Spain IS Greece After All: Here Are The Main Outstanding Items Following The Spanish Bailout

After two years of denials, we finally have the right answer: Spain IS Greece. Only much bigger (it is also the US, although while the US TARP was $700 billion or 5% of then GDP, the just announced Spanish tarp is 10% of Spanish GDP, so technically Spain is 2x the US). So now that the European bailout has moved from Greece, Ireland and Portugal on to the big one, Spain, here are the key outstanding questions.

So Much Changes In Two Weeks

"When it becomes serious, you have to lie", Jean-Claude Juncker
Mariano Rajoy from May 28, or 12 days ago: "No va a haber ningún rescate de la banca española." Or, more conveniently for the America-based readers: "There will be no rescue of Spanish banks." We have finally found the official Jean-Claude Juncker (and of course Tim Geithner) replacement.

Spanish Twitter Fury Now Focusing On.... Itself

On Thursday, it was all Merkel's fault when #StopMerkel took Spain by storm. Well, whatever it was that Merkel was supposed to stop doing now no longer seems to matter in the aftermath of the unprecedented Spanish bailout. And as a result the Spanish public's fury has shifted 180 degrees, and instead of blaming Germany, it now is accusing its own leaders of cowardice. Presenting #RajoyCobarde (or Coward Rajoy).

Eurogroup Statement On Spanish Bank Bailout

The Eurogroup supports the efforts of the Spanish authorities to resolutely address the restructuring of its financial sector and it welcomes their intention to seek financial assistance from euro area Member States to this effect. The Eurogroup has been informed that the Spanish authorities will present a formal request shortly and is willing to respond favourably to such a request....





SocGen: US is "daring the rest of the world to sell the dollar"

Posted by: Daily Collateral

Post date: 06/09/2012 - 06:56

Société Générale head of foreign exchange research Kit Juckes on the US dollar dynamic, QE 3, 4, and 5, "even lower rates for even longer than you thought," and the Bank of Japan slowly learning to...

Mark Carney Kicks The Can

Mark Carney announced a few days ago the Bank of Canada will keep its benchmark interest rate steady at 1%.  This announcement comes despite his previous warnings over the enormous increase in Canadian private debt.  But of course the run up in debt couldn’t have occurred if interest rates were determined by market factors only.  Had supply and demand been allowed to function freely, interest rates would have risen as a check on the swell in debt accumulation.   Carney won’t admit this though.  Like all central bankers, he has made a habit of boasting the positive effects of his low interest rates policies while avoiding blame for the negative consequences. He is a bartender who gleefully takes the drunk’s cash while replying with “who, me?” when said drunk drinks himself to death. Carney’s decision to keep interest rates suppressed is yet another instance of a central banker unable to face reality.  The malinvestments will continue to accumulate and will have to be liquidated at another date.  What Carney has done to mitigate the looming debt and housing bubble is effectively kick the can down the road.  He has revealed through his actions the undeniable truth which holds for all central bankers: that they have no other card to play but the printing press.

Bailout Rebellion Reawakens In Germany

from Testosterone Pit.com:

Josef Ackermann, Deutsche Bank’s CEO until a couple of weeks ago, who knows a thing or two about skeletons hidden in the bank’s vast closets, said at the Atlantic Council that he is “grateful the US is pushing Europe to act faster.” Just like his US counterparts on Wall Street in 2008, he wanted massive taxpayer-funded bailouts of the banks and exhorted the Eurozone to complete the latest bailout fund, the ESM, quickly. Together with the existing EFSF, they would create a €1 trillion firewall—enough to bail out Spain and its banks, but not enough to do the same for Italy.
He pushed Chancellor Angela Merkel to permit banks to draw on these funds directly—though these funds were designed to bail out countries, not corporations. And the German parliament approved them on that basis. He had “no doubt” that the German people would support rescuing the Eurozone, he said, though he left unclear why he exempted, for example, the French or his own compatriots, the Swiss, who’re also suffering from the Eurozone’s woes [Read... Bracing for a Euro Crash: The Swiss Caught in a Vice]. And he was confident that “everything would be done to bail out the Eurozone.”
Read More @ TestosteronePit.com

Of Krugman and Diocletian

Peter C. Earle, Lew Rockwell.com:
Several weeks ago, a most intriguing exchange occurred on Bloomberg News wherein presidential candidate Ron Paul, the foremost voice for Austrian School economic policies, faced off against Paul Krugman, New York Times economic columnist and recent winner of the Nobel Prize for economics. While the entire debate is noteworthy, one particular portion of the exchange stands out:
Paul Krugman:
“I am not a defender of the economic policies of the emperor Diocletian. Let’s just make that clear.”
Ron Paul: “Well, you are. In a way, you are. That’s exactly what you’re defending.”
Read More @ LewRockwell.com

Spreading the Wealth Around

from Azizonomics:

All the debt Obama acquired, and all the stimulus did work to redistribute wealth and income — it worked to redistribute wealth and income toward the well-connected crony capitalist groups that funded Obama into office.
Obama can talk all he likes about cutting taxes for the middle class; the data shows who Obama’s redistribution policies have overwhelmingly favoured.
Of course, leftists and statists often end up favouring the super-rich. That’s been the underlying reality of communism — politburos, bureaucrats, technocrats, party members all benefit at the expense of everyone else (in spite of all that proletarian rhetoric).
Read More @ Azizonomics.com

Steve Keen: Why 2012 is Shaping Up to be a Particularly Ugly Year

from ChrisMartensondotcom :

At the high level, our global economic plight is quite simple to understand says noted Australian deflationist Steve Keen.
Banks began lending money at a faster rate than the global economy grew, and we’re now at the turning point where we simply have run out of new borrowers for the ever-growing debt the system has become addicted to. Once borrowers start eschewing rather than seeking debt, asset prices begin to fall — which in turn makes these same people want to liquidate their holdings, which puts further downward pressure on asset prices.

