The Colonization Begins: Germany May Send 160 Tax Collectors To Greece

Since the European colonial state of southern Bavaria Sachs (formerly known as the insolvent Hellenic Republic) no longer even pretends to be anything less than a pass-thru funding colony of its creditors, said creditors (European banks and various insurance companies) are about to send out the first group of colonial scouts in the form of German tax collectors. Also, since as reported previously, Greece will literally have to collect taxes to fund the Second "bailout package", which is merely a front for on ongoing Greek bailout of European banks (recall that it is Greece who is partially funding the bailout Escrow Account), said tax collectors will assist their Greek counterparts (who will rather likely miss their quote of becoming 200% more efficient in 2012) in collecting money from Greek citizens to pay off German banks. If in the process a few (or all) bars of gold end up missing, so be it.

Mark Grant On The Greek Annexation

My advice is to put all of the headlines aside because they are not accurate. No deal has actually been struck and there is just the possibility of one at present. The PSI is also nowhere near certain. There has certainly been a proposal made with innumerable and probably impossible conditions to be met by Greece including a demand for a Constitutional change, which under the current Constitution, cannot even be voted on until 2013. I often wonder if Europe really wants to bail Greece out or if Germany is not forcing so many conditions that they are trying to have them exit the Euro on their own so the Germans are not seen as the Lord High Executioner; to quote Mr. Gilbert & Sullivan.

Critical Mass: The Mispricing of Derivatives Risk Is How the Financial World Ends

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Trader Dan on King World News Weekly Metals Wrap

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 1 hour ago

Please click on the following link to listen in to my regular weekly radio interview with Eric King on the KWN Weekly Metals Wrap. http://tinyurl.com/6ov65yp

Two Year Reminder For The Fed: How Is That Investigation Into Goldman's Greek Currency Swaps Going?

There are those who remember that back in February 2010, before the world realized just how broke Greece was, the public's deplorably short attention span was briefly focused on none other than Goldman Sachs, which as so often happens, was at the heart of the scheme enabling Greece to skirt by Maastricht regulations and mask the fact that its debt and deficits were both far worse than represented publicly. There are also some who remember that back in February 2010, it was none other than the Federal Reserve that tasked itself with uncovering whether Goldman did anything "illegal" by engaging in currency swaps to make the Greek economy appear rosier than it was: "We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece," Bernanke said in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.... Greece in 2001 borrowed billions, with the aid of Goldman Sachs in a deal hidden from public view because it was treated as a currency trade rather than a loan....Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment on the Fed's probe. "As a matter of policy we don't comment on legal or regulatory matters," DuVally said. Goldman Sachs had defended the transactions in a statement posted on its Website Sunday. The firm said they had a "minimal effect" on Greece's overall fiscal situation." Maybe, just maybe it is time, two years later, for the world to hear something, anything, from the Fed as to what its seemingly quite extensive investigation into Goldman's has yielded.

Guest Post: Another View On Default Cascades

The authors identify two "externalities" to the triggers for default cascades: 1) variability of financial robustness of all of the interconnected financial entities; and 2) the average financial robustness of the interconnected entities. If all parties have similar financial robustness (variability is low), then increasing connectivity makes the system more robust. Stability is even likely through diversification if the individual parties are not very robust. It was only when the initial robustness was highly variable across agents (i.e., some agents are weak and others strong) that increasing interconnectedness tended to stimulate systemic defaults.... The lesson here is diversification is not always a good idea. If you diversify across financial entities with wide risk profiles (i.e., some are weak and some are strong) you actually increase the likelihood of a financial calamity.  We don't have to confine ourselves to financial institutions. If we consider our agents to be sovereign, we expect the same problem. Creating a financial superpower out of a group of Germanys would be perfect--even a group of Greeces might be okay. But creating one out of Germanys and Greeces tends to encourage a financial catastrophe. Who could have predicted that? The authors suggest that the "fix" for this situation is to concentrate risk rather than diversify it. I wonder--in whose hands will the risk be concentrated? Perhaps if you hold gold, the risk won't find its way into yours.

Chart: 'America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece



The compression of generations – 25 million adults live at home with parents because they’re unemployed or underemployed.



Idaho Rep. Hart pushes gold coins as 'legal tender'



$6 Gas This Summer — U.S. Economy Falls Off Cliff






Iran Stopped Selling Crude to UK and France



Oil Price Hits 8-Month High



Gallup Finds Unemployment Climbing to 9% in February



US Dollar Could Weaken Amid Euro Talks

The Way Forward for Greece

by Alasdair Macleod, GoldMoney.com:
Last Monday night, before the US markets opened after President’s Day, bailout terms for Greece were announced. The detail is secondary to assessing whether or not it will work, or whether only a little time has been bought. Theoretically the deal can work, but it is extremely unlikely that it will. Almost everyone knows or suspects this, but the survival of the European political system is at stake, and this systemic priority is more important than hard economic reality.
The sceptics are right for the wrong reasons. Few analysts correctly define the problem and how it might best be resolved, because they only understand intervention. Some insist that Greece should leave the euro and allow a new drachma to float lower, so that the cost of Greek labour becomes competitive. The fallacies in this argument are numerous and obvious; suffice it to say that a new drachma backed by nothing more than misplaced hope would immediately collapse, ensuring complete chaos, while euro-denominated debts would remain unpaid.
Read More @ GoldMoney.com

MUST READ: How To Delete Your Google Browsing History in 3 Easy Steps, Before It’s Too Late

by Julian Gavaghan, Daily Mail:
There is just a week to go until Google controversially changes its privacy policy to allow it to gather, store and use personal information about its users.
But there is one way to stymie the web giant’s attempts to build a permanent profile of you that could include personal information including age, gender and locality.
The new policy, which has been criticized by privacy campaigners who have filed a complaint to U.S. regulators, comes into affect on March 1.
But before that date you can delete your browsing history and, which will limit the extent to which Google records your every move – including your embarrassing secrets. Here’s how:
Read More @ DailyMail.co.uk

SILVER BREAKDOUT David Morgan Talks with Alan Butler

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