Euro – Page 12 – Infinite Unknown

Standard Bank: Ireland, Greece May Leave Euro

December 12, 2009 by Infinite

Pedestrians walk past Greece’s central bank in Athens, on Dec. 10, 2009. (Bloomberg)

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Greece and Ireland are among countries in an “intolerable” economic situation, which may lead to bailouts or even an exit from the euro area by the end of next year, according to Standard Bank Plc.

The absence of a mechanism to permit so-called fiscal transfers within the 16-nation region may undermine the exchange-rate system, said Steve Barrow, head of Group of 10 foreign-exchange strategy at the bank in London. Concern some nations will need to be rescued may drive the premium investors demand to hold 10-year Greek debt instead of benchmark German bunds to 400 basis points next year, from 214 basis points today, he said. The Irish premium may also jump, he said.

“Countries like Ireland and Greece may not be able to grow out of the current crisis,” Barrow said in a telephone interview today. “With interest-rate cuts, exchange-rate depreciation and significant fiscal support all off limits for these countries, bailouts or even pullouts from EMU may happen next year.”

The Irish Finance Ministry called the suggestion it might leave the euro area “uninformed comment,” and Greece said there was no chance it would leave.

The Euro Becomes Favorite Currency of Drug Cartels

December 6, 2009 by Infinite

Smugglers and launderers use €500 notes instead of $100 bills to save space

International drug cartels have abandoned the US dollar for high denomination euros to launder millions in illegal profits, Europol has revealed. The gangs no longer use $100 bills because €500 notes – the largest denomination of euro – take up less room when transporting large amounts of cash across the world.

In a single consignment on a British Airways plane bound for London from the United States, US police found £11m worth of drug profits in €500 bills. The Colombian and Mexican cartels’ conversion to the European currency is even acknowledged in popular culture: American rapper Jay-Z’s video for his single, Blue Magic, features a suitcase full of €500 notes as he sings about “the kilo business”.

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said last week police forces across continental Europe were tracking the movements of smuggled and laundered euros and had traced much of it back to large drug gangs.

“We have seen examples of high denomination notes hidden in cereal packets, tyres, concealed compartments in lorries, and so on,” he said.

Latvia Devalues Economy, Spares Currency to Save Path to Euro – IMF Report: Economy to Shrink a Total 27 Percent

November 7, 2009 by Infinite

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) — Electronics and clothing stores at the Galerijas Centrs in Riga’s old town fly banners offering discounts of as much as 50 percent.

Liga Kalnina isn’t buying. “Many friends have problems,” said the 28-year-old, whose salary was cut 25 percent in September. “They don’t have money now and they don’t know when they will.”

Their plight is part of Latvian authorities’ plan to save the Baltic country’s currency and economy, among the worst hit in Europe during the global crisis. By ratcheting down state wages and prodding companies to do the same, policy makers are betting the resulting plunge in consumer demand will curb inflation, bring it back in line with the euro countries, whose currency Latvia is trying to join.

Latvia’s inflation rate may turn to 1 percent deflation in October, according to the median survey of six economists, when the figures are released on Nov. 9. That would be the first annual deflation since the country split from the Soviet Union in 1991 and became a market economy. It compares with a rate of 17.9 percent in May 2008.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and Central Bank Governor Ilmars Rimsevics are resisting pressure to drop the lats out of its 2 percent trading band with the euro because a devaluation would throw Latvia off the path to joining the common currency.

Devaluation Shock

Lindsey Williams on The Alex Jones Show: Economic Warfare Declared on the US

October 24, 2009 by Infinite

– Lindsey Williams on Alex Jones: ‘The Elite have changed there Timeline’ – ‘Within two years you will not recognize America’ – ‘War is planned after two years, starting in the middle east area and spreading to the entire world’

Alex continues his discussion with pastor Lindsey Williams about the plans of the elite to crash the economy.

