One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes – Part 2

From the article:

“That the manner in which we live today is about to drastically change, and that this coming change is being hidden from us deliberately by those who wish to use a tactic of financial shock and awe to their ultimate advantage.”

Related info:

One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes – Part 1


debt slave1

One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes – Part 2 (ALT-MARKET, March 11, 2015):

Consumer spending in the U.S. accounts for approximately 70 percent of gross domestic product, though it is important to note that the manner in which “official” GDP is calculated is highly inaccurate. For example, all government money used within the Medicare coverage system to pay for “consumer health demands,” as well as the now flailing Obamacare socialized welfare program, are counted toward GDP, despite the fact that such capital is created from thin air by the Federal Reserve and also generates debt for the average taxpayer. Government debt creation does not beget successful domestic production. If that was a reality, then all socialist and communist countries (same thing) would be wildly enriched today. This is simply not the case.

That said, the swift decline in manufacturing jobs in the U.S. over the past two decades, including a considerable 33 percent overall decline in manufacturing jobs from 2001 to 2010, leaves only the consumer and service sectors as the primary areas of employment and “production.” The service sector provides about three out of every four jobs available in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Read moreOne Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes – Part 2

Peak Pathetic – Chinese Authorities Claim Control Over the Dalai Lama’s Reincarnation Process

Tibet-flag

Peak Pathetic – Chinese Authorities Claim Control Over the Dalai Lama’s Reincarnation Process (Liberty Blitzkrieg, March 13, 2015):

The future belongs to China.

China is the next great nation.

The 21st century will be dominated by China.

I’m sure all of you have heard variations of the above prediction over the past decade or so. I know I have.

Perhaps China will be the next great nation, but perhaps not. I’ll tell you one thing, unless the political environment changes a lot over there, a world defined by the Chinese perspective is not a world I want to live in.

The relative lack of political and internet freedom in China is well known, as is the egregious treatment of the Tibetan people. Despite having controlled Tibet since 1949, and the subsequent intentional migration of ethnic Han Chinese into the region in order to dilute the culture, Chinese authorities remain paranoid and filled with fear. So much so that the government is panicking at recent statements by the Dalai Lama that he may not be reincarnated. This screws up the government’s plan to name the next Dalai Lama and use him as a puppet stooge for the regime. Truly embarrassing.

Read morePeak Pathetic – Chinese Authorities Claim Control Over the Dalai Lama’s Reincarnation Process

Europe Has A Modest Proposal For Greece: ‘Don’t Pay Wages For One Or Two Months’

Greece Financial Crisis Riots


Europe Has A Modest Proposal For Greece: “Don’t Pay Wages For One Or Two Months” (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015):

The Greek liquidity, pardon “cash flow” problems are so bad, not only Zero Hedge, but also Bloomberg has launched a daily maturity tracker of how much money Greece has to pay either to the IMF or to prefund T-Bill rollovers. This is what Bloomberg blasted out earlier today:

Greece is preparing for another week of hurdles that ends with a ~EU2b repayment on March 20. Most economists say that it will be difficult for Greece to get past end of March without fresh EU funds. Here’s a timeline of the most important events scheduled this week:

  • Monday, March 16: Greece to repay about EU577m in IMF loans
  • Wednesday, March 18: Greece’s debt agency PDMA to sell 13- week treasury bills

Which explains why as we reported yesterday, Greece passed a law to plunder pension funds, one which would allow the government to fully invest reserves of pension funds and other public entities kept in Bank of Greece deposit accounts in Greek sovereign notes.

Read moreEurope Has A Modest Proposal For Greece: ‘Don’t Pay Wages For One Or Two Months’

The Obama Family’s 2014 Christmas Vacation To Hawaii Cost Taxpayers More Than $3.6 Million In FLIGHT EXPENSES ALONE

Obama-Hawaii-2014

The Cost To Taxpayers Of Obama’s Christmas In Paradise (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015):

Despite Janet Yellen’s best efforts to eradicate poverty in America by explaining why it’s important to be rich, we learned today, courtesy of the UMich Consumer Sentiment survey, that low-income citizens not only still exist, but they in fact spoiled the March print by feeling exactly 6.5% less optimistic about their situation than they did last month.

As depressing as that is, the good news is that according to the survey, rich people are still feeling optimistic about their buying plans (presumably because they have money). If you need further confirmation that things are still going well for some US citizens, consider the following, from Sputnik News:

The Obama family’s 2014 Christmas vacation to Hawaii cost taxpayers more than $3.6 million in flight expenses alone, according to Air Force records obtained by Judicial Watch.

