Debt crisis: Germany caves in over bond buying, bank aid after Italy and Spain threaten to block ‘everything’

by Robert Winnett, The Telegraph:

Germany has today caved into demands made by Italy and Spain for immediate eurozone aid to bring down their soaring borrowing costs, sending the euro and markets higher.
On Thursday night, Italy and Spain plunged an EU summit into disarray by threatening to block “everything” unless Germany and other eurozone countries backed their demands for help.
Mario Monti, the Italian Prime Minister, celebrated the agreement, reached in the early hours of Friday, as a “very important deal for the future of the EU and the eurozone”.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk

 

DOJ Says It Won't Prosecute DOJ Head Holder

How should we say this: we are shocked, shocked, that the DOJ won't prosecute itself.

BREAKING: DOJ says it won't prosecute Attorney General Holder after the GOP-led House voted to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress - Fox

And now, back to the far more important news of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes divorcing.

 

Another German Pledges Their Life To The "Eurobonds-Nein" Crusade

Last week it was Merkel promising she would die before she allowed Eurobonds (technically this has not been refuted: all she has done is allowed... uhmm... err... we don't really know - lots of confusing headlines out there, lots of chatter, a big short squeeze and no actual details). And now, here comes...

• GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER SCHAEUBLE SAYS NO EURO BONDS IN HIS LIFETIME EITHER WITHOUT COMMON FINANCIAL POLICY

And by common financial policy of course they mean "joint sovereignty" or at least all European gold pledge at Geld4Gold. Time to send Goldman's ambassador to Germany to investigate.

Obama’s Intention to Bail Out the EURO With YOUR Money, Exposed: LaRouchePAC

from laroucheyouth:

Europe's Unanswered Questions

The EU summit to save the Euro (the nineteenth, or thereabouts) has, quite remarkably, agreed to do something to try and save the Euro. As UBS' Paul Donavan notes "As ever with a Euro summit there are unanswered questions. Grandiose statements are what heads of government specialise in – the details are left to later" - it is one of the reasons why Maastricht produced a monetary union that was flawed from the outset. Once “create a single currency” had been agreed, politicians lost interest. The statement from the summit itself was woefully inadequate, but below UBS lays out what additional questions need to be answered. Always keep in mind though, "Going into this summit we had a monetary union in Europe that clearly did not work. Coming out of this summit we have a monetary union that still does not work."

Barclays On The Rally: "Fade It", Because The Summit Is "Not A Game-Changer For The EUR"

With everyone scrambling to buy into the bathsalts rally, and shorts rushing to cover with a panic bordering on a QE-announcement, it is somewhat ironic that today's voice of muted reason comes from none other than Liebor expert extraordinaire: Barclays, whose suggestion is simple: lock your profits: "We remain bearish on EURUSD, expecting it to grind slowly down to 1.15 over the next 12 months. We therefore suggest investors look to fade this morning's European currency strength versus the USD and non European commodity currencies such as the AUD and CAD." Why? They have their listed reasons. The unlisted ones are the same that every other bank has for becoming bearish recently (we have recently listed Citi, Goldman, SocGen and DB to name but a few): for a real fiscal and monetary policy intervention to take place (i.e., a rescue package that lasts at least a few months, as opposed to today's several day max rally): the market has to be tumbling. That, as we have explained repeatedly, is the only way to get a powerful response. Everything else is (quarter end) window dressing.

Bruno Iksil's Guide To Surviving The Status Quo: Baffle Them With Bullshit

Say what you will about JPM's soon to be former employee (once the IG trade complex is fully unwound... sometime in 2013) Bruno Iksil, but you don't get to run up a several hundred billions notional CDS book (and blow it up) by being stupid. No, Bruno was certainly not stupid. In fact, he has reportedly exhibited precisely the very same brilliant trait that Europe's also very smart central-planners, as well as all other people in positions of power under the current status quo regime, demonstrate day in and day out: "Baffle With Bullshit."

Consumer Expectations Trend Break Bullish For Gold

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 29 minutes ago

Did you miss it? Consumer expectations (CE) broke it power up trend of 2011. This break increases the probability of lower consumer expectation numbers in the future. Big deal, right? Not so fast. The correlation between CE and gold has a strong inverse relationship. During periods of economic strife, the inverse correlation approaches -0.70. In layman's terms, the higher consumer... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 

 

Friday Thoughts

Dave in Denver at The Golden Truth - 1 hour ago

Update on the action in the precious metals + why the EU is way ahead of the U.S. in several respects. Unless the o/i report is wrong, sometimes it is and they make adjustments reflected two days later, yesterday's gold o/i went up 912 contracts. To me this increase isn't the cartel shorting into momentum- buying by black box funds, it's dip buyers making fundamental buys. The computer hedge funds do not buy on days like yesterday. That's bullish. Second, yesterdays silver smash was all about the liquidation of the July contract ahead of 1st notice today. Silver o/i in July dropped ... more » 

The Dummy's Guide To Healthcare

Initially presenting the potential problems of our current healthcare environment, the creator of 'the bears that explained Quantitative Easing' provides much food for thought on the unintended consequences of Obamacare (in all its 2700 page glory). For everything you need to know about how it devolved to this ("To understand healthcare in America, you have to think about bananas") and how to think about the new tax's potential implications (e.g. lower quality of service, capped hiring rates among employers), seven minutes well spent.



