Baltic Dry Index. 1424 +19
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
"More than any other time in history, Greece faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray they have the wisdom to choose correctly."
With apologies Woody Allen
Below, two different views on the fate of the serfs of Greece. In version one, they bravely stand against the invading hordes of Persians, sorry Brussels bureaucrats, ECB bean counters, and IMF perverts, and send them packing, causing rout among the European bankster class. In version two, far more likely, Greeks are enslaved by their own government this coming Sunday, and sold into eternal penury for a 12 billion tranche of IMF cash. European banksters rejoice and collect another round of telephone number bonuses. And all just in time for the half year bonus pool too.
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie."
Jean-Claude Juncker. Luxembourg Prime Minister and president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar
June 17, 2011, 12:00 a.m. EDT
Stop the Greek hostage crisis!
Commentary: Will everyone please stop lying about crisis in Europe?
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — This isn’t about “bailing out Greece.” Yes, the Greeks owe about $500 billion, but they already have spent the money.
This is about bailing out the banks that lent to them.
The biggest creditors are French banks. The second biggest are the Germans. The third biggest are the British. I’ll bet a lot of Greek bonds are now held by hedge funds.
These are the people asking for public funds.
What’s happening in Europe right now isn’t a financial crisis. It’s a hostage crisis.
Once again, we are all being held hostage by a bunch of bankers. “Give us a bailout,” they’re saying, “or else the economy gets it!”
Maybe it’s time to call their bluff.
Perhaps Europe should let Greece default. Let it go bust. Force the bond holders to take their losses.
If you invest in a stock that falls, you don’t get made whole.
If you buy bonds in a company or institution that collapses, you don’t get your money back. So why here?
They call it “risk capital” for a reason.
More
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stop-the-greek-hostage-crisis-2011-06-17
Greek debt crisis: billions more will be pumped in to rescue Greece
The International Monetary Fund is preparing to pump more money into Greece’s stricken economy in an attempt to calm turmoil on the financial markets.
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor 6:30AM BST 17 Jun 2011
The IMF said it stood “ready to continue its support” for the country providing the government introduced far-reaching economic reforms. It was threatening to withhold support for Greece, which was due to be paid next month, but this is now thought unlikely.
A new bail-out package, the second in 13 months, is expected to be agreed over the next few weeks.
The European Union’s top economic official, Olli Rehn, said he expected the EU and the IMF to release a €12 billion loan in early July to keep Greece solvent.
Greece was warned last night that it must introduce austerity cuts and not default on repayments on its emergency bail-out loan as a condition of the new deal.
Fears that Greece was about to default on repaying its debts rocked financial markets yesterday.
Last night the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, announced a cabinet reshuffle and said he would put himself forward for a vote of confidence as he seeks to force through spending cuts and tax rises against widespread opposition.
An attempt to form a national unity government has failed. The country has been blighted by strikes and riots this week while several politicians have resigned in protest at the proposed austerity drive.
Greece’s credit rating has been cut to the lowest in the world and its debts are now regarded as less secure than those in poor developing countries. There were fears that if Greece defaults on its debt repayments, other countries such as Ireland may be tempted to follow suit, leading to another financial crisis.
More.
In better Greek news, fallen guru Greenspan almost made a prediction of a Greek default being inevitable. With “wrong way” Greenspan almost in the default camp, it’s almost certain that Greece won’t default in his lifetime. Still he might always surprise everyone with an almost correct call for once in his professional life.
"If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss Bank."
Alan Greenspan, with apologies to Woody Allen.
Default by Greece ‘Almost Certain’: Greenspan
By Vivien Lou Chen - Jun 17, 2011 12:46
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, said a default by Greece is “almost certain” and could help drive the U.S. economy into recession.
“The problem you have is that it’s extremely unlikely the political system will work” in a way that solves Greece’s crisis, Greenspan, 85, said in an interview today with Charlie Rose in New York. “The chances of Greece not defaulting are very small.”
The chances of Greece defaulting are “so high that you almost have to say there’s no way out,” said Greenspan, who ran the central bank from 1987 to 2006. That may leave some U.S. banks “up against the wall.”
Greece’s debt crisis has the potential to push the U.S. into another recession, Greenspan said. Without the Greek issue, “the probability is quite low” of a U.S. recession, he said.
