When Jail Threats Don’t Work: Greek Government Punctuates Case Against Strikers By Firing Tear Gas At Them
by ilene - July 29th, 2010 11:00 am
When Jail Threats Don’t Work: Greek Government Punctuates Case Against Strikers By Firing Tear Gas At Them
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
As we wrote earlier, Greece is currently paralyzed, literally, due to a wholesale shortage of fuel at gas stations, as drivers of trucks carrying the precious commodity have been striking for several days. As noted previously, the government invoked a war-time mobilization measure forcing the strikers to stop striking or face civil penalties and jail time. Shockingly, this had absolutely no impact on the angry mob. In order to make its point even more clear, the government accentuated its overturn of labor rights by firing tear gas at protesters, according to the Guardian. And, in an amusing turn of events, the IMF delegation which was rumored to be passing by at just this time to conclude the backroom deal in which US taxpayers would fund a few hundred more billion of failed Greek programs, was subjected to a Greek parliamentary guard wearing the traditional skirty attire, screaming in a bullhorn that the truckers were merely engaged in a modern remixed version of sirtaki and there was absolutely nothing to see there (obviously the guy had just graduated from the CNBC School for People who Want to Fabricate the Truth Good).
More from the Guardian:
With fuel shortages stranding thousands of tourists and disrupting supplies of food and medicines nationwide, prime minister George Papandreou resorted to emergency legislation, more usually used at times of war or great natural disaster, to end the walk-out.
But hopes of a return to normal were quickly dashed when riot police fired tear gas at thousands of truckers gathered outside the transport ministry this morning.
"The order is coming through to [drivers] but I have no idea how they are going to react to it," said Giorgos Stamos, a member of the truck drivers’ union. "It is highly unusual that after just three days of going on strike we should be mobilised in this way."
The ruling socialists called for the mobilisation – the fourth time since the collapse of military rule in 1974 that such an order has been issued – as it became clear that Greece was facing a public health crisis because of the strike.
On islands, where fuel supplies have totally run out, tourists could be seen abandoning rented cars by the side of
…
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn 
del.icio.us
DiggChris Whalen Calls for Reforms, But Gives Crony Capitalism and the Neo-Liberals a Rewrite
by ilene - July 13th, 2010 2:24 pm
"ALL THE GREAT THINGS ARE SIMPLE, AND MANY CAN BE EXPRESSED IN A SINGLE WORD: FREEDOM, JUSTICE, HONOR, DUTY, MERCY, HOPE." WINSTON CHURCHILL
Chris Whalen Calls for Reforms, But Gives Crony Capitalism and the Neo-Liberals a Rewrite
Courtesy of JESSE’S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
I enjoy Chris Whalen of the Institutional Risk Analyst. His outlook and perspective are generally well-informed and well to the point, fresh and practical.
In his most recent essay titled Building a New American Political Economy, excerpted below, he spends quite a few words in taking Paul Krugman and the stimulus crowd to task, or more accurately, out to the woodshed for what we used to call a ‘proper thrashing.’
I like his conclusion, which strikes a similar chord to the tag line which I have been promoting since 2002.
"The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustained recovery."
There must be a fundamental restructuring of the US economy, a reconsideration of globalization and its scope and impact on domestic policy, and a significant reform of the role of the financial system before there can be any sustained recovery.
.png)
The housing bubble was not only noticeable well in advance of its collapse, but it was predictable in my view, because of what Greenspan’s policies had been coupled with the fiscal irresponsibility of the government.
What I do not like, at all, is the revisionism that imputes the problems facing the US today to ‘the Keynesians,’ seemingly alone.
Deficits Don’t Matter, Until They Do
Who was it who proved, according to Dick Cheney, that ‘deficits don’t matter?’ Not some wild eyed liberal, but Ronald Reagan. And if Reagan was a Keynesian, then Tim Geithner is Leonardo da Vinci.