 

 

Spain officially asks for a bailout/Italy in the wings/Gold and silver rebound from a brutal raid

by Harvey Organ, HarveyOrgan.Blogspot.ca:
Gold closed the Comex session at $1590.10 up $3.50. Silver fell by only 6 cents to $28.46. Our two precious metals were down badly early in the Asian session heading into the European time zone. Usually the bankers try to enhance the momentum downward as they continued to supply paper gold and silver.
However on Friday, huge demand surfaced probably from the Chinese who lately have come into the fray when these dips occur. They, no doubt, entered the precious metals arena with both feet yesterday preventing another rout for our gold and silver. The big story of the day was Spain which officially asked for bailout funds. After Spain asked for a euro bailout, a comedy routine equal to Abbott and Costello followed as supposedly there was going to be a Saturday telephone conference on how this bailout would occur. Eventually there really was no teleconference called for. Germany said no to Eurobonds stating quite categorically that Spain must use the vehicles already set up to handle the bailouts:
1) the ESFS/ESM to handle the bailouts of the banks.
2.) the ECB to handle the bailout of the sovereign Spain.
Read More @ HarveyOrgan.Blogspot.ca

Debt crisis: Spain on verge of €100bn bailout as euro finance ministers hold EMERGENCY TALKS

Spain is poised to receive up to €100bn (£81bn) to rescue its debt-laden banking sector as eurozone finance ministers hold emergency talks on its financial crisis.
By Bruno Waterfield, The Telegraph:
Ministers from across the shared currency nations on Saturday afternoon embarked on a conference call to outline a rescue deal, as a formal request by the eurozone’s fourth biggest economy appeared imminent.
Fellow euro nations are expected to demand that Spain carries out reforms in its financial sector in exchange for a rescue of its stricken lenders.
“The amount on the table at the moment is as much as up to €100bn but this hasn’t been decided yet,” a senior EU official told AFP. The money will come with conditions attached entailing a “clean-up of the financial sector”, the source said.
The Swedish prime minister signalled the package would be in that region. “There was a question of more than €80bn,” Fredrik Reinfeldt said in a radio interview. “It is in fact a question of one of the biggest financial rescues in recent history.”
Spain has come under pressure from the European Central Bank, Germany and Netherlands to move before Greek elections on 17 June, amid fears that political chaos in Greece and the weakness of Spanish banks could threaten the euro’s financial stability.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk

The cramdown of Spanish bondholders has officially begun

from Zero Hedge:
Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos will hold a press conference detailing the terms of the bank bailout shortly. It can be watched live, and without translation, at the link below. In summary, the Spanish bank bailout is apparently a loan targeting the FROB, and at rates better than the market. In other words, the cramdown of Spanish bondholders has officially begun.
Key highlights:

GUINDOS SAYS SPAIN WILL SEEK EUROPEAN BAILOUT FOR ITS BANKS
GUINDOS SAYS CONSULTANTS’ REPORTS TO BE PUBLISHED IN JUNE
GUINDOS SAYS FROB WILL RECEIVE THE FUNDS
…And the most important stuff: GUINDOS SAYS FROB’S DEBT COUNTS AS PUBLIC DEBT
Read More @ Zerohedge

Major Nuclear Base Running ‘Containment Exercise’ Amid Censored Radiation Spikes

by Anthony Gucciardi, Zero Hedge:
Amid a number of reports of massive and bizarre radiation readouts coming from experts, eyewitnesses, radiation facilities, and a key choice news outlet, it has now come out that one of the largest nuclear bases is currently running a ‘nuclear containment exercise’. The Minot Airforce Base exercise, running in North Dakota, reportedly involves the use of B-52 aircraft. The news comes after a developing story arose over the potential cover-up of a nuclear situation stemming from near the border of Indiana and Michigan.
Sources from near where the elevated levels of radiation were observed say that a Department of Homeland Security ‘hazmat’ fleet has been dispatched after ‘years’ of inactivity. The story first erupted after online geiger readings showed an unprecedented radiation spike in the area, with levels reaching as high as 7.139 counts per minute (CPM) over the average of between 5 and 6. While there has been no official reported cause of the spike, there has been quite a bit of foul play regarding the information being put forth by many media outlets, the EPA, and even radiation measurement centers. After the readings shocked viewers, the EPA quickly censored the ability to view the levels online.
Read More @ Zerohedge

Linguistic analysis of Rand Paul’s endorsement of Romney contradicts his words: Rand Paul is disgusted with him!

by Mike Adams, Natural News:
In the aftermath of the shock and the overwhelming feeling of betrayal following Sen. Rand Paul’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for president, most people are trying to understand WHY it happened. But to my knowledge no one has yet analyzed the linguistics, the intonation and the micro-expressions that Rand Paul delivered as part of his announcement, because they may provide even more information than his words.
Here, I offer a brief linguistic and micro-expressions analysis of Rand Paul’s delivery of his announcement. What you’ll see here is that even Rand Paul is disgusted with his own endorsement.
Read More @ NaturalNews.com

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