Added: 23rd Oct 09

1 of 4:

Fall Of The Republic – The Presidency Of Barack H. Obama (The Full Movie HQ)

October 23, 2009October 23, 2009 by Infinite

“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
– Benjamin Franklin

Added: 22. October 2009

Fall Of The Republic documents how an offshore corporate cartel is bankrupting the US economy by design. Leaders are now declaring that world government has arrived and that the dollar will be replaced by a new global currency.

President Obama has brazenly violated Article 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution by seating himself at the head of United Nations’ Security Council, thus becoming the first US president to chair the world body.

A scientific dictatorship is in its final stages of completion, and laws protecting basic human rights are being abolished worldwide; an iron curtain of high-tech tyranny is now descending over the planet.

A worldwide regime controlled by an unelected corporate elite is implementing a planetary carbon tax system that will dominate all human activity and establish a system of neo-feudal slavery.

Iran to drop US dollar from forex reserves

October 17, 2009 by Infinite

TEHRAN — The Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) announced this week that it plans to exclude the U.S. dollar from Iran’s foreign exchange reserves.

In line with this plan, Iran has informed Japan that it should use the yen instead of dollars to pay for the oil it buys from the Islamic Republic.

In addition, Iran has decided to open a bourse for oil and gas transactions in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, especially the euro.

US Dollar Reaches Breaking Point as Central Banks Shift Reserves

October 12, 2009 by Infinite

A Euro note is arranged above U.S. bills for a photograph in New York in this file photo. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) — Central banks flush with record reserves are increasingly snubbing dollars in favor of euros and yen, further pressuring the greenback after its biggest two- quarter rout in almost two decades.

Policy makers boosted foreign currency holdings by $413 billion last quarter, the most since at least 2003, to $7.3 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Nations reporting currency breakdowns put 63 percent of the new cash into euros and yen in April, May and June, the latest Barclays Capital data show. That’s the highest percentage in any quarter with more than an $80 billion increase.

World leaders are acting on threats to dump the dollar while the Obama administration shows a willingness to tolerate a weaker currency in an effort to boost exports and the economy as long as it doesn’t drive away the nation’s creditors. The diversification signals that the currency won’t rebound anytime soon after losing 10.3 percent on a trade-weighted basis the past six months, the biggest drop since 1991.

“Global central banks are getting more serious about diversification, whereas in the past they used to just talk about it,” said Steven Englander, a former Federal Reserve researcher who is now the chief U.S. currency strategist at Barclays in New York. “It looks like they are really backing away from the dollar.”

Sliding Share

The dollar’s 37 percent share of new reserves fell from about a 63 percent average since 1999. Englander concluded in a report that the trend “accelerated” in the third quarter. He said in an interview that “for the next couple of months, the forces are still in place” for continued diversification.

The demise of the US dollar

October 22, 2009October 6, 2009 by Infinite

From the article:
“These plans will change the face of international financial transactions,” one Chinese banker said. “America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate.”

Robert Fisk’s report is accurate and the following denial is just disinformation:

– Oil states say no talks on replacing dollar (Reuters):
ISTANBUL/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Big oil producing nations denied a British newspaper report on Tuesday that Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies in trading oil.

The dollar eased in response to the report, which was written by The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk and cited unidentified sources in Gulf Arab states and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong.

The plan is to bring down the US. The US constitution is still a major threat to the ‘New World Order’ and the elite.

US citizens need to be disarmed, their freedoms and the dollar need to be destroyed, so that the new global currency and the ‘New World Order’ can be established.

The elite wants to turn the US into a Third World country.

Prepare yourself for the greatest collapse in history.

Got gold (silver, food, water, guns and ammunition)?

– Gold Jumps to Record High as Inflation Outlook Fuels Investor Demand

In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading

Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars.

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China’s former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. “Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable,” he told the Asia and Africa Review. “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.”

This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region’s conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.

