Juncker Warns Of Greek Default As Europe's Patience With Greece Runs Out

Following up on our report from this morning that according to former Greek defense minister, German submarine chief procurer, and not to mention Jenny Twenty repeat offender, Evangelos "Xanax" Venizelos, we learn that the god of Deus Ex Machinae is about to abandon Greece, after an announcement by that most magic unicorn-infatuated of bureaucrats, Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker made it clear that Greece is all but finished. As Reuters reports, "The possibility of a sovereign default by Greece cannot be ruled out, Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the single currency zone, said in a German magazine on Saturday." Translation: A Greek default on that €14.5 billion bond maturity D-day of March 20, is now inevitable. In an advance copy of comments to news weekly Der Spiegel, Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted as saying Greece could no longer expect solidarity from other euro zone members if it cannot implement reforms it has agreed. "If we were to establish that everything has gone wrong in Greece, there would be no new programme, and that would mean that in March they have to declare bankruptcy," he said. So after years of delaying the inevitable sovereign Lehman weekend, it is finally here. As a reminder, when Lehman filed, everyone, at least those in charge, thought the fall out could be contained. It couldn't, and the Fed had to step in with roughly $30 trillion in backstops, guarantees, and asset purchases. The same will happen this time.

Angry Youths Attack House Of Greek President Papoulias; Hurl Rocks, Molotov Cocktails

Instead of defaulting a long time ago (when we first suggested it should) when it could have pulled an Iceland, taken a bitter pill, hyperinflated the drachma and in the process delevered overnight, if at a big social cost of losing its welfare safety net (which it is about to lose anyway courtesy of the PSI and OSI), and not be held captive to bigger geopolitical interests, and hostage to the banker superclass, Greece very likely could have been on the road to recovery now, granted with a totally different political regime. Instead, the political regime is the same, Greece is more in debt than ever before, the economy is in shambles, the banks have seen two straight years of bank runs, and most importantly the people now are poorer and more disenchanted than ever, and as the following story indicates, about to get far angrier than any Syntagma square riot cam (which is about to come back with a PayPerView vengeance) has shown to date. According to Kathimerini, late on Saturday evening, "A group of between 30 and 50 youngsters attacked the house of President Karolos Papoulias." 

The State of US Surveillance

One of the most ominous developments for us personally crawled out from under its rock in November. Again without any public debate, DHS unleashed its National Operations Center's Media Monitoring Initiative. Yep, it's exactly what it sounds like: The NOC's Office of Operations Coordination and Planning is going to collect information from news anchors, journalists, reporters, or anyone who may use "traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed." Thus Washington, D.C. unilaterally grants itself the right to monitor what you say. Doesn't matter if you're the New York Times, Brian Williams, a basement blogger, an online whistleblower, or known government critics like ourselves. They're gonna take note of your utterances and file them away for future use. Journalists are not the only targets, by the way. Also included among those subject to this surveillance are government officials (domestic or not) who make public statements; private-sector employees who do the same; and "persons known to have been involved in major crimes of Homeland Security interest," however large that umbrella might be....The larger speculation is: what's the endgame here?





Must Watch...

The Silver Bullet and the Silver Shield – Part 9. Gold is the Gut Reaction, Silver is the Smart Decision

[Ed. Note: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8.]

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Ron Paul: “The Revolution Has Come to Minnesota!”

From RonPaul2008dotcom:

[Ed. Note: I was in the audience for this speech, they had to turn people away at the door because the Bethel University auditorium was completely filled to capacity. I was also at Ron Paul's town hall meeting earlier in the day in Arden Hills, MN. where it was standing-room-only. Look for a full highlights micro-doc coming Sunday afternoon. ~SGT]

U.S. and Israel Set Stage for False Flag and Iran Attack

Events over the last several days reveal that the United States and Israel plan to conduct a false flag terror event to be blamed on Iran. The event will likely occur within the next six months and will result in an attack on Iran prior to the November election.
by Kurt Nimmo, InfoWars.com:
Intelligence in U.S. and Israel Warn of Domestic Terror Attack
Officialdom in the United States and Israel have issued a warning about an Iranian “threat stream” against Israeli “soft targets” in America.
The warning arrives several days after Obama’s intelligence boss James Clapper said Iran may strike inside the United States,
“We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase… on both our guarded sites and ‘soft’ sites,” states a letter sent out by the head of security for the Israeli Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States.
Guarded sites are Israeli government facilities like embassies while soft sites are Jewish synagogues, schools, and community centers.
Read More @ InfoWars.com

