EU

Eurozone Crisis Has Pushed Millions Into Poverty

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Related info:

– The Greatest Depression Is Here: Europe’s Scariest Chart

– Eurozone crisis has pushed millions into poverty (France 24/AFP, Dec 10, 2012):

Crushed by an austerity squeeze and towering unemployment, millions of Europeans joined the ranks of the newly poor in 2012 in a crisis that showed no mercy for the old, women or children.An arc of misery spread pitilessly across southern Europe’s middle classes, engulfing bailed-out nations Greece and Portugal and tottering heavyweights such as the eurozone’s number four economy, Spain, and number three, Italy.

Read moreEurozone Crisis Has Pushed Millions Into Poverty

Italian PM Mario Monti Quits As Silvio Berlusconi Withdraws Support

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– Italian PM Monti quits as Berlusconi withdraws support (Irish Examiner, Dec 9, 2012):

Prime minister Mario Monti has told Italy’s president he is resigning because he can no longer govern after Silvio Berlusconi’s party withdrew crucial support.

The move paves the way for early elections a year after the unelected economist helped pull the country back from the brink of financial disaster.

Only hours earlier, 76-year-old billionaire media baron Mr Berlusconi had announced he would run for a fourth term as premier, aiming for a dramatic comeback after he quit in disgrace last November.

Read moreItalian PM Mario Monti Quits As Silvio Berlusconi Withdraws Support

The Icelandic Success Story

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Flashback:

– 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 Icelandic Success Story (azizonomics, Dec 8, 2012):

Emotionally, I love Iceland’s financial policies since the crash of 2008:

Iceland went after the people who caused the crisis — the bankers who created and sold the junk products — and tried to shield the general population.

But what Iceland did is not just emotionally satisfying. Iceland is recovering, while the rest of the Western world — which bailed out the bankers and left the general population to pay for the bankers’ excess — is not.

Bloomberg reports:

Few countries blew up more spectacularly than Iceland in the 2008 financial crisis. The local stock market plunged 90 percent; unemployment rose ninefold; inflation shot to more than 18 percent; the country’s biggest banks all failed.

This was no post-Lehman Brothers recession: It was a depression.

Since then, Iceland has turned in a pretty impressive performance. It has repaid International Monetary Fund rescue loans ahead of schedule. Growth this year will be about 2.5 percent, better than most developed economies.Unemployment has fallen by half. In February, Fitch Ratings restored the country’s investment-grade status, approvingly citing its “unorthodox crisis policy response.”

So what exactly did Iceland do?

Read moreThe Icelandic Success Story

EUSSR: BRUSSELS IN PLOT TO CONTROL ALL NATIONAL SPENDING

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– BRUSSELS IN PLOT TO CONTROL ALL NATIONAL SPENDING (Express, Dec 6, 2012):

BRUSSELS will be able to overrule national governments to enforce budget decisions under plans for the eurozone unveiled by chief Eurocrat Herman Van Rompuy last night.

The European Union Council chief’s blueprint for financial union risks another row at a Brussels summit next week. It said there was “a need to go further and to put in place a stronger framework for coordination, convergence and enforcement” of economic policies.

National parliaments were “not in the best position to take the interests of the eurozone into account,” it said.

An official who helped to draw up the report said: “The top, top priority is to complete the banking union.”

Read moreEUSSR: BRUSSELS IN PLOT TO CONTROL ALL NATIONAL SPENDING

Keiser Report: ‘Scum Villages’ & Snooki (Video)

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YouTube Added: 06.12.2012

Description:

In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert peer into the British future and see a future of scum villages and royal baby Snookies as Bank of England executive, Andy Haldane, says the loss of income caused by banks is as bad as World War 2. The Artist Taxi Driver explains what austerity means to the UK. And, while admitting the nation’s wealth has been lost to banker crimes, the cover up continues as Lord Stevenson, formerly of HBOS, claims it was mere incompetence that saw the bank nearly collapse. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to Tim Street of UK Uncut about the protest group’s successful campaigns against Starbucks and other multinationals. They also address how to stop every new tax dollar being sucked straight into the black hole of bank’s fraudulent debt schemes.

The Greatest Depression Is Here: Europe’s Scariest Chart

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… and the ‘Greatest Depression’ will get much worse.

– Europe’s Scariest Chart – Update (ZeroHedge, Dec 6, 2012):

Despite Draghi’s insistence that ‘significant’ progress has been made, that the ECB’s efforts have not been “killer medicine”, that stocks are higher and spreads are lower (implying the ECB “has already done much that is needed”), and how optimistically-biased cherry-picked economic surveys are positive despite weak economic projections; the fact of the matter is that youth unemployment is only getting worse – much worse. Euro-zone youth unemployment is at a record 23.9% but Spain and Italy saw the biggest jumps (to 55.9% and 36.5% respectively). Greece remains the worst at over 56% based on last data, while Germany rests at 8.1%.

