Merry Christmas 2014.

Baltic Dry Index. 782 -06   Brent Crude 60.33

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

A Very Happy and Healthy Christmas to All, followed by A Peaceful, Healthy and Prosperous 2015 to All. 

The next LIR  update will be on Monday January 5^th, 2015. If necessary, I will post to the website on events of interest and importance, for example after the Greek parliament votes on December 29^th.

Spem In Alium. Thomas Tallis. C. 1570

A 1611 letter written by the law student Thomas Wateridge contains the following anecdote:
In Queen Elizabeth's time yeere was a songe sen[t] into England of 30 parts (whence the Italians obteyned ye name to be called ye Apices of the world) wch beeinge songe mad[e] a heavenly Harmony. The Duke of — bearinge a great love to Musicke asked whether none of our Englishmen could sett as good a songe, and Tallice beinge very skilfull was felt to try whether he would undertake ye matter, wch he did and made one of 40 partes wch was songe in the longe gallery at Arundell house, wch so farre surpassed ye other that the Duke, hearinge yt songe, tooke his chayne of Gold from his necke & putt yt about Tallice his necke and gave yt him.^[2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybQdoab92tw&feature=related

Spem in alium numquam habui praeter in te

Deus Israel

qui irasceris

et propitius eris

et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis

Domine Deus

Creator coeli et terrae

respice humilitatem nostram

Meaning:

I have never put my hope in any other but in you

God of Israel

who will be angry

and yet become again gracious

and who forgives all the sins of suffering man

Lord God

Creator of Heaven and Earth

look upon our lowliness

Matthias Grünewald. Concert of Angels(left) and Nativity (right).
1510-1515. Oil on panel.
Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar, France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spem_in_alium

  

Crooks and Scoundrels Corner

The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.

In the EUSSR, Brussels and Berlin must be obeyed.

Ahead of Elections, Bribery Scandal Hits Greece

Published 19 December 2014

A spokesperson for Greece’s SYRIZA party had previously alleged that a bribery scheme was being set up to help the government candidate win the presidential election.

A representative of the right-wing Independent Greeks party alleged Friday that an unnamed person attempted to bribe him in order to vote in favor of the incumbent coalition's candidate in the first round of Greece’s presidential elections earlier this week.

Representative Pavlos Haikalis claimed an individual offered him 700,000 euros ($US855,785) as a down payment and offered upward of 2 million euros ($US2.5 million) in total for his vote. Haikalis says he submitted a complaint along with a recording of the attempted bribe, but did not specify who attempted to bribe him.

Haikalis made the allegations Friday morning after a TV host claimed he had witnessed an attempted bribery, the representative then called in to confirm. Panos Skourletis, a spokesperson from the leftist SYRIZA party, also called in to support the TV host's claims. Skourletis previously had testified that businesspeople connected to the government were conjuring up a bribery scheme to help secure the victory of the government's candidate in presidential elections.

Another representative of the Independent Greeks party, Stavroula Xoulidou, also testified that someone attempted to bribe her in exchange for her support for the government's candidate.

Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos held an emergency press conference backing Haikalis’ claims, saying that he had video proof and would release it if the prosecutor investigating the allegations refused to do so.

Under the Greek political system, a president must receive support from 200 representatives from the 300 seat parliament in either the first or second round of voting, while in the third and final round the threshold is lowered to 180 votes. The government’s presidential candidate Stavros Dimas received 160 votes in the first round held on Dec. 17, the second round will be held Dec. 23.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ahead-of-Elections-Bribery-Scandal-Hits-Greece-20141219-0013.html