 

Completing The Circle: Meet The US Ambassador To Germany

Everyone knows that Italy's unelected PM, Mario Monti, is a former Goldman Sachs International 'advisor.' As such, it is only natural that being part of the banking cartel he would do everything in his power to promote an inflationary agenda, one that seeks ECB bond monetization intervention, (another central bank headed by a former Goldmanite of course), perpetuates the status quo, and one that naturally contravenes everything that German citizens have been pushing for in their desire to avoid the risk of another hyperinflationary episode. Especially if, as is well-known, resolving Europe's problems, however briefly, facilitates an Obama re-election campaign because as conventional wisdom is also catching on, should Europe implode before November, Obama's reelection chances plunge accordingly. And yet, even as Goldman's tentacles had spread all over Europe (as seen here), conventional wisdom was that Goldman's influence in Germany was relatively muted.
Wrong.
 

Iran Oil Embargo Goes Into Effect: Crude Up 8%

Following a 3-sigma fall yesterday, WTI crude has rebounded exuberantly amid the European ecstacy and the Iran Oil Embargo. Up almost 9% from late yesterday's lows (a 6-sigma jump), it appears yet another squeeze is in play (perhaps from demand-pull on the back of Hillary's unyielding national policy - oh yeah apart from China and Singapore). While the WSJ notes: "There's no material price premium from the Iran issue", it seems the potential for an epic short-squeeze - as Iran's largest importer of Oil (cough China cough) is now exempt (and continuing to hoard) leaving refiners potentially tight on supply - as macro tail-risk is seemingly removed from the downside by the 'nothing' summit we just experienced.

It's Time To Connect The Dots

This week may very well go down as 'connect the dots' week. Things have been moving so quickly, so let's step back briefly and review the big picture from the week's events. When you connect the dots, the next steps lead to what may soon be regarded as an obvious conclusion: the system, as it exists right now, is crumbling. No amount of self-delusion can make this go away. Rational thinking and measured action, on the other hand, can make the consequences go away... turning people from victims into spectators of the greatest bubble burst in modern times.

And The Reason For Today's Bathsalts Rally Is...

... Nothing more (or less) than NYSE short interest as of June 15 (at 14.7 billion shares) soaring to the highest since October 2011, just before the mega ramp on the previously mentioned October 26, 2011 Greek "Bailout" started on another total non-event as history would show (as would be the ensuing global central bank interventions, and LTROs 1+2). This is also tied for the 3rd highest short interest since July of 2009. Which brings us to the following question: we know that over the past month the only stock "market" catalysts have been small groups of "educated" central-planners: the Fed, SCOTUS, and Eurocrats, with the only upside catalyst being taxpayer cash. Does the chart below mean that the only technical item that matters is Short Interest (as well as short interest in the highly levered and beta-rally inducing EUR), and every time this number rises above a given threshold the various Wall Street repo desks will merely engage in forced buy-ins and cause epic short squeeze like the one today? We don't know. However, we do know that with both long-side and short-side trading becoming meaningless and everything now just an HFT-facilitated stop hunt, this is the surest way to make sure nobody is left trading these markets anymore, something which relentless ongoing cash outflows from equity funds confirm every single week. The good news: once the weak hands have covered, a new wave of shorts can reenter, only to be burned as well on the next overhyped non-event out of Europe or anywhere else.

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Despite 'Nouveau-Deal', European Bonds End Week Unch

Exuberance rules and it seems everyone and their mum believes that something significant just happened in Europe in terms of a 'game-changer'. We suspect this is anchoring bias writ large - we've been down so long that any up feels great. While every asset class jumped dramatically on the day - EURUSD 4-sigma surge, stocks up 3 to 4%, Credit snapping tighter, Europe's VIX plunging, and Sovereign bond yields gapping down - the truth of the matter is that if this were truly a 'game-changer' then would it not be likely that risk assets would be higher than they were just a week ago? Between the total uncertainty of the actual plan's implementation and Merkel still pouring cold water timelines on things; we note that Spanish and Italian bond spreads end the week practically unchanged; Corporate and financial credit spreads are at 6/21 high levels (but not beyond); Europe's VIX has compressed dramatically in our favor for relative to US VIX but remains at 6/21 levels; and only stocks are above those 6/21 highs in their typical high beta excited hopeful manner. Into a thinly traded weekend ahead of July 4th, we would have expected a little more from this nouveau-deal.

