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Greece is burning. Not that this is a new phenomenon. But it sounds so sinister, so ominous.When you find out why it's burning, it becomes a tragicomedy. The Greek government -- led by unelected economist Lucas Papademos -- promises to slash the safety net of many Greek citizens for a big sack of bailout money. Ordinary Greeks, whose futures are being mortgaged, are very angry. Things burn. Then everyone goes home and waits for the money to arrive.The process repeats with such frequency that a lengthy Wikipedia page has sprung up to catalog each outburst, hence the tragicomedy. And why...

http://youtu.be/s3u9LB32YYM

You know there is a reason why Europe just came crawling with an advance handout looking for US assistance: Moody's jsut went apeshit on Europe. In other news, we wouldn't want to be the company that insured Moody's Milan offices.Full release:Moody's adjusts ratings of 9 European sovereigns to capture downside risksAs anticipated in November 2011, Moody's Investors Service has today adjusted the sovereign debt ratings of selected EU countries in order to reflect their susceptibility to the growing financial and macroeconomic risks emanating from the euro area crisis and how these risks exacerbate the affected countries' own specific challenges.Moody's...

Cue the fireworks in 3...2...1... FRIEDEN EUROPEANS CAN'T DO MUCH FOR GREECE BEYOND AGREEMENT - BBGFRIEDEN: GREECE NEEDS STRUCTURAL REFORMS, SHORT-TERM FINANCING - BBGFRIEDEN: GREECE HAS HISTORY OF PROBLEMS IMPLEMENTING DECISIONS - BBG And... drumroll please: FRIEDEN SAYS HE WISHES U.S. MORE INVOLVED IN STRENGTHENING IMF - BBG Translation: Hey America, we've done all we can, now it's your turn to sustain the Ponzi. Because if we go, you go.The upside: think of just how much faster the latest and gratest $16.4 trillion debt target will be breached if America simply issues Greek bonds with a US guarantee. Like...

China`s growth could fall to 4-pct. range this year: IMF FEBRUARY 08, 2012 03:05 The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that China`s economic growth could fall to the 4-percent range if the eurozone`s woes deepen, urging Beijing to prepare stimulus measures in response. China`s export-dependent economy is highly exposed through trade links, with a large volume of Chinese exports going to Europe. Lower import demand will reduce corporate profitability and household income, which in turn could lower GDP growth, the IMF said. The contribution of exports to GDP growth in China was minus 0.5 percent last year, and could further...

More than two-thirds of Iran's lawmakers have endorsed a statement calling for cutting off oil sales to the European Union before EU sanctions on their country go into effect. The statement, which was read Wednesday in an open session of parliament broadcast on state radio, said "in the case of the continuation of illogical policies" by the EU, Iran will look for alternative customers for its oil before the European embargo goes into effect in the summer. The statement was signed by 200 of the parliament's 290 lawmakers.

Greek default drama is much like the movie Groundhog Day. If you prefer a quote from Yogi Berra instead, then please consider It's déjà vu all over again. Every day for weeks we have heard a "deal is close". Moreover, on multiple occasions at the end of the week we were informed Greece "had" to reach agreement over the weekend or Greece would default. Let's hope this time someone really means it. Once again, Greece says faces 24-hour deadline to clinch rescue. Greece has just one day left to strike a deal with impatient lenders and reluctant political party leaders...

In Case You Hadn't Noticed, Everything Is Going Wrong In Greece Right Now Simone Foxman Febuary 3, 2012 Markets haven't been paying much attention to Greece lately, as multiple sets of negotiations drag on between the Greek government, representatives of its private creditors, troika officials, and even the European Central Bank. In case you hadn't noticed, they're not going anywhere. After more than three months of bickering about the scale of a Greek debt restructuring, officials still keep pushing back the date at which they expect to have a deal. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, a deal to impose...

Today We Saw This Chart Literally Make People's Jaws Drop Joe WeisenthalJanuary 30,2012 We were just in the studios of GBTV (Glenn Beck's online network) around a group of folks who were watching Glenn's show, when he put up this chart from ZeroHedge of youth unemployment in Europe. Jaws literally dropped around the room. The extent of how bad it is is not well known.ZeroHedge By the way, the salience of this issue was underscored today, when even Rupert Murdoch began tweeting about it.

TORY MPs heaped pressure on David Cameron yesterday to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. As the PM met European leaders in Brussels, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, his backbenchers plotted to hold polls to judge the mood. The People's Pledge campaign will hold its first poll in April, with ten more this year and 100 in 2013. Sixty-four MPs so far back the campaign — 44 are Tories. Eurosceptic Douglas Carswell said: "The decisions affecting my constituents' lives are now taken by remote and unaccountable politicians." It came as the Government performed a U-turn on last...