Rush To Buy Physical Gold And Silver Hasn’t Started Yet

Even though gold and silver prices are up significantly since the beginning of 2012, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this trend will continue. Buyers and sellers modify their decisions as prices change. When you look at who is and who isn’t actively buying or selling gold and silver right now, that can give you significant clues as to where prices head in the near term.
Ever since the price of gold surpassed $1,000 for the first time in 2008, there has been significant liquidation and recycling of “scrap” gold such as jewelry and industrial products. In many instances, people who lost jobs or experienced other financial setbacks have sold assets to generate cash flow. Investment demand in the past three years has been so strong that prices continued to rise despite the increase in recycling supplies. From now into the future, however, the amount of scrap gold that could be liquidated will be smaller than it would have been because of all the gold already recycled.
Read More @ CoinWeek.com

EU Has Hit Self-Destruct Button as World Moves On

You can do worse than sit on a Tuesday afternoon in a little cafe about 20 yards from the Coliseum and watch five Chinese tourists getting their photos taken with three chain-smoking Italians dressed up as Roman gladiators.There is something poignant about looking at the Italians in the epicentre of the greatest empire Europe has ever seen, pimping themselves out to the free-spending consumers of the world’s coming empire.
While Europe condemns itself to years of unnecessary austerity, China continues to grow apace. Whether China slips up this year or next is actually immaterial, the great structural shift in the world is towards China and there’s nothing we can do — short of protectionism — about it.
Chinese tourists will become commonplace in Europe. The affluent travel.
In contrast, Europe remains firmly wedded to the self-destruct button. The rest of the world is not waiting for Europe or Ireland to get its act together.
Read More @ DavidMcWilliams.ie

Civilization at the Crossroads

by John Meyer via SilverBearCafe.com:
In our last letter we stated that, “American capitalism ended in 1913 and remains “An Unknown Ideal.” We also commented that, “A troubling question arises: Has the financial community hijacked government?”
We are going to discuss those issues in an historical and philosophical context. We all today live in a twilight zone where things seemingly are and yet aren’t. We must travel down some roads, which are troubling and rather dark. But, it is necessary, because it is today’s reality. We can say at the start that you will find the trip unbelievable – I know I did when I first stumbled down this path. Matter of fact, at first I totally dismissed it as absolute insanity and therefore not possible. For, it was inconceivable that the morality of man could descend to such naked malevolence.
To look more deeply into our history is necessary, because almost all that comes from our “intellectual” community, is propaganda and spin. Before we heap cures on a dying patient, first and always diagnose. Diagnosis is the art or act of identifying the disease. All the talk about free markets and capitalism having failed and always what we need is more regulation and intervention are deliberate obfuscations. Naturally, with this propaganda barrage, Socialism keeps “gaining” by default. You have to be on another planet to think that what we have had for the last century is capitalism or free markets.
Read More @ SilverBearCafe.com

Is Gold in a Bubble?

by James Turk, GoldMoney.com:
Every once in a while a bubble forms in a market. Bubbles can occur in any market, whether stocks, commodities, real estate or as we know from history, even tulip bulbs.
Market bubbles are, as the name implies, unsustainable. They are manifest by inflated prices that go up and up to achieve unthinkable levels for a while, and in some cases, for a very long while. But like their soap-bubble counterparts, market bubbles clearly lack durability. They can pop at any time. So inevitably, the bubble pops, with the unfailing result that prices thereafter quickly drop back to earth.
In essence, bubbles are nothing more than an emotional frenzy in which prices climb to unheard of levels, until the market attains a shocking level of overvaluation. To achieve this outrageous situation in which price far exceeds an asset’s value, a bubble involves the near-universal acceptance of some delusive idea.
Read More @ GoldMoney.com

 

Ron Paul Explains Economic Liberty

Butler On Business Interviews David Morgan

German pensioner eats 64-year-old US lard.

 

 

Galt's Gulch Green Light!

I just heard that Atlas Shrugged, Part 2 is set to start filming in April, with a fast-tracked (pardon the pun) release date in October, 2012. Presumably to get it in theaters before Election Day in the United States. For some reason they are re-casting the film. I should mention that I found the first film (Part 1) was fairly loyal to the original novel, and worth watching. 

 

 

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