The president grew up in Hawaii, and Christmas there is an annual family tradition. The most recent trip marked the seventh consecutive time the Obamas have spent the holidays in Hawaii – the sixth as the first family. All told, those Christmas vacations have cost taxpayers $15.5 million just in transportation expenses, according to figures obtained by Judicial Watch over the past three years…

Read moreThe Obama Family’s 2014 Christmas Vacation To Hawaii Cost Taxpayers More Than $3.6 Million In FLIGHT EXPENSES ALONE

Debt Ceiling Drama Is Back: Two Days Until US Borrowing Capacity Is Exhausted

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”
– Barack Obama

debt-obama


Sinking-dollar-debt

Debt Ceiling Drama Is Back: Two Days Until US Borrowing Capacity Is Exhausted (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015):

And so, a little over a year after the last debt ceiling melodrama, in which the US kicked the can on its maximum borrowing capacity to this Sunday, March 15, in the meantime raking up total US public debt to $18.149 trillion the soap opera with the self-imposed borrowing ceiling on America’s “credit card” is back, and the US is once again faced with sad reality of its debt ceiling (now at well over 100% of America’s upward revised GDP of $17.7 trillion). The reason: two days from today Congress’s temporary suspension of the debt ceiling, which was approved in February 2014, ends.

Read moreDebt Ceiling Drama Is Back: Two Days Until US Borrowing Capacity Is Exhausted

What A Mess … SecDef’s Office: F-35 Progress Worse Than Feared

H/t reader squodgy:

“What a mess…
If the American middle class could see the billions of their taxes being poured into this bottomless pit of incompetence & corruption which results in no more than a 72% overall success target achievement they would surely cry.”


f-35s

SecDef’s Office: F-35 Progress Worse than Feared (Defense Industry Daily, March 13, 2015):

Those expecting the F-35 to meet its operational capabilities in the near-term will not be breathing much easier now that Office of the Secretary of Defense has published its progress report for the F-35 external link. It’s a hot mess. The glass-half-empty analysts over at POGO have their own analysis external link of the report here, which essentially parrots the OSD report, but uses more adjectives and an indignant tone.

Read moreWhat A Mess … SecDef’s Office: F-35 Progress Worse Than Feared

Peak Crony Capitalism: First Citi Writes US Financial Laws, Now Boeing Tells Ex-Im Bank What To Do

Peak Crony Capitalism: First Citi Writes US Financial Laws, Now Boeing Tells Ex-Im Bank What To Do (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015):

Today’s most under the radar news, just as Citigroup was to Congress, and the swaps push out language, so Boeing, that primary recipients of the generosity of America’s Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, has been caught red-handed drafting the rules of none other than the Ex-Im bank itself! According to the WSJ: “when the Export-Import Bank sought to respond to critics with tighter rules for aircraft sales, it reached out to a company with a vested interest in the outcome: Boeing Co., the biggest beneficiary of the bank’s assistance.” Or nothing more than a criminal conflict of interest, which, once again, is at the expense of America’s infinite bailout piggybank: it’s taxpayers.

Flash Boys’ Michael Lewis Warns “The Problem’s Not Just HFT, The Problem Is The Entire System”

–  Flash Boys’ Michael Lewis Warns “The Problem’s Not Just HFT, The Problem Is The Entire System” (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015): 

As HFT shops begin to turn on each other, it seems appropriate to reflect on the impact that Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys book had on exposing the ugly truth that many have been discussing for years in US (and international) equity (and non-equity) markets. As Lewis concludes, after explaining the attacks he has suffered from the HFT industry, “If I didn’t do more to distinguish ‘good’ H.F.T. from ‘bad’ H.F.T., it was because I saw, early on, that there was no practical way for me or anyone else… to do it. …  The big banks and the exchanges [have] been paid to compromise investors’ interests while pretending to guard those interests. I was surprised more people weren’t angry with them.”

Kremlin Rejects Rumor Of Putin Illness, Shows Footage Of Today’s Meeting

Hmmh. So far I have never wasted a single thought on Putin not being well.

But to me he doesn’t look good at all in these pictures.

His handshake doesn’t look like it could ‘break hands’ …

‘His handshakes break hands’: Press secretary dismisses Putin illness rumors

… and looking at his posture, … hmmh … , this looks so unlike the martial arts trained Putin I know.

