The crash of 2008 was horrible and debilitating for so many people and so many countries….but the country that came out of the bankers created recession was Iceland………the question is how did they, Iceland, accomplish what so many countries could not?
The answer is a simple one.
Gee, I wish the US had thought of that!
Austerity….protests…..violence…..IMF loans….more austerity…..more cuts….more privatization…..more protests…. and the beat goes on…….but sports fans, will all this austerity and cuts and protests and…….will Greece be saved?
Not only will they NOT be saved but will still probably default……all that BS and they still cannot be saved…..
From BBC…….
“The announced EU programme… implies that the probability of a distressed exchange, and hence a default, on Greek government bonds is virtually 100%,” the agency said.
[…]”The support package for Greece also benefits all euro area sovereigns by containing the severe near-term contagion risk that would likely have followed a disorderly payment default or large haircut on existing Greek debt,”
Now my question is……with all the cuts and austerity….who will benefit the most if default is coming? I can tell you the big losers…..the Greek people….that is who!
You realize that this is FAR from over, right?
The economy looks like a piece of crap! Workers are losing jobs at an alarming rate. And yet every time stocks go up 2 points we are told by the financial media that the recession is showing signs of improvement….and for a couple of years I have been saying that it is just NOT so…….and that a double dip is coming, at least in my analysis…..
Thanx to Michael Snyder of BLN.com for doing the research for me (Not solely for me but I thank him)…….there are signs that say that the worse is yet to come…….
The following are 18 signs that global financial markets smell blood in the water….
#1 Banks stocks are absolutely getting hammered right now. Bank of America hit a 52 week low on Monday. Bank of America shares declined 4 percent to $9.61.
#2 So far this year, Bank of America stock is down about 27 percent.
#3 Bloomberg is reporting that Bank of America may be forced to increase its capital cushion by 50 billion dollars.
#4 Shares of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are near two year lows.
#5 Shares in Citigroup fell 2.5 percent on Monday.
#6 Moody’s recently warned that it may be forced to downgrade the debt ratings of Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
#7 Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are all either considering staff cuts or are already laying workers off.
#8 The deputy European director of the International Monetary Fund says that the Greek debt crisis is “on a knife’s edge“.
#9 Moody’s has slashed Ireland’s bond rating all the way to junk status.
#10 The yield on 2 year Portuguese bonds is now over 20 percent, the yield on 2 year Irish bonds is now over 23 percent and the yield on 2 year Greek bonds is now over 35 percent.
#11 Shares of Italy’s largest bank dropped by a whopping 6.4% on Monday.
#12 On Monday, the yield on 10 year Italian bonds was the highest it has been since the euro was adopted.
#13 On Monday, the yield on 10 year Spanish bonds was also the highest it has been since the euro was adopted.
#14 Shares of Germany’s largest bank fell by a staggering 7% on Monday and are down a total of 22% so far this month.
#15 Citigroup’s chief economist, William Buiter, says that without direct intervention by the ECB there is going to be a wave of sovereign defaultsacross Europe….
“Nothing stands in the way of multiple sovereign defaults except the ECB: they are the only game in town, there is nothing else”
#16 Cisco has announced plans to axe 16 percent of its workers.
#17 Borders Group has announced that it will be liquidating all remaining assets. That means that 399 stores will be closed and 10,700 workers will lose their jobs.
#18 During times of great crisis, many investors seek safe havens for their money. On Monday, the price of gold shot past $1600 an ounce.
The indicators are staring us in the face……will anyone blink first…….who will be on the hook this time? None of the indicators are as good as the media wants you to believe they are……the world is about to get a cold slap in the face…they know it! Now you know it!
You know the budgetary problems here in the Us and you have heard all the claptrap in Greece and other European countries and all the opinions of what could happen if this is not done or that is not done…..but what are we really looking at………. for all things go to crap?
From Reuters……
The IMF, in its regular assessment of global economic prospects, said bigger threats to growth had emerged since its previous report in April, citing the euro zone debt crisis and signs of overheating in emerging market economies.
