of 21st Century Has Begun!

Webster Tarpley:

– US, Pakistan Near Open War; Chinese Ultimatum Warns Washington Against Attack

Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2011:

– Pakistan: Beijing Agrees to Operate a Key Port (WSJ)

Worldwide Global Earthquake And Volcano Update And Overview (05/09/2011) – Pressure Buildup On The North American Plate, Yellowstone & Pacific Northwest Earthquake Activity & Magma Movement

May 10, 2011 by Infinite

Pressure is building on the north American plate beyond the rocky mountain continental divide. As far north as the Cascadia range in the Pacific Northwest, south east to Yellowstone, then further south east to Georgia, up north to Montreal / New York …

The threat of a new madrid earthquake , in my opinion, goes up ANOTHER notch, with the signs of more activity in the north east, extending along the faults down to Arkansas.

PM Berlusconi’s Senators Try To Bring Fascism Back To Italian Politics

April 10, 2011April 10, 2011 by Infinite

The revival of Mussolini’s National Fascist Party has been banned since the 1950s

A group of Italian senators is pressing for a decades-old ban on Benito Mussolini’s Fascist party to be lifted in a move that has provoked fierce condemnation from political opponents and Jewish leaders.

The five members of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling People of Liberty (Pdl) party, led by Senator Cristano De Eccher, presented a bill to the Italian senate arguing that a constitutional rule that prohibits the “reorganisation in any form [of the dissolved Fascist party]”, is outdated and should be scrapped.

Mussolini rose to power after the end of the First World War and by the mid-1920s established a fascist dictatorship. His National Fascist Party ruled the country until 1943 and was a key ally of Nazi Germany. The party’s reformation has been explicitly banned since the 1950s, when Italy’s post-war constitution also outlawed Fascist symbols.

Senate Speaker Renato Schifani, also of the Pdl, was said to be “aghast” at the attempt to lift the ban, says a report by the news agency Ansa.

Emanuele Fiano, the Democratic Party’s home affairs spokesman, told The Independent: “A founding basis of this Italian republic is its opposition to fascism. The laws banning the reformation of the Fascist party or apologising for it should remain untouchable.”

Roberto Pacifici, leader of the Jewish Community of Rome, said: “It’s an extremely worrying proposal.” James Walston, a politics professor at the American University in Rome, said: “This is another manifestation of the long-term rehabilitation of fascism in Italy. It might not happen soon, it might never happen, but it’s been under way since 1994. People are setting out to revise Italian history.” In 1994, during Mr Berlusconi’s first term as Prime Minister, direct heirs to Mussolini’s Fascist party were given jobs in government for the first time since the party was banned.

One neo-Fascist was Mirko Tremaglia, the Minister for Italians Abroad, who as a young man defended Mussolini’s Salo’ Italian Social Republic, as recently as 2002 lamented the Second World War pivotal defeat of the Italians and the Afrika Korps at El Alamein. A senior figure in Mr Berlusconi’s present cabinet, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, is also often accused of being a neo-Fascist. He was part of the old National Alliance party, which had its roots in the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement formed by Mussolini supporters in 1946.

The present Speaker of the lower house, Gianfranco Fini, was head of the National Alliance, until it merged with Mr Berlusconi’s Forza Italia two years ago. But over a period of several years he has renounced his former neo-Fascist sympathies and appears to have made a remarkable transition to a modern-right politician.

His description in 2003 of the “absolute evil” of the fascist era, prompted Mussolini’s granddaughter, Alessandra, to quit the party to form her own Social Action grouping with other disgruntled right-wingers.

Press reports suggest that a senator from Mr Fini’s own small centre-right Fli (Future and Freedom) party signed the proposal but was immediately threatened with expulsion from the party unless he rescinded his support for the initiative.

By Michael Day in Milan
Friday, 8 April 2011

Source: The Independent

The Real-Life Italian Job: Thieves Steal 100 kg Of Gold Worth £3 Million From Depot In Rural Tuscany

March 11, 2011 by Infinite

* Thieves snatch 100kg of gold worth £3million
* Stolen digger used to smash through depot walls
* Roads blocked with stolen vehicles to foil police response

Police are hunting a gang of thieves who carried out an Italian Job style heist by locking down an entire village to steal more than £3million worth of gold.