German To Sends Troops To Turkey-Syria Border

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– German cabinet decides to send troops to Turkey-Syria border (Deutsche Welle, Dec 6, 2012):

The German cabinet has decided to send up to 400 troops to Turkey’s border with Syria as part of a NATO mission. The troops are to accompany Patriot missile systems requested by Turkey.

The government confirmed in an early morning cabinet session what had emerged in media reports on Thursday.

Germany is one of three NATO nations, along with the US and the Netherlands, that have access to the Patriot missile defense systems Turkey has requested to help defend against spillover violence in neighboring Syria. The troops Germany is considering sending would be used to operate the Patriot missiles.

Read moreGerman To Sends Troops To Turkey-Syria Border

‘West Moves In For Syrian Endgame And War On Iran’

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See also:

– US, French Troops Prepare For Syria Invasion In Response To ‘Chemical Weapons’ Threat

Flashback:

On record: Interview With US General Wesley Clark (Ret.): US Government Planned To ‘Take Out 7 Countries In 5 Years’: ‘Starting With Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan And Finishing Off Iran’ (Video)

Originally from Belfast, Ireland, Finian Cunningham (born 1963) is a prominent expert in international affairs. The author and media commentator was expelled from Bahrain in June 2011 for his critical journalism in which he highlighted human rights violations by the Western-backed regime. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For many years, he worked as an editor and writer in the mainstream news media, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. He is now based in East Africa where he is writing a book on Bahrain and the Arab Spring.

– ‘West moves in for Syrian endgame and war on Iran’ (PressTV, Dec 5, 2012):

US President Barack Obama’s renewed warning against Syria this week, that any use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces is a red line triggering direct military assault on the country, can be seen as the Western powers moving towards their endgame of “regime change.”

Washington first raised the specter of Syrian chemical weapons several months ago and warned then that it would be forced to act militarily in order to “secure” such alleged stockpiles.

Now the American president and his officials are rekindling fears of this contingency, with the added alleged development that the Syrian government of President Bashar Al Assad has become so desperate to survive that it is preparing to mobilize chemical warheads.

Read more‘West Moves In For Syrian Endgame And War On Iran’

Bombshell: Deutsche Bank Hid $12 Billion In Losses To Avoid A Government Bailout

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Former CEO of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann in 2008

– Bombshell: Deutsche Bank Hid $12 Billion In Losses To Avoid A Government Bail-Out (ZeroHedge, Dec 5, 2012):

Forget the perfectly anticipated Greek (selective) default. This is the real deal. The FT just released a blockbuster that Europe’s most important and significant bank, Deutsche Bank, hid $12 billion in losses during the financial crisis, helping the bank avoid a government bail-out, according to three former bank employees who filed complaints to US regulators. US regulators, whose chief of enforcement currently was none other than the General Counsel of Deutsche Bank at the time!

From the FT:

The three complaints, made to regulators including the US Securities and Exchange Commission, claim that Deutsche misvalued a giant position in derivatives structures known as leveraged super senior trades, according to people familiar with the complaints.

All three allege that if Deutsche had accounted properly for its positions – worth $130bn on a notional level – its capital would have fallen to dangerous levels during the financial crisis and it might have required a government bail-out to survive.

Read moreBombshell: Deutsche Bank Hid $12 Billion In Losses To Avoid A Government Bailout

NATO Missiles To Be Sent To Turkey

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– NATO missiles to be sent to Turkey, Syria clashes rage (Reuters, Dec 5, 2012):

Rebels said on Wednesday they had surrounded an air base near Damascus, a fresh sign of battle closing in on the Syrian capital a day after NATO drew a line in the sand by agreeing to send air defense missiles to Turkey.

The Western military alliance’s decision to send U.S., German and Dutch Patriot missile batteries to help defend the Turkish border would bring European and U.S. troops to Syria’s frontier for the first time in the 20 month civil war.

Read moreNATO Missiles To Be Sent To Turkey

Not The Onion … Jackpot In Italian Lottery: A Supermarket Job!!!