CHART: You're Going To Need Big Haircuts To Make PIIGS Debt Sustainable January 30, 2012Global Macro Monitor Interesting calculations posted by Spiegel from the Kiel Institute on the sovereign haircuts which would make the debt of the listed countries sustainable. We would love to see the calculations for the U.S., U.K., and Japan.

20 Signs That Europe Is Plunging Into A Full-Blown Economic DepressionJanuary 30, 2012 An economic nightmare is descending on Europe. With each passing month, the economic numbers across Europe get even worse. At this point it is becoming extremely difficult for anyone to deny that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression. In fact, some parts of Europe are already there. In Spain the overall unemployment rate is over 22 percent, and in Greece one out of every five retail establishments has already been closed down. All over Europe, economic activity is rapidly slowing down, unemployment is skyrocketing and...

The Hot New Worry In The Eurozone... Joe Weisenthal January 29, 2012 Greece is still furiously working out a haircut deal with its creditors, but the hot new worry in Europe is unquestionably Portugal, land of the surging bond yields. In a note that identifies: "TOP CLIENT QUESTIONS", SocGen's Global Head Of Economics Michala Marcussen writes Will Portugal follow Greece? Portuguese bond yields have increased on the back of downgrades and fears that Portugal will follow in the footsteps of Greece. Under the current EU/IMF program, Portugal is due to return to market funding in 2013. For this to become...

While Germany and Austria have just blocked Serbia's entry into the European Union Croatia was admitted in a ceremony at which David Cameron shook the hand of Croat leaders, whose country by any democratic or moral standards is a disgrace. Serbia and the former Yugoslavia, in an exact reprise of the fascist 1940s, have been systematically attacked and dismembered by Germany and Austria since the 1980s. Germany, without the support of other countries, the EU or the UN, joined the Vatican in illegally recognising Croatia in 1991 which led to that State effectively declaring war on Yugoslavia (of which it...

The Troika Are Just Keeping Markets From Panicking And Buying Governments Time Wolf Richter Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 7:50PM "The case of Greece is hopeless," Otmar Issing said today during an interview. He should know. He was a member of the Executive Board of the Bundesbank and of the Governing Council of the ECB. Another substantive voice in an increasingly loud chorus. But it’s legally impossible to kick Greece out of the Eurozone. So he suggested a procedure: Tell the country that it has to implement reforms as a condition for financial help. When implementation is lacking, the basis...

Hungary is almost broke. That is the country's great tragedy. It needs financial help from the other members of the European Union (EU), who are already helping EU states in financial difficulties, and from the IMF. But both the EU and the IMF refuse to come to Hungary's aid because they dislike the new Hungarian Constitution and a series of new laws that came into effect on January 1st. Last week, the European Commission initiated legal proceedings against Hungary over its new constitution and legislation. It gave Hungary one month to enact changes with regard to the independence of the...

Following New EU Sanctions, Iran Says Closing The Strait Of Hormuz Is Now Its Legal Right Robert Johnson Jan. 23, 2012, 7:49 AM Following the formal adoption of an oil embargo against Iran by the European Union, a senior Tehranian lawmaker says his country now has every right to block all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The Associated Press reports that Heshmatollah Falahapisheh says that closing the strait is "an increasing possibility" (via Stars and Stripes). The new EU sanctions ban all new oil contracts with Iran, while leaving contracts made before July 1 untouched. The BBC reports that...

-excerpt- Diplomats said the measures, which were adopted in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products, while existing contracts will be allowed to run until July.

European Union foreign ministers are expected to announce a phased ban on the purchase of oil from Iran at a meeting on Monday in Brussels. It would be the latest EU measure to be introduced in retaliation for Iran's nuclear programme. The EU currently buys around 20% of Iran's oil exports. Tehran denies that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons and says talks and not sanctions are the only way to resolve the dispute.

Economic and political elites meeting this week at the Swiss resort of Davos will be asked to urgently find ways to reform a capitalist system that has been described as "outdated and crumbling." "We have a general morality gap, we are over-leveraged, we have neglected to invest in the future, we have undermined social coherence, and we are in danger of completely losing the confidence of future generations," said Klaus Schwab, host and founder of the annual World Economic Forum. "Solving problems in the context of outdated and crumbling models will only dig us deeper into the hole. "We are...