The greatest deficit growth in the US came from a belief that cutting taxes for the wealthy, without cutting spending, and even increasing spending by enormous amounts on military projects, even in peacetime, in the pursuit of empire and the New American Century, was viable because this would stimulate growth from the top down, trickle down as it were, and negate the deficits.
It was from the anti-government Republicans and faux Democrat elites like Bill Clinton and his economic advisor Robert Rubin, and the billionaire boys club’s think tanks, that the ‘efficient markets hypothesis’…
The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security
by ilene - July 13th, 2010 11:51 am
The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security
Courtesy of Dean Baker at CEPR, writing at Truthout
See article on original website
A few years back there was a fear in some parts about black UN helicopters that were supposedly taking part in the planning of an invasion of the United States. While there was no foundation for this fear, there is basis for concern about the attack of another international organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Last week the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction. This one is more than a bit outrageous for two reasons.
First, the IMF deserves a substantial share of the blame for the economic crisis that gave us big deficits in the first place. The IMF is supposed to oversee the operations of the international financial system. According to standard economic theory, capital is supposed to flow from rich countries like the United States to poor countries to finance their development. In other words, the United States should be having a trade surplus, which would correspond to the money that we are investing in poor countries to finance their development.
However, the IMF messed up its management of financial crises so badly in the last 15 years that poor countries decided that they had to accumulate huge amounts of currency reserves in order to avoid ever being forced to deal with the IMF. This meant that capital was flowing in huge amounts in the wrong direction. One result of this reverse flow was that the United States ran a huge trade deficit instead of a trade surplus.
The trade deficit in the United States was a big part of the story of the housing bubble. The trade deficit cost millions of workers their jobs. This was one of the main reasons that economy was so weak coming out of the 2001 recession. This weakness led the Fed to keep interest rates at 50-year lows, until the growth of the housing bubble eventually began to generate jobs in the fall of 2003.
The IMF both bears much of the blame for the imbalances in the world economy and then for failing to clearly sound the…
China Drinks Our African Milkshake
by ilene - June 29th, 2010 2:57 am
China Drinks Our African Milkshake
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker
When you think about it, the mineral-rich, underdeveloped continent of Africa should really be working with the US more than with China after a century of our aid and support. But the leaders of Africa now have a new gentleman caller, and a deep-pocketed one at that.
Africa has gone Sinophile as the Chinese have stepped up to the plate with massive investment mobilization…
From TIME:
The ambition, speed and scale of Chinese involvement in Africa is extraordinary. According to Chris Alden, author of China in Africa, two-way trade stood at $10 billion in 2000. By 2006, it was $55 billion, and in 2009 it hit $90 billion, making China Africa’s single largest trading partner, supplanting the U.S., which did $86 billion in trade with Africa in 2009. Today the Chinese are pumping oil from Sudan to Angola, logging from Liberia to Gabon, mining from Zambia to Ghana and farming from Kenya to Zimbabwe. Chinese contractors are building roads from Equatorial Guinea to Ethiopia, dams from the Congo to the Nile, and hospitals and schools, sports stadiums and presidential palaces across the continent. They are buying too. Acquisitions range from a $5.5 billion stake in South Africa’s Standard Bank to a $14 million investment in a mobile-phone company in Somalia.
The Chinese are getting access to the resources they need for economic growth and industrialization, the people of Africa are getting roads, schools, hospitals and a crack at the 21st century.
And here in America we’re coming up with new flavors of bottled water. Seriously, because how the hell did we ever make it as a nation without the taste of NutraSweet and boysenberry in our drinking water?
And why are the Chinese so successful in such a difficult place? Because they don’t do humanitarian rescues or loans or gifts, they do deals, according to the article:
For all the heat, even IMF officials admit that the Chinese model for African development has some advantages. First, it’s quick. Loan talks with multilateral agencies take years. The China-Angola discussions took weeks. "With the West, there are studies, analyses and bureaucracy," says the Western official. "The Chinese just ask what the government wants, and they don’t question or comment or judge. They just do it."