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– Tuesday (Not) Humor… Jackpot In Italian Lottery: Supermarket Job (ZeroHedge, Dec 4, 2012):

With the Italian economy in its fourth recession in the last ten years and unemployment soaring, a supermarket has come up with a novel way of hiring. According to Germany’s Mittelstands Nachrichten, customers who spend over EUR30 will receive a lottery ticket and the grand prize winners will be given “temporary part-time assistant jobs” at the supermarket. We are not really sure where to go with this – but somewhere in this odd arrangement is a sad reflection of the European society’s deterioration…

Via Deutsche-Mittelstands-Nachrichten,

For the unemployed in Italy, new possibilities, to get a job. A supermarket chain is giving away jobs to their customers. The premise: you have to buy for more than 30 euros, then you get a lottery ticket, which entitled to participate in the Sweepstakes. Winners of the lottery, a temporary job part time job as an assistant waiting in the supermarket.

“Our contest is open to people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Alessandra Aloisi, HR Manager of Gruppo BSE, Bloomberg. The chain of one-time supermarkets in Rome sells lottery tickets, which are very well received by customers. “Some participants are even question whether the profits they may possibly pass on to a friend or relative,” Aloisi Sun

Read moreNot The Onion … Jackpot In Italian Lottery: A Supermarket Job!!!

Keiser Report: TINA’s Big Black Hole (Video)

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FT: ‘Wages Have To Be Slashed By 30-40% In the UK’


YouTube Added: 04.12.2012

Description:

In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert investigate the black hole of debt sucking in our economies, jobs and wealth like strings of spaghetti past the economic event horizon. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to Ned Naylor-Leyland of Cheviot Asset Management about the fishy smoke signals blowing at the LBMA regarding silver contracts and about the debate between inflation, deflation, hyperinflation actually being a debate about the final denouement of paper currencies. Ned also reveals that BBC’s flagship programme, Panorama, had interviewed him and Andrew Maguire about silver manipulation and yet have never aired the episode.

Unprecedented Implosion Of European Car Sales (Chart Of The Day)

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– Chart Of The Day: The Unprecedented Implosion Of European Car Sales (ZeroHedge, Dec 4, 2012):

The graphic below, which presents an unvarnished picture of Europe’s true economic state, needs no explanation:


Source: FT

In the context of the above, no explanation is also needed that quietly, and without much fanfare, French car-maker, Peugeot, and Europe’s second largest after VW, was recently GMed, and received a government bailout.

Carmaker Peugeot gets $9.1B government bailout

The French government has agreed to underwrite up to €7 billion ($9.1 billion) of bonds issued by Banque PSA Finance SA, the financing unit of carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, allowing the French automaker to offer low-cost credit to its dealerships and clients amid a slump in sales.

Read moreUnprecedented Implosion Of European Car Sales (Chart Of The Day)

Former Greek PM G-Pap’s 89 Year Old Mother Said To Have $700 Million In Swiss Bank Account

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– Former Greek PM G-Pap’s 89 Year Old Mother Said To Have $700 Million In Swiss Bank Account (ZeroHedge, Dec 3, 2012):

There was a time when Swiss bank secrecy was the passion of every tax-challenged oligarch in the world. Then things changed, Obama made it s badge of honor to rat out anyone you know who has a bank account in Zurich or Geneva, lists of previously ultra-secret account holders started “leaking” and from an asset, Swiss bank accounts promptly became a liability to everyone involved. Such as the matriarch of the legendary Papandreou family, former Pasok Greek PM G-Pap’s mother, Margaret, also wife of former PM Andreas, who according to The Telegraph has been revealed as having a €550 million ($700 million) Swiss bank account (she will hardly be happy to learn that Credit Suisse just instituted a negative interest on CHF deposits) in the Geneva branch of HSBC. Obviously lots of hard work by M-Pap went into building up that particular nest egg.

M-Pap has quite an soap opera past of her own:

Read moreFormer Greek PM G-Pap’s 89 Year Old Mother Said To Have $700 Million In Swiss Bank Account

Greek Government Bonds Jump 12% As Buyback Means Early Christmas For Hedge Funds

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– Greek Government Bonds Jump 12% As Buyback Means Early Christmas For Hedge Funds (ZeroHedge, Dec 3, 2012):

Greek Government Bonds (GGBs) jumped by over 12% today to over EUR40 – by far the highest post-PSI – as fast money floods the limited size illquid market to front-run the Greek buyback. Every day that goes by means less and less benefit for the Greek people as the discounted price of buying back the debt – with all of the money that Greece doesn’t have, goes up. This is a perfect example of greater-fool-theory at work as everyone knows that if this price gets too high, the Greek government (via Troika) will (should) reneg on the buyback which will cause GGB prices to plunge back towards zero. What many misunderstand is that the buyback crystalizes the losses for banks that currently carry this worthless paper on their books at Par and garner the carry (and accruals) and thus in true European fashion, the unintended consequence of this action lines the pockets of fast-money hedge funds along for the short-ride and drains any pretense of capital from the Greek banking system.