Southern Europe Permanently Crippled, The Only Tool Left Is Hyper Inflation Economics / HyperInflation Jan 20, 2012 - 11:24 AM By: Jim Willie CB Any perusal around the world these days features Southern Europe crippled, preparing for the inevitable Greek Govt Bond default. It features a crippled US housing market, a mockery of statistical accounting in the US Gross Domestic Product, the plight of the COMEX with established veterans clearing out desks (not trading), the extreme physical demand reported by the London Trader, and the indictment of the SLV iTrust Silver Fund tool used by the cartel. The survey does...

Like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, Sunday’s Croatian referendum on European Union membership may be the most insightful test yet on the future prospects of the 27-nation bloc. A dead canary means get out of the mine. Fast. Sure, Croatia is a bit player in the continental scheme of things; indeed, its population of 4.5 million is smaller than that of Kadiköy. And just about everywhere, the EU’s symbolic golden stars are looking more like copper every day. But come the morning after, the results will still bear analysis. For if Europe’s troubled southern tier suffers more than...

<p>The Obama administration is launching a new space arms-control initiative that critics say will lead to restrictions on U.S. military activities in space, a key U.S. strategic war-fighting advantage.</p> <p>Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to announce the initiative as early as Tuesday. The plan will be built on work contained in a European Union draft code of conduct for space that the Pentagon and State Department have criticized as too restrictive.</p>

Europe Is Setting The Stage For The Mother Of All Black Swans Simon Black, Sovereign Man Jan. 18, 2012, 12:39 PM [Editor's note: Simon's friend Tim Price is a delightfully witty fund manager in the UK, one of the few free-thinking individuals in all of institutional finance. His recent thoughts below on the euro debacle, gold, and hyperinflation are some of the best ever written on the topics.]“Under the circumstances, discussions with Greece and the official sector are paused for reflection on the benefits of a voluntary approach.” Debt talks “have not produced a constructive response.” - The Institute of...

ZULAUF: THE KEY TO 2012 & THE COMING BANKING BUST 14 January 2012 by Cullen Roche The 2012 Barrons Roundtable came out this morning and the discussion is always interesting. I have tended to veer towards the comments of Felix Zulauf since he’s the global macro master at the table. That said, here are some of his macro thoughts. I think he’s a bit dramatic, but given that he’s one of the few roundtable members who has been able to connect the dots (for the most part) his comments are always worth considering (see past performance from Roundtable members here:...

Standard & Poor's has officially cut the long-term credit rating of France and eight other Eurozone nations. Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, and Spain saw two notch downgrades, while Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia were dropped one level. The ratings agency reiterated its ratings on Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Standard & Poor's has taken all 16 nations off of CreditWatch, which indicates a coming adjustment. However, the company has left 14 of the countries, including Italy and France, on negative outlook. Slovakia and Germany were the only two to move to stable outlooks. The move by...

The battle for control of Judea and Samaria – and specifically Area C, which, according to the Oslo Accords, is under Israeli military and political control – may come down to a “horse race,” if the European Union decides to act on a policy paper that was published by Hebrew daily Yediot Achronot Thursday. According to the document, "Area C and Palestinian state building," the EU plans to encourage, and fund, Arab building and development in Area C, without bothering to seek Israeli approval for projects, and in violation of laws regarding zoning, security, and the environment. Under the Oslo...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Sunday rejected talk of a euro crisis and said Rome was open to the idea of a tax on financial transactions championed by France - but only if the measure was part of an EU-wide effort. "The euro is not in crisis, the currency has solidly maintained its exchange rate with the dollar," Monti said on RAI 3 public television, adding that Italy's "banking system is not under threat". "The problem we are facing is that some EU countries have a public debt crisis," he said. "Our crisis is a systemic crisis." Monti, a...

The implosion of the USSR in December 1991 produced massive economic “collateral damage” in its East European allies, as they simultaneously sought both to assert their new-found independence and draw closer to their potential European allies on the western side of 1946’s “Iron Curtain.” Following the euphoria amity quickly devolved down to practical issues, one of which was that the European Union was leery of welcoming new members after the collapse of Communism that relied on power from Soviet-era nuclear power facilities, especially in the wake of the April 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine. Accordingly, the last two...

The last half of 2011 was dominated by ever more grim news from Europe. But will 2012 be the same? The eurozone sovereign debt crisis has escalated, but recent moves by the European Central Bank have calmed that angst for now. However, analysts have waxed skeptical that these measures will be enough to keep that optimism going for long, and are unconvinced that EU leaders' current plans for fiscal consolidation and a firewall against contagion go far enough towards addressing the crisis. We combed research reports from the street and put together a compendium of predictions from Wall Street's major...

