Portugal – Page 6 – Infinite Unknown

ECB Buying Up Greek Bonds; German Central Bankers Suspect French Intrigue

May 31, 2010May 31, 2010 by Infinite

The bailout for Greece was never about helping the people. Instead it was a bailout for the banksters with taxpayer money, looting the people.

And the ECB buying up Greek bonds is pure quantitative easing (=printing money=inflation=tax on monetary assets), which will not stabilize, but devalue the euro.

In this case things are a little more complicated because the credit line for the ECB quantitative easing policy comes directly from the US Federal Reserve.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet: German central bankers are skeptical about the ECB’s buying-up of Greek bonds.

The European Central Bank has been buying up Greek bonds by the bucketload, even though Athens is already getting money from an EU rescue fund. German central bankers suspect a French plot behind the massive buy-up — after all, it gives French banks the perfect opportunity to get rid of their Greek assets.

The senior members of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, regarded Axel Weber with a look of anticipation. What would Weber, the Bundesbank president, say about the serious crisis that had them all so worried, they wondered? And what did he intend to do about it?

Weber said nothing and, as some who attended the meeting report, even his facial expression was inscrutable. The Bundesbank president remained stone-faced as he acknowledged the latest figures, which indicated that by the end of last week the European Central Bank (ECB) had already spent close to €40 billion ($50 billion) on buying up government bonds from Spain, Portugal, Ireland and, in particular, Greece.

The ECB already has about €25 billion of Greece’s mountain of debt on its books, and it is adding another €2 billion a day, on average. The Bundesbank, which has a 27 percent stake in the ECB, is responsible for €7 billion of the ECB’s Greek government bonds.

Many Bundesbank members are wondering why the ECB is buying Greek bonds in the first place, particularly on this scale, now that the euro-zone countries’ €110 billion bailout package for Greece has been approved, and the first tranche of the funds has already been disbursed.

The general €750 billion rescue fund for the remaining highly indebted countries has been approved but not yet set up. For this reason, it certainly makes sense to stabilize the prices of Spanish, Portuguese and Irish bonds. Nevertheless, some of the central bankers have a sneaking suspicion that there is a French conspiracy at work.

Helping French Banks

Greek Bailout: Two Secret Exit Clauses – Why Europe Is Now Cheering For Its Own Demise

May 26, 2010 by Infinite

– Greek Central Bank Accused of Encouraging Naked Short Selling of Greek Bonds

– ECB Resorts to ‘Nuclear Option,’ Intervenes in Bond Market to Fight Euro Crisis

When all of Europe rushed into its rescue package two weeks ago (first half a trillion, market red, then a full trillion, market green), the one thing that struck us as odd was the conflicting data on the conditionality of the package, with various sources both confirming and denying that the “package” was revocable. It did seem somewhat shortsighted of the Germans, whose political leadership would soon be on the verge of a series of electoral routs, to tie its fate without even one exit hatch, to a country that is a financial toxic spiral. Sure enough, the Telegraph’s Evans-Pritchard has uncovered what may be the two loopholes in the European bailout agreement. While the first one is not surprising, the second one explains why the biggest sellers of European government debt (and/or buyers of Euro sovereign CDS), are likely the governments of the distressed, and core, countries themselves.

Markets have been rattled by reports in the German media that the Greek rescue deal contains two secret clauses. The package will be “immediately and irrevocably cancelled” if it is found to breach the EU Treaty’s “no bail-out” clause, either in a ruling by the European court or the constitutional courts of any eurozone state. While such an event is unlikely, it is not impossible. There are two cases already pending at Germany’s top court in Karlsruhe, perhaps Europe’s most “eurosceptic” tribunal.

The second clause said that if any country finds it cannot raise funding for the rescue at interest rates below the 5pc charge agreed for Greece, it may opt out of the bail-out. BNP Paribas said this would escalate quickly into a systemic crisis if Spain were in such a position, because the other countries cannot carry an ever-rising burden. The bank warned the euro project itself may start to disintegrate rapidly if these rescue provisions are ever seriously put to the test.

The European Debt Crisis: John Clarke And Bryan Dawe Ask The Million Dollar Questions

May 26, 2010May 26, 2010 by Infinite

🙂 ROFL!