When I once saw a photo where you could take a closer look at his Iris, I saw that his left Iris indicates a problem with the kidney.


Kremlin Rejects Rumor Of Putin Illness, Shows Footage Of Today’s Meeting (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015):

Following reports that after unexpectedly rescheduling two preannounced high level meetings, the social networks erupted with a cornucopia of theories and “confirmed” reports that the Russian president is sick, had a stroke, or has outright died. To be sure this is not the first time the 62-year-old’s health has been put into question, the last time being 2012 when rumors swirled again. However this time it got so bad even Bloomberg felt it was relevant to ask “Where is Vladimir Putin.” This morning the Kremlin answered.

Read moreKremlin Rejects Rumor Of Putin Illness, Shows Footage Of Today’s Meeting

Meet the “Dirty Brigades” – The U.S. Trained and Funded Iraqi Soldiers Accused of War Crimes

iraq_fixed

Meet the “Dirty Brigades” – The U.S. Trained and Funded Iraqi Soldiers Accused of War Crimes (Liberty Blitzkrieg, March 12, 2015):

U.S.-trained and armed Iraqi military units, the key to the American strategy against ISIS, are under investigation for committing some of the same atrocities as the terror group, American and Iraqi officials told ABC News. Some Iraqi units have already been cut off from U.S. assistance over “credible” human rights violations, according to a senior military official on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

The U.S. is shipping almost $1 billion in weapons, as well as providing U.S. military trainers to instruct new Iraqi recruits. A special operations official in Baghdad, however, said it’s the government of Iraq that decides — not the Pentagon — which Iraqi units get U.S.-donated weapons, such as 43,000 M4 rifles and thousands of other light infantry weapons Congress approved for shipment in December.

“Ministry of Interior officials tortured detainees to death, according to reports from multiple government officials and human rights organizations,” read the annual report. The Bureau explicitly fingered the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces and Interior Ministry’s special police units — which the U.S. established, trained and armed from 2003-2011, and whose troops are seen in many of the atrocities images.

From the ABC News article: ‘Dirty Brigades’: US-Trained Iraqi Forces Investigated for War Crimes

This is another one of those “you can’t make this stuff up” articles, which perfectly highlights the complete idiocy and incompetence of American foreign policy. It’s no wonder nothing gets better, considering the corrupt status quo continues to merely rotate the same empty suits between various positions of power (see:Jeb Bush Exposed Part 1 – His Top Advisors Will Be the Architects of His Brother’s Iraq War). It’s literally like giving people with the mental capacity and wisdom of an infant, nuclear weapons and telling them to go crazy.

Read moreMeet the “Dirty Brigades” – The U.S. Trained and Funded Iraqi Soldiers Accused of War Crimes

Bodies Of US Soldiers Killed In Ukraine Float Ashore In Florida – Pensacola Black Hawk Down Crash is an Arch-Zionist Hoax

H/t reader squodgy:

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore Toto…..

This is a beautiful coincidence, a mock helicopter accident used to cover up US casualties of the Ukraine conflict.”


Pensacola Black Hawk Down Crash is an Arch-Zionist Hoax

Pensacola Black Hawk Down Crash is an Arch-Zionist Hoax (NODISINFO, March 12, 2015):

Revelation thanks to one of our posters

Make no mistake about it the purported crash of a Black Hawk helicopter in the Florida seas is an arch-Zionist fake, where no one died, and no one was injured. Sure it was. Some 11 (not four, five, six, eight, or 12, but “11”) of the nation’s finest died doing their duty. Sure, it was. In fact, it is nothing other than a terminally wretched PR stunt. Yet, it is said:

Bodies Of US Soldiers Killed In Ukraine Float Ashore In Florida (The Total Collapse, March 12, 2015):

A curious insert placed into today’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) report for President Putin states that the bodies of a number of US Marines killed during last months Battle of Debaltseve have begun “mysteriously” appearing upon a Gulf of Mexico beach in Florida.

According to this report, the MoD reported last month that the Obama regime had “effectively abandoned” at least 150 US troops embedded with over 5,000 Ukrainian forces in the rebel surrounded town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine from which thousands of shell-shocked Ukrainian soldiers managed to escape, and who later described their terrifying retreat from that apocalyptic rail town while being shot at point blank range.

Read moreBodies Of US Soldiers Killed In Ukraine Float Ashore In Florida – Pensacola Black Hawk Down Crash is an Arch-Zionist Hoax

Is It Time To Prepare For War?

