Baltic Dry Index. 896 -14
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
Why did I take up stealing? To live better, to own things I couldn't afford, to acquire this good taste that you now enjoy and which I should be very reluctant to give up.
The Troika, with apologies to Cary Grant. To Catch A Thief.
Repeat after me, “Cyprus is not a template for EU
bank bailouts. Your money is quite safe in a Eurozone bank.” How do we know
that? Well Europol’s from Germany’s finance minister down, tell us so. Would
they lie to us? Even the flaky Dutch “Diesel Bomb” has recanted, and now says
that the devil made him say that Cyprus was a “template.” He now says to please
put your deposits in a European bank. They’re as safe as houses, really they
are. A euro deposit is as good as gold. But something’s not right with this
picture. Firstly Europe has form in deception. Who can forget poor Diogenes and
his lamp! Next unless my eyes deceived me, their lips moved as they said it. “Whatever
it takes,” in Euroland now includes conman lies and theft.
We open today with a French budget minister,
joining a UK Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister in outright lying. Unlike the
UK, this being France, he won’t be going to jail, even if the jail for an
ex-Cabinet Minister is of the Four Season’s Spa variety. Stay long physical gold
and silver and take a long hard look at who you are banking with and why. Any deposit guarantee is now only as good as
the country that issued its ability to meet it. That list doesn’t include all
of Club Med, plus Luxembourg. Unless you’re on the bank insiders list for a
theft tip-off, every bank in Euroland is now the legal equivalent of MF Global.
This morning, Europe in its finest hour,
perpetually saving the euro for the benefit of banksters.
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie"
Jean-Claude Juncker. Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. Europe’s Motto.
Another European Politican Exposed As Complete Liar
Remember this guy?
This would be Jerome Cahuzac, the French "budget minister" who was tasked with rooting out tax fraud by his socialist "75% tax or the capitalist pigs win" overlord, and who resigned two weeks ago to avoid "hindering" an investigation into allegations he had a secret Swiss account, all the while maintaining his innocence? Well, he was just exposed as the latest lying Eurocrat politicians.
- FORMER FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS LIED ABOUT BANK ACCOUNT
- EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS HAS HAD THE FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 20 YEARS
- EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS HAD EU600,000 IN FOREIGN ACCOUNT
- EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER APOLOGIZES TO HOLLANDE, AYRAULT
- EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER COMMENTED ON HIS BLOG TODAY
- EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS `CAUGHT IN SPIRAL OF LIES'
But that's ok: it got serious - he could have gone to jail or been fired in disgrace, so naturally he had to lie.
April 2, 2013, 12:30 p.m. EDT
Hollande is missing in action during Cyprus crisis
Commentary: ‘Latin empire’ needed to counterbalance Germany
By
Darrell Delamaide
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Where in the world is French
President François Hollande?
The euro zone was once again teetering on the brink with the crisis in
Cyprus, and European leaders were pulling all-nighters to hammer out a plan to
save the banks there without torpedoing the common currency EURUSD -0.17% .
Officials from Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, even Luxembourg were
vocal in pledging solidarity but insisting that stakeholders in the banks be
“bailed in” before rescue funds were made available.
Largely
silent in these discussions was France. Neither the finance minister, Pierre
Moscovici, nor Hollande, the Socialist president who was elected last year on
promises he would fight Germany’s insistence on austerity, appeared to have any
impact on the discussions.
For much
of his first year in office, Hollande has been obsessed with imposing a 75%
income tax rate on high earners in France, devoting much of his political
capital not to restoring growth in Europe but to halting the erosion of
France’s far-from-dire fiscal situation with a symbolic Socialist policy from
the 20th century.
After
France’s constitutional court rejected the tax, Hollande proposed last week to
replace it with a payroll tax at the same rate on companies that pay these high
salaries.
If the
French president has been making a case in European forums for more growth or
stimulus, he has been remarkably ineffective in having his voice heard.