Nigel Farage On What The Nobel Peace Price Means To The EU (Video)

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YouTube Added: 30.11.2012

“The Eurozone is now in a very dark place; economically, socially, politically, and I fear that the countries trapped inside it (in that prison) will be there for many years to come.”

See also:

– Nigel Farage Slams Nobel Peace Prize Farce As ‘Insurgency And Violence’ Reign

Flashback:

– Is Obama’s Peace Prize About To Be Confiscated? Nobel Peace Prize Jury Under Investigation

– President Obama nominated for Nobel Peace Prize less then two weeks after Inauguration!!!

Wake Up! 11 Facts That Show That Europe Is Heading Into An Economic Depression

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Most countries in Europe are already in depression.

Ask Gerald Celente and others if you don’t believe me.

The big reset, the greatest economic collapse in world history is coming.

This is the ‘Greatest Depression’.

And many people seem not to get what I am really talking about when I say ‘prepare for collapse’ and what I mean by ‘total collapse’ and the resulting consequences.

(You need food, water and full survival gear [And don’t forget that sleeping bag for extreme cold conditions!], gold & silver and if possible a fully equipped, self-sufficient remote farm … and friends.)

– Wake Up! 11 Facts That Show That Europe Is Heading Into An Economic Depression (Economic Collapse, Nov 30, 2012):

Europe is not just heading into another recession.  The truth is that Europe is heading into a full-blown depression.  The economy of the EU is actually larger than the U.S. economy, and we are watching it melt down right in front of our eyes.  Things just continue to get worse in Europe, and yet somehow the authorities over in Europe just keep insisting that everything is going to be “just fine”.  Well, everything is not “just fine” over in Europe right now.  Unemployment in the eurozone has just hit another brand new record high.  In some nations in Europe, the unemployment rate is already significantly higher than anything the United States experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Europe is a continent that is collapsing under the weight of its own debt, and this is just the beginning.  A lot more pain is on the way.  Officials over in Europe are trying to hold the European financial system together with duct tape and prayers, but it could literally fall apart at any moment.  Europe has a much larger banking system than the United States does, so when a financial collapse happens in Europe, it is going to be very significant for the entire globe.  Sadly, most Americans do not even pay attention to much of anything that is happening in Europe.  They tend to think that the United States is the center of the universe and that as long as we are fine that everything will be okay.  Well, all of those people who are not paying attention need to wake up.  First of all, the U.S. economy is most definitely in decline.  Secondly, the European economy is imploding right in front of our eyes and Europe is going to end up dragging the entire globe down with it.The following are 11 facts that show that Europe is heading into an economic depression…

Read moreWake Up! 11 Facts That Show That Europe Is Heading Into An Economic Depression

Greece Shows What Happens When The Welfare Ponzi Ends

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– Greece Shows What Happens When The Welfare Ponzi Ends (ZeroHedge, Nov 30, 2012):

When no more money flows in, to fund outflows, then the jig is up for the pension fund ponzi. This, as evidenced by the ‘punching, kicking, and tearing at clothes’ that a Greek pension fund manager endured recently, is exactly what has begun in Greece. As Reuters reports, the fund manager “enraged” here audience when she asked the Greek journalists to ‘double their contributions’ to their social security fund, and spent the night in hospital for her efforts to keep the ponzi alive. It was a brutal sign of the fury many Greeks feel at the way the country’s debt crisis has dashed hopes of a comfortable old age. As New Democracy’s leader noted: “From July 2010 it was obvious that a debt restructuring would be inevitable. While foreign banks were unloading their Greek government bonds, no one moved to tell Greek pension funds to do something, that a haircut was coming.” Under a law passed in 1997 and refined in 2007, pension funds have to place 77% of any surplus cash in a pool of ‘common capital’ which must be invested only in Greek government bonds or Treasury bills (T-bills). So the PSI saved German and French banks but crushed Greek pensioners…

Via Reuters:

…

For hours the leader of the Greek journalists’ social security fund had been chairing a meeting about disastrous losses on retirement savings caused by the country’s economic collapse. “She tried to present herself as the fund’s savior and asked (members) to double contributions to 6 percent of salaries,” said one of those present that night at the Titania hotel. Spanopoulou, 58, did not succeed.

When she rose to leave around midnight, enraged fund members first swore, then waded in punching, kicking and tearing at her clothes, according to witnesses. A bodyguard managed to bustle her out of the room, but another group caught her just outside the hotel and gave her a second beating. She spent the night in hospital.