China for the block…
Trouble in Europe, China
by ilene - June 20th, 2010 8:58 am
Terrific weekend reading with Eric at iTulip interviewing Michael Hudson.
Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), a Wall Street Analyst, consultant, and president of The Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends (ISLET). He is also Chief Economic Advisor to the Reform Task Force Latvia (RTFL) and author of America’s Protectionist Takeoff and Super Imperialism – New Edition: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance
Trouble in Europe, China
Based on an interview with Eric Janszen of iTulip
Courtesy of Michael Hudson
On April 10, 2010 I caught up with Michael Hudson and he was in rare form. Readers know that my personal view is that much of the right wing of the political spectrum doesn’t know what the problem is and all of the left wing, while nailing the problem, doesn’t know how to solve it. No one is too left wing or too right wing to get an interview here.
Interviewer (EJ): Thank you for your time this morning.
Hudson (MH): Glad to be here.
EJ: It’s been a while since I’ve interviewed you so let’s have a wide-ranging discussion today. I want to include your Thursday Financial Times article on the fate of the ex-Soviet debtor nations, the Bank of International Settlement report I sent you on New Europe and other industrialized debtors, and China, and see where it goes. Let’s start with the BIS report.
MH: I skimmed through it quickly, and it’s the same class war junk economics that the Peterson Institute for International Economics (the lobbyist for international banks) and other neoliberal (that is, anti-labor and pro-financial) lobbying organizations have mounted against public obligations to any parties but the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector. The aim is to prepare the ground for President Obama’s recently appointed “bipartisan” commission to scale back Social Security and Medicare.
The argument is that these two programs need to be pre-funded, with savings levied regressively in advance, to promote a balanced federal budget. The effect would be to prevent fiscal policy from providing the growth in money and credit that economies need. This would all be provided by private-sector banks – at interest. So recent focus…
The Cult of Subprime Central Bankers
by ilene - May 28th, 2010 12:25 pm
The Cult of Subprime Central Bankers
Dean Baker, of CEPR
writng at Huffington Post, May 27, 2010
See article on original website
The world is suffering from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. The crisis has left tens of millions unemployed in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. The huge baby boomer generation in the United States, now on the edge of retirement, has seen much of its wealth destroyed with the collapse of the housing bubble.
It would be difficult to imagine a worse economic disaster. Prior periods of bad performance, like the inflation ridden seventies, look like mild flurries compared to the blizzard of bad economic news in which we are now enmeshed.
None of this is new. People don’t need economists to tell them that times are bad. However, what the public may not recognize is that the same people who caused this disaster are still calling the shots. Specifically, there has been little change in personnel and no acknowledgment of error at the central banks whose incompetence was responsible for the crisis.
Remarkably, this crew of incompetents is still claiming papal infallibility, warning governments and the general public that bad things will happen if they are subjected to more oversight. Instead, the central bankers and their accomplices at the IMF are dictating policies to democratically elected governments. Their agenda seems to be the same everywhere, cut back retirement benefits, reduce public support for health care, weaken unions and make ordinary workers take pay cuts.
Given how much they have messed up, it is amazing that these central bankers have the gall to even show their face in public. They are lucky that they still have jobs — and very good paying ones at that. (Many of the boys and girls at the IMF can retire with six figure pensions at the age of 50.) Ordinary workers, like teachers, autoworkers, or custodians, would be fired in a second if they performed as badly as the world’s central bankers.
What was going through their heads when they saw house prices in the United States, the UK, Spain and elsewhere spiral upward with no basis in any of the fundamentals of the housing market? How did they think this bubble would end; did they think that trillions of dollars of housing bubble wealth could just disappear without any impact on the economy. Or, did they think the…
Will The EU’s Collapse Push The World Deeper Into The Great Depression II?
by ilene - May 17th, 2010 3:21 am
Will The EU’s Collapse Push The World Deeper Into The Great Depression II?
