Showing posts with label Comisia Europeana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comisia Europeana. Show all posts

Friday, March 25, 2016

The ECB is asking the great banks to review the risks of a potential Brexit     The European Central Bank (EC) has asked the major banks that it oversees to analyze the risks they would be faced with if Great Britain were to exit the European Union (Brexit), a source close to the situation quoted by Bloomberg says. According to the aforementioned source, the ECB is working individually with banks and it is also urging companies to be prepared for everything that could impact them, in the event of a Brexit. The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney recently warned that a potential exit of Great Britain from the EU would affect the country's financial City and would aggravate the threats to financial stability. Last week, Mark Carney said that if Great Britain were to leave the European Union, banks would probably move some of their businesses to the EU.  So far, some European banks, including "Deutsche Bank" AG (Germany) and "ING Groep" NV (Holland) have announced that they might move their employees from Great Britain if that country were to vote in favor of exiting the European block in the referendum scheduled for June 23rd. The British division of the biggest Spanish bank, "Banco Santander" SA, has informed, in its annual report concerning its financial results, that "it has evaluated the potential consequences of a potential British exit from the EU, and the potential impact of the market instability in the period before the referendum, respectively". At the end of last week, German publication Handelsblatt also wrote that lately, the possible consequences of a potential British exit would have on the financial markets and banks have been the main concern of the ECB.  Quoting a source from the ECB, the aforementioned newspaper notes: "The Brexit is the biggest threat to financial stability this year". (A.V.)

Monday, October 27, 2014

Europe was alight with speculation on Friday about verdicts on the financial health of the region’s 130 largest lenders.
The big question was - and, well 25 failed -  which banks might fail the central bank’s review and how much new capital might be needed for the banks to survive. Estimates of the capital shortfall varied widely, from about 10 billion euros, or about $12.6 billion, to as much as €50 billion. The central bank’s review was based on figures at the end of 2013. Banks that have not passed muster and have not taken steps to shore up their finances will have nine months to top up their reserves. Otherwise, they risk being shut down. The central bank noted the results would not be final until approved by its governing council Sunday morning. “Until that time, any media reports on the outcome of the tests are by their nature highly speculative,” it said. Banks were informed of the preliminary results of the review and stress tests on Thursday. They will not know for sure whether they passed or failed until Sunday, shortly before the public disclosure. Most analysts expected the shortfall to be relatively modest, in part because bankers have known for a year that the test was coming and have sold risky assets and raised more capital, money that is available to absorb losses and is crucial to a bank’s survival in a crisis. “The number of banks that would need to raise additional capital will be limited,” analysts at Barclays said in a note to clients on Friday. “This is due to the substantial pre-emptive measures that the banks have already undertaken.” Betting on which banks would do better or worse than expected was rampant on Friday. Trading was suspended on Friday in shares of the Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena after they jumped more than 10 percent on the strength of speculation that it would fare better than expected under European Central Bank scrutiny. The larger question is whether the review, which included an audit of bank holdings followed by so-called stress tests of their ability to withstand a crisis, will remove doubts about the underlying health of eurozone lenders and make it easier for them to raise money that they can lend to customers.
Jörg Krämer, chief economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, was pessimistic about the effect that the review would have on the eurozone economy. The reason for declining credit in the eurozone is not that banks cannot lend, he said on Friday, but that businesses do not want to borrow. “The stress tests will help certain countries like Italy and Spain,” Mr. Krämer said in a meeting with a small group of journalists. “But it won’t be a breakthrough for the whole eurozone.” There could be a sell-off in financial markets on Monday if the central bank uncovers a bigger capital gap than expected. But there is also a risk of a negative market reaction if the review appears to be too lax. Previous stress tests by other regulators gave stamps of approval to banks that later failed, undermining trust in the whole banking system. The European Central Bank has a strong incentive to be tough. It will become the overall supervisor of eurozone banks on Nov. 4, and needs to show it has the skills and backbone to do the job. “If convincing enough, the assessment can support sentiment, the eurozone economy and the banks,” Suvi Kosonen, an analyst at ING Bank, said in a note on Friday.
The central bank conducted the stress tests with the European Banking Authority, which will simultaneously release results on Sunday that include lenders in European Union countries that are not in the eurozone, like Britain and Sweden. Banks found short of capital will have two weeks to submit a plan to the central bank on how they will shore up their finances. Even banks that pass could find themselves under pressure to raise more capital, if they pass only narrowly. The audit will expose that banks may have been overvaluing their assets or failing to set aside enough money to cover bad loans.(source NYT)