Added: 24. Mai 2010

Germany: Parliament Votes to Give 66 % of Annual Income Tax Revenue to The Banksters

May 22, 2010 by Infinite

Here is what Wolfgang Schäuble had to say:

– German Lawmakers Approve Share of $1 Trillion Bailout (Bloomberg):

“Every other alternative is much worse and much more dangerous, so we have to do this,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the lower house, or Bundestag, in Berlin before the vote. “We’re not doing this for others, we’re doing it for ourselves and for future generations.”

These elite puppets have just bankrupted Germany:

“Never in recent European history have governments so blatantly looted taxpayers.

If nothing is done to reverse these bills, the economic and social collapse of Germany, Greece and EU nations is inevitable.”

What this really is, is an unprecedented looting of the people by the elitists that control the governments, the central banks, the IMF and the media.

When the elite will have totally bankrupted the people and everything will go into total collapse mode they will present the New World Order (world government and a new world currency) as the only solution to all the problems that they have created in the first place. (See related information at the end of the article.)

Reichstag, Berlin

Germany’s parliament today passed a bill that will mean that about 66 per cent of the country’s income tax revenue each year will go to banks in the form of interest payments on souvereign dent bonds held by Greece, Portugal and other eurozone nations.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition government voted to give 123 billion as Germany’s portion of a 750-billion euro loan guarantee package prepared by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to enable governments to keep up interest payments to banks on souvereign debt.

The bill was passed by the Bundestag with with 319 “yes” votes, 73 “no” votes and 195 abstentions.

The abstentions came from the center-left opposition Greens and Social Democrats (SPD) and a handful of CDU/CSU and FDP backbenchers. The 123 billion euro bank package comes on top of the 22.4 billon that Germany’s parliament voted to give Greece two weeks ago.

German taxpayers will, therefore, have to give 145 billion euros or 77% of the country’s annual income tax revenue to the banks in the highly likely event of Greece, Portugal and other countries not being able to meet their souvereign debt interest payments.

Germany, France May Hurt AAA Ratings in ‘Ponzi Game at The Highest Level’

May 11, 2010 by Infinite

This bailout is a Ponzi scheme and the people will foot the bill:

– Here Is Who Just Got Their A$$ Saved By The Huge Euro Bailout (Business Insider)

– Federal Reserve Opens Line Of Credit To Europe (AP)

– Stephen Pope of Cantor Fitzgerald on ECB buying government bonds: ‘This is total, undiluted quantitative easing.’ (Forbes)

– ECB Resorts to ‘Nuclear Option,’ Intervenes in Bond Market to Fight Euro Crisis (Bloomberg)

The Deutsche Bundesbank. (Bloomberg)

May 11 (Bloomberg) — Germany and France are among top- rated euro-area states that may compromise their AAA grades by standing behind the debts of weaker members with their 750 billion-euro ($955 billion) stabilization fund.

The package is “making debt profiles deteriorate, potentially damaging the ratings of core sovereigns,” said Stefan Kolek, a strategist at UniCredit SpA in Munich. “It’s a kind of Ponzi game at the highest level.”

The unprecedented loan package was designed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to halt a sovereign- debt crisis that threatened to push Greece, Portugal and Spain into default and shatter confidence in the euro. As part of the support plan, Germany’s Bundesbank, the Bank of France and the Bank of Italy started buying government bonds yesterday.

Bonds of Portugal, Spain and other deficit-plagued nations on Europe’s periphery soared yesterday and bunds — the safe haven for holders of European government bonds — weakened as the threat of a Greek default receded. The cost of insuring against sovereign losses using credit-default swaps tumbled yesterday, with contracts on Greece sliding 370 basis points, their biggest one-day decline, to 577, according to CMA DataVision.

Credit Markets: Bank Swaps, Libor Show Doubts on Europe Bailout

May 11, 2010May 11, 2010 by Infinite

May 11 (Bloomberg) — Money markets and the cost of protecting bank bonds from losses show investors are concerned Europe’s almost $1 trillion rescue plan may not be enough to contain the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

The Markit iTraxx Financial Index of credit-default swaps on European banks and insurers rose to 38 basis points more than the Markit iTraxx Europe Index tied to investment-grade companies from 31 yesterday. While the gap narrowed from 58 basis points before European leaders agreed to the rescue plan, the bank index on average has traded 10 basis points less the past three years. A measure of banks’ reluctance to lend also rose to more than three times the level from March.

