Friday 9 November 2012

With Friends Like These…



Baltic Dry Index. 916  Unch.

LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000.  Revised due to QE programs.

"Sooner or later both the Greek population and international creditors will tire of fighting a losing battle, leading to a break-up of the currency union as Greece pulls out, probably followed by other countries"

Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of the Centre of Economics and Business Research.

Thanks to the euro, and “friends” like Germany, the IMF and the ECB, and a willingness of Greek politicians to bankrupt their own citizenry, over a quarter of Greece is now unemployed with more yet to follow following the passage of yet more austerity measures this week.  But that pales next to youth unemployment, where the figure soars to 58%. There are now more unemployed young people in Greece than there are those holding jobs. Piling on yet more austerity is pure madness.  Since this is the euro reality in 21st century Greece, just to bailout French and German banksters, who needs the European Monetary Union. The European Union isn’t working for most anymore, merely working for Brussels Eurorats, apparatchik politicians and failed casino banksters.

Stay long physical precious metals. The euro as we know it is dying, there’s an explosion of change directly ahead. Don’t blame capitalism for any of this, nor the gullible voters who were lied to, mostly by Europe’s socialist politicians seeking cheap votes. Now Europe’s socialists have run out of other people’s money, but on the other side of the Atlantic that gambit just worked again, though possibly for the last time in a generation.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.”

H. L. Mencken.

Who will stop the Sado-Monetarists as jobless youth hits 58pc in Greece?

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: November 8th, 2012
Greek unemployment rose to 25.4pc in August. Youth unemployment rose to 58pc.

Under the official forecast, the economy will contract by a further 4.5pc next year, so it fair to assume that lots more people are going to lose their jobs. It is certainly not going to improve in any meaningful way for years to come.

This is what happens when you lock into the wrong currency and block the escape routes – or join a "burning building with no exits" in the words of William Hague.

Even if Greeks comply with all demands, public debt will reach 179pc of GDP next year. Perhaps there will be some sort of formula to cut debt service costs by shaving 50 basis points off interest on rescue loans, and persuading the ECB to forgo "profits" on its estimated €40 billion holdings of Greek bonds (though unrealised profits would seem be courting fate).

Yet it is hard to see how the salary and pension cuts, etc, pushed through the Greek parliament last night with enormous difficulty can do any more than buy a few months’ delay. The protests on Wednesday bordered on urban guerrilla warfare. It will not take much to cross that line.

Even if the EMU machine succeeds in keeping Greece in the system, is this any longer a remotely desirable goal? Has it not become a vicious and immoral policy in itself?

I agree with the IFO Institute’s Hans-Werner Sinn that upholding euro membership has by now become an act of cruelty. It not being done in the interests of Greeks. It is being done for the Project, by enforcers of the Project. Only by breaking free can Greece restore a minimum of economic vibrancy and national dignity.
More
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100021180/who-will-stop-the-sado-monetarists-as-jobless-youth-hits-58pc-in-greece/

While there’s no European money to mitigate the rising Greeks poverty, there’s unlimited new money for failed banksters.  Below Belgium and France bailout failed bank Dexia, for the third time in four years.  Has Greece ever thought about turning itself into a bank?

Banks are an almost irresistible attraction for that element of our society which seeks unearned money.

J. Edgar Hoover

Dexia rescued for the third time in four years

Struggling lender Dexia has received nearly €15bn in state support in the past four years and has been forced to seek its third bailout since the financial crisis.

Fears have been raised over the state of the European banking system after France and Belgium were forced to bail out struggling lender Dexia for a third time.

The two countries agreed to inject €5.5bn (£4.4bn) into Dexia just hours before it reported a third-quarter loss of €1.23bn, taking the total amount spent on propping up the Franco-Belgian bank since 2008 to nearly €15bn.

Belgium will provide 53pc of the funding for the latest rescue package, the bank’s second in just over a year following a state-backed reorganisation of the lender in October 2011, with France providing the rest.
Dexia’s third-quarter loss, which took its losses for the year to €2.4bn, was driven in part by a €599bn write-down on the sale of its Turkish subsidiary DenizBank. The new rescue came as two of the eurozone’s largest banks, France’s Societe Generale and Germany’s Commerzbank, reported disappointing financial results for the three months to the end of October.

Societe Generale, France’s third-largest bank, said that its third-quarter net profits had fallen more than 80pc to €85m, while Commerzbank reported a net profit for the period of just €78m.

More

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9665484/Dexia-rescued-for-the-third-time-in-four-years.html

Credit Agricole Posts 2.85 Billion-Euro Loss on Greek Sale

By Fabio Benedetti-Valentini - Nov 9, 2012 6:00 AM GMT
Credit Agricole SA, France’s third- largest bank, posted a third-quarter loss that exceeded analysts’ estimates on costs tied to the sale of its Greek unit.