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Take to the streets now, and bring down the Corrupt Romanian Authorities

I'm glad foreign media is picking up on this disgraceful story as the local media has been muzzled by its executives who are in bed with Gabriel Resources and the criminal Government run by Victor Ponta. Make no mistake The President is no stranger to this issue , nor are the former communists running the country. In fact now any Romanian should realize that the country is dismantled piece by piece by these criminals. 
This project is a scandal and its handling by Romanian officials stinks to high heaven of corruption and bribery. There's even the prime minister, Victor Ponta who is exhibiting signs of multiple personality disorder, being both for and against the project as the wind blows. I guess the only advantage to the Romanian taxpayer is that they get two faces for the price of one.
Back to this issue, I would like to urge everybody who reads this article to spread awareness of the situation. Romanian corrupt officials and Gabriel Resources are banking on misinformation and apathy to put this project in motion, so the best way to help is to inform everybody you know of what is going on.
Besides the loss of natural beauty, one must keep in mind that pollution is very difficult to contain and that any industrial accident at this godforsaken mine will be affecting other countries and eco-systems and have far reaching consequences in Europe. After all, this project is expected to leave behind a 250,000 ton cyanide lake, on the site of the razed mountains, which incidentally will also be flooding 30 km of Roman archaelogical ruins.
Please, help us stop this outrage. Why don't they do a long term study of alternative mining, say using corn starch or something, like an alternative to 130,000 tons of cyanide in any case? These 4 mountains, and other areas in the Apuseni mountains not mentioned in the press are supposedly the largest gold and silver reserves ON THE PLANET, and not only. There is also supposedly a wealth of precious and native metals useful in defense and communication industries that the Romanian state reputedly has no right to according to the contract. These special metals are a lot more valuable than the gold. So ... why all the hurry to destroy these mountains in the worlds biggest pool of cyanide? This project needs to be thought out a lot more carefully, and should be controlled in it's entirety as a nationalised, Romanian state enterprise, not a greedy foreign corporation with no experience in mining. As it stands the whole project stinks, so it should be canned, if not for all the reasons mentioned above, then at the very least for the intention of creating the worlds largest standing pool of CYANIDE!

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Regling was more optimistic about Portugal. He said that, despite market speculation, it was not yet a foregone conclusion that the country would need more aid. International donor countries recently evaluated Portugal's reform efforts and determined that they were sufficient, he added, and the country continues to meet its goals according to plan.
So far, the ESM has only extended €46 billion to Spain and Cyprus to help prop up their banking systems. Regling likewise told the Handelsblatt that he has "no indication so far" that there would be new programs for other euro-zone countries.
Regling is reportedly even more confident when it comes to the stability of the European banking system. "I see no indications that we will experience larger bank problems in Europe in the near future," he said, according to Reuters. He also noted that overall market confidence in the economies of the EU's crisis-plagued countries, as well as in the euro itself, had risen.
Germany, for its part, could do something to increase political stability in Europe, Regling added. "Of course it would be good for Europe and the markets if the new government in Germany could be formed soon," he told Reuters.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

9 trillion dollars goes "missing" - how much of it is in The Budesbank???