Iran Replaces The US Dollar With The Euro

October 22, 2009September 24, 2009 by Infinite

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in the country’s foreign exchange accounts.

The September 12 edict was issued following a decision by the trustees of the country’s foreign reserves, Mehr News Agency reported.

Earlier, the Islamic Republic of Iran had announced that the euro would replace the greenback in the country’s oil transactions. Iran has called on other OPEC members to ditch the sinking dollar in favor of the more credible euro.

Peter Schiff on Al Jazeera: There is no recovery coming (08/24/09)

August 27, 2009 by Infinite

Added: August 26, 2009

Standard & Poor’s downgrades Baltic states’ debt ratings

August 11, 2009 by Infinite

The US should have been downgraded a ‘looong’ time ago:

– The Greatest Economic Collapse Is Coming:
“To give you an idea of how big a problem these deficits are, consider that the US government could tax its citizens 100% of their earnings and NOT have a balanced budget.” (!)

– Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank:
The“very big hole” in unfunded pension and health-care liabilities is over $99 trillion.
(Full article: Here)

– Glenn Beck: United States Debt Obligations Exceed World GDP

– Federal obligations exceed world GDP

S&P like the Obama administration is controlled by the elite behind the scenes.

The sovereign debt of Latvia and Estonia have been downgraded as the brutal slump plays havoc with public finances and tests commitment to euro currency pegs across the Baltic states.

Tallinn in Estonia, where sovereign debt has been downgraded

Standard & Poor’s, the credit-rating agency, cut Latvia’s rating to “BB” and warned that its economy will contract by a further 16pc this year. The public debt will vault from 19pc of GDP last year to 80pc by 2011. “This very fast increase in debt is unprecedented,” said Moritz Kraemer, S&P’s head of sovereign ratings.

S&P said the country is facing a “struggle” to find a path back to growth while also maintaining its currency peg, but the agency stopped short of advising whether devaluation would help.

There is an intense debate in the Baltics over whether the euro pegs are themselves causing an unnecessarily harsh adjustment, entailing salary cuts of up to 20pc. The International Monetary Fund had privately suggested a devaluation in Latvia to help cushion the blow, but this was overruled by the European Union on grounds that most of the country’s corporate and mortgage debt is in foreign currencies.

GDP has fallen 20pc in Latvia and 22pc in Lithuania over the past year – more concentrated falls than anything seen in the Great Depression. Both countries expect unemployment to peak at almost a quarter of the workforce.

Russia Dumps the U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency

May 22, 2009 by Infinite

The US dollar is not Russia’s basic reserve currency anymore. The euro-based share of reserve assets of Russia’s Central Bank increased to the level of 47.5 percent as of January 1, 2009 and exceeded the investments in dollar assets, which made up 41.5 percent, The Vedomosti newspaper wrote.

The dollar has thus lost the status of the basic reserve currency for the Russian Central Bank, the annual report, which the bank provided to the State Duma, said.

In accordance with the report, about 47.5 percent of the currency assets of the Russian Central Bank were based on the euro, whereas the dollar-based assets made up 41.5 percent as of the beginning of the current year. The situation was totally different at the beginning of the previous year: 47 percent of investments were made in US dollars, while the euro investments were evaluated at 42 percent.

ECB Agrees on $81 Billion Bond Plan, Cuts Key Rate to Record Low

May 7, 2009 by Infinite

Looks like the ECB has now the ‘Bernanke’ virus.

Now all the Illuminati banksters are printing money which increases the money supply and that is called inflation … and inflation is nothing more than a hidden tax.

“The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and Bank of Japan have lowered rates close to zero and are already buying bonds, effectively printing money to reflate their economies in a policy known as quantitative easing. “

Quantitative easing should be better called ‘ruthless stealing’ instead:

“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

Got gold … and silver?

May 7 (Bloomberg) — European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet said the ECB unanimously agreed on a 60 billion- euro ($80.5 billion) plan to buy bonds as officials step up their response to the worst recession since World War II.

