Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Italy supports oldest bank.

Zerohedge reports:
Some people know Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena as one of the biggest banks in Italy (lately best known for being either halted down, about 90% of the time, or up, the remainder) with 3,000 branches, 33,000 employees and 4.5 million customers. Others know it for being the world's oldest surviving bank, founded in 1472 by the magistrate of the then city-state of Siena. Most will henceforth know it as the first Italian bank bailed out in 2012 using the old 2009 ponzi scheme known as "Tremonti bonds", whereby the bank sells bonds to a guaranteed buyer - the Italian government - receiving critical cash to continue operating in exchange for, well, promises, and sharing its balance sheet with the much more "viable" sovereign, whose bonds were trading above 6% at last check. The initial bailout bid: €1 billion in Tremonti bonds with speculation the number will be realistically up to €4 billion. The final number: much, much higher, but it likely won't be known for at least days. Which incidentally is an event which was largely expected. Recall on June 13 we wrote: "Forget Three Months: Italy May Have Two Weeks Tops, As "It Already Is Where Spain Is Heading." It is now 13 days later and the bailouts have begun.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Cyprus seeks funds to rescue banks

Cyprus bailout request for banks
Cyprus needs to find €1.8 billion, or about 10 percent of its gross domestic product, to recapitalize its second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, by a June 30 deadline, according to Cypriot officials.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Spain: Here it comes: cash controls

Cash controls in Spain:
The government passes a law limiting to 2,500 euro cash payments Do not declare the foreign accounts shall be punished with 10000 €

Stockton, California faces bankruptcy tomorrow

By The Record June 24, 2012 12:00 AM B Day is upon us. B Day is upon us. It's almost time. The debate has ended. The mediation process nears completion. The Stockton City Council already has given City Manager Bob Deis the power to enter the community into Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings. It could be announced Monday, or at Tuesday's council meeting.

Nevada city is declared disaster

North Las Vegas:financial disaster area

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Ireland want the deal as Spain

We want a deal like Spain
Ireland wants to renegotiate its rescue plan to benefit from the same treatment as Spain, which looks set to win a bailout for its banks without any broader economic reforms in return, European sources said on Saturday
...
Ireland secured an 85-billion-euro ($112 billion) rescue deal from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in November 2010, but only after agreeing to draconian austerity measures. Unlike Ireland, Spain's economy minister said a deal on financing for the country's troubled banks would not impose any conditions on the wider economy. Dublin plans to raise the issue during the next meeting of eurozone finance ministers to be held June 21, the sources said. Eurozone finance ministers said Saturday they were willing to give Spain up to 100 billion euros to help its troubled banks, which are suffering due to their massive exposure to the ailing property sector.
A shopper looks at t-shirts at Liptons shop were the old Irish currency, the punt, is accepted in Clones, Ireland on May 30
embracethepunt.com

Spain bailouts prompts a German rant

Comment thread at Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's Telegraph commentary:
KlingonOffTheStarboardBow
Yesterday 08:22 PM
1) What so you WANT Merkel to DO exactly?
2) Have you SEEN the resports about the Spanish banks? The UTTER GREED, CORRUPTION and INCOMPETENCE involved here? http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl....
3) Can you tell mw WHY exactly Germany should pour good, hard-earned money into this bottomless cess-pit?
4) Can you tell me WHY I (who live in Germany) should have to accept higher inflation, the devaluing of my currency, to bail out these RECKLESS and CRIMINAL IDIOTS?
5) Greece was allowed into the eurozone ON A PACK OF UTTER LIES, prepared by Papademos, an ex ECB, GS crony who was later UNBELIEVABLY dumped onto the Greeks like some Nazi Gauleiter. Can you tell me WHY this man is not locked up for LIES and RECKLESS USE OF PUBLIC MONEY?
6) ALL REPUTABLE ECONOMISTS TOLD THE EU that the euro COULD NOT WORK, but they ignored it anyway for their own agenda, a Unitesd States of Europe that NO SINGLE EUROPEAN CITIZEN HAS VOTED FOR.
I am sick to death of these bailouts. THEAY ARE ALL ILLEGAL ACCORDING TO EU AND EUROZONE LAW. So is the ECB money-printing. Now moral pressure is being put on the Germans, who have paid HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS INTO THE EU over DECADES to allow Borroso and the rest of the elitist, cronyist scum to earn TWICE the salaries of national leaders and pay hardly any tax?
I have NEVER felt so angry about any of the usual lunatic stuff that politicians do as I do NOW. We are being led by the nose by a large number of quasi-fascist, elitist and cronist scum who LIE and BREAK THE LAW and who are STILL BEING RECKLESS WITH OUR MONEY. You'd think their being elected BY US gives them the right to do ANYTHING they want? The dumping of Papandreaou who wanted to hold a referendum on the euro was FASCIST and DISGUSTING. I have nothing but utter contempt for the lot of them and the UK would be FAR better off outside this sea of illegal idiiocy.
As would Germany, but the guilt from WWII is so deep that the rest can led them by the nose - including France. Oh yes - France .... now civil servants can retire at 60 again while the rest of us in Germany have to go on till 67. And you want ME to PAY for this?
As I said, they can GO TO HELL.
For the moment, Merkel is doing what the majority of her voters WANT her to do - that is NOT pour money into a black hole of corruption and idlness. Now THERE'S a novel thing ... DOING WHAT HER VOTERS WANT. Not the USUAL EU practice, is it? But how long she can withstand the tsunami of self-righteous crap from Hollande and the rest (including the CRETINOUS OBAMA (WHAT THE HELL BUSINESS IS IT OF HIS WHAT WE DO IN EUROPE?) is a moot point.
I FULLY expect to be royally stuffed by the EU elite in the coming months. SCUM - the lot of them.Write a comment...

Friday, June 8, 2012

Why are you guys so anti-dictators?

"The Dictator" (Sacha Baron Cohen):
"Why are you guys so anti-dictators? Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1 percent of the people have all the nation's wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health care and education. Your media would appear free, but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family. You could wiretap phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests."
Movie clip

Friday, June 1, 2012

Flight to safety: Swiss get paid to protect money

Swiss 2-year treasury note yield goes below 0%
Swiss two-year yields ended the week at negative 48 bps. Two-year yields were also negative in Denmark (-21 bps) and traded slightly negative for much of Friday’s trading session in Germany.