There is one major flaw in the money system that I have never heard a single person mention, don't know why, maybe only I can see it, maybe it is the tin foil hat I wear that gave me it, but I am watching the most powerful man in the world clueless on how this happened, well the way I see it is that other countries like china created wealth, but did they really create it or did they borrow it.  If china created its wealth then that would have meant that it built its infrastructure and businesses internally, then it would have added wealth to the worlds circuit of money and been stable.  But if its infrastructure and businesses were borrowed from somewhere else then that is a transfer of wealth from one area to another and if the market of each depend on each other then its life is limited to the point when so much has been transferred so that it reverses in direction so starts an harmonic cycle decreasing in height until both end up even or at war, so very unstable.  This also means that's china's development was not natural as was the development in the west, now if china was many years ago about to start natural development and the west wanted to stop it or control it then this would have been a good plan. but that would have meant a Kissinger type person was about when the US and china first talked.  Anyway as china's development is not natural then it will collapse when who ever borrowed them the stuff wants it back.  And that's why I think it is all a Hollywood script, all written years ago by the likes of Kissinger. they are playing global power games using us poor mugs as pawns.   My simple high school / secondary school dropout understadning is that the United States government ( specifically the Obama adminstration) is operating one of the biggest PONZI schemes in history. OK, I have no law training or degree and I ain't no bean counter. However, this particular administration blackmails the house ( read Republicans) to constantly increase the debt limit. My understanding is that the main buyers of US Treasuries (China and the UK) are farely well maxed out on purchasing US Treasuries and there are no new substantial buyers, so, as the US $ is the main reserve currency it somehow has the right to print more money without having actual physical reserves (gold) to backup all the money it has spread aropund the world. Thus when they increase the debt limit they print more money in order for the Fed (Federal Reserve) to buy (although I understand not directly) their own older treasuries and even newly printed treasuries. His Obamaship and his sycophantic Democratic poodles are intent on going ahead with the Demoncare (the Demoncrats own it as no Republicans voted for it and the majority of the US public do not want it) despite the fact that it is going to need 1.8 trillion dollars to set it in motion. They cannot raise taxes to pay for that so they will increase the debt limit next year, print some more money. Prince Harry over at the Senate meanwhile want to increase next years budget by 1 trillion 5 billion (strange figure). Today the Whitewash House announced that it was going to bail out the forever profligate Democratically controlled bankrupt city of Detroit. Another 17 billion dollars. Has the US taxpayer agreed to that and do they have the money to even do it? Perhaps, they will print more money and also shaft the Detroit debtholders just as they did with Chrysler and GM and favoured banks and financial institutions.    I wonder what the true value of the US $ is today compared to when the investors in US Treasuries bought them. To me it's like when I bought my house for 220,000. I sold it 17 years later for 405,000 and everyone said what a great profit I made on my "real eastate investment". Except, that when I tallied up that I had paid about 370,000 in interest to the kind and gentle banks and the value of the CDN $ had declined I do not think I made anything.  If the house (which i understand is supposed to control the purse strings - although the Emperor Obama (O.K. he has some nice clothes except for nasty golfing shorts and grandpa jeans says he will not negotiate on Demoncare, the debt ceiling, the public debt, any move to cut spending, any move to reduce taxes any attempt to prevent tax increases) allows the Administration to increase the debt ceiling and stop the profligate spending the the rating agencies need to downgrade the US credit rating  (that will help exports from the US anyway and increase the cost of imports (which may provoke the use of every available US sourced  enernergy resource instead of the trillions that it costs to import from countries that hate the US anyway). The mandarins should also stop giving further credit to the US (cut up it's credit card and force it to use a current account debit card). And while they are at it maybe they should devalue the greenback.  The US currency has the motto "In God We Trust". I have news for the big spenders, that was not put on the currency to indicate that they trusted God to be the lender of last resort when they had spent their money on idols. Plus, if there is a deity I doubt that he has much trust left in the three equal but separate parts of the US government or any level of US government. OK, you can now tell me I do not know what I am talking about and how everything I said is wrong (no abusive language please, it just reflects on you, not me). However, when you are telling me how wrong I am then tell me how wonderfully brilliant and correct the US governance is.
 


....So 9 trillion dollars goes "missing" and I'm sitting here poor, eating GMO foods because I can't afford anything better... my cat has problems breathing and I don't know if I'll have the money to take her into the veterinarian but hey! at least they all the money they could ever need, they probably wipe their ass with money they are so rich.