The spectacular operation is already being dubbed the crime of the century. Detectives believe the job was organised by the mafia and took months to plan.

In hit crime caper The Italian Job Michael Caine led a gang of British villains in a blitz on a bullion van in Turin escaping with millions in gold bars -only to be left dangling on a cliff edge when their bus skids off a mountain road.

The real life Italian job took place in Poggio Bagnoli, a small village in Tuscany, a short drive from the home of rock star Sting and in the Chianti area which is popular with British holidaymakers.

Using heavy machinery stolen from the local council and road closed signs the gang blocked off all access to the rural hamlet where gold depot SALP is located.

Italy’s PM Berlusconi ‘Sent Escorts to Gaddafi Opponent As Favour to Libya Leader’

March 9, 2011 by Infinite

Silvio Berlusconi helped Col Muammar Gaddafi to gain the leadership of the African Union in 2009 with the help of two escort women.

Opponents have criticised Berlusconi for failing to condemn violence in Libya and saying he did not want to ‘disturb’ Gaddafi during the revolt Photo: REUTERS

Italy’s prime minister has himself been involved in several sex scandals and is said to have arranged the sending of the escorts to an opponent of Mr Gaddafi’s as a favour to the Libyan leader.

Col Gaddafi was the surprise choice as leader of the 53-nation African Union in February 2009 much to the unease of countries such as Tanzania and Nigeria.

Italy’s Stock Market Halted for Techno Glitch – Italy’s Bourse Reopens, Index Falls, Libya Exposure Weighs

February 22, 2011 by Infinite

Whoa! What a coincidence!

– Libya: Oil Companies Plan Evacuations

Things are different now for Gadhafi and Berlusconi. Notice the masonic handshake!

– Italy’s Stock Market Halted for Techno Glitch (Wall Street Journal):

The European country considered most exposed to the unrest in Libya is its former colonial ruler, Italy. And investors wanting to do something about that today have limited options: the Italian Bourse is closed due to technical problems. It is expected to reopen at 9:30 ET.

On Monday, the FTSE Mib Index fell 3.6%, the worst among European markets. Today, the Stoxx Europe 600 is down 0.6%. The France CAC-40 is off 1.1%, the worst performer of the major European markets.

While trades aren’t taking place in Milan, other markets show Italian weakness continuing today. ENI, the big Italian energy firm, is indicated sharply lower in New York, though a good chunk of that will be catching up for Monday’s trading.

Italy’s credit-default swaps edged higher and the spread between Italian 10-year bonds and comparable German bunds widened 0.75 percentage point, among the biggest moves in Europe.

In a quasi-related news item, the Italian government said it had 90 days of oil reserves and 30 days of gas reserves, according to Reuters.

– Italy’s Bourse Reopens, Index Falls, Libya Exposure Weighs (Wall Street Journal):

ROME (Dow Jones)–Trading in Italian stocks resumed late Tuesday after a day-long glitch, and rapidly fell.

At 1437 GMT, the FTSE-Mib index was down 1.9% at 21810.

Read moreItaly’s Stock Market Halted for Techno Glitch – Italy’s Bourse Reopens, Index Falls, Libya Exposure Weighs

Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of office

February 17, 2011 by Infinite

– Silvio Berlusconi’s Harem of At Least 14 Young Women Revealed

Italian prime minister to stand trial on 6 April on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of office

Silvio Berlusconi, who faces up to three years in prison on a charge of paying an underage prostitute, and up to 12 years on a charge of abusing his authority. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

Silvio Berlusconi is to go on trial on 6 April, charged with paying an underage prostitute and then trying to cover up the alleged offence by abusing his position as Italy’s prime minister. All three judges named for the trial are women.

Berlusconi heard the news while in Sicily, where he made no comment, but immediately cancelled a scheduled press conference and flew back to Rome.

As opposition MPs called for the prime minister’s resignation, his justice minister, Angelino Alfano, said the judge’s decision had implications for “the autonomy, sovereignty and independence of parliament”. Alfano said that, by indicting Berlusconi, the judge had ignored a vote on 3 February in which the chamber of deputies voted not to agree to a search request from prosecutors investigating the prime minister on the grounds that they did not have the necessary jurisdiction.