The loan package for debt-laden nations including Greece is part of an attempt to stop a decline in the euro and stave off a sovereign default that would threaten recovery from the worst global recession since the 1930s. European financial companies, which hold more than 134 billion euros ($170 billion) in Greek, Portuguese and Spanish sovereign debt, are under scrutiny by investors concerned that they’re owed too much by Europe’s most- indebted countries.

Moody’s says very likely to downgrade Portugal’s credit rating

May 5, 2010 by Infinite

* Downgrade now highly likely, review to take 3 months

* Still to discuss austerity with government

* Moody’s says may cut Portuguese banks’ ratings

The historic part of Lisbon, the Portugeuse capital, recreated after an earthquake devastated the City in 1755

LISBON/NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service put its credit rating for Portugal on a three-month review on Wednesday, and a senior Moody’s analyst said that as a result a downgrade of the credit rating is now likely.

Moody’s said it could downgrade Portugal’s Aa2 ratings by one, or at most two, notches, citing “the recent deterioration of Portugal’s public finances as well as the economy’s long-term growth challenges,” especially due to low competitiveness.

“We have sent a signal that it is possible, and I have to say, statistically, there is a very strong likelihood that if we put it on a review for downgrade then we follow through with a downgrade,” Anthony Thomas, vice president at Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group, told Reuters.

He said a downgrade was more likely now than when Moody’s first placed Portugal on negative outlook last year.

Greek Junk Contagion Presses EU to Broaden Bailout – ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet at CFR (April 26, 2010)

April 28, 2010 by Infinite

At the end of the following article famous investor Marc Faber had to say this:

“The best would be to kick out Greece and the countries that abuse the system,” Faber said in an interview. “They didn’t have the fiscal discipline that was essentially imposed by EU.”

It seems that there are more important things for ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet to do right now than to speak at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, unless you know that those elitists at Bilderberg, CFR and the Trilateral Commission, that rule the governments, the central banks, the corporations and the media have created this entire financial crisis.

The elite is looting the people in the US, Europe and everywhere else.

The elite is bankrupting the people until they beg for world government and the New World Order.

What could Greece do?

– The Solution For Greece (Max Keiser, Matt Taibbi and Catherine Austin Fitts)

Message to the people of Greece: Avoid the IMF like hell, because the IMF is hell.

The people in Greece seem to have a much better understanding of what is happening to them than the people in the US and the UK.

Greek Junk Contagion Presses EU to Broaden Bailout (Update2)

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, on April 26, 2010. (Bloomberg)

April 28 (Bloomberg) — Europe’s worsening debt crisis is intensifying pressure on policy makers to widen a bailout package beyond Greece after a cut in the nation’s rating to junk drove up borrowing costs from Italy to Portugal and Ireland.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel delays approval of a 45 billion-euro ($59 billion) Greek rescue, the crisis is spreading. Portugal’s benchmark stock index yesterday fell the most since the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse, while the extra yield that investors demand to hold Italian and Irish debt over bunds remained near yesterday’s 10-month high.

Portugal, Not Greece, Poses The Greater Existential Threat To Europe’s Monetary Union

April 19, 2010 by Infinite

Must Germany bail out Portugal too?

The historic part of Lisbon, the Portugeuse capital, recreated after an earthquake devastated the City in 1755

The long-drawn saga in Athens can perhaps be deemed a case apart. Greece lied. Its budget deficit was egregious at 16pc of GDP last year on a cash basis. It wasted its EMU windfall, the final chance to bring public debt back from the brink of a compound spiral.

You cannot blame the euro for this, although EMU undoubtedly created a risk-free illusion that lured both Athens and creditors deeper into the trap – and now prevents a solution. Nor would an orderly default under IMF guidance along Uruguayan lines necessarily imperil Europe’s banks. The Bundesbank hints that letting Greece go would prove a healthier outcome for EMU in the long run, upholding discipline.

However, Portugal did not cheat (much) and did not start as an arch-debtor. It did mishandle the run-up to EMU in the 1990s, failing to offset a fall in interest rates from 16pc to 3pc with fiscal tightening. Boom-bust ensued. But that was a long time ago. Portugal has since settled down to a decade of sobriety. The reward never came.