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Merkel does put German interest above European interest. But that's not the whole story. She also puts German corporate interest above German public interest. And most of all, her own interest above anything else.
I understand people in Germany being upset about everyone in Europe wanting their tax money. But that's only half the truth. The other half is, Germany profits from investors taking back their money from other European countries, and now investing it in the much safer and quite profitable Germany. Our interest rates in Germany have reached an all-time low in the crisis, so German economy profits from this crisis. And we still live from exports, and so from the EU. German economic interest is: try to keep up the status quo as long as possible, and that is what Merkel does.
Problem is, in my opinion, that will be disastrous for Europe. Polemics aside, the south europeans have a point. There's need for reforms, there's need for savings, but there also needs to be a perspective. You can't just close schools, hospitals, stop investments in infrastructure and deny people their healthcare for nothing in return but a lack of perspective. Just fire everyone from public service and don't offer any alternative for them. You can't just sacrifice the future of countries and societies for nothing but the need to save money.
It almost seems like Britain was right in its Euro-scepticicm. And everyone who was afraid of a too strong Germany after its reunion. That doesn't mean we should split up. In present and future, we simply have no choice but to work together in Europe. We're all in the same boat. If Britain wasn't in the European boat, few would care about it anymore. UKIP is wrong, British interest has to be in a strong Europe, not in a lone Britain.

Our unpopular former chancellor Gerhard Schröder made the reforms that led to present German economic strength. He risked his chancellorship, against his own party, to put through inevitable reforms. He turned the inert giant into an economic powerhouse. Merkel hardly does anything, the economic success she rests on was caused by her predecessor who took great risks. Risks that Merkel would never take. She's not the risky type. Schröder made reforms that were in parts flawed, but his own party, the SPD, is willing to work with and against the flaws today. Merkel is nothing like that. Her own influence is everything, and everything else plays second role, be it Germany, be it Europe.
Chancellor Schröder would have forced similar reforms on those countries, but he would have tried to convince them. Something like "it's going to be hard, but we're in the same boat, and we need to work together to get out of the crisis with greater strength". Even if it would damage his reputation in Germany. Merkel doesn't care about that. She simply says: "it's inevitable, deal with it. German savings are secure, I don't care a lot about the rest of Europe". She only cares about her position. And her position doesn't depend on Greece, Italy, Spain, or Britain. It only depends on Germans wanting to keep their money, and German economy, which is, again, profiting from the Euro crisis.
I am convinced that will destroy Europe, and I will vote for her adversary this month, but I have very little hope in a regime change. My hope is for a large coalition in which the SPD will have a little bit of influence on her Europe policy. A Europe policy, that is, contrary to her claims, careless and heartless.I find the idea that a German chancellor is responsible for solving the European economic crisis quite ridiculous. It is not in her powers to do so as she is no monarch but the democratically elected head of the German government. To all those moaning about her putting Germany's interest first - well that's actually her job description. That means, that she will, quite free of any ideological leaning decide hand in hand with the German industry what should be pursued for Eurozone. Be the next chancellor Steinbrueck or Merkel, nothing will change that.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Europe’s largest gold mine project following protests against technology that made the country home to one of the continent’s worst environmental disasters.

Romania’s President proposed a vote on allowing development of Europe’s largest gold mine project following protests against technology that made the country home to one of the continent’s worst environmental disasters.
A day after thousands of demonstrators rallied against the use of cyanide in gold mining, President Traian Basescu said he may call a referendum next year on the Rosia Montana mine. That may delay the project, for which Canada-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. (GBU) said it could “hopefully” receive approval by November.
The rallies followed the government’s unveiling last week of a draft law to raise the state’s stake in the project, rekindling anger over the 2000 Baia Mare spill. Listed by the United Nations Environment Programme alongside Chernobyl as one of Europe’s major human-caused disasters, the spill happened when a dam holding back mine debris burst, flooding the Somes, Tiza and Danube rivers with tens of thousands of tons of cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water.
“The biggest scare about the Rosia Montana mine is the cyanide process, which should have been discussed with experts,” Basescu said on newspaper Adevarul’s website. He said “society is rightfully reacting to this” because Romania had suffered from the Baia Mare spill.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta showed similar support, saying in a televised speech today from Bucharest that a referendum was “a good idea,” after the government had finished the “technical negotiations” on the project. The project is subject to a final decision by parliament, Ponta said.