Courtesy of Timothy D. Naegele[1]
“For want of a nail . . . the kingdom was lost.”[2] Will Greece’s debt crisis lead to a Greek debt default and the collapse of the euro and an ensuing collapse of the 27-member European Union (or EU), and trigger the next round of crashes that will be described by economic historians decades from now as “the Great Depression II”?[3] The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife in Sarajevo, Serbia brought the tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia to a head. In turn, it is said this triggered a chain of international events that embroiled Russia and the major European powers; and World War I broke out in Europe.[4] Will Greece’s debt crisis set a series of events in motion that sends the world into a downward economic spiral of unfathomable proportions?
For years, I have wrestled with the question of whether the Europe would collapse economically, politically, socially and militarily. Sounds absurd, you say? The countries are too interwoven and mutually dependent now for that to happen, and at the very least they will muddle along, making the worst of the best situations, and achieving the lowest common denominator? The United States of Europe, they are not and never will be, but they have achieved a degree of cohesiveness that I never thought was likely years ago.
I believed jealousies and rivalries and, yes, the hatreds of the past would linger barely beneath the surface, coming unglued at the most inopportune times when it really mattered the most. When the chips were down, I felt the EU would splinter and fall apart; and that its participants and the world would write it off as a noble experiment that failed, much like the League of Nations. After all, its successor—the United Nations—is considered to be a colossal joke by Americans, many of whom would love to see it shipped to Europe, and its building on the East River in Manhattan bulldozed and turned into a park, or made into co-ops or condominiums.
The bitter hatreds of the past seem to have subsided in Europe though, and it has become a cultural melting pot, more and more. Airbus was the first tangible sign of economic integration that I never thought would…
How the US Has Perfected the Use of Economic Imperialism
by ilene - May 12th, 2010 7:51 am
How the US Has Perfected the Use of Economic Imperialism Through the European Union!
Courtesy of Reggie Middleton
The IMF, like many other international institutions, asserts that it has a “preferred creditor status”, and this has been a practiced convention in the past. Thus, IMF has de facto seniority rights over private creditors despite the fact that there is no legal or treaty-based foundation to support this claim and this seniority of rights for IMF will continue under the recent EU rescue plan announced as well as it has not been noted otherwise implicitly nor explicitly. This is the reason why Sarkozy said it is a said day when the EU has to accept a bailout from the IMF (aka, the US). The EU now, and truly, contains a significant parcel of debtor nations.
To add fuel to this global macro tabloidal fire, the Euro members’ loan will be pari passu with existing sovereign debt i.e. it will not be considered senior. Although there is no written, hard evidence to support this claim, it is our view that otherwise there will be no incentive for investors to hold the debt of troubled countries like Greece, which will ultimately defeat the whole purpose of the rescue package. Moreover, there are indications that support this idea. As per Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, “We are not talking about a special preference for the eurogroup loans, that’s not possible because then you would have the situation that already-existing rights of creditors at the moment would be harmed.” (reference http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-16/netherlands-excludes-senior-status-for-greek-aid-update1-.html). Of course, if more investors did their homework and ran the numbers, that same disincentive can be said to exist with the IMF’s super senior preference given the event of a default and recoverable collateral after the IMF has fed at the trough.
The ramifications:
IMF’s preferred creditor status coupled with the expensive Euro members’ loans which are part of the rescue package can create a public debt snowball effect that could push the troubled countries towards insolvency when the IMF debt becomes repayable in three years time. This could be seen particularly in case of Greece (subscribers, please reference Greece Public Finances Projections). Even if all the spending cuts and revenue raising are achieved as planned for Greece, its debt will peak to 149.1% of the GDP in 2013. Please keep…
Tuesday: It’s Deja Vu All Over Again
by Phil - May 11th, 2010 8:24 am
Does anything about this ride feel familiar?