“The Governing Council has decided in principle that the eurosystem will purchase euro-denominated covered bonds issued in the euro area,” Trichet told reporters in Frankfurt. He said the bank’s main interest rate, which it cut by a quarter point to a record low of 1 percent today, is appropriate and that the ECB will extend its unlimited auctions of funds to banks.

ECB officials have spent the past months bickering over whether to fight a recession by purchasing assets, with Bundesbank President Axel Weber leading resistance to such a move. The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and Bank of Japan have lowered rates close to zero and are already buying bonds, effectively printing money to reflate their economies in a policy known as quantitative easing.

Europe fetches the monetary helicopters, at long last

March 27, 2009 by Infinite

“Rejoice?” “Printing money to fend off disaster?”

Related articles:
– The Bank’s £200bn gamble (Independent):
Won’t quantitative easing cause inflation? Yes – and that is the general idea. Warren Buffett, the world’s most successful investor, has warned of “an onslaught of inflation” as a result of current policies.”
– Beware Bank of England’s monetary con trick (Financial Times)
– The dangers of printing money: four lessons from history (Times)

Destroying the value of your money through inflation is the general idea? (!!!)

Quantitative easing = Increasing the money supply (by creating money out of thin air) = Printing money = Inflation

Inflation is a tax and even Bernanke admitted that. The central banksters and the governments are looting the taxpayer. Rejoice, you have just been robbed!

I know I am repeating myself here, but there are so many new readers that need to know this:
“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

But now enjoy Mr. Deflation (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard).

Rejoice. After much pious posturing – and criminal wastage of time – the European Central Bank at last seems ready join the Anglo-Saxons, Japanese, Swiss, and Isrealis in printing money to fend off disaster.

Two key governors tipped us off today that the bank is ready to buy assets outright on the open market, including mortgage debt. This is a huge development, exactly what is required to help restore the animal spirits of global investors.

Until now the ECB has offered unlimited liquidity in exchange for collateral from banks. That is not the same thing at all. It is sterilized stimulus. The bank has adamantly refused to cross the Rubicon by scattering money through the economy in real blast of QE. (quantitative easing)

Breaking point for the eurozone?

February 28, 2009 by Infinite

Ireland’s ‘miracle’ economy has turned terrifyingly sour – and as it strains against the inflexibility of the euro, its next crisis may shake the entire EU.

Thousands of public sector workers protest on the streets of Dublin Photo: NIALL CARSON/PA

They can barely let the words pass their lips, but some of the EU’s most important policymakers were forced this week to discuss what was once unthinkable: that at least one of the 16 eurozone countries might be on the brink of ditching the single currency.

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, admitted that the 10-year-old eurozone was under “extreme strain”, with weaker countries struggling to keep their economies afloat in the face of the devaluation of other currencies, such as sterling and the dollar.

Joschka Fischer, Germany’s former foreign minister, darkly suggested that we would soon find out whether the eurozone would turn out to be “a disaster”, while the German finance ministry is vacillating on whether it would be prepared to bail out insolvent states.

The current thinking is that Germany and France, as the strongest economies in the zone and “lenders of last resort”, would have to bail out failing states: the prospect of the eurozone breaking up would bring the future of the EU into question.

But the most startling fact to emerge this week is that the country which is seen as the most vulnerable, and therefore the most likely to ditch the euro, is not Slovenia, or Cyprus, or Greece, but Ireland.

Steinbrueck Says Euro States May Bail Out Members

February 17, 2009 by Infinite

Peer Steinbrueck, Germany’s finance minister, prepares for the start of an EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Feb. 9, 2009. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg News

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said euro-region countries may be forced to bail out cash-strapped members of the 16-nation bloc, going further than his counterparts in saying euro states can’t be allowed to fail.