Gold Reserves

Last month, Gabriel Resources said if parliament adopted the bill -- which increases the state’s stake in the mine to 25 percent and raises its royalties by half to 6 percent -- in a session that begins today, it would be able to accelerate its development of Rosia Montana and other mining projects.
Gabriel expects to get parliamentary approval as soon as November, Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Henry said today in a telephone interview with Bloomberg.
“Hopefully it could be a two- to three-month process,” Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Henry said today in a telephone interview. “It’s a little bit undefined.”
“We are hopeful that it will be smooth process to approval and it will be a fast process to approval. We’ve been waiting a long time and need to get on with things.”
Basescu said a referendum may take place during European Parliament elections next year. Such a vote would need a minimum turnout of 50 percent to be valid, a difficult prospect in a country where voter participation is historically low.

Opposition Rising

With proven reserves, estimated by Gabriel, of 10.1 million ounces of gold and 47.6 million ounces of silver, Rosia Montana is worth about $15 billion, or a 10th of Romania’s annual output, according to today’s spot price of the metals and World Bank data on the size of Romania’s economy.
The company, which has spent about $400 million and more than a decade trying to develop the gold mine, says it will be Europe’s biggest when it is operational.
The draft law has stoked opposition. About 2,000 people took to the streets in Bucharest yesterday and hundreds protested in big cities across the country against the project, Mediafax news service reported today.
Non-profit organization Alburnus Maior, one of the protests’ organizers, said in an e-mailed statement they had filed a request to the government today, asking for the “immediate rejection of the draft law by parliament” and “the immediate ban of the use of cyanide in mining.”
The mine may produce an average of 375,000 ounces of gold a year and cost $1.5 billion, Stephen Walker, a Toronto-based analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, said on Aug. 28.

Friday, August 30, 2013

In Germany, the finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has completed an outspoken week with a flourish.
Speaking to German daily Handelsblatt, in an interview published this morning, Mr Schaeuble revisited talk of a third bail-out for Greece, following on from his surprise admission about the prospect earlier this week. Today, he added that, while Greece is likely to need another rescue package, that the sums involved will not be as high as the earlier deals, which totaled €240bn. He's also insisted that Greece will not get another debt haircut.

We have held out the prospect of further aid, on condition that the government in Athens meet its agreed commitments and on the expectation the sums involved will be much smaller than before.

I don't want to be accused, after the election, of not having said the truth before the election.

I'm happy that the broad public is aware of what I've been saying for a long time, that we'll have to look next year at further measures for Greece.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

When a politician is planning a campaign lie, he has to be able to rely on one thing: No one in his own party must come out with the truth prematurely. The Social Democrats adhered to this rule in the 1976 election, when then Chancellor Helmut Schmidt promised higher pensions and then announced sharp cuts after the election. And the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) also closed ranks in 1990, the year of German reunification, when then Chancellor Helmut Kohl appeared on market squares throughout the country to announce that taxes would not be raised. It was a promise that, as we now know, was followed by the strongest postwar increase in taxes and other charges. Current Chancellor Angela Merkel was still an up-and-coming member of the eastern German CDU and Kohl's eager pupil, so it came as no surprise that she urged her party's executive committee to stay the course on Greece at all costs last week. "There is too much talk in Europe about debt haircuts," the chancellor told her party's executive committee at a meeting last Monday.  But after SPIEGEL had reported two weeks ago that the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, had new doubts about Greece's bailout program, the debate over additional aid packages or debt forgiveness was reignited. This would be extremely dangerous, the chancellor told CDU MPs, as it would create "uncertainty in the markets." In other words, she was saying, it was critical to maintain discipline in the debate.
Less than 24 hours later, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble appeared on a campaign stage in Ahrensburg, a town in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, and said: "There will have to be another (bailout) program in Greece."...So there it was.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Lagarde was a Minister in the French UMP party. A  coincidence that she is in favor of maintaining financial UMP - in other words funny money. Tapering or whatever euphemism one uses for reducing the amount of money printing is going to be painful as markets are forced to realize the price of debt. Exit strategies are mathematically impossible as we all  know the Central Banks could only withdraw a fraction of the funny money they created.
The UK needs a new bonanza on the scale of North Sea oil to allow any unwinding of QE. Without it there would be a severe depression.
Our fiat currencies have been hijacked by a financial community that operates in  a parallel world to the real economy. There is no way out of this mess unless the masses are driven into poverty and unrest or the global financial system collapses. 
Laggard and Blancmange should both be long gone, having perhaps irreparably damaged a global institution called the IMF by trying to turn it into a French version of a € lifeboat
"The day will come when this period of exceptionally loose monetary policy... must end," she said in a speech to a global gathering of central bankers hosted by the US Federal Reserve in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday.
"We need to plan for that day, especially since we do not know exactly when it comes," said Ms Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