The Washington-based global lender forecast that U.S. gross domestic product would grow a tepid 2.5 percent this year and 2.7 percent in 2012. In its forecast just two months ago, it had expected 2.8 percent and 2.9 percent growth, respectively.
With regard to the global economy overall, the IMF struck a measured tone, saying the slowdown of recent months should be “temporary.” It trimmed its forecast for global growth this year only slightly, to 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent, and maintained its estimate for robust Chinese growth of 9.6 percent despite recent signs of a slowdown there.
With predictions for most of the world, with the exception of China, in the crapper……………. is now a good time to crash an economy? Here in the US if we are to follow the lead of the Repubs, that is exactly what will happen……..where is the logic that with fewer jobs and even fewer consumers, that this will somehow save the economy…….then ask for WHOM will it be saved?
P.S. After writing this I have learned that Italy is starting down the drain….yet another country that has to get help?
Inkwell Institute
European Desk
I know….we all are well aware of the problems that Greece is having……socially, economic and political……….violence, forced austerity and dissension……people having to pay for the problems created by a government…. that is pretty much always the case……
The EU and IMF plan is that Greece needs to cut spending, suspend benefits and to sell off as much as possible of the governments assets….like airports or bridges or toll roads….etc…..but there is a problem…..
As reported in UK’s Guardian……
Up for sale are 39 airports, 850 ports, railways, motorways, sewage works, a couple of energy companies, banks, defence groups, thousands of acres of land for development, casinos and Greece’s national lottery. George Christodoulakis, Greece’s special secretary for asset restructuring and privatisations, said the sell-off would raise €50bn (£44bn) to help pay back the country’s €110bn bailout debt.
The private equity bosses gathered in the hotel’s ballroom for the parade of Greece’s national treasures showed little interest in buying anything.
But why would rock bottom prices for assets not be attractive to speculators and developers?
Aref Lahham, managing director and founding partner of Orion Capital Managers, said most private equity firms would not buy Greek assets because the “risks are too high”. He added: “I think people will not buy those assets, that is the sad truth.”
Lahham said more than half of the assets up for sale comprises land for commercial or residential development, which is unattractive because of the difficulty of securing financing to build in Greece. His firm was attracted by the potential of Greek tourism but legislation made it difficult for foreign companies to develop the country’s islands and beaches. “Greece is a fantastic tourism destination with very undeveloped infrastructure. There isn’t a Four Seasons or a Shangri-La or a Peninsula or any of the major hotel chains in Greece,” he said. “It’s strange, they would love to be there and we would love to build it for them, but somehow regulations don’t allow you to do so.”
To me that sounds like the people with the cash want to eliminate any regulations that would keep them honest…….kinda like the big corporations in the US…….in a recent vote even more austerity measures have been approved by the Greek parliament……and since the first round of austerity was not as productive as anticipated….I ask what happens if this round is not successful?
The claim that “healing” and “renewed growth” will come from the further suppression of wages, deeper government spending cuts and the sell-off of government-owned assets is a contemptible lie as millions of people know through their own bitter experiences. The austerity measures of the past year—also introduced with the promise of “recovery”—have seen a rapid economic contraction and rising unemployment. But rather than bring down the level of debt, the ratio of debt to gross domestic product has continued to rise and is heading to 160 percent.
Who will pay the next round? Will the people be cut even deeper? The people have little left to be taken away….or maybe this time they can have the people work for free and to keep working until they drop dead….now that would settle a bunch of costs to the government……Greece is being RAPED!
I swear if I was a hard core conspiracist I would say that this is a world wide plan to eliminate the middle class and to return us back to the days of serfdoms…..(now that sounds like a future post in the making)…….
Greece has lots of problems, along with several other countries in the EU and some even say that the US is looking at major economic problems….Greece has erupted in violence….again.
I have been writing about the problems and some of the solutions that the IMF will look for and some of the other choices that Greece must come to terms with and soon……..
I wrote a piece the other day about what the IMF will most likely demand of Greece…..http://bit.ly/mEUNw0……and today there is another post on the austerity politics ….all are related to the happenings in Greece….
But if Greece is to save itself from financial ruin what must it do?
In an article written by Wayne Madson…..