We are definitely living in times where it is necessary to be prepared for … ‘anything’ … mentally, spiritually and physically.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
– Benjamin Franklin


war-red

Special Report: Is It Time To Prepare For War? (Peak Prosperity, March 12, 2015):

This report was initially released to PeakProsperity.com’s paid subscribers earlier this week. Given the significance of the subject matter and the number of request from our enrolled members to share it more widely, we’re making it available to all readers here.

For our paying subscribers, who have already read this, please see the new Part 2 companion to this report: How To Prepare For War.

From my perspective, the made-for-public Western news copy regarding Ukraine and Russia is childishly slanted and one-sided. The level of so-called aggression by Russia cannot even remotely be compared to the United States’ naked aggression against Iraq – a country that had not attacked the US, threatened the US, or had any WMD program (which even if it did, would still have not constituted a legitimate reason for invasion by another nation under existing international law.)

Read moreIs It Time To Prepare For War?

Russia Cuts Interest Rate From 15% To 14%, Ruble Rises

Russia Cuts Interest Rate From 15% To 14%, Ruble Rises (ZeroHedge, March 12, 2015):

Following the dramatic December surge in Russian interest rates when the Bank of Russia scrambled to preserve confidence in the then-plummeting currency and sent the interest rate to a whopping 17%, now that the oil price crash has stabilized it has been walking down this dramatic move, and after reducing rates by 2% on January 30 to 15%, moments ago the Bank of Russia once again cut rates this time by the expected 100 bps to 14%. The bank also said that more rate cuts are in the pipeline.

Read moreRussia Cuts Interest Rate From 15% To 14%, Ruble Rises

Facebook Does it Again – Company Sends Funeral Home Advertisements to Cancer Sufferer

Flashback:

Facebook founder called trusting users ‘DUMB FUCKS’


Facebook-Dislike

Facebook Does it Again – Company Sends Funeral Home Advertisements to Cancer Sufferer (Liberty Blitzkrieg, March 12, 2015):

I don’t know what it’s going to take to get people to stop using Facebook. I really don’t.

Last month, I highlighted an extremely important warning from Salim Varani in the post, A Very Disturbing and Powerful Post – “Get Your Loved Ones Off Facebook.” If you somehow missed that piece, go ahead and read it now. Here’s an excerpt to give you a little taste:

Read moreFacebook Does it Again – Company Sends Funeral Home Advertisements to Cancer Sufferer

U.S. Government Admits It Can’t Fully Guarantee 51% Of Insolvent Pension Plans

Government Admits It Can’t Fully Guarantee 51% Of Insolvent Pension Plans (ZeroHedge, March 12, 2015):

A new report suggests that the government agency in charge of backstopping private-sector pension plans (the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) isn’t entirely optimistic about its own ability to provide an effective safety net for multiemployer plans. In fact, more than half of participants will see their benefits cut if their plans become insolvent and are forced to turn to government guarantees.

 …

Major Chemical Company ‘Poisoned Water Supply’ For 50 Years

Don’t use anything containing Teflon.


Dangers-Of-Teflon

Major Chemical Company ‘Poisoned Water Supply’ for 50 Years (Natural Society, March 9, 2015):

A federal lawsuit has been filed against the chemical company Dupont by residents of West Virginia after being poisoned with a chemical called C8. The plaintiffs seek damages from Dupont for contaminating their drinking water.

DuPont has a habit of poisoning people – as many chemical companies do. The company has been sued hundreds of times for contamination both the environment and humankind. The chemical C8 is used to make the product Teflon, which can cause liver, prostate, and testicular cancer. Dupont was aware of this danger for a long time, but continued to use it in the manufacturing of products anyway.

As early as the 1950s, Dupont knew just how dangerous C8 could be to human beings. In the name of profit, white collar criminals decided to ignore the facts.

DuPont dumped C8 chemicals into two local aquifers, whereupon West Virginia residents have been drinking the poisoned water for years.

Read moreMajor Chemical Company ‘Poisoned Water Supply’ For 50 Years

The Destabilization Doctrine: ISIS, Proxies and Patsies

H/t reader squodgy:

“A plan for de-stabilisation of all mid-eastern and African nations is now becoming obvious.
Common denominators are oil and drugs.

It’s not classic Orwell, but getting there.

Once the markets collapse and Martial Law is introduced ‘for Our Safety’, it will all fit in snugly.”


Syria-Zionism

Full article here:

The Destabilization Doctrine: ISIS, Proxies and Patsies (Non-Aligned Media, Feb 22, 2015):

By Brandon Martinez

“Islam and the West at War,” reads a recent New York Times headline.