"Just as with entry, exit will take us into uncharted territory."

Speaking as the Fed's plans for slowing its $85bn-a-month bond-buying program have shaken emerging economy markets, Ms Lagarde said such "unconventional monetary policy" (UMP) approaches remained important.

"Let me say it up front: I do not suggest a rush to exit. UMP is still needed in all places it is being used, albeit longer for some than for others."
She said specifically that both Europe and Japan still have much to gain from such programmes, which mostly aim to enhance growth by pressing interest rates lower.
But she said the IMF and policy makers should be thinking about the ramifications of reeling in easy-money programmes.

"That includes the implications for global economic and financial stability: the whole system, not just one part of it."

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Greeks and other suffering European nations should learn, using Euro , freely convertible currency will not get them out of trouble. If Euro is allowed to be traded freely like US$ and US$ is allowed to be used in Europe, the suffering nations of Europe will move like a slow Train wreck and get doomed. The reason is as follows.
Better European nations like Germany, Holland, France will make high margin products for export and sell in Euros. With the export earnings which can be converted to US$ freely can import low end products and services from Asian nations.
So the countries like Spain, Greece , Italy can neither compete with Germany and France in high margin products and against Asian nations in low value products and services.
The PIIGS and rest have only two options to get out of slump.
1. Get out of Euro Zone or else
2. Make Euro like Rennambi / Yuan or Indian Rupee no trade , nor convertible freely out side Euro zone. Ban US$ use in Euro zone... 

I would say that banks don't have ANY requirement to do anything socially useful, except in as much as it is what their customers desire and is therefore good business, but the bank itself exists to make a profit for its shareholders.  If people prefer a mutual then there are still some left, but most ex-Building Societies got way out of their depth when they tried to become banks.  What we need though is greater competition amongst retail banks.   Virgin now have old Northern Rock branches but it's not enough.  Tesco and Sainsbury both have banking arms now and I would like to see them offer a full range of services.  I would like to see at least 10 high street banks competing with each other.

'Socially useless' is a poor term, implying that banks are supposed to serve some kind of 'social justice'.  A much better and more accurate term would be 'economically destructive' or 'nationally suicidal'.  Banks are licensed by the nation to HELP the nation's economy function, not to dispense social justice.  They have violated their license by DESTROYING the nation's economy instead of helping it.  They do not need moral suasion.  They need to be closed, confiscated, and all major employees hanged for aggravated treason.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

UK to claw back power from the EU.