Brussels admitted last week that Portugal’s external accounts have switched from credit in the mid-1990s to a deficit of 109pc of GDP. This has been caused by the incentive structures of EMU itself. “The more broadened access to credit induced a significant reduction in the saving rate, while consumption kept growing faster than GDP. This development led to an increase in Portuguese indebtedness,” it said.

The IMF’s January report – worth examining for its horrifying charts – said “The large fiscal and external imbalances that arose from the boom in the run-up to adoption of the euro have not been unwound, resulting in the economy becoming heavily indebted and growing banking system vulnerabilities. The longer the imbalance persists, the greater the risk the adjustment will be sudden and disruptive.” The IMF noted the “heavy reliance” of banks on foreign wholesale funding, equal to 40pc of total assets.

CDS Traders Are Betting That France Is Next Up For A Sovereign Shakedown (As Are Spain And Portugal)

April 18, 2010 by Infinite

CDS traders were prescient in snapping up Greek and Dubai CDS long before anyone else realized the risk these countries are in (well, more like Goldman selling CDS to some very close clients, wink wink).

In exchange for figuring out what it took cash bond holders months to understand, these ‘speculators’ made a lot of money and in the process got branded as quasi-sovereign terrorists.

Well, Greece can sleep well: according to the latest DTCC CDS data (for the week ended April 9), CDS specs have completely deserted Greece, which saw the single biggest amount of Net Notional CDS decrease, to just over $8 billion, a reduction of $367 million in the prior week (which means all the widening in Greek spreads is now, and has been, just cash bond sales, precisely what Zero Hedge has claimed all along).

CDS traders are now focusing their attention on the one country which has so far slipped under everyone’s radar, yet which we disclosed is more on the hook in terms of Southern European exposure than even Germany: France, with $781 billion in total claims.

Should Greece topple the PIIGS dominoes, France will implode. And this is precisely what CDS traders are betting on now, taking advantage of absurdly tight France CDS levels.

Also, just in case they are wrong on France, Spain and Portugal, not surprisingly, round out the top three names in which Net Notional saw the largest increase. Also not surprisingly, Japan rounds out the top 5 deriskers.

Top 10 deriskers:

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Fitch Downgrades Portugal’s Credit Rating Over Debt Concerns

March 24, 2010March 24, 2010 by Infinite

portugal-credit-rating-downgraded-over-debt-concerns

The government’s tough budget went unopposed by other parties

Portugal’s credit rating has been downgraded from AA to AA- by leading credit rating agency Fitch over concerns about its high levels of debt.

Earlier this month, Portugal passed an austerity budget aimed at cutting its budget deficit.

The downgrade heightened concerns about the health of some of Europe’s heavily indebted economies, forcing the euro lower against the dollar and the pound.

The euro slid against the dollar to its lowest point since May 2009.

It dropped 1.5 cents, or 1.1%, to $1.3346. Against the pound, the euro fell 0.2 pence to 89.55p.

The downgrade also sent major European stock markets into negative territory.

European impact

“A sizeable fiscal shock against a backdrop of relative macroeconomic and structural weaknesses has reduced Portugal’s creditworthiness,” said Douglas Renwick from Fitch Ratings.

Although the agency said Portugal’s austerity budget was “credible”, it said the government would need “to implement sizeable consolidation measures from next year”, as well as reverse stimulus measures this year, in order to get its debt levels under control.

The Portuguese Minister of Finance, Teixeira dos Santos, said it was key to maintain efforts to cut the budget deficit in order to differentiate the country from Greece.

“I am worried because we know that markets overshoot sometimes in their reactions,” he said. “The risk exists, I cannot ignore that.”

The downgrade could mean Portugal has to pay higher yields on government bonds to attract investors, making it more expensive for the country to borrow money – even though other leading ratings agencies may not necessarily follow Fitch’s lead.

Analysts stressed the wider European impact the downgrade could have.

“The downgrade has more impact on the wider sovereign debt crisis, rather than on Portugal at the moment,” said Peter Chatwell at Credit Agricole.

There have been widespread concerns about the high levels of debt of a number of European countries, most notably Greece.

At the end of last year, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s, the second of the three major international credit ratings agencies, downgraded Greek government debt.