The dawn of a new year is usually a time of hope and ambition, of dreams for the future and thoughts of a better life. But it is a long time since many of us looked forward to the new year with such anxiety, even dread.

Grim Economic Prospects For 2012, U.S. Fed To Overshadow The European Banking System Economics / Global Debt Crisis 2012 Jan 01, 2012 - 11:06 AM By: Bob Chapman Public institutions worldwide are fighting ratings downgrades foremost of which is France, the US and, of course, sovereigns and banks worldwide. Miracles of miracles finally the rating agencies are doing their jobs. The caper they pulled in collusion with Wall Street in rating mortgage securities should have put them all in jail for life. We’ll call these efforts makeup time for their previous sins, which they never were prosecuted for. The complaint...

First it was Zero Hedge. Then Ron Paul joined in. Now it is the turn of a former Dallas Fed Vice President, Gerald ODriscoll, to outright accuse the Fed of bailing out Europe courtesy of "incomprehensible" currency swaps, and implicitly accusing Bernanke of lying that he would not bail out Europe even as he has done precisely that. And not only that: by cutting the USD swap spread from OIS+100 to OIS+50, the Fed has made sure it gets paid less than ever for extended Europe the courtesy of bailing it out all over again. Incidentally, O'Driscoll says, "America's central...

A number of economists believe the U.S. debt burden, budget problems, recession and lack of growth will soon be the same as those now facing many EU nations. This would mean that America has begun to enter a period of economic stagnation that will last for years. No prediction could be further from the truth. The difference between the U.S. and every country in Europe — and the EU as a whole — is that America has a much broader array of resources. These include natural resources, intellectual property created by research and development, an activist central bank and a...

While we have long known that the drachma, and recently the lira, have seen significant "when issued" interest by institutional clients desiring to hedge their currency collapse exposure, and thus early markets by various trading desks, little did we realize just how destabilizing this fact to the system would be, at least according to SWIFT. According to the WSJ, this organization, best known for making an abrupt appearance any time one wishes to do a wire transfer, then promptly disappearing until the next such instance, ended up promptly shutting down any Plan B optionality when "at least two global banks...

The European Commission has imposed tough new restrictions on the export of anaesthetics used to execute people in the US, in a move that will exacerbate the already extreme shortage of the drugs in many of the 34 states that still practice the death penalty. The EC has added eight barbiturates to its list of restricted products that are tightly controlled on the grounds that they may be used for "capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". The eight include pentobarbital and sodium thiopental – the two drugs on which almost all American executions currently...

<p>LONDON (MarketWatch) — If the Italians can’t persuade the bond markets to keep them in business, they have another card up their sleeve.</p> <p>Few people realize it, but Italy holds the world’s fourth biggest stockpile of gold, at 2,452 tonnes. That’s even more than France, and more than twice as much as China.</p>

As first reported here, two weeks ago European banks saw the amount of USD-loans from the Fed, via the ECB's revised swap line, surge to over $50 billion - a total first hit in the aftermath of the Bear Stearns failure prompting us to ask "When is Lehman coming?" However, according to little noted prepared remarks by Anthony Sanders in his Friday testimony to the Congress Oversight Committee, "What the Euro Crisis Means for Taxpayers and the U.S. Economy, Pt. 1", we may have been optimistic, because the end result will be not when is Lehman coming, but when...

French Central Bank Attacks British Economy As Eurozone Rescue Plan Starts To Disintegrate Politics / Global Debt Crisis Dec 16, 2011 - 12:01 AM By: Nadeem Walayat French President Sarkozy let his attack dogs loose on Britain as illustrated by comments form the head of the French central bank, Christian Noyer attacking the British economy following threats of Standard & Poor's credit ratings agency downgrade of French Government debt as a consequence of the French banks exposure to bankrupting PIIGS debt. Christian Noyer stated "A downgrade doesn't strike me as justified based on economic fundamentals. Or if it is they...

Marc Faber Urges EU Dissolution, PIIGS to Default By jturbin | December 14, 2011 8:20 PM GMT “If I were Greece or Portugal or Spain, I would say ‘bye-bye.’ I exit the EU. And the debts in EU, that’s your problem.” The above commentary is from Marc Faber, author of the widely-read Gloom Boom & Doom Report. In a recent interview with Fox Business News, Faber argued that a dissolution of the European Union would be in the best interests for Europe in the long-run. “The best would be to dissolve the EU…let the markets sort this out. Let the...

Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 Time for IMF to save Europe By LAURENCE H. SUMMERS The Washington Post WASHINGTON — European leaders met last week for yet another "historic" summit at which the fate of Europe is said to hang in the balance. Yet it is clear that this will not be the last one convened to deal with the financial crisis. Given that Europe is the largest component of the global economy, the rest of the world has a stake in helping to avoid major financial accidents. It also has a stake in aiding continued growth in Europe and ensuring...

Daniel Hannan speaking in the debate on the conclusions of the European Council meeting (8-9 December). The debate took place during the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg this week.

KYLE BASS: Last Week's EU Summit Agreement Was A 'Doomsday Machine' Mamta Badkar Dec. 14, 2011, 12:23 PM In a new interview with CNBC, Kyle Bass, managing partner at Hayman Capital Management, said that Europe is moving closer to restructuring as even "the citizens of those most troubled and profligate nations are losing confidence in the Euro dream". Comparing the European Monetary Union to his extended family, Bass said he was unlikely to sign a joint and several liability agreement with family members, and that was the problem in Europe. He said he expects the monetary bloc to break-up. In...

In Sofia, Croatian ambassador to Bulgaria Danijela Barišić and Leszek Hensel, ambassador of Poland – current holder of the EU Presidency – hosted a celebration on December 9 of Croatia’s EU accession treaty signing. Ambassadors and guests from EU and other countries turned out in force to offer congratulations. Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer Croatia signed on December 9 2011 its accession treaty with the European Union and if all goes according to plan, will join the bloc in July 2013. Before the process progresses further, the country must within 30 days from December 9 approve in a referendum accession to the...

A new International Climate Court will have the power to compel Western nations to pay ever-larger sums to third-world countries in the name of making reparation for supposed “climate debt”. The Court will have no power over third-world countries. Here and throughout the draft, the West is the sole target. “The process” is now irredeemably anti-Western. Ø “Rights of Mother Earth”: The draft, which seems to have been written by feeble-minded green activists and environmental extremists, talks of “The recognition and defence of the rights of Mother Earth to ensure harmony between humanity and nature”

The Swiss government is preparing for a collapse of the euro, according to Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. She told parliament that a work group was studying the imposition of capital controls and negative interest rates to protect Switzerland from the capital flight that a euro collapse would engender (Handelsblatt). A tidal wave of euros would drive up the Swiss franc, devastate Switzerland’s export economy, and devalue its vast wealth invested in other countries. Already in August, the Swiss National Bank instituted a currency peg and swore to defend it by acquiring “unlimited” amounts of euros, a risky strategy if...

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) Dec 8 - With the European debt crisis dominating the news and threatening to pull the world into a double-dip recession, there are growing calls for Uncle Sam to come to the rescue. The U.S. is already committing untold billions to the $1.4 trillion European bailout fund, but that's not enough, according to some European leaders and even U.S. politicians. They say that while the EU bailout is costly, it's also necessary. They are only right about the cost. These endless bailouts are not only unnecessary, but are in fact...

If the United States wants to help Europe find a way out of its current debt crisis, we must be a strong, world economic leader, not merely the lender of last resort. American taxpayers sent $40 billion to Greece last year, through the International Monetary Fund, to stave off an economic collapse. But the bailout did not prevent Greece's day of fiscal reckoning. It only delayed it. Austerity measures are still needed throughout Europe's socialized economy and the debt contagion has not been stopped. Financial chaos has spread from Greece to Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain, and it now threatens...

With the euro zone crisis still dominating headlines, developments in the European Union's eastern neighborhood are perhaps not drawing as much attention as they deserve. Ukraine has had to be content with being part of the EU's European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and Eastern Partnership and been given a “to-do-list”, which, over time seems to become longer and more difficult. Being situated at the heart of Europe, Ukraine is without doubt a bona fide European state. Kiev has craved closer ties with the EU, but progress has been slow, because the EU has preferred to keep the country at arm's length....

The Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation published a study on intolerance and prejudice in Europe. The study "Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination" is available in German and English. I bring below the section relating to Muslims. Via FES (h/t Euro-Islam.info): After statistical testing, three statements were used to produce the anti-Muslim attitudes mean scale (Table 7, items 18 to 20). These cover the general impression that there are too many Muslims in the country, the charge that Muslims make too many demands, and broad-brush criticism of Islam as a religion of intolerance. Four further statements were surveyed in a random half of the sample. These...