Italy: Day of Protests in 200 Cities Against Berlusconi

February 14, 2011 by Infinite

Hundreds of women will take to the streets of Italy’s cities today calling on scandal hit Premier Silvio Berlusconi to resign after prosecutors requested he be sent to trial for having sex with an underage prostitute.

A protester bang pots and pans as they take part in a demonstration calling for the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi on Saturday. Photo: REUTERS

Protesters say evidence leaked from the probe into Berlusconi, 74, allegedly paying for sex with then 17 year Moroccan belly dancer Karima El Mahroug, and show he has little respect for female dignity.

Wiretaps leaked from more than 600 pages of the prosecution file suggest he surrounded himself at parties at his home with starlets and other women hoping to use their looks to gain positions in politics or within his Mediaset TV empire.

Protests are scheduled to take place in 200 cities and towns across Italy as well as London and New York, with the largest due to be held in Rome and Milan and counter demonstrations by activists from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party area also planned.

Organisers have called the protest ”If Not Now, When?” which is also the title of a famous novel by the Italian award winning writer Primo Levi and which tells the story a group of Jewish partisans behind German lines during World War II as they seek to continue their fight against the occupier and survive.

Italy Seizes $20 Billion More Fake US Government Bonds

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011 by Infinite

Flashback:

– Another $100 Billion of U.S. Government Bonds Seized in Italy

– The Bearer Bond Saga: It Gets More Odd

– The Japanese Bond Smugglers Are Missing

– The US Bearer Bonds ‘Coincidence’

– The Saga Of The Bearer Bonds; Smuggled Bonds Are Probably Genuine

– Italy Seizes $135 BILLION Of US Bonds: Smuggling Or Counterfeit-Printing?

And now:

– 20 billion USD bond fraud (Croatian Times):

A 20-billion US dollar haul of fake US government bonds has been seized by police in Italy in a raid on a counterfeiting gang.

The bogus bearer bonds were unearthed when police doing routine traffic checks stumbled across them in a car they had stopped in Fermo.

Six people have been arrested and are being quizzed by police over the 40 bonds, each for 500 million US dollars.

“They are very good, very detailed forgeries,” said a police spokesman.

Italian authorities have confiscated $20 billion in counterfeit U.S. government bonds.

Authorities say the bonds were of a quality that theoretically could have defrauded financial institutions.

But a stop at a highway rest area where a group of Carabinieri military police were taking a break proved to be the undoing of the group.

A Carabinieri statement said officers did a routine search of the vehicles after the “suspicious” behaviour of the men and found “to their surprise” a briefcase with 40 bonds 0each valued at $500 million.

Officials said Wednesday that U.S. officials confirmed the bonds were counterefeit. The six men are under investigation for receiving stolen goods.

The Associated Press January 26, 2011, 10:15AM ET

Source: BusinessWeek

Silvio Berlusconi’s Harem of At Least 14 Young Women Revealed

January 16, 2011 by Infinite

Italy’s Prime Minister has bounced back from countless scandals, but the latest allegations may prove disastrous

Silvio Berlusconi maintained at least 14 glamorous young women in apartments in a gated complex outside Milan, leaks from prosecutors in the city revealed yesterday. They lived rent-free in the estate and were given large sums of cash by the billionaire politician in return for sex.

Milano Due was one of the first gated housing estates in Italy, a sprawling complex of flats set in landscaped gardens, built by Mr Berlusconi himself in the 1970s when he was a thrusting young property developer. With underground parking, a supermarket, bars and other facilities, it is one of the most fashionable addresses in the Milan hinterland. When he moved into television, Mr Berlusconi located the headquarters of Mediaset, his television company, here.

But in his declining years the estate has also become the headquarters of what is, in effect, his harem, it is alleged. Its presence was revealed by Corriere della Sera newspaper yesterday in yet another blow to the battered image of the Prime Minister as he prepares to defend himself against what could be the gravest crisis of his political career. Prosecutors in Milan are demanding that he be put on trial immediately for having sex with an underage prostitute.