What lies in store for Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and, in short order, the United States, is the wholesale sell-off of public property to private corporations at bargain basement prices. What the despots who gather in their secretive lairs at Davos, Cernobbio, Bilderberg, and G8/G20 are bringing about is a world where no property is owned by the state, which by default means the people. Total corporate control over every facet of life equals extreme fascism.What is occurring in Greece is a bellwether for what will befall other nations in Europe, as well as the United States, if the bankers get their way. And in Greece, the people know how generations of investments by the taxpayers are being turned over to vampire capitalists who have the full backing of the International Monetary Fund, European Commission, and the European Central Bank.
The European and global bankers have demanded that the Greek government sell off entirely or assume a minority stake in a number of state enterprises and utilities.
For example, this year global capitalists are slated to acquire 84 percent of OTE, the Greek telecommunications provider. In addition, private bankers will assume 66 percent ownership of the Greek Postal Savings Bank; 51 percent of the National Lottery; 60 percent of the Salonika Water Authority; 68 percent of DEPA, the natural gas utility; and 25 percent ownership of the ports of Piraeus and Salonika.
Next year, the capitalist grab for public property increases in intensity with Athens International Airport coming under 79 percent private ownership. The global capitalists will also obtain 100 percent ownership of the Egniata toll motorway; 60 percent of Hellenic Post; 66 percent of OPAP, the state-run video-lotto and online sports betting firm; 73 percent of the Athens Water Authority; 83 percent of DEI, the Greek Electric Authority; and 51 percent of the Greek Regional Airports Authority.
There you are……an all out assault on the public sector…….an attempt to make everything and I mean everything is controlled by the private sector….everything will be for profit and NOTHING will be based on need or society’s needs….not a bad deal…..one gets to control the public sector for pennies on the dollar………..and NO one can see why the people are pissed off? What is the first thing companies do when they buy another company? (pause here for reflection)…..do not hurt yourself…..they fire people and shit can benefits…..and this what the whole world is looking at when the people scream about austerity…….
What part of any of this austerity crap is good for the people? Where will it improve their lives?
Happy days are here again!
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has made a lot of headlines in the past month or so…..you know Mr. Cool, the head of the fund was caught trying to make happy with a chamber maid and now there is a woman in France that is trying to make happy with the IMF as its new head….you have heard all the jokes….but how much do you know about the IMF?
The Activist Post has a short history…..
Under a new post-war monetary system, the IMF was created to stabilize exchange rates linked to the dollar and bridge temporary payment imbalances. The World Bank was to provide credit to war-torn developing countries. Both bodies, in fact, proved hugely exploitive, using debt entrapment to transfer public wealth to Western bankers and other corporate predators.
Basically, the IMF is NOT an organization to save country’s economic system, but rather to open them up to exploitation from banks and other raiders……how does this exploitation work, you ask?
the scheme destructively obligates indebted nations to take new loans to service old ones, assuring rising indebtedness and structural adjustment harshness, including:
— privatization of state enterprises, many sold for a fraction of their real worth;
— mass layoffs;
— deregulation;
— deep social spending cuts;
— wage freezes or cuts;
— unrestricted free market access for western corporations;
— corporate-friendly tax cuts;
— tax increases for working households;
— crushing trade unionism; and
— harsh repression against opposition to a system incompatible with social democracy, civil and human rights.
As a result, bankers and other corporate predators strip mine countries of their material wealth and resources, shift them from public to private hands, crush democratic values, hollow out nations into backwaters, destroy middle class societies, and turn workers into serfs if they manage to have any means of employment.
Look at what is being asked of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland and what response is being felt by the people of the countries in question…….the truth is that the IMF has caused the collapse of many countries….in the 1980’s, those countries in a struggling sub-Sahara and in the same time frame many countries of Latin America….yet Article ! of the IMF states….
to give confidence to members by making the general resources of the Fund temporarily available to them under adequate safeguards, thus providing them with opportunity to correct maladjustments in their balance of payments without resorting to measures destructive of national or international prosperity.