It would certainly seem that way if one were to take at face value the putrid assertions of Western governments that are not particularly known for their honesty or integrity. But astute observers of history and geopolitics can spot a deception when they see one, and the latest theatrical performances being marketed to the masses as real, organic occurrences remind one of a Monty Python sketch.

In the past week we have witnessed a number of expedient events that were designed to legitimize the West’s imperialist foreign policies in the minds of the masses. On Feb. 15 the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) released another highly choreographed and visually striking video depicting the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians. Shortly following the video’s release, the Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sissi launched air strikes against ISIS targets in Libya where the execution video was allegedly filmed, although experts are now saying that the production was faked.

Read moreThe Destabilization Doctrine: ISIS, Proxies and Patsies

One American’s Rage Spills Over: Shut Your Mouth & Start Fighting These Political Parasites

Federal-Reserve-Bernanke1


One American’s Rage Spills Over: Shut Your Mouth & Start Fighting These Political Parasites (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015):

Warning: NSFW, for the weak of heart, look away…

Submitted by Thad Beversdorf via First Rebuttal blog,

I was shocked today by the absolute gaul of the Fed releasing a statement about Net Worth in America reaching record levels.  Now I get that they are under extreme pressure to sell the story that everything is rainbows and butterflies.  But surely they understand that working class Americans are going along with the story because they really don’t have any say in our nation’s policies anymore.  That doesn’t mean they want it thrown in their faces that the Fed has spent 6 years now inflating the wealth of the top 10% so much that it actually lifts the total wealth of the nation’s citizens to record highs.

The ugly reality is that the bottom 80% of Americans experienced none of that gain.  That’s right a big ole goose egg.  And so when the Fed via its ass pamper boy, Steve Liesman, start banging on about the fact that some sliver of society is being handed extraordinary wealth while the working class has lost 40% of their net worth since 2007, well a big fuck you right back at ya bub!  The Fed is very aware that the bottom 80% of Americans own less than 5% of US equity markets.  And so the Fed is very aware that its manipulation of stock prices such that it creates immense unearned wealth to those in the markets doesn’t reach the bottom 80%.  So why celebrate the results of the stock market price manipulation??

Read moreOne American’s Rage Spills Over: Shut Your Mouth & Start Fighting These Political Parasites

NASA Scientist Warns “California Has One Year Of Water Left”

California is running out of water

NASA Scientist Warns “California Has One Year Of Water Left” (ZeroHedge, March 13, 2015):

Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California’s winter was as well.

As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We’re not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we’re losing the creek too.

Read moreNASA Scientist Warns “California Has One Year Of Water Left”

RED ALERT – IBM Moves to Create a Centralized, Central Bank Controlled Blockchain For Currency Control

RED ALERT – IBM Moves to Create a Centralized, Central Bank Controlled Blockchain for Currency Control

RED ALERT – IBM Moves to Create a Centralized, Central Bank Controlled Blockchain for Currency Control (Liberty Blitzkrieg, March 13, 2015):

International Business Machines Corp is considering adopting the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as the “blockchain,” to create a digital cash and payment system for major currencies, according to a person familiar with the matter.Unlike bitcoin, where the network is decentralized and there is no overseer, the proposed digital currency system would be controlled by central banks.

– From the Reuters article: IBM Looking at Adopting Bitcoin Technology for Major Currencies

Many activists and thinkers in the anti-status quo world were understandably very suspicious of Bitcoin when it first entered mainstream consciousness during its run-up from $10 to $260 in spring 2013. I myself had heard of Bitcoin years before I publicly expressed my interest and support of the technology. With no tech background, I was immediately overwhelmed with the concept, and so I initially dismissed it and forgot about it. It was only in 2012, that I started asking questions of tech experts who I had become friends with it about it in order to calm my concerns. Considering these people have similar political leanings and are even more paranoid than I am about the corporate-gulag state, I felt somewhat reassured. Then, when I recognized the powerful political implications of the technology, I wrote my first public thoughts on it. The post was titled, Bitcoin: A Way to Fight Back Against the Financial Terrorists?