Italy: Youth Unemployment Hits Record 28.9 Percent

January 11, 2011 by Infinite

Blessed with a government that really cares for its people:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi bought $1850 rings for all of his 37 female MPs for Christmas:

– Silvio Berlusconi buys 37 rings for his leading ladies (Telegraph)

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi remained also the godfather of sex scandals in 2010.

Cincin!

The fundamentals of the last PIG country, which has so far avoided the bond carnage of its peripheral peers, reported that while broad unemployment was 8.7%, the “highest since the beginning of the beginning of the time series in 2004” it is youth unemployment which, like in Spain, is becoming a few bigger issues.

Corriere Della Sera announced that youth unemployment has hit a record of 28.9%:

“Youth unemployment, however, did rise as the rate climbed to 28.9%, up 0.9 percentage points on October and 2.4 points higher than in November 2009. This, too, is the highest level since time series were introduced in January 2004.”

Yet even at these levels, this is still modest compared to countries like Spain, where the same metric was trending around 40% and is expected to remain there through 2011.

There is some good news though, especially for women workers in Italy:

Nevertheless, slightly more (50,000 or 0.2%) Italians were in employment in November compared with October, 0.1% (14,000) more than in November 2009. ISTAT’s estimate, based on deseasonalised figures and provisional estimates, notes that the increase is due to greater numbers of women employed, with legalisations of home helps and carers, and the presumed impact of part-time workers.

That said, with fundamentals no longer relevant, the only catalysts the market is concerned about for the next several days will be the plethora of bond auctions with Portugal coming to market tomorrow, followed promptly by Spain. Both are expected to price their issues at or near all time wide levels, which explains why the ECB has been in the market all day today, buying up every piece of paper available in an attempt to stabilize the market ahead of tomorrow.

1,000 Turtle Doves Falling Dead in Italy

January 10, 2011 by Infinite

Overeating and indigestion? Hmmmh.

– Quebec bird deaths stump wildlife officials

– US: Mysterious Death of 2 Million Fish in Chesapeake Bay

– Hundreds of Dead Snapper Fish Wash Up On New Zealand Beach

– Thousands of Birds Fall Dead Out of the Sky in SOUTH AMERICA

– US: Hundreds More Blackbirds Fall From The Sky – This Time in Louisiana

– US: Up to 5,000 Blackbirds Fall Dead Out of The Sky, Autopsies Find No Poison

– US: Up to 100,000 Fish Found Dead Along Arkansas River

Overeating and indigestion blamed for 1,000 turtle doves falling dead in Italy with strange blue stain on their beaks

Mystery solved: Rodolfo Ridolfi, from a zoological institute in Faenza, said indigestion was responsible for the recent deaths of 1,000 turtle doves

Thousands of dead turtle doves that rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town were victims of their on greed, an expert claimed today.

Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like ‘little Christmas balls’ with strange blue stains on their beaks.

Last night it emerged that 40 turtle doves had also been found dead at San Cesario near Modena, 60 miles from Faenza, and tests were also being carried out on their bodies.
he birds have been found by residents in the village for the last three days and they alerted authorities after hearing reports of the incident at Faenza.

Gianni Sereni, who found 12 birds in his garden, said: ‘At first I didn’t think anything of it but then I saw the reports on the news about what had happened elsewhere so I called the local veterinary service.’

Initial tests on up to 1,000 of the doves from Faezna indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.

Euro Has 1-In-5 Chance of Lasting Decade – Spain and Italy have to Refinance Over 400 Billion Euros Of Bonds In Spring

January 1, 2011January 1, 2011 by Infinite

The euro is certainly not the ‘foundation of our prosperity’:

See this:

– Why is Greenland so rich these days? It said goodbye to the EU!

and this:

– Angela Merkel: ‘If this is the sort of club the euro is becoming, perhaps Germany should leave’

and watch Max Keiser.

A demonstrator burns a five euro note during a protest in downtown Madrid against capitalism and the G20 Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy November 15, 2008. Credit: Reuters/Susana Vera

LONDON (Reuters) – The euro currency area has only a one-in-five chance of surviving in its current form over the next 10 years because of competitive imbalances between its members, a leading British think tank said on Friday.