Sounds good, huh? Yep, kinda like the “all men created equal” of the Constitution in the 1850’s…..the IMF destroys more economies than it saves and yet it continues to rape countries of their resources…it is time for the world to realize that these organizations help….but helps only the ones that can do the raping, not the raped……
Inkwell Institute
International Studies Group
European Desk
The economic crisis has hit the EU rather hard, especially Greece and then there is Portugal, Ireland and Spain, all of which could be the next big problem for the EU. Some of the countries are trying desperately to find ways to prevent a total meltdown of their economy…….one such move is by Germany’s government….
Germany pledged to impose a partial ban on so-called naked short-selling early Wednesday to ward off steep market drops.
Before a parliamentary discussion regarding the 750-billion euro rescue package German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for tougher regulations against speculators to restrict some financial trades saying that the future of the euro was at stake.
Naked short-selling involves traders selling shares or investments which they do not hold in hopes of buying them cheaper later.
Germany announced its intentions to prohibit naked short-selling of eurozone government debt and shares of major financial companies hoping other nations would follow suit.
This is a rather tame attempt to cut the legs off of predatory practices…speculators have given the world almost every depression and recession and to try and control devious and possibly illegal financial practices is one way to stop the train in its tracks.
However, there must be something to the attempt for the DOW slid 376 points on the news of the attempt by Germany…..looks like the speculators were trying to get out before they were caught with their pants down.
Keep in mind that speculation caused the economic bubble in Japan to burst……speculation caused the American economic bubble to explode and now China is looking at the problem of speculation….will their economy be the next busted bubble?
By now the entire world is reeling from the recession that has effected everyone, in one way or another….economic growth has been dismal and recovery has been slow…..but yet there is a bright spot….China….
the UK’s Guardian is reporting:
The Chinese economy returned to double digit growth in the fourth quarter, with a jump of 10.7% year-on-year, but inflation is creeping up again amid fears of overheating.
Although the fourth quarter GDP figure was slightly below analysts’ expectations, it was the fastest for two years and a marked increase on the previous quarter’s 9.1%. It took 2009’s growth to 8.7%, outstripping the official growth target of 8%, the level some believe essential to create enough jobs to match growth in the labour force.
“China has become the first, on the whole, to achieve recovery and stabilization in its economy,” Ma Jiantang, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a press conference in Beijing. But he said China would avoid major adjustments to economic policy given the “uncertainties” it still faces and a weak global outlook.
So, what is China doing right? In the sense that they are showing a steady growth in their economy…..
ADDENDUM: I have seen a reason for this success (?)…….at least according to the AP:
Bank of China plans to sell up to 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) in bonds to replenish its capital and meet government standards following a record surge in lending last year amid Beijing’s stimulus measures, a state-run news agency reported.Regulators have warned some banks that they have fallen below minimum capital requirements after handing out some 9.5 trillion yuan in loans last year. Banks are expected to scale back lending to roughly 7.5 trillion yuan in 2010.
China’s banking industry is regarded as the healthiest of any major economy because institutions avoided the mortgage-related turmoil that battered Western lenders.
Beijing hopes cooling the pace of lending will keep its economy growing without creating inflation and overheating. Other nations are counting on that growth and a healthy demand from China for their goods for their own recoveries.
More on the international stage……for months and months the Wall Street banks have gotten free money to gamble with and the people wait for their turn in the barrel…..almost everyone, but Bankers, have been saying that credit should be loosened up to help consumers get their credit……no one in the US is listening, especially the leaders and the bankers…..
I am not a expert on European politics or economics but there are stories that I read that makes me think that they may be on a better path than the US…..I recently read this article in the NY Times and thought that it would be intersting to get others points of view…..
The European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank said Monday that they would end a program aimed at supplying Swiss currency to banks, in a further sign that the region’s financial system is becoming more stable.The European and Swiss banks, and the Polish and Hungarian central banks, will stop providing so-called swaps, which had allowed the banks to exchange euros for Swiss francs. The last swap will be Jan. 25, the Swiss central bank said.
It appears that the European sectors are doing a smarter thing than their American counterparts….Americans do not get to hear this type of news…taxpayers need to pay attention to the world…..
If there is someone reading (possibly Quin of Quintessential Havoc) has more info on this situation I shall bow to their knowledge and would appreciate an update….