Greek Parliament Passes Latest Austerity Vote

The Greek parliament just passed the latest proposed austerity plan with a majority voting Yes. Judging by the reaction of the EURUSD, which experienced a modest 40 pip short covering squeeze in the last few minutes, one would imagine that today's Greek vote outcome is surprising. It isn't: after all, all Greece has done is promise to do something it won't do in hope it can get another bailout package, this time amounting to €210 billion (of which its people will pocket a de minimis 19%). As we said earlier: " The only real questions are i) what the Greek population may do in response to this latest selling out of a population "led" by an unelected banker, which if history is any precedent, the answer is not much, and ii) how Germany will subvert this latest event, and put the bail [sic] back in Greece's court once again." Sure enough, to paraphrase what we said before, the question now is what the popular Greek response will be having learned its politicians sold it out yet again, which will likely be nothing much, as it is 1 am local time, and as everyone knows revolutions in heavily socialist countries only start between 9 am and 5 pm, with a 2 hour break for siesta. More importantly, keep a close eye on headlines out of Germany. That is all that matters now.





Coming to an area near you soon...I hope you are prepared...

Athens By Night

The Troika went to bailout Europe's banks (for the n^th time) and all we got was this postcard of Athens by night...

 

 

Athens Burning As Police Runs Out Of Tear Gas

Tonight's protest in Athens has all the makings of the vintage ones from May of 2010, and the nigh is still young. Here are some updates:

• FTW: Public order minister resigns in Greece as fires burn - BBC
  
• Rioting spreads across central Athens, at least 5 buildings set ablaze - AP 
• 2:02PM EST: FIRES ARE BURNING SEVERAL SMALL BUSINESSES AROUND ATHENS AS PROTESTERS CLASH WITH POLICE NEAR GREEK PARLIAMENT
• 1:52 PM EST: POLICE ARE CLEARING PROTESTERS FROM OUT IN FRONT OF GREEK PARLIAMENT BUILDING
• 1:50 PM EST: ATMS ARE REPORTEDLY EMPTY AROUND ATHENS... STILL UNCONFIRMED WORKING TO CONFIRM THIS 
• 1:48 PM EST: LARGE FIRES ARE REPORTED AROUND ATHENS... INCLUDING A BRANCH OF EUROBANK AND STARBUCKS
• Skai TV reports that police have run out of tear gas & have asked for more supplies to be brought

As a reminder, the final vote is not until midnight.

Live Streams From Athens And Greek Parliament

Today at midnight local time, 5pm Eastern, the Greek parliament is expected to pass the latest bill finalizing the terms of the second Greek bailout, which as explained yesterday has quietly increased from €130 billion to €210 billion. Needless to say, it will pass, as the opportunity cost for Greece of "pledging" to achieve unattainable targets while doing absolutely nothing, as has been shown repeatedly over the past two years, is zero. The only real questions are i) what the Greek population may do in response to this latest selling out of a population "led" by an unelected banker, which if history is any precedent, the answer is not much, and ii) how Germany will subvert this latest event, and put the bail [sic] back in Greece's court once again.

Summary Of Key Events In The Coming Week

Last week, there were relatively few US data releases, but Initial Jobless Claims continued to surprise on the positive side, while U of Michigan Consumer Sentiment saw a small decline. This week, the FOMC minutes on Wednesday with guidance on the Fed's balance sheet will be the key event. Aside from the Fed, there will be many key releases in the US with IP, CPI, and the regional business surveys. The market expects an increase of 0.6%mom in IP, 0.3%mom in CPI, and small gains in the surveys. ?In Greece, negative headlines over the new austerity package on Friday caused some reversal of the rally in the first part of the week, and as a result, we were stopped out of our short $/CAD recommendation (for a small potential gain). However, the Greek cabinet agreed on the new austerity measures late on Friday, and parliament appears to be on track for a positive vote. The Eurogroup meeting scheduled this coming week will be important to watch as well, and Greek GDP will give a sense of the cyclical damage caused by austerity.

Andy Hoffman – The Gold Cartel Is About To Be Overrun

Ron Paul, Rick Santorum Suggest CPAC Foul Play From Romney Campaign

Mitt Romney scored two minor but symbolically important victories on Saturday — a first-place finish in the CPAC Straw poll and a win in the Maine caucus — each of which set off accusations of foul play from the second place finisher.
In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) suggested that Romney had doctored the results of the CPAC contest.
“I don’t try to rig straw polls,” he said. “You have to talk to the Romney campaign and how many tickets they bought… We’ve heard all sorts of things.”
Meanwhile, late Saturday night, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) sent an email to supporters that essentially alleged collusion between the Romney campaign and the Maine Republican Party without actually mentioning Romney by name. A portion of the email is below:

In Washington County — where Ron Paul was incredibly strong — the caucus was delayed until next week just so the votes wouldn’t be reported by the national media today. Of course, their excuse for the delay was “snow.” That’s right. A prediction of 3-4 inches — that turned into nothing more than a dusting — was enough for a local GOP official to postpone the caucuses just so the results wouldn’t be reported tonight. This is MAINE we’re talking about. The GIRL SCOUTS had an event today in Washington County that wasn’t cancelled! And just the votes of Washington County would have been enough to put us over the top.