“Some countries are slowly getting into difficulties with their payments,” Steinbrueck said late yesterday in a speech in Dusseldorf. “The euro-region treaties don’t foresee any help for insolvent countries, but in reality the other states would have to rescue those running into difficulty.”

Steinbrueck’s comments underscore mounting investor concerns as European nations pile on debt to bail out banks and counter the deepest recession since World War II. The EU governing treaty says member states aren’t liable for other members’ obligations.

While declining to identify countries facing problems, the German finance chief said Ireland, which has a widening budget deficit, is in a “very difficult situation.” The comment came in response to a question from the audience. Ireland’s debt- rating outlook was cut by Moody’s Investors Service Jan. 30.

Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

February 15, 2009 by Infinite

The unfolding debt drama in Russia, Ukraine, and the EU states of Eastern Europe has reached acute danger point.

If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Götterdämmerung.

Austria’s finance minister Josef Pröll made frantic efforts last week to put together a €150bn rescue for the ex-Soviet bloc. Well he might. His banks have lent €230bn to the region, equal to 70pc of Austria’s GDP.

“A failure rate of 10pc would lead to the collapse of the Austrian financial sector,” reported Der Standard in Vienna. Unfortunately, that is about to happen.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says bad debts will top 10pc and may reach 20pc. The Vienna press said Bank Austria and its Italian owner Unicredit face a “monetary Stalingrad” in the East.

Mr Pröll tried to drum up support for his rescue package from EU finance ministers in Brussels last week. The idea was scotched by Germany’s Peer Steinbrück. Not our problem, he said. We’ll see about that.

Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, said Eastern Europe has borrowed $1.7 trillion abroad, much on short-term maturities. It must repay – or roll over – $400bn this year, equal to a third of the region’s GDP. Good luck. The credit window has slammed shut.

Not even Russia can easily cover the $500bn dollar debts of its oligarchs while oil remains near $33 a barrel. The budget is based on Urals crude at $95. Russia has bled 36pc of its foreign reserves since August defending the rouble.

“This is the largest run on a currency in history,” said Mr Jen.

‘Toxic’ EU bank assets total £16.3 trillion

February 13, 2009 by Infinite

(£16.3 trillion = $23.4 trillion = € 18.1 trillion)

I have linked in Global News (02/12/09) to this article:
EU faces ‘toxic’ debt spiral (Telegraph).

I have found out that the Telegraph had changed some important parts of the article, incl. the title. So the article below is the real thing, before it has been changed.

When you take a look at this important article, European bank bail-out could push EU into crisis (Telegraph), then you can still see the original title (‘Toxic’ EU bank assets total £16.3 trillion) on the right side under ‘Related Content’.

…. and this is the link to the article “European bank bail-out could push EU into crisis“:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/4590512/
European-banks-may-need-16.3-trillion-bail-out-EC-dcoument-warns.html

Looks to me like they do not want you to know the real numbers here, because then you would know that the Titanic is already sinking. Somebody does not want you to panic, which would result in a run on the banks and on gold and silver.

(I would run get my money out there, buy gold and silver, stock up food and water etc. and also have some cash.
This is not to be seen as a recommendation for you to do the same.)

Related article:
European banks’ toxic debts risk overwhelming EU governments (Telegraph)

‘Toxic’ EU bank assets total £16.3 trillion

It is not surprising that European Union finance ministers looked ashen faced in Brussels on Tuesday.

The EU faces vast costs and spiralling government debt

The breakfast meeting discussed how EU governments should deal with, in other words pay for, the “toxic” banking assets that triggered the economic crisis.

The figures, contained in a secret European Commission paper, are startling. The dodgy financial packages are estimated to total £16.3 trillion in banks across the EU.

The “impaired assets” may amount to an astonishing 44 per cent of EU bank balance sheets. It is a deep ditch the bankers, regulators and their friends in government have dug us into.

More on the details of this story over on business.

As discussed here on Monday, the secret 17 page paper warned that government attempts to buy up or underwrite the assets could plunge the EU into a deeper crisis, one that threatens the Union.