More.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-16/default-by-greece-almost-certain-greenspan.html
We end the week updating on drought and flood struck China. Out of mainstream news for now, China is suffering from food and fuel inflation, increasing social unrest, and increasingly restricting the amounts of the strategic metals exported that make much of modern technology and modern weaponry work. Last week, the US issued a bellicose statement on the disputed islands in the South China Sea, at least China took it as bellicose. Vietnam, one of the parties in the dispute, sought to get Uncle Sam’s military to line up on team Vietnam. Below, China consolidates its support from Eur-Asia. And beefs up its military for a coming showdown later this decade.
Chinese, Russian presidents meet for deepening strategic partnership |
| English.news.cn 2011-06-17 03:40:10 |
MOSCOW, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday held talks with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, to review the achievements in bilateral relations over the past decade and plan for the development of ties in the next 10 years.
Hu pointed out that the China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership has seen unprecedented development since the two countries signed the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation in 2001.
He said the two sides have resolved border problems once and for all and become each other's most important strategic partner of cooperation.
The two sides have established proper mechanisms of regular meetings between their leaders and cooperation mechanisms between various government departments, Hu said, adding that China and Russia have signed more than 200 cooperative documents which helped improve the mechanisms and legal basis of bilateral ties.
Bilateral trade has increased from some 8 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to nearly 60 billion dollars in 2010, and the two sides have carried out a number of large-scale cooperative projects in the areas of energy, science and technology and region-to-region cooperation, Hu said.
Meanwhile, the reciprocal staging of "Youth Friendship Years" and "Language Years" have improved the ties between the two peoples and deepened their traditional friendship, the Chinese leader said.
Hu said the two countries have jointly worked for the establishment of such regional and multilateral cooperative mechanisms as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and also cooperated closely within the frameworks of the United Nations and the Group of 20.
Hu said the growth of China-Russia relations has promoted both sides' development and brought substantial benefits to the two peoples, and helped promote regional and world peace and stability.
Pointing out that the next decade will be a critical period for the two countries for their respective development and for deepening their partnership, Hu said China will as always take China-Russia relations as foreign policy priority.
He said China is ready to work with Russia to develop a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership featuring equality, mutual trust, mutual support, common prosperity and lasting friendship in the new decade.
Hu stressed that China will unswervingly pursue the road of peaceful development and work for the establishment of a harmonious world of long-term peace and common prosperity.
More
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-06/17/c_13934349.htm
China to beef up maritime forces
English.news.cn 2011-06-17 11:44:37
BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhuanet) --China's offshore surveillance force will be beefed up to ensure that the country's maritime interests are fully protected amid increasing disputes with its neighbors. By 2020, a total of 15,000 personnel, compared with 9,000 now, will serve in the China Maritime Surveillance (CMS) force under the State Oceanic Administration, a senior official with the CMS, who declined to be identified, told China Daily.
The CMS air arm will be increased to 16 planes and the patrol fleet will have 350 vessels during the period of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the official said, adding that the fleet will have more than 520 vessels by 2020。
Currently, nine aircraft, more than 260 surveillance vessels and 280 law enforcement vehicles are in operation.
The CMS launched the construction of 36 patrol ships and 54 speedboats last year, the official said.
The expansion plan was unveiled as China's biggest civilian maritime patrol ship was sent into the South China Sea to protect national "rights and sovereignty".
Haixun 31, from the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration, under the Ministry of Transport, sailed from Zhuhai, Guangdong province, on Wednesday on its way to Singapore for a two-week visit, the Xinhua News Agency said.
More
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-06/17/c_13934544.htm
We end on China with yet another reason for global stock markets to worry. Even with inflation artificially boosting the figures, consumer spending is weakening in China. China’s worrying wobble is getting bigger, it seems. Stay long physical precious metals. Turmoil in China will collapse the fiat currencies and the financialised derivatives gambling system. However unlikely, the great Chinese bubble might have hit its pin.
Consumers Fade in China Economy Racked by Inflation With ‘Peak Days’ Gone
By Bloomberg News - Jun 17, 2011 5:18 AM GMT+0100
At the Haiyang Zhuangshi Co. hardware store in Beijing, sales of paint and aluminum window frames are slowing, one sign of a diminished role for consumer spending in China that’s foiling government objectives.
“It seems the peak days are gone,” said owner Hu Mengbin, 42, whose daily revenue has dropped to about 3,000 yuan ($463) from as much as 4,000 yuan last year after China stepped up efforts to rein in home prices. “Between 2006 and 2008 when the property market was red hot, we could make quick money.”