The Center for Economics and Business Research said Spain and Italy would have to refinance over 400 billion euros ($530 billion) of bonds in the spring, potentially sparking a fresh crisis within the 16-nation euro area.

“The euro might break up at this point, though European politicians are normally able to respond to a crisis,” said CEBR Chief Executive Douglas McWilliams in a list of 10 forecasts for 2011.

Sovereign debt crises in Greece and Ireland have rocked euro nations this year, leading some commentators to speculate that Germany could eventually lose patience with bailing out its more profligate neighbors, triggering a split in the currency bloc.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly stressed Berlin’s commitment to the euro and she said so again in her New Year message to the country on Friday.

“The euro is the foundation of our prosperity,” she said. “Germany needs Europe and our common currency. For our own well-being and in order to overcome great worldwide challenges. We Germans assume our responsibility, even when it is sometimes very hard.”

Italy: Berlusconi Opposition Claims That Some of The Rioters Were Police.

December 17, 2010December 17, 2010 by Infinite

Commentary:

The elite puppet governments use these tactics often:

Arrested undercover police officers:

The Quebec Provincial Police were then forced after three days of public outrage to admit that these three men were indeed their officers operating undercover.

– Rock-toting ‘protesters’ were cops: labour leader (Canada.com)

Protesters attack a policeman in the Via del Corso in Rome. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

Italy’s interior minister today agreed to address parliament on the rioting that broke out in Rome yesterday as Silvio Berlusconi won a controversial vote of confidence to keep his rightwing government alive .

Roberto Maroni of the Northern League gave the undertaking after opposition claims that some of the rioters were police. Anna Finocchiaro, leader in the Senate of Italy’s biggest opposition group, the Democratic party, said: “There were evidently people who had been infiltrated [among the rioters] and who put at risk the demonstrators and the police. Who commanded them? Who paid them? What were they meant to cause?”

Photographs taken during the disturbances have prompted not only suspicions but bitter memories of the 1970s when rogue members of the police and intelligence services lent themselves to a so-called “strategy of tension” aimed at raising the level of violence to the point at which it could be used to justify draconian repression or even a coup d’état.

Yesterday, groups of masked and hooded demonstrators rampaged through the capital attacking police, smashing windows, setting fire to vehicles and throwing up barricades. The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, said first indications were that they had caused damage of about €20m. The disturbances were thought to be the most violent in Rome since 1977.

One of the participants in this week’s rioting was photographed hurling a dustbin at members of the revenue guard and wielding a long shovel. But in other shots, he appears to be standing with the guards raising a truncheon in one hand and holding a pair of handcuffs in the other.

One blog carried a photograph of a demonstrator being held on the ground by officers whose uniform boots are seemingly identical to his. Further controversy surrounded a revenue guard who was ambushed by rioters.

An official statement said he was rescued “thanks to the intervention of colleagues, some in uniform and others in civilian clothes”. But, according to Italian media reports, the revenue guard subsequently briefed reporters to the effect that it never deployed officers in civilian clothing in demonstrations or disturbances.

The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Righteous Rage – Wikileaks BS – Class Warfare Has Begun – Bailout Bubble Bursting – The Great War – This Is Not America, It’s Fascism

December 16, 2010December 16, 2010 by Infinite

If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York Post

When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline News

There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
– CNBC

Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street Journal

A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist

Rage against the Fed, the Media and all things else

Added:15. December 2010

On Wikileaks:

– Who Is Really Behind Wikileaks?

– Wikileaks: A US Government Con Job

– Wikileaks: Brought to you by the CIA or Mossad

More with Gerald Celente:

– America – The End of Liberty (Documentary)

– Interview With Gerald Celente: The Gestapo of Food

– Overdose – The Next Financial Crisis (Documentary)

– The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: And Now We’re Headed For The GREATEST Depression

Rome Burns as PM Berlusconi Survives (Video)

December 15, 2010 by Infinite

Dec 14 – Protesters set fire to cars and clash with police, paralyzing central Rome after Prime Minister Berlusconi narrowly survives a no-confidence vote.