Everyone is terrified that a second bank bailout will push up government borrowing at a time when bond markets have growing doubts over the ability of countries such as Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Britain, to pay it back.

“Estimates of total expected asset write-downs suggest that the budgetary costs – actual and contingent – of asset relief could be very large both in absolute terms and relative to GDP in member states,” the EC document, seen by The Daily Telegraph, cautioned.

Spread yields are widening on bond markets as investors judge it riskier to buy the debt of a country like Italy than the debt of another like Germany.

In line with the risk, and the low performance of some EU economies compared to others, the markets have demand a higher premium on government bonds issued to raise the cash.

The more the doubt there is over high levels of government borrowing, the more the markets have asked governments to pay to service their borrowing and all the more indebted countries become.

Ministers and officials fear that the process could lead to vicious spiral that threatens to tear both the euro and the EU apart.

“Such considerations are particularly important in the current context of widening budget deficits, rising public debt levels and challenges in sovereign bond issuance,” the EC paper warned.

There is trouble ahead. Is it possible to buck a crash?

Feb. 11, 2009

Source: Telegraph

Jim Rogers on investing in currencies (02/05/09)

February 6, 2009 by Infinite

Source: YouTube

Iceland to be fast-tracked into the EU

January 30, 2009 by Infinite

Plan for cash-strapped state to become member by 2011

Iceland will be put on a fast track to joining the European Union to rescue the small Arctic state from financial collapse amid rising expectations that it will apply for membership within months, senior policy-makers in Brussels and Reykjavik have told the Guardian.

Ian Traynor on fast-tracking Iceland into the EU and the euro Link to this audio

The European commission is preparing itself for a membership bid, depending on the outcome of a snap general election expected in May. An application would be viewed very favourably in Brussels and the negotiations, which normally take many years, would be fast-forwarded to make Iceland the EU’s 29th member in record time, probably in 2011.

Help Ireland or it will exit euro, economist warns

January 19, 2009 by Infinite

A leading Irish economist has called on Dublin to threaten withdrawal from the euro unless Europe’s big powers do more to rescue Ireland’s economy.

David McWilliams, a former official at the Irish central bank, has said that Ireland could withdraw from the euro if they are not given more help Photo: Rex Features

“This is war: countries have to defend themselves,” said David McWilliams, a former official at the Irish central bank.

“It is essential that we go to Europe and say we have a serious problem. We say, either we default or we pull out of Europe,” he told RTE radio.

“If Ireland continues hurtling down this road, which is close to default, the whole of Europe will be badly affected. The credibility of the euro will be badly affected. Then Spain might default, Italy and Greece,” he said.

Mr McWilliams, a former UBS director and now prominent broadcaster, has broken the ultimate taboo by evoking threats to precipitate an EMU crisis, which would risk a chain reaction across the eurozone’s southern belt, where yield spreads on state bonds are already flashing warning signals. The comments reflect growing bitterness in Dublin over the way the country has been treated after voting against the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.

“If we have a single currency there are obligations and responsibilities on both sides. The idea that Germany and France can just hang us out to dry, as has been the talk in the last couple of days should not be taken lying down,” he said.

Standard & Poor’s said it may cut Spain’s credit rating; Euro Weakens to One-Month Low on ECB Outlook

January 13, 2009 by Infinite

The following picture depicts the future Euro/US$ exchange rate.
The US dollar will be destroyed.

A euro banknote is arranged for a photograph atop U.S. bills, in New York, Dec. 30, 2008. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) — The euro weakened for a third day versus the dollar, reaching a one-month low, as traders added to bets the European Central Bank will reduce interest rates, decreasing the appeal of the region’s assets.

The 16-nation currency also declined to the lowest level in more than a month against the yen after Standard & Poor’s said it may cut Spain’s credit rating. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition said yesterday it will spend 50 billion euros ($66.6 billion) to support Europe’s largest economy. New Zealand’s dollar fell to a four-week low after S&P said it may cut the country’s foreign-currency credit rating.