As
Germanophobia grows in Europe in the wake of the Cyprus bailout imposing heavy
losses on bank depositors, the absence of a counterweight to Germany’s vision
of the European economy is being more keenly felt.
More
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hollande-is-missing-in-action-during-cyprus-crisis-2013-04-02?dist=lbeforebell
French factory slump drags on, weak orders bode ill
PARIS |
Tue Apr 2, 2013 8:56am BST
(Reuters)
- French manufacturing activity retreated for the 13th month in a row in March,
hurt by another slump in new orders in a sign of tough times ahead, a survey
showed on Tuesday.
The
Markit final purchasing managers index for manufacturing inched up to a
three-month high in March of 44.0 from 43.9 in February.
That was
slightly better than a preliminary reading of 43.9 reported in mid-March but
still well below the 50 line that divides growth in activity from contraction.
Markit said panelists reported subdued demand in the face of a weak domestic economy, with new orders declining for 21st month in a row despite firms cutting their prices.
"A very slight improvement in the headline PMI figure does little to disguise an ongoing sharp deterioration in French manufacturing sector operating conditions during March," Markit senior economist Jack Kennedy said.
Though manufacturing generates only 16 percent of economic output, it is a bellwether for the broader private sector because many service providers rely on factories for business.
more
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/02/uk-france-pmi-idUKLNE93100S20130402
Italy is not technically part of the Third World, but no one has told the Italians.
P. J. O’Rourke
Italy's "wise men" seek to end political crisis; president gloomy
ROME |(Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano expressed despair on Tuesday at fierce criticism of his latest plan to end a post-election deadlock that has raised fears of months of instability in the euro zone's third largest economy.
Two groups of "wise men" appointed by Napolitano to try to forge a policy compromise between squabbling parties to end the impasse since the February 24-25 election started work on Tuesday. Napolitano said they would report back in 8-10 days.
The 87-year-old head of state reacted angrily to
suggestions from the centre-right of Silvio Berlusconi that his plan, which
came after all other efforts to find a government failed, were a useless waste
of time which the economy
could ill afford.
-----Italy is deep in its longest recession for 20 years and although markets have so far remained relatively sanguine about the political deadlock, the economy desperately needs a stable government to unblock decades of sluggish growth.
There are also fears Italy's borrowing costs could shoot up dangerously if the impasse finally starts to spook investors.
Since the election, the parties have refused to budge at all from irreconcilable positions that "made one despair of the possibility of governing this country," Napolitano said.
Even the experts themselves seemed pessimistic about their chances of success and Napolitano's move may be aimed more at letting the situation "decant" for a bit longer in the hope that the parties will finally agree to a compromise.
More
Euro zone jobless rate steady at 12 percent
(Reuters) - The euro zone jobless rate was stable at 12.0 percent in February, the European Union statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday, which could add pressure for an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank.The February number was in line with expectations of economists polled by Reuters, and remained unchanged from January's figure, which Eurostat revised up to 12.0 percent.
Data from the bloc of 17 countries using the euro showed another 33,000 people out of work in February, almost 1.8 million more than in the same time last year.
Unemployment of under 25s rose to 23.9 percent in the euro zone,
with rates in Greece and Spain remaining over 50 percent.
More
We end for the day with the national shame and employment
scandal of rip-off modern Britain. This form of “employment” abuse makes
financial planning and budgeting a joke, deprives the “employed” the ability to
enrol in part time higher education to better their situation, and is widely
used by the scammier part of society including national supermarket chains who
use it to boost their bottom line. It’s long past time that this amoral
employment practice was ended.
Number of Britons on 'zero hours' contracts hits record high
Record numbers of British workers are being employed on "zero hours" contracts which keep staff on standby and deny them regular hours, official figures disclose.
The
number of workers in jobs without any guarantee of regular hours or pay nearly
doubled during last year to reach 200,000, according to data from the Office
for National Statistics.
The
contracts – now used by almost a quarter of Britain's major employers - legally
allow firms to employ staff, often in low paid jobs, without any guarantee of
actual work, or income.