It was a brutal sign of the fury many Greeks feel at the way the country’s debt crisis has dashed hopes of a comfortable old age. Greece’s pension funds – patchily run in the first place, say unionists and some politicians – have been savaged by austerity and the terms of the international bailout keeping the country afloat.

Read moreGreece Shows What Happens When The Welfare Ponzi Ends

Nationalizations Take Off In France

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– Nationalizations Take Off In France (ZeroHedge, Nov 29, 2012):

The nationalization debate has been sizzling on France’s front burner since last week when Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg lashed out at the world’s largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal. He threatened to nationalize its plant in Florange where some old blast furnaces had been shut down for a year-and-a-half. At stake were 2,500 jobs. “We no longer want Mittal in France,” he told the Indian owners—though the company has 20,000 employees in France.

Breaking into a cold sweat, executives around France reevaluated their investment plans. Just then, unemployment hit a 14-year high. Creating jobs was needed more than anything. Scaring off investment was not. Whether his threat was a form of extortion or an announcement of a hostile takeover remains to be seen. But it opened the door for unions at another troubled company to demand nationalization, and the socialist government might not be able to resist.

The three unions—CFTC, Solidaires, and Force Ouvrière—that represent the workers at the shipyard Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic coast demanded in a joint statement today that the government “must become totally involved  to guarantee the future of the shipyards” and must become “a majority shareholder.” Jean-Marc Perez, Deputy Secretary of the Force Ouvrière, clarified: “Nationalization is unavoidable.”

Chantiers de l’Atlantique is famous for building the largest cruise ships and supertankers in the world, including the Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever. But it’s in trouble. Its future is uncertain. Its order books are empty; no new orders are coming in. By 2013, after finishing the current projects, it will be practically without work.

Read moreNationalizations Take Off In France

Obama Vetoes A Carbon Tax—In Europe (WSJ)

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– Obama Vetoes a Carbon Tax—in Europe (Wall Street Journal, Nov 27, 2012):

At last a levy the White House doesn’t like.

President Obama has said he’s going to continue his crusade against carbon energy in a second term, and we believe him. Yet there he was Tuesday signing a bipartisan bill shielding U.S. airlines from paying a carbon tax merely for flying to Europe.

The European Union imposed its scheme to tax foreign airlines this year in one of its aren’t-we-virtuous climate change gestures. Never mind that the tax ignored the usual multilateral forum for dealing with international aviation issues. The move drew a furious reaction from China and U.S. airlines, which estimated the tax would cost them $3.1 billion through 2020. The costs would be passed along to airline passengers.

Read moreObama Vetoes A Carbon Tax—In Europe (WSJ)

Germany Censors Poverty Report

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– Censored: Poverty Report in Germany (ZeroHedge, Nov 28, 2012):

On September 17, the German Labor Ministry sent a draft report “on Poverty and Wealth” to the other ministries to be rubber-stamped. Only the final report, once sanctified by Chancellor Angela Merkel, would be made public. The draft was supposed to remain hidden. But it seeped to the surface almost immediately. And it was hot. Too hot.

The massive data (PDF, 535 pages) described the tough reality that many people faced in Germany—a reality that got tougher every year. For example, in 1998, the lower 50% of the population owned 4% of all private wealth, while the upper 10% owned 45%. By 2008, the lower 50% owned only 1%, but the upper 10% had increased its share to 53% (at the expense also of the in-between 40%). Other reports have painted similar pictures.

Read moreGermany Censors Poverty Report

Morgan Stanley’s Doom Scenario: Major Recession In 2013 (CNBC)

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Preparing you for the ‘Greatest Depression’.

– Morgan Stanley’s Doom Scenario: Major Recession in 2013 (CNBC, Nov 20, 2012):

The global economy is likely to be stuck in the “twilight zone” of sluggish growth in 2013, Morgan Stanley has warned, but if policymakers fail to act, it could get a lot worse.

The bank’s economics team forecasts a full-blown recession next year, under a pessimistic scenario, with global gross domestic product (GDP) likely to plunge 2 percent.“More than ever, the economic outlook hinges upon the actions taken or not taken by governments and central banks,” Morgan Stanley said in a report.

Under the bank’s more gloomy scenario, the U.S. would go over the “fiscal cliff” leading to a contraction in U.S. GDP for the first three quarters of 2013. In Europe, the bank’s pessimistic scenario assumes a failure of the European Central Bank (ECB) in cutting rates and a delay of its bond-buying program.

Read moreMorgan Stanley’s Doom Scenario: Major Recession In 2013 (CNBC)