The net loss was 2.85 billion euros ($3.63 billion), the bank, based outside Paris, said in an e-mailed statement today. The loss was wider than the 1.88 billion-euro average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Credit Agricole, led by Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Chifflet, agreed last month to sell its Emporiki Bank unit to Greece’s Alpha Bank under terms cutting the French bank’s net income by 1.96 billion euros. Credit Agricole is ending a six- year investment in Europe’s most indebted country as concerns linger Greece might exit the euro area.

----Credit Agricole is selling Athens-based Emporiki for a token price of 1 euro, it said Oct. 17. The French bank will inject more funds into Emporiki, bringing the total capital boost since July to 2.85 billion euros, and buy 150 million euros of convertible bonds issued by Alpha Bank. Credit Agricole and Athens-based Alpha aim to complete the transaction by year’s end.

More

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-09/credit-agricole-posts-2-85-billion-euro-loss-on-greek-sale.html

We end for the week with “good news.” Good news timed to the Communist Party of China transition.

China factory output gathers pace, rebound

BEIJING | Fri Nov 9, 2012 2:48am EST
(Reuters) - China's annual industrial output growth quickened more than expected in October and fixed asset investment also ticked higher, cementing investors' expectations of a modest rebound in the final three months of 2012.

The data, key barometers of both domestic activity and output from China's export-oriented factory sector, offered further evidence that a cyclical recovery gained strength last month after the world's second largest economy suffered the slowest period of growth since early 2009 in the third quarter.

"October industrial output growth beat market expectations and confirmed a recovery trend," said Jiang Chao, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.

"But given the uncertainties in the outside world, we expect the recovery momentum to be limited and the full-year industrial output is likely to be around 10 percent for this year."

More

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/us-china-economy-idUSBRE8A805G20121109

“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”

H. L. Mencken.

At the Comex silver depositories Thursday final figures were: Registered 36.41 Moz, Eligible 106.21 Moz, Total 142.62 Moz.   


Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over. 

Today,  queer goings on in the House of Bishops. God’s work comes with some temptation to cash in. Some in Lambeth Palace can resist anything except temptation it seems, and for once we’re not just talking about the usual COE difficulty withthe meaning of Leviticus 18:22.  Who knew that the Church of England has a lot in common with Goldman “Sacks.”  Perhaps the two could merge.

Archbishop: A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ.

H. L. Mencken.

Claims of 'insider dealing' after run of bets on Justin Welby

An MP raised the prospect of insider trading in the Church of England after a last minute flurry of bets with bookmakers on Justin Welby becoming Archbishop of Canterbury.

10:30PM GMT 08 Nov 2012
A string of bookmakers stopped taking money on the Bishop of Durham to succeed Dr Rowan Williams earlier this week after a sudden run of money on the favourite even before media reports that the decision was imminent.

It could suggest that figures within the Church decided to take advantage of information they had heard about the outcome of the long-running Crown Nominations Commission process to place a bet.

In a some cases, people who no previous history of betting opened new online accounts to place a wager on Bishop Welby.

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and former Anglican priest, said it suggested “pretty shabby” behaviour and called for an overhaul of behind-closed-doors selection process.

“Then you would not have a situation where people know about the appointment and do this kind of insider trading,” he said.

A spokesman for Ladbrokes, which has already paid out to those who backed Bishop Welby ahead of the official announcement today, said there was no evidence of anything to “ring serious alarms bells”.

Graham Sharpe of William Hill joked that “nothing is sacred” after a run of last bets before the book was closed.

“There will come a point where, because of the nature of the beast, quite a lot of people have to be aware,” he said.

“If an appointment is to be made there is a lot of red tape and people to be told, it is just human nature that that information will go public but we accept it with good grace.”
More
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9665399/Claims-of-insider-dealing-after-run-of-bets-on-Justin-Welby.html



When a Bishop does it, that means that it’s not illegal.

With apologies to President Nixon.
 
Another weekend, with our media pundits all set to pick over the meaning or lack of it, of the US election results. A good time to get out in the autumn countryside and watch as nature in the northern hemisphere slowly shuts down for winter. More on the growing failure of the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money next week. More on the death of the Great Bilderberger Project of the United States of Europe. We are all Greece in one form or another, but those with their own currency are more equal than others. Have a great weekend everyone.

Investment bankers are just doing "God's work."

Lloyd Blankfien. CEO Goldman Sachs.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October:
DJIA: +92 Up. NASDAQ: +99 Up. SP500: +102 Up.

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