European leaders are currently discussing how best to deal with Greece’s debt crisis.

Page last updated at 16:47 GMT, Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Source: BBC NEWS

Marc Faber: It’s Dead Simple, The Supply Of Dollars Will Grow Way Faster Than The Supply Of Gold

March 6, 2010 by Infinite

The Fed, creating the US dollar out of thin air, is the real Ponzi scheme here and not gold.

Marc Faber’s recommendation to continue buying gold every month, forever, received a full broadside on CNBC.

[At 3:45 in the video]:

“You see sir, I am a huge fan of yours, but I have a real difficulty here that I’d like you to help me out with. If I’m looking to invest in my retirement, I have a choice of investing in the American stock market, which is basically a play on change, bright people, working internationally in teams, around the world, and chasing the margin every day of their lives… OR… I can do what you’re suggesting and buy an inanimate object that sits in a dark, damp cellar somewhere, that may or may not be in short supply, may or may not glitter in the correct light, but really has no productive power. Isn’t gold the ultimate Ponzi scheme?”

Faber’s response:

“No, I don’t think it’s a Ponzi scheme, and it’s not a liability of someone else… it’s quantity cannot be increased at the same rate as you can print money… I’m not saying that the dollar will go straight away down because other currencies like the euro are even worse at the present time. But eventually if you print money, the purchasing power will lose.”

The CDS Puppetmaster Behind It All And The Ever Increasing Parallels Between AIG And Greece

February 9, 2010 by Infinite

Goldman Sachs

David Fiderer’s below piece, originally published on the Huffington Post, continues probing the topic of Goldman and AIG. For all intents and purposes the debate has been pretty much exhausted and if there was a functioning legal system, Goldman would have been forced long ago to pay back the cash it received from ML-3 (which in itself should have been long unwound now that plans to liquidate AIG have been scrapped) and to have the original arrangement reestablished (including the profitless unwind of AIG CDS the firm made improper billions on, by trading on non-public, pre-March 2009, information), and now that AIG is solvent courtesy of the government, so too its counterparties can continue experiencing some, albeit marginal, risk, instead of enjoying the possession of cold hard cash. Oh, and Tim Geithner would be facing civil and criminal charges.

Yet as we look forward, we ask, who now determines the variation margin on Greek CDS (and Portugal, and Dubai, and Spain, and, pretty soon, Japan and the US), the associated recovery rate, and how much collateral should be posted by sellers of Greek protection? If Greek banks, as the rumors goes, indeed sold Greek protection, and, as the rumor also goes, Goldman was the bulk buyer, either in prop or flow capacity, it is precisely Goldman, just like in the AIG case, that can now dictate what the collateral margin that Greek counterparties, and by extension the very nation of Greece, have to post on billions of dollars of Greek insurance. Let’s say Goldman thinks Greece’s debt recovery is 75 cents and the CDS should be trading at 700 bps, instead of the “prevailing” consensus of a 90 recovery and 450 spread, then it will very likely get its way when demanding extra capital to cover potential shortfalls, since Goldman itself has been instrumental in covering up Greece’s catastrophic financial state and continues to be a critical factor in any future refinancing efforts on behalf of Greece. Obviously this incremental margin, which only Goldman will ever see, even if the CDS was purchased on a flow basis, will never be downstreamed on behalf of its clients, and instead will be used to [buy futures|buy steepeners|prepay 2011 bonuses|buy more treasuries for the BONY $60 billion Treasury rainy day fund].

In essence, through its conflict of interest, its unshakable negotiating position, and its facility to determine collateral requirements and variation margin, Goldman can expand its previous position of strength from dictating merely AIG and Federal Reserve decision making, to one which determines sovereign policy! This is unmitigated lunacy and a recipe for financial collapse at the global level.

This is yet another AIG in the making, with Goldman this time likely threatening to accelerate the collapse not merely of the US financial system, but of the global one, in order to attain virtually infinite negotiating leverage. Of course, the world will not allow a Greece-initiated domino, allowing Goldman to call everyone’s bluff once again.

Greece: ‘Ouzo crisis’ escalates into global margin call as confidence ebbs

February 9, 2010 by Infinite

For the third time in 18 months the global financial system risks spinning out of control unless political leaders take immediate and radical action.