EUOBSERVER(source)BRUSSELS - The UK wants to retain 35 EU-wide police and justice laws out of some 130 in its wider efforts to claw back power from the EU.
“We believe the UK should opt out of the measures in question for reasons of principle, policy, and pragmatism,” UK home secretary Theresa May told ministers in London on Tuesday (9 July).
Tory-right wingers want to repatriate all 133 laws, but May said the UK should retain its co-operation with the EU police agency, Europol, and the EU's joint judicial authority, Eurojust.
“We should opt in post-adoption provided that Europol is not given the power to direct national law enforcement agencies to initiate investigations or share data that conflicts with our national security,” she noted.
The European Arrest Warrant will also figure into UK’s provisional opt-in list but with added conditions to better protect British nationals of extradition to other member states in case of minor offences.  May wants to amend the Extradition Act so that people in the UK can only be extradited under the European Arrest Warrant when the requesting state has already made a decision to charge and a decision to try. The UK parliament is set to vote and adopt the measures next week but opposition ministers say they need more time to examine the 159-page document that details the government’s full plans. Others accused the home secretary of double standards over the government’s stated position on EU-related justice issues.
May had previously suggested that the European Arrest Warrant was not in the UK’s interest. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said “the home secretary has been forced to admit the truth, Britain does need the European Arrest Warrant, it does need joint-investigation teams, Europol, the exchange of criminal records, and help to tackle online child abuse.” Other proposed desired opt-in laws include the principle of mutual recognition to financial penalties, confiscation orders, and simplifying the exchange of information and intelligence between law enforcement authorities with member states.
The UK has to accept all 133 measures, made before the Lisbon Treaty was adopted in 2009, or reject them all. If it rejects them all, it can then opt back into individual laws it wants to keep.
The decision must be made by June 2014 or all the EU laws, as of December of the same year, will be subject to oversight by EU judges as well as the European Commission’s enforcement powers.
“Following our discussions in Europe, another vote will be held on the final list of measures that the UK will formally apply to rejoin,” said May. Some senior government officials see the move as part of David Cameron’s push for an in/out referendum on its EU membership.  MPs last week unanimously backed a bill that guarantees the popular vote by the end of the 2017. The opposition Labour party, however, boycotted the vote on the bill.
The commission, for its part, says it respects the UK government's choice to opt out, and welcomes the UK intention to also opt back into certain measures. “The commission will clearly need to take the necessary time to assess the indicative list of proposals for opting back in that the UK has outlined,” said a commission spokesperson in a statement. The commission will formulate an official position after it receives formal notice following the December 2014 deadline.  Official negotiations between the two have yet to start.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Portugal's opposition party has called for a renegotiation of the country's EU/IMF bailout package and labeled the government an "incompetent" one which must be replaced. Socialist leader Antonio Jose Seguro, presenting a largely symbolic no confidence motion, said his party was against the spending cuts the government agreed to. He said (as reported by Reuters): Your government is destroying Portugal and there is only one solution - to replace the incompetent government. But the prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose centre-right coalition has a comfortable majority, said the country had to comply with the programme to guarantee funding, and the no-confidence vote created a climate of political instability. He said a bailout renegotiation would lead to a second bailout.... The weaker than expected jobs data out from the US today could mean analysts are being too optimistic about Friday's non-farm payroll numbers, suggested James Knightley at ING. He said: The employment component [of the ISM non-manufacturing survey] dropped to 53.3 from 57.2. Given today’s ADP payrolls survey also showed a slowdown in private sector hiring to 158,000 from 237,000 in February this perhaps indicates some downside risk to the consensus forecast of non-farm payrolls rising 198,000 on Friday. With ongoing concerns about the potential economic impact from sequestration we suspect that we are going to see a softer period of activity data. As such we doubt that the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing plans will be scaled back before the third quarter of 2013.

Greek business head calls for rethink on bailout terms - It may count as stating the obvious but the head of Greece's biggest business group reckons the Cypriot crisis could tip his country into an even deeper recession this year. He also called for the troika of international lenders, due in Greece this week, to rethink the bailout programme by promoting growth measures as well as austerity. From Reuters: "Greece is directly affected by the Cyprus crisis and based on some estimates this may chop up to one percentage point off GDP (gross domestic product)," Dimitris Daskalopoulos, head of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEB), told reporters. "With the success of the Greek bailout programme already hanging by a thread, many signs show the recession is deepening with the prospect of recovery in 2014 fading," Daskalopoulos said. He said the insistence on austerity by the eurozone's core to cure the ills of the debt crisis risked breeding euro scepticism and anti-German sentiment among the suffering countries of the single currency bloc. "The North must give and the South must change, otherwise the historic demons of Europe will find again room to act." He said the protracted economic downturn and fiscal austerity were testing society's tolerance limits and called on the government and its international lenders to retool the applied programme with growth measures. "The bell of reforms must finally ring loudly in Greece," Daskalopoulos said. "We cannot be fighting tooth and nail against firing a few thousand public sector workers when almost one million people have lost their jobs in the private sector."