Deborah Lutterbeck reports

Source: Reuters

Violent clashes erupt in Italy after Berlusconi survives no-confidence vote

Added: 14. December 2010

ECB Bows To German Veto On Mass Bond Purchases

December 5, 2010December 5, 2010 by Infinite

Now the ECB wants to resort to the ‘nuclear option’ like the Federal Reserve banksters and only Germany objects to the QE (quantitative easing) madness?

The fallout from the ‘nuclear option’ is called inflation!

All those bankster bailouts and deficit spending have bankrupted Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy etc.

On deficit spending and the ‘nuclear option’ (= QE = printing money = creating money out of thin air = increasing the money supply = inflation = hidden tax on monetary assets = theft):

“By a continuing process of inflation , governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
– John Maynard Keynes

“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. … This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard.”
– Alan Greenspan

“When a country embarks on deficit financing and inflationism you wipe out the middle class and wealth is transferred from the middle class and the poor to the rich.”
– Ron Paul

The real intend behind those policies is to destroy the middle class and the poor, making the rich even richer.

Germany just doesn’t want to burn in the hell of Weimar again.

The European Central Bank has rebuffed calls for mass purchases of southern European bonds, despite growing pressure from Spain and Italy for dramatic action to buttress monetary union.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB’s president, said emergency lending support for eurozone banks would be extended until at least April next year

Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB’s president, said emergency lending support for eurozone banks would be extended until at least April next year, citing “acute tensions” in the market.

The delay removes the risk that Frankurt might soon pull away the prop holding up the Irish and Greek banking systems, as well as the Spanish cajas – or savings banks – and the sovereign states behind them. Traders say the ECB intervened directly in the weakest bond markets on Thursday to drive down yields and calm nerves.

However, Mr Trichet said there had been no decision to step up purchases of peripheral bonds to a whole new level – the so-called “nuclear option” – despite the potentially dangerous rise in Spanish, Italian, Belgian and even French yields over the past three weeks.

Some credit market analysts had speculated that the ECB might launch a blitz of €1 trillion to €2 trillion of debt purchases, but this was never likely at this stage. Such action is anathema to Germany.

Rainer Bruderle, the German economy minister, spelled out Berlin’s objections on Thursday just hours before the ECB meeting, insisting that “the permanent printing of money is not a solution”.

A chorus of influential voices in Germany has warned that any attempt by the ECB to prop up Club Med with loose money would be a grave error, undermining German political support for monetary union.

“It would be fatal if the ECB was to squander its credibility,” said Klaus Zimmerman, head of the DIW German Economic Research Institute. He said the bank is the last bastion of credibility after the serial breach of EU fiscal and debt rules.

“Broader purchases of the distressed eurozone debt would calm speculation for a short time, but would just invite risk-taking by investors in general,” he said.

EU: Contagion May Force Euro Leaders to Expand Arsenal to Counter Debt Crisis

December 1, 2010December 1, 2010 by Infinite

Dec 1 (Bloomberg) — Investors’ no-confidence vote in the aid package for Ireland may force European policy makers to expand their arsenal to fight the debt crisis threatening to tear the euro apart.

Options outlined by economists at Societe Generale SA and Barclays Capital include: Boosting the 750 billion-euro ($975 billion) temporary rescue fund or turning it into an asset- buying program; cutting interest rates on bailout loans; issuing joint bonds for the 16 euro nations or flooding the economy with cash from the European Central Bank.

All would be unprecedented, and none of Europe’s political leaders — dominated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel — has indicated the steps are being considered. Earlier this year, they struggled to cobble together the measures that investors and economists now say are proving inadequate to safeguard the euro and keep speculators at bay.

“You’ve had repeated interventions, but the markets are still selling in response,” said Andrew Balls, London-based head of European portfolio management at Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the world’s biggest bond fund. “Policy makers have to move beyond a country-by-country approach and think about the system-wide challenges.”

Italy: Riots over plans to build rubbish dump on slopes of Mt Vesuvius

September 25, 2010 by Infinite

Police and protesters clashed in Naples over plans to build a new rubbish dump on the slopes of Mt Vesuvius.

Italian policemen remove a protester from the road leading to a landfill in Terzigno Photo: EPA

Around 2,000 stone-throwing locals set fire to rubbish trucks and waste compactor machines into the early hours of Friday.