A driver stands near parked trucks on the road leading to the Kulata border crossing between Bulgaria and Greece. The roadblock was set up by farmes protesting higher taxes.

Flow data shows an abrupt withdrawal of German and Asian capital from Club Med debt markets. The EU’s refusal to offer Greece anything beyond stern words and a one-month deadline for harsher austerity – while admirable in one sense – is to misjudge how fast confidence is ebbing. Greece’s drama has already metastasised into a wider systemic crisis. The world risks a replay of the Lehman collapse if this runs unchecked, this time involving sovereign dominoes.

Barclays Capital says the net external liabilities of Greece are 87pc of GDP, or €208bn (£182bn). Spain is worse at 91pc (€950bn), and Portugal worse yet at 108pc (€177bn); Ireland is 68pc (€123bn), Italy is 23pc, (€347bn). Add East Europe’s bubble and foreign debts top €2 trillion.

The scale matches America’s sub-prime/Alt-A adventure and assorted CDOs and SIVS of the Greenspan fling. The parallels are closer than Europe cares to admit. Just as Benelux funds and German Landesbanken bought subprime debt for high yield with AAA gloss, they bought Spanish Cedulas because these too had a safe gloss – even though Spain’s property boom broke world records. They thought EMU had eliminated risk: it merely switched exchange risk into credit risk.

A fat chunk of Club Med debt has to be rolled over soon. Capital Economics said the share of state debt maturing this year is even higher in Spain (17pc) than in Greece (12pc), though Spain’s Achilles’ Heel is mortgage debt.

The risk is the EMU version of Mexico’s Tequila crisis or Asia’s crisis in 1998. This Ouzo crisis is coming to a head just as tougher bank rules cause German lenders to restrict loans, and it touches on the most neuralgic issue of our day: that governments themselves are running low. Britain, France, Japan, and the US are all vulnerable. All must retrench. The great “reflation trade” of 2009 is over.

Fears Rise of Euro Government Default, Euro And Stock Markets Slump

February 5, 2010 by Infinite

– Germany Warns of ‘Fatal’ Eurozone Crisis, Funds Flee Greece (Telegraph):

Germany has triggered a near-panic flight from southern European debt markets by warning that there will be no EU bail-outs, even though it fears the region’s economic crisis has turned dangerous and could prove “fatal” for the entire eurozone.

Financial markets swooned Thursday amid rising fears of a government debt default in Europe, highlighting the seriousness of the challenges facing the euro currency as fiscally challenged countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain dig themselves out of debt.

After a brief respite early this week, the cost of insuring against default the debt of euro-zone members with large budget deficits jumped late Wednesday and rattled investors more broadly on Thursday.

While Greece and Portugal have felt investors’ fire in recent days, now even larger economies like Spain are starting to come under pressure from worries about their weakened public finances.

Blue-chip stock indexes in Spain and Portugal slumped nearly 6% and 5%, respectively, while an index of Europe’s 600 biggest companies dropped 2.7%. The euro sank more than 1% against the U.S. dollar to an eight-month low of $1.3727 and lost 3% of its value against the Japanese yen.

The global economic downturn, and extensive government spending to fight it, have led to major fiscal problems in Europe, especially for less-dynamic economies like Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain. Such countries took advantage of their membership in the 16-nation euro bloc during the boom by borrowing at unusually low interest rates. But now, investors are worried about how they will reduce yawning budget deficits that exceed 12% of their economic output in the case of Greece and Ireland.

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

January 21, 2009January 21, 2009 by Infinite

– Jim Rogers: ‘UK has nothing to sell’ (Financial Times):
“The City of London is finished, the financial centre of the world is moving east.”

– Jim Rogers: Obama administration run by people who caused the latest financial problems (BBC News)

– The Obama Stimulus Plan Won’t Work (Lew Rockwell)

– SERIOUSLY ALARMED (Telegraph):
(Even Mr. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is now alarmed!)