Obamacare to unleash crushing new taxes, trillions in debt, huge job losses, and it doesn’t even cover natural medicine

by Mike Adams, Natural News:

By now, we all know the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate portion of Obamacare by declaring it a “tax.” This is, in essence, a declaration that the federal government now has unlimited power to force consumers to spend some (or even all) of their take-home pay on various products, services or even intellectual property that they have no interest in buying in the first place. It is a concentration of economic power in the hands of the federal government, and it suddenly ends economic liberty in America.
It’s also the largest tax increase in the history of the United States. By upholding Obamacare’s individual mandate as a “tax,” Chief Justice Robert just labeled President Obama the largest tax increase President in the history of the country! (http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2012/06/roberts-labels-obama-a-tax…)
Read More @ NaturalNews.com

Florida Court Rules It’s Legal for Press to Lie

from, The Daily Sheeple:

How much do you believe of what’s on that “trusted” news broadcast? A recent Florida ruling suggests that your favorite news anchor can say just about anything and pose it as truth, even if it’s a complete fabrication.
A Florida Appeals court ruled that it is legal for press organizations to lie, conceal, or distort information. The decision, which reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of Fox Television journalist Jane Akre, declares that no law is being broken if false information is given in a television broadcast.
In the August 2000 trial, Akre charged she was pressured by management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information in a story about the use of growth hormones in dairy cows. The six-person jury was unanimous in concluding that Akre was fired because she threatened to report the station for pressuring her to report the false information.
Read More @ TheDailySheeple.com

 

The Obamacare Precedent: The Second Amendment is Next

by Kurt Nimmo, Info Wars:

Now that government employees in black robes have upheld Obamacare and shifted compliance over to thugs at the IRS, we can expect further encroachments on our constitutional rights. The Obamacare precedent has emboldened a tyrannical federal government.
Gun Owners of America notes that the law requires the medical information of all Americans to be entered in a database and argues that this will be used against legal gun owners.
“Centralizing these medical records will allow the FBI to troll a list of Americans for ailments such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to deny them their gun rights, in the same way that the Veterans Administration has already denied more than 150,000 veterans their right to bear arms,” GOA writes.
PTSD is only the beginning. There are any number of medical conditions the government will ultimately cite in order to restrict gun ownership.
Read More @ InfoWars.com

Food Stamp SLAVERY up 100%

from Fabian4Liberty:

U.S. Army – Marine Corps Ground Robotics Master Plan Version 3

from Public Intelligence:
The PM RS JPO initiated development of an integrated GRMP in response to direction from senior Army and Marine Corps leadership in 2005. The GRMP is intended to provide Army and Marine Corps ground robotic stakeholders a common information resource document, as well as a comprehensive plan that links robotic S&T Projects and Acquisition/Contingency Programs to User Current Capability Gaps, Future Capability Gaps, and S&T Shortfalls. The pressing need for reliable ground robotic systems capable of detecting and warning of the presence of hidden improvised explosive devices (IEDs), chemical and biological agents, and related threats to ground troops employed by insurgents in combat zones greatly increases the importance of making every S&T dollar count toward filling critical User capability gaps. In addition, the GRMP provides decision makers a tool for making critical resource decisions.
The RS JPO has recognized from the beginning that development of the GRMP would be an evolutionary process because of the diversity and complexity of the task. For instance, many stakeholders are involved in Army/Marine Corps ground robotics, including Users, materiel developers, S&T developers, sustainers, and industry. A variety of missions are supported, including mine and area clearance, chemical/biological agent detection, surveillance and reconnaissance, area obscuration, force protection and direct fire/indirect fire, among numerous others. GRMP V3 moves the development process further along the evolutionary path.
Read More @ PublicIntelligence.net

U.S. exempts China, Singapore from Iran sanctions

by Agence France-Presse, RawStory
WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday exempted China and Singapore from sanctions over purchases of oil from Iran hours before a deadline, saying that major economies were united in pressuring Tehran.
The United States, however, did not grant exemptions to smaller-scale importers such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, meaning that banks from those countries could face punishment if they handle transactions for Iranian oil.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ruled that China and Singapore had “significantly reduced” their crude oil purchases from Iran, granting them exemptions on the final day before sanctions take effect.
Under a law aimed at pressing Iran over its nuclear program, the United States will bar financial institutions that buy oil from Iran, essentially forcing them to choose between Tehran and the world’s largest economy.
Clinton credited the threat of sanctions with severely cutting Iran’s crude oil exports and estimated that it cost the country some $8 billion in lost revenue each quarter.
The world’s “cumulative actions are a clear demonstration to Iran’s government that Iran’s continued violation of its international nuclear obligations carries an enormous economic cost,” she said in a statement.
Read More @ RawStory.com

State-by-State: How Health Reform Could Expand Medicaid

by Lena Groeger, Pro Publica:
Experts estimate that nearly 16 million Americans could be added to the Medicaid rolls by 2019 under an expansion in the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that states can opt out without risk of losing federal support for Medicaid, raising the stakes that some may do so. Here is a look at forecast growth in state Medicaid rolls under the expansion. Twenty-six challenged the act in court.
Click to use interactive map

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