Read More @ HuffingtonPost.com

Mitt Romney Confronted About His Offshore Accounts At Maine Town Hall

[Ed. Note: The mindless Sheeple who boo this woman's question are exactly the type of folks who are going to lose everything they have when this system they support, eats them alive.]
by Timothy Stenovec, HuffingtonPost.com:

Mitt Romney was forced to defend his offshore accounts on Friday when confronted by a woman at a town hall event in Maine, CBS News reports.
“Do you think it’s patriotic of you to stash away your money in the Cayman Islands?” the woman asked, according to a video of the event, available above.
After the jeers and boos from the crowd subsided, the former Governor of Massachusetts said, “That’s okay, that’s a good question. C’mon, I gotta take some shots now and then or it won’t be interesting.”
Romney proceeded to explain that he doesn’t manage his money. Instead, a blind trustee has managed his money for the last ten years, because Romney “wanted to make sure I didn’t have a conflict.”
While he didn’t address the question of “patriotism,” he did say his offshore investments didn’t save him any money on his taxes.
Read More @ HuffingtonPost.com

David Morgan: More Bullish on SILVER NOW Than Ever Before [SGTreport Exclusive]

by SGT:

Here’s my new interview with David Morgan from Silver-Investor.com, David says this decade will be even more epic for silver than the last, so keep on stackin’ – the big gains lie dead ahead.

 

In The News Today

February 12, 2012, at 3:04 pm
by Jim Sinclair 

 

 

Jim’s Mailbox

February 12, 2012, at 2:59 pm
by Jim Sinclair 

Gold Wave & Money Flows Analysis Support Sinclair’s Assessment  
CIGA Eric

The US dollar may have until June of 2012 before it replaces the euro as the currency of deep concern. Gold can continue for a period of time being played by the hedge funds but its next test is not at $1500 but rather at $2111.
I agree, Jim
The 2011-2012 D-wave decline has a window of time with a mean of March and range of December (2011) to July. Its window of price has a mean of $1530 and range of $1414 to $1680. These parameters are calculated in table 1.
Table 1: Gold’s D-Wave Analysis
The sharp decline in Gold’s DI from its second peak increases the probability that D-wave ended at $1530 on December 29th 2011 (see chart 1). That is, it likely illustrates an end to the massive transfer of paper ownership from weak to strong hands during the emotional panic of 2011 D-wave decline.
Chart 1: Gold London P.M Fixed and Gold Diffusion Index (DI)
D-wave declines are followed by A-wave advances. A-waves advances represent the first phase of distribution within larger A-B-C mark-up cycle. A-wave advances notoriously tentative and choppy are often characterized by traders as a market climbing the wall of worry.
Table 2: Gold’s A-Wave Analysis


Headline: The real terminal beginning of the Western Financial world was this week.

Kicking the can down the road is limited by the practical viability of the US dollar and US Treasury Securities market.
QE will go to infinity because there simply is no other tool that can create the amounts of liquidity required instantly by the destruction of the Western world financial system. This destruction was delivered to us via those that have securitized everything.
When you add to this that no default will be declared a default by the International Swaps and Derivative Association you have a guarantee that QE will go to infinity at the cost of the US currency market first and the US bond market second. I put this epic event in the year 2015. I give the US dollar no longer than June of 2012 before the cracks in its armor are visible to all.
The deal that set this in place happened in December when the Fed was confirmed as the lender of last resort to the entire Western financial world when it granted in excess of $500 billion in US dollar swaps to the European Central Bank. The ECB then in turn lent those funds to its member banks to buy European debt in order to paint the auctions of the European debt as viable.
At the same time the Chinese have agreed to be a port in the storm to the euro itself, explaining why it is trading above 1.30 when in truth it should be trading below 1.20 under present circumstances.
The IMF did its part in planning a large rescue package should Greek debt be haircut to 30% of its issued value. The IMF bailout fund will be dollar financed by the Federal Reserve and China. When push comes to shove the IMF bailout funds will benefit to a degree from Chinese dollars as an outsider lender that the IMF, which has already laid the ground, work for.
What will have to be rescued is the banking a system of Euroland and elsewhere holding the debt of Greece. However, what makes you think that other European nations will not demand some degree of equal treatment as the US credit rating agencies continue to downgrade European sovereign debt and the debt of their banking system.
Clearly the International Swaps and Derivatives association will see no default in the Greek credit event because it is voluntary. To declare this as such is the final can kick because it will be met by a demand for equal treatment and that will require infinite QE to hold up the world banking system. This begins a march towards 2015 when gold has a cyclical chance of being full-valued for the time being. A march has begun towards the virtual reserve currency that will have a connection to gold. This march will be toward an equilibrium price of gold and will not repeat the 1980 fall in price.
It is the funds necessary to cover the euro debt haircuts for the banks holding this debt internationally plus the ISAD Credit Event and Determination Committee non-declaration of default that guarantees QE to infinity.
The US dollar may have until June of 2012 before it replaces the euro as the currency of deep concern. Gold can continue for a period of time being played by the hedge funds but its next test is not at $1500 but rather at $2111.
The ISDA is the vehicle that will necessitate QE to infinity by its non-declaration of what is clearly default.
The clock is ticking and Alf’s numbers are in the crosshairs of the gold price. Let us hope that things do not get that bad and gold does its natural task and tries to balance the international balance sheet of the USA. That would speak very poorly for the quality of life the Banksters have planned for our grandchildren.
Gold is going to and maybe beyond Alf’s numbers. Gold shares with real growing extractable ounces will perform as they did in 1979 and 1980.
"Non carborundum est." Don’t let the bashers get you down. They are so wrong at exactly the wrong time.
Respectfully,
Jim
Source: jsmineset.com
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Jim,
The walls of offshore privacy continue to fall. More and more governments and banks are entering treaties and agreements to "share information" with inquiring governments.
Regards,
CIGA Yahn

Dear CIGA Yahn,
There is no privacy left on the planet, and if you try and get it you will get it in the end.
Jim

 

 

 

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