– King paves way to start Bank print presses (Times Online)

– Sterling hits 23-year low against dollar (Financial Times)

– Geithner pledges ‘dramatic’ action (Financial Times)

– Portugal says S&P downgrade due to global crisis (Reuters)

– Singapore Economy May Post Biggest Decline on Record (Bloomberg)

– Emerging markets face $180 bn investment decline (Business Standard)

– French government to pump €6bn into ailing car industry (Guardian)

– Japan’s ‘Severe’ Recession May Last Three Years, Yoshikawa Says (Bloomberg)

– BHP Billiton to cut 6000 jobs and close mine (Times Online)

– Eaton to Cut 5200 Jobs in a 2nd Wave of Reductions (Bloomberg)

– Record redundancies push unemployment to 1.92 million (Times Online)

– Ecuador to Cut $1.5 Billion in Imports to Defend Use of Dollar (Bloomberg)

– Ex-Scots bankers could face Holyrood inquiry (Times Online)

– Ireland’s Banks Sink With Decline of ‘Celtic Tiger’ (Bloomberg)

– Patrick Rocca, ‘poster boy’ of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger, kills himself (Times Online)

– Bankers accused in crisis could face trials in US (Guardian)

– Hedge Fund Run by Ex-Car Salesman Is Scam, SEC Says (Bloomberg)

– Federal Home Loan Banks may have to borrow from US (Los Angeles Times)

– Merrill Clients Pulled $10 Billion in Fourth Quarter (Bloomberg)

– Standard Life investors demand compensation after ‘cash’ fund invests in toxic debt (Telegraph)

– Toyota Tops GM in Global Car Sales in 2008 (Washington Post)

– Citigroup Makes Stock Incentive Awards to Executives (Bloomberg)

Portugal suffers S&P rating cut

January 21, 2009 by Infinite

Portugal on Wednesday became the third eurozone economy in two weeks to suffer a credit rating downgrade because of its failure to tackle deteriorating public finances.

Standard & Poor’s decision to reduce Portugal’s long-term ratings to AA minus, six notches below the highest triple A rating, followed downgrades of Spain on Monday and Greece last week. Ireland, which was put on negative outlook earlier in the month, could follow soon.

The move underlines the growing strains in the eurozone as the weaker economies, mainly in the south, struggle to stay competitive in the worsening economic climate without the option of devaluing their currencies.

The extra cost for Portugal, Spain, Greece and Ireland of issuing government bonds compared with that of Germany, Europe’s biggest economy has risen this week. This is because investors believe the continent’s smaller economies may suffer longer and deeper recessions.

The cost of insuring their government bonds against default through credit default swaps has risen to record highs, too, with investors judging the assets of these countries to be increasingly risky.

Secret EU security draft calls to pool policing and give US personal data

July 9, 2010August 7, 2008 by Infinite

Don’t miss the “Key Points” at the end of the article.
__________________________________________________________________________

· Closer links needed to beat terrorism and crime

· Blueprint wants new force to patrol world flashpoints

A German and an Italian officer with the joint EU force Frontex check a lorry for illegal immigrants on the Polish border. The agency, which is seen as one model of future integration, patrols the EU’s frontiers. Photograph: Sven Kaestner/AP

Europe should consider sharing vast amounts of intelligence and information on its citizens with the US to establish a “Euro-Atlantic area of cooperation” to combat terrorism, according to a high-level confidential report on future security.

The 27 members of the EU should also pool intelligence on terrorism, develop joint video-surveillance and unmanned drone aircraft, start networks of anti-terrorism centres, and boost the role and powers of an intelligence-coordinating body in Brussels, said senior officials.

French fishermens’ fuel strikes set to go Europe-wide

May 28, 2008 by Infinite

Fishermen across western and southern Europe are threatening an open-ended strike from Wednesday in protest at rising fuel costs. Several ports in France have remained blocked for more than a week despite a government aid deal, and fishermen in the Spanish region of Catalonia began strike action yesterday.

Their colleagues across Spain, Portugal and Italy plan to join them tomorrow. The industry has seen marine diesel prices almost double in six months. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he’ll look for a cap in fuel sales tax across the EU. He told a French radio station this morning: “I will ask our European partners: if the price of oil continues to rise, shouldn’t we suspend the VAT tax part of oil prices?” For that to happen, all 27 EU members would need to agree.

However the European Commission has responded negatively to Sarkozy’s proposal, saying modifying tax levels on oil products to fight inflation would be sending a bad message to oil producing countries.

The French haulage industry has joined the fishermens’ protest, leading to some fuel depot blockades and fears of petrol shortages.