At least one protester was arrested and a senior police officer had to have stitches after being hit in the face by a rock, in the third consecutive night of violence.

Using tear gas and batons, police cleared a path through the demonstrators so that the rubbish trucks could reach the dump in the town of Terzigno, south of Naples.

Italy: Rome Prepares to Demolish 200 Illegal Gypsy camps

September 7, 2010 by Infinite

Aid workers fear thousands of Roma will be left homeless

Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, a former neo-fascist, said Gypsies leaving France were now settling in Italy. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

Plans by Rome city officials to demolish up to 200 illegal Gypsy camps this week have raised fears by aid workers that thousands of Roma, including women and small children, will be forced on to the streets.

In the wake of France’s controversial repatriation of Romanian Gypsies last month, Italian police backed by bulldozers will raze rudimentary camps in Rome built beneath flyovers and in wasteland, often by Romanian migrants.

Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, has cited the recent death of a Romanian child during a fire in one of the camps as an incentive for their demolition. “These are the terrible risks and dramas of the illegal camps that have existed in Rome for too long,” he said.

Sveva Belviso, Alemanno’s social policy assessor, said fewer than 1,000 people people were due to be evicted. “We will offer assistance to the young, old and sick,” she said.

But the Red Cross warned that many more faced sleeping rough and losing their possessions.

“The number is in fact likely to be over 1,000 and with the city’s financial straits and overflowing accommodation I wonder where they will put up and feed these people,” said Mario Squicciarini. “What is worse is that when the bulldozers go in they often do not give you time to get your possessions out.”

Mafia Cash In On Lucrative EU Wind Farm Handouts – Especially In Sicily

September 7, 2010September 7, 2010 by Infinite

An ill wind is blowing over Italy’s green revolution, as the Mafia seek to capitalise on generous grants for renewable energy.

Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

They rise up high above the sun-scorched countryside, looking out over hilltop villages, palm trees, neatly-tended vineyards and olive groves.

But for all their promises of a clean, green future, Italy’s windfarms have now acquired a somewhat dirtier whiff – as the latest industry to be infiltrated by the country’s mobsters.

Attracted by the prospect of generous grants designed to boost the use of alternative energies, the so-called “eco Mafia” has begun fraudulently creaming off millions of euros from both the Italian government and the European Union.

And nowhere has the industry’s reputation become more tarnished than Sicily, where windmills now dot the horizon in Mafia strongholds like Corleone, the town better known as the setting for the Godfather films.

“Nothing earns more than a wind farm,” said Edoardo Zanchini, an environmental campaigner who has investigated Mafia infiltration of the industry. “Anything that creates wealth interests the Mafia.”

It is not just Italian criminals, however, who have spotted the potential for corruption. Recent research by Kroll, the international corporate security firm, has discovered examples all over Europe of so-called “clean energy” schemes being used to to line criminals’ pockets rather than save the planet. Some involve windmills that stand derelict or are simply never built, while others are used to launder profits from other crime enterprises.

“Renewable energy seems like a good thing, run by saintly people saving the world,” said Jason Wright, a senior director with Kroll, which performs background checks on renewable energy schemes on behalf of legitimate investors, and which has documented a sharp rise in the number of wind farms with suspect ownership.

“But a lot of people want to jump on board a sure-fire revenue spinner. I wouldn’t say the entire sector is corrupt, but there is a small percentage of corrupt projects.”

The level of fraud has prompted calls for tighter restrictions on the use of public money in funding renewable energy, for which EU bureaucrats have grand ambitions. Brussels has ordered all 27 EU nations to ensure that one-fifth of their energy is renewable by 2020, and in recent years has given out an average of €5 billion (£4.1 billion) annually in loans and grants. The levels of subsidy allow some wind farm owners to claim generous premiums for every watt of electricity they generate.

In Italy, for example, power from wind farms is sold at a guaranteed rate of €180 per kwh – the highest rate in the world. In a country where the Mafia has years of expertise at buying corrupt politicians and intimidating rivals, the result is perhaps inevitable, creating a new breed of entrepreneur known as the “lords of the wind”.