Hu’s loss underlines the dilemma for Premier Wen Jiabao: his campaign to control inflation is undermining attempts to make consumers a bigger driver of the world’s second-largest economy. Failure to lessen dependence on exports and investment spending leaves the nation more vulnerable to swings in external demand and subject to asset booms and busts.
Government data this week showed retail sales growth slowed to 16.9 percent in May, less than the average of the past five years and a figure that’s inflated by soaring prices for food. By contrast, spending on fixed assets such as factories and property climbed 26 percent, excluding rural households, in the first five months, the fastest pace in almost a year.
“Consumption hasn’t taken off,” said Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing. “What has happened is a shift from exports to investment as a driver of growth.”
Record Low
Analysts at Capital Economics, a London-based research group, estimate that private consumption may have fallen to 34 percent of gross domestic product last year, the lowest level since China began opening its economy to market mechanisms more than three decades ago. Just 10 years ago, the share was 46 percent, Capital Economics calculates.
More
"We are not discussing the exit of Greece from the euro area. This is a stupid idea and an avenue we would never take."
Jean-Claude Juncker. Luxembourg Prime Minister and president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Self Admitted Liar.
At the Comex silver depositories Thursday, final figures were: Registered 27.97 Moz, Eligible 71.33 Moz, Total 99.30 Moz.
+++++
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Today, those inscrutable Chinese have been learning from Wall Street. According to a mistakenly released Chinese report, about a 1,000 Chinese officials a year make off with about a billion dollars collectively, and set up a new life in the west. Shocking, absolutely shocking.
June 17, 2011, 1:17 a.m. EDT
China central bank finds officials stole billions
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Corrupt Chinese officials and employees of state-owned companies have absconded with about 800 billion yuan ($123.7 billion) of public money over 15 years through 2008, much of it making its way to the U.S., Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, according to Chinese news reports citing a central bank study.
The 67-page report, completed in 2008, was posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website this week, purportedly by mistake, and has since been taken down, although PDFs of the document are circulating in cyberspace.
In the report, which appears never to have been intended for public release, the PBOC estimated about 16,000 to 18,000 individuals have fled the country with ill-gotten funds over a 15-year period leading up to the report’s release, according to news-media accounts.
The PBOC focused upon where people went and how they got the embezzled funds out of the country.
One method, the study was cited as saying, was with the help of family or other trusted individuals who emigrated overseas, often using fake documents.
The report was also cited as saying some of the money was smuggled into the former Portuguese colony of Macau, now the world’s biggest gambling hub, where it was laundered through casinos and then used to fund lavish lifestyles abroad.
Once reported anecdote involved the case of Zhang Jian, a former Communist Party official in Jiangsu province, who visited Macau 48 times over a two-year period.
A report in The Australian, meanwhile, cited a passage in the central-bank study saying officials were crossing over the border at Shenzhen, bearing suitcases of bank notes “like ants moving houses.”
The PBOC said in the report it planned to work more closely with foreign governments to block the officials from escaping with looted funds. It also said it has increasingly begun to take part in international anti-money-laundering organizations.
More
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-central-bank-finds-officials-stole-billions-2011-06-17
Another weekend, and another weekend of crisis for Europe. In Greece, epicenter of the European bankster crisis, life goes on as normal. The usual parties are held, no show jobs are no showed, false tax returns are by those who bother filing at all. Hundreds of Greeks mill around the non Greek tourists panhandling Euros, dollars, Roubles, and Yen, although after Fukushima, it’s getting harder and harder to get impoverished Greek lay-abouts to take Yen. German surveyors are busy sizing up Greek islands for later transfer in the coming Greenspanian default. Have a great weekend everyone.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the EU, said last night that the euro would emerge stronger from the crisis.
The Telegraph June 17, 2011.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished May:
DJIA: +196 Up. NASDAQ: +249 Up. SP500: +200 Up.
The Dow and SP 500 and NASDAQ have all reversed from down to up. The Fed’s rigging of the indicators seems to have worked. Note: like all indicators, they were devised for normal markets not markets where the central bank is flooding the economy with new cash. In current conditions where risk is suspended by too big to fail, I doubt any indicators are showing more that where the Fed’s new cash is flowing in our world of casino capitalism. But the Fed’s QE program is supposed to end this month!!!
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