Oh yes, that’s right – good old 2008, when the "minor correction" of 2007 was behind us and the Dow rallied back from 11,500 to 13,200 based on stimulus packages, fake economic data and even faker earnings reports where banks, builders, automakers and retailers all lied, lied and lied (or perhaps they were just totally, densely ignorant) about their outlook and their operations and CNBC et al lied to investors and told them to BUYBUYBUY while the smart funds were SELLSELLSELLing as fast as they could.
The August 5th, 2008, with the Dow at 11,500, the Fed had a meeting and decided to keep rates at 2% saying:
Economic activity expanded in the second quarter, partly reflecting growth in consumer spending and exports. However, labor markets have softened further and financial markets remain under considerable stress. Tight credit conditions, the ongoing housing contraction, and elevated energy prices are likely to weigh on economic growth over the next few quarters. Over time, the substantial easing of monetary policy, combined with ongoing measures to foster market liquidity, should help to promote moderate economic growth.
That gave the Dow a 332-point gain that Tuesday – kind of like yesterday’s gain. Our "friendbuddypal" Cramer says "Even after today’s run, the market is still oversold" (yes, I know, he just said "Don’t Buy Till Dow 9,000" on Friday – TFF) but I had to disagree (with Monday’s Cramer – hard to keep track…), telling Members in our 9:41 Alert to cash out our longs, saying: "Don’t be greedy, 5% in a day is A LOT" and I followed up just 15 minutes later with a comment in Member Chat saying: "Time to take money and run at 5% rule – we can reload if 4% holds." The only bullish play we made was on UNG, but it was well-hedged, we did go with DIA $105 puts at $1.16, which went over $1.30 during the day and should be better this morning.
Although we did finish in the bullish end of our 5% range, we got there on a big stick into the close so my closing comment to Members was: "Very indeterminate close. Cash still king. Europe does look like they can follow through and Asia has to catch up so we SHOULD get a nice, up open tomorrow, gapping back up to and maybe over today’s highs but I’d be…
INITIAL THOUGHTS ON THE EUROPEAN BAILOUT
by ilene - May 10th, 2010 1:04 pm
INITIAL THOUGHTS ON THE EUROPEAN BAILOUT
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
.png)
It’s amazing how this has all progressed over the last few years. Excessive consumer debt was rolled up into excessive corporate debt and now governments are taking on the private sector debt at the very highest levels. Charles Ponzi would be quite proud.
I don’t want to get into too many details here as the full details of the Eurozone bailout are not released, but we can come to some conclusions based on the early framework of the plan. A few thoughts:
1) Let me start by saying that this plan has teeth. Sharp ones. Early reports are totaling the plan at $962B! Much of this is likely to have little long-term impact, however, the message the EU is sending in the near-term is is strong and markets will respond accordingly. When we covered shorts late last week it was due to this sort of risk. S&P
2) The Fed’s move to open swap lines should do a great deal to calm credit markets and provide liquidity. This is another near-term positive.
3) This plan breaks the Maastricht Treaty. I don’t care what loophole we refer to. The rules have been thrown out the window. The ECB will buy bonds on the secondary market and in my opinion this totally undermines the purpose of the EMU. The Germans must be furious over this whole situation (though they’re putting on a happy face and saying all the right things in public). In my opinion, the move to bond purchases is an admittal that the Euro is a broken currency even though most of the Eurozone leaders likely haven’t realized it. The currency now has one foot in the grave. The inherent imbalances caused by the single currency system will not be resolved by this plan and will therefore continue to exist. That is not good. This plan does not address the inherent flaws in the Euro as a currency.
4) The potential use of $285B in IMF funding is a gross misuse of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
5) There are rumors of further austerity measures in Portugal, Spain and Italy. Ultimately, this is the end game. If this plan does not result in lowering deficits then the plan is a failure. Unfortunately,…
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Chinese
Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(