Related article: New Zealand’s AA+ Credit Rating May Be Cut, S&P Says (Bloomberg)

“There is more than enough room for the euro to fall further,” said Hideki Amikura, deputy general manager of foreign exchange in Tokyo at Nomura Trust and Banking Co., a unit of Japan’s largest brokerage. “The focus of the currency market is how far rates will fall in Europe, because the ECB is behind the curve compared with other central banks.”

ECB deems Britain unworthy of euro

January 8, 2009 by Infinite

The European Central Bank has deemed Britain unfit for monetary union even if it wants to join following the dramatic slide in sterling and the explosion in the UK budget deficit.

“Great Britain does not meet the entry criteria for the euro,” said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, the ECB’s board member in charge of international affairs.

“The public deficit will rise to around 6pc (of GDP) in 2009 and even higher in 2010. Sterling’s exchange rate is not yet sufficiently stable,” he told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper.

The entry rules impose a deficit ceiling of 3pc of GDP, two years of currency stability, and a public debt limit of 60pc of GDP. The rules were waived for political reasons to let Italy, Belgium and Greece into EMU, but terms are becoming stricter as the ECB seeks to exclude East European states before they are ready.

If anything, Mr Bini Smaghi may have been too kind to Britain. The Treasury expects the deficit to reach £118bn in the 2009 tax year – almost 8pc of GDP – but there are now fears that this will rise even higher as tax revenues collapse. Some analysts have begun to warn that Britain will soon face a deficit of 10pc, the sort of catastrophic levels seen in Latin America in the 1980s.

There is a mounting anger in EU circles over the slide in sterling, seen by some as a deliberate ‘beggar-thy-neighour’ policy evoking the Great Depression. “The 30pc fall in the pound is the biggest devaluation by any country in the single market since it was created in 1957,” said one ex-commissioner. “There is going to be a serious political reaction to this in coming weeks.”

China Losing Taste for Debt From the U.S.

January 8, 2009 by Infinite

HONG KONG – China has bought more than $1 trillion of American debt, but as the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home, a move that could have painful effects for American borrowers.

The declining Chinese appetite for United States debt, apparent in a series of hints from Chinese policy makers over the last two weeks, with official statistics due for release in the next few days, comes at an inconvenient time.

On Tuesday, President-elect Barack Obama predicted the possibility of trillion-dollar deficits “for years to come,” even after an $800 billion stimulus package. Normally, China would be the most avid taker of the debt required to pay for those deficits, mainly short-term Treasuries, which are government i.o.u.’s.

In the last five years, China has spent as much as one-seventh of its entire economic output buying foreign debt, mostly American. In September, it surpassed Japan as the largest overseas holder of Treasuries.

But now Beijing is seeking to pay for its own $600 billion stimulus – just as tax revenue is falling sharply as the Chinese economy slows. Regulators have ordered banks to lend more money to small and medium-size enterprises, many of which are struggling with lower exports, and to local governments to build new roads and other projects.

“All the key drivers of China’s Treasury purchases are disappearing – there’s a waning appetite for dollars and a waning appetite for Treasuries, and that complicates the outlook for interest rates,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist in the Hong Kong office of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Fitch Ratings, the credit rating agency, forecasts that China’s foreign reserves will increase by $177 billion this year – a large number, but down sharply from an estimated $415 billion last year.

Gerald Celente on The Alex Jones Show: The Coming Revolt

January 25, 2009January 1, 2009 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

Alex welcomes back to the show Gerald Celente, the world’s number one trends forecaster, who has predicted a severe depression and riots in the streets.

Part 1 of 7 (Part 1 is not uploaded on YouTube. All the others are there and a must-see.)

Part 2 of 7

December 18, 2008
Source: YouTube