In turn
workers are able to turn down work and go for other jobs as they are not
contracted to work any hours.
Last
month, Government figures showed the number of people in work had risen to
29.73 million - the highest level since records began in 1971 - during the
three months to the end of December.
During
the same period 200,000 people were employed on zero hours contracts.
The
agreements have been heavily criticised, with UNISON claiming they “present
huge drawbacks in comparison to permanent regular work”.
They
leave workers uncertain over their future and income, people are forced to
disrupt their lives by answering calls to work at the last moment, and they
have shown themselves to be “more open to abuse”, the union claims.
In 2005
there were 55,000 people on zero hours contracts in Britain. That rose to
110,000 people between April and June last year. The figure nearly doubled to
200,000 between October and December last year.
One
worker, who asked not to be named, told ITV News that she was promised plenty
of hours but the reality was very different, and on occasion she had been
called in then sent home again without a shift.
She said:
"It's difficult....sometimes they make you wait around for an hour to see
if there are any positions available. If there aren't you have to go home and
that's a day's wage lost.”
Sarah
Veale, of the TUC, said: "It is a sign of desperation that people will
take anything at the moment...we're not valuing people, we're just looking at
them as industrial fodder"
---- They are used by the Co-op – which
employs around a fifth of its funeral staff this way - the House of Lords,
Boots, Bupa, Cineworld, Centerparcs, and the NHS.
More
"The first requisite of a sound monetary system is that it put the least possible power over the quantity or quality of money in the hands of the politicians."
Henry Hazlitt
At the Comex silver depositories Tuesday final figures were: Registered 43.75
Moz, Eligible 121.61 Moz, Total 165.36 Moz.
Crooks and
Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Back across the
Atlantic, in the land of Ebenezer Squid doing “God’s work,” it’s back to
business as usual again in the housing market. Happy days are here again, for
some. The next Lehman is out there, and thanks to the Bernanke Fed, getting
bigger and more dangerous by the day.
"Were we to be directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread."
Thomas Jefferson
April 2, 2013, 3:18 p.m. EDT
Fannie Mae and fuzzy math
Commentary: Record profits welcome, but no recovery
SAN
FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Fannie Mae’s record profits, attained through a resurgent
— if still nascent — housing market and economic recovery, are indeed welcome.
But they
don’t go anywhere close to erasing the damage the institution wreaked on
taxpayers, nor are they vindication for what is still a flawed system of
government’s participation in the markets.
Fannie
Mae on Tuesday reported net
income of $17.2 billion— its best year ever.
But
it is just a nail in its financial house. Fannie Mae FNMA
+12.92% lost
$16.9 billion in the previous year. Its bailout tally stood at $91 billion. So
even with its recent profits, Fannie is still the biggest burden on U.S. taxpayers,
just ahead of its brother company, Freddie Mac FMCC
+13.99% ,
with a $51 billion tally. See
ProPublica guide to bailouts.
More
importantly, Fannie Mae continues to use questionable methods. Its use of
“inverse floaters,” which are bets on homeowners staying in expensive
mortgages, received some congressional scrutiny last year.
The
company said it stopped making the bets, but you can see the problem here.
Fannie and Freddie are still overwhelmingly the biggest buyers of mortgages in
the country. The government backs more than 90% of such loans — more than twice
the amount it did a decade ago.
Given
their role, any efforts to reform the government-sponsored entities, is likely
doomed. No one wants to touch them, even if they knew how, which they don’t.
Fannie
and Freddie are like homes built in a flood zone. In good times, their
positions create stunning benefits. In bad times, everyone drowns.
More
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fannie-mae-and-fuzzy-math-2013-04-02?link=MW_story_investinginsight
"We are in a world of irredeemable paper money - a state of affairs unprecedented in history."
John Exter
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished March:
DJIA: +119 Up. NASDAQ: +132 Up. SP500: +157 Up. Another bubble grows.
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