HAPPY 2012

Petroplus, largest independent refiner and wholesaler in Europe suspending operations

Petroplus Holdings AG, is suspending operations at three plants as banks freeze a $1bn revolving loan facility.

zerohedge

Press copy from Petroplus about temporary shutdowns

Petroplus focuses on refining and currently owns and operates five refineries across Europe:

Coryton in the United Kingdom,

Antwerp in Belgium,

Petit Couronne in France,

Ingolstadt in Germany,

and Cressier in Switzerland.

refinery list above

Somalia next to be attacked?

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has declared that Somalia is a so-called “failed state” and thus a threat to British interests, signaling what might be the next target in the global imperialistic crusade carried out under the guise of humanitarianism.

Iran Straight of Hormus update:

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the ongoing Velayat 90 naval drill aim to send a warning to the West that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed if Iran is threatened.

Iran's Navy ordered a helicopter from an unspecified foreign country to leave

the area of maneuvers it is conducting in the Persian Gulf, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported Monday. "The helicopter ignored the first two warnings but left the area after the third and severe warning," Fars quoted Rear Adm. Seyed Mahmoud Musavi, the deputy commander of operations for Iran's Navy, as saying. The incident occurred Sunday, according to Fars. Fars only described the helicopter as belonging to a foreign country outside the Middle East region.

Oil markets: Brent at $108.

California pensions: there’s an 82% chance they will run out of money.

California’s pension system is living in a fantasy world where investment returns average 12.5% annually and there’s enough money for everyone. The largest union, CalPERS, has a 82% chance of a budget shortfall in the next 16 years.

Rhode Island: Cuts for the Already Retired

As cities, towns and counties struggle with fiscal pain, there has been speculation that they could shed their pension obligations in bankruptcy.

Portugal: Debt is our only weapon

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph:

"We have an atomic bomb that we can use in the face of the Germans and the French: this atomic bomb is simply that we won't pay," said Pedro Nuno Santos, vice-president of the Socialist Party in the parliament.

Trustee Wants to Seize and Liquidate Even the Gold and Silver Bullion Stored Under Bailment for Customers From MF Global

Jesse's Cafe Americain

The bottom line is that apparently some warehouses and bullion dealers are not a safe place to store your gold and silver, even if you hold a specific warehouse receipt. In an oligarchy, private ownership is merely a concept, subject to interpretation and confiscation.

Here's Karl Denninger's take on the above story:

A warehouse receipt is not an unallocated, nebulous claim. It contains a serial number of one or more specific bars sitting in a warehouse. You are in fact charged a storage fee for the service of maintaining security over your property and you have had to tender payment in full as well. This is a bailment in any sense of the word and under any theory of law I've seen -- and yet now, suddenly, it is proposed that your property held under bailment by this institution can be seized and stolen to pay unallocated bankruptcy claims against the bankrupt company's estate! This sort of action turns the entire premises of private property and bailment on its ear! [blogger emphasis] NO -- and I repeat NO -- property held allegedly for your benefit by any third party anywhere is safe under this "theory" of the bankruptcy trustee. Yes, this includes something so simple as the money on deposit in your bank account.