Mubarak, Suleiman Step Down

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/11/2011 11:02 -0500

Update: ElBaradei has said he won't run for president. In the meantime, the Egyptian military has announced it will sack the cabinet.
Omar Suleiman has just announced that Mubarak has stepped down. And with Al Arabiya reporting that Omar Suleiman has also stepped down, this means that the military is now in charge. The countdown to peaceful revolutions all across the Muslim crescent is now on. 

 

 

 

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In The News Today

Posted: Feb 11 2011     By: Jim Sinclair      Post Edited: February 11, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Filed under: In The News

Dear CIGAs,
Financial TV is in bliss over the military coup in Egypt.
Mubarak leaving is only the beginning of a process. This development will embolden the same event in 10 other countries.

Red Alert: Mubarak Resigns, Military is in Charge February 11, 2011 | 1631 GMT
Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman delivered the following statement Feb. 11: “In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate, citizens, during these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country. May God help everybody.”
Suleiman’s statement is the clearest indication thus far that the military has carried out a coup led by Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi. It is not clear whether Suleiman will remain as the civilian head of the army-led government. Egypt is returning to the 1952 model of ruling the state via a council of army officers. The question now is to what extent the military elite will share power with its civilian counterparts.
At a certain point, the opposition’s euphoria will subside and demands for elections will be voiced. The United States, while supportive of the military containing the unrest, also has a strategic need to see Egypt move toward a more pluralistic system.
Whether the military stays true to its commitment to hold elections on schedule in September remains to be seen. If elections are held, however, the military must have a political vehicle in place to counter opposition forces, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood. The fate of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) thus lies in question. Without the NDP, the regime will have effectively collapsed and the military could run into greater difficulty in running the country. While the military council will be serving as the provisional government, it will likely want to retain as much of the ruling NDP as possible and incorporate elements of the opposition to manage the transition. Sustaining its hold over power while crafting a democratic government will be the biggest challenge for the military as it tries to avoid regime change while also dealing with a potential constitutional crisis.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
QE to infinity, front or back door, is guaranteed.

Congress warned over states’ bankruptcies By Stephen Foley in New York
Thursday, 10 February 2011
US lawmakers were warned yesterday that allowing states to declare bankruptcy would upend the $2.8 trillion (£1.7 trillion) municipal bond market, making it much harder and more expensive to fund local government, and potentially destablising the economic recovery.
A House of Representatives committee was examining the extent of the financial distress in state and local governments, which has become a major topic of concern on Wall Street and among individual investors, and examining ways to prevent the need for a federal bailout of any of the lower rungs of government.
"The perfect storm is brewing; already state and municipal governments are coming to Washington, hat-in-hand, expecting a federal bailout like everybody else," Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry said. "But the era of the bailout is over."
The White House has floated a plan to allow federal aid to states to help to fund unemployment benefits, so that the states do not have to raise taxes on business. However, the plan ran into immediate opposition on Capitol Hill.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday included testimony from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities – two lobby groups from opposite sides of the political spectrum but with the same view on the question of allowing states to go bankrupt.
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