Here’s a key excerpt from the post, and what really got me interested in Bitcoin:

Read moreRED ALERT – IBM Moves to Create a Centralized, Central Bank Controlled Blockchain For Currency Control

AND NOW: ‘Eavesdropping’ Barbie

Hello Barbie
Hello Barbie is displayed at the Mattel showroom at the North American International Toy Fair. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Privacy advocates try to keep ‘creepy,’ ‘eavesdropping’ Hello Barbie from hitting shelves (The Washington Post, March 11, 2015):

At a recent New York toy fair, a Mattel representative introduced the newest version of Barbie by saying: “Welcome to New York, Barbie.”

The doll, named Hello Barbie, responded: “I love New York! Don’t you? Tell me, what’s your favorite part about the city? The food, fashion or the sights?”

To revive the sinking sales of its flagship brand, Mattel is bringing Barbie to life with voice-recognition software that will allow the doll to “listen” to children speak and give chatty responses. It will learn over time, remembering your dog’s name and adjusting to new topics.

This WiFi-connected Barbie may soon be a hit among children used to tinkering with iPads, but children’s privacy advocates are crying foul. Hello Barbie may be more accurately called “eavesdropping” Barbie, says one advocacy group. Another popular description? Creepy.

Hello Barbie works by recording a child’s voice with an embedded microphone that is triggered by pressing a button on the doll. As the doll “listens,” audio recordings travel over the Web to a server where the snippets of speech are recognized and processed. That information is used to help form Hello Barbie’s responses.

“If I had a young child, I would be very concerned that my child’s intimate conversations with her doll were being recorded and analyzed,” Angela Campbell, faculty adviser at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, said in a statement.

Read moreAND NOW: ‘Eavesdropping’ Barbie

Greece Passes Law To Plunder Pension Funds

SyrizaSyriza-change
Lagarde-Varoufakisyanis schauble shaking handsscrewed

From the article:

“We wonder how the increasingly disenfranchised Greeks will react when they find their savings (whatever there is left) are now being directly plundered to fund the nation’s transfer payments (via The IMF) to Ukraine.”


Greece Passes Law To Plunder Pension Funds (ZeroHedge, March 12, 2015):

Having previously hinted that they might ‘dip’ into public pensions funds for some short-term cash to payback The IMF, and then confirming that the plan is to repo that cash from pension cash reserves (raising concerns about how they will unwind the repo – i.e. pay it back); the Greek government finally signed the bill today that enables them to plunder the Greek people’s pension funds (for their own good).The massive irony of this bill is the bill enables greek deposits to be fully invested in Greek sovereign bonds… which Tsipras and Varoufakis both admitted today is “unsustainable” and “will never be repaid.”

  • *GREEK GOVT SUBMITS BILL, ALLOWING USE OF PENSION FUND RESERVES

As Bloomberg reports,

Cash reserves of pension funds and other public entities kept in Bank of Greece deposit accounts can be fully invested in Greek sovereign notes, according to amendment to be submitted in parliament, country’s finance ministry says in e-mailed statement.

Read moreGreece Passes Law To Plunder Pension Funds

Iceland Drops Bid To Join The European Union

Wickie

Iceland announces dropping bid to join EU (RT, March 12, 2015):

Iceland has dropped its bid to join the European Union, the Foreign Ministry in Reykjavik says. The announcement follows pledges made by the country’s euro-skeptic government since winning the 2013 election.

Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, the Icelandic foreign minister, said in a statement that he had informed Latvia, the current EU president, and the European Commission that his center-right government had decided to withdraw its application, which was submitted six years ago.

The EU and Iceland have discussed the country’s position on the status of its bid to join the European Union,” the statement reads. “The government does not intend to resume preparing for EU membership.”

Read moreIceland Drops Bid To Join The European Union

Germans Furious After Varoufakis/Tsipras Admit “Greece Will Never Repay Its Debts”

Related info:

screwed

Greece Passes Law To Plunder Pension Funds


Germans Furious After Varoufakis/Tsipras Admit “Greece Will Never Repay Its Debts” (ZeroHedge, March 12, 2015):

The Greco-Germanic war of words continues… Having pissed off The Greeks with his “Troika” remarks, Germany’s Schaeuble went on today to more ad hominum attacks by reportedly calling the Greek FinMin “foolishly naive.” The Greek ambassador has ‘officially’ complained to “friend and ally” Germany about the personal insult. But The Greeks had the last laugh, as first Varoufakis and then Tsipras explained respectively that “Greece would never pay back its debts,” and “Greece cannot pretend its debt burden is sustainable.” The German response, via tabloid Bild, “there must be an end to this madness. Europe must not be made to look stupid.”

Read moreGermans Furious After Varoufakis/Tsipras Admit “Greece Will Never Repay Its Debts”