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Eurozone crisis hits development funds - The eurozone crisis is having far-reaching effects, not least on the aid being sent to the developing world. Deep cuts in aid budgets by crisis-stricken euro zone countries have prompted the biggest fall in development assistance to the world’s poorest nations since the mid-1990s. Sharp drops in spending by Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal resulted in a 4% decline in financial assistance to the developing world in 2012, according to the annual assessment conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD, a club for 33 rich nations, said it was concerned by the decline, which it blamed on the austerity programmes forced on many euro zone countries over the past three years. After a 2% drop in 2011, the decline in 2012 was the biggest in 15 years and was the first back-to-back drop in development assistance since 1996-97 - the years immediately before the mass public campaigns in the West for debt relief and increased development assistance.
Over to Italy, where the treasury has cut its growth expectations, just two weeks after the last forecasts. Treasury undersecretary Gianfranco Polillo said the economy is likely to contract by 1.5% and 1.6% this year. Speaking to Radio 24, he said: This year we will see a fall in gross domestic product of 1.3% if things go well, but it will probably be -1.5% or -1.6%. The currency bloc's third largest economy has shrunk for six consecutive quarters, its longest recession in 20 years. Mario Monti's outgoing government slashed this year's forecast to -1.3% last moth from its previous estimate of -0.2%.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

'Disastrous' and 'unbelievable' are the words which spring to mind!

The EU has now shown that it is not simply a fraudulent organisation (audits not signed for 16 years) but a criminal one. Expropriating funds deposited in banks is no better than daylight robbery.
The lesson or ALL is to quit this organization without further delay.....Under an arrangement expected to be announced on Saturday, depositors in Bank of Cyprus will receive shares in the lender worth 37.5pc of any savings over €100,000, while the rest may never be paid back, according to Reuters, citing a source with direct knowledge of the terms. Of the 62.5pc of uninsured deposits not converted to bank shares, about 40pc will continue to accrue interest but will not be repaid unless the bank does well, while the final 22.5pc will cease to attract interest, the source told Reuters. Government figures, including finance minister Michalis Sarris and central bank governor Panicos Demetriades, had previously indicated that depositors in the island's largest lender would lose around 40pc of their uninsured savings as part of an 11th hour agreement reached in Brussels in the early hours of Monday. Meanwhile, account holders in Laiki Bank, the country's second largest, stand to lose up to 80pc of their money as the lender is wound down and insured deposits transferred to Bank of Cyprus. The harsher-than-expected terms on the Bank of Cyprus' largest depositors will provoke further anger among Cypriots, who face sharp economic decline with the contraction of their dominant banking sector. The most irritating thing about this whole tragic saga is the constant use of the euphemism 'haircut'. Theft is theft pure and simple. Theft is, and always has been a serious criminal offence; anyone found guilty of it should be properly punished for their crime. When we start trying to dilute the meaning of it and pretend to mitigate the affects of it we seriously jeopardize our morality as human beings. Perhaps rape will soon be described as undesired sex, and murder as a premature termination etc, etc.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The plot thickens...The European Commission has told reporters in Brussels that large uninsured depositors could to be "bailed-in" to help rescue a bank, under a new draft EU law on bank resolutions.
The comments came as the EC fielded questions on Jeroen Dijsselbloem's (the governor of Ciprus designate) comments yesterday that Cyprus showing the way ahead for handling financial crisis.
Brandenburg civil servant pensions exposed to Cyprus.
The German state of Brandenburg has admitted that around €2m of its civil servants' pension fund is in Cypriot bonds.   Much of the rest of the fund is in other crisis countries such as Ireland, Spain, Portugal as well as the Cayman Islands. Its finance minister Helmuth Markov from the far-left Linke party says he's confident their value will bounce back. (well, he has to say that, doesn't he?)Will perhaps trigger a bit of much-needed Schadenfreude in Cyprus?
Schäuble blames classroom jealousy...Remarkable comments from Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, this morning -- he's compared criticism of the tough German approach to the negotiations to classroom envy.
Here's the quotes (via Kathimerini) : "It always works out like that,” he told ZDF television.  “This also happens in classrooms. Sometimes when you have better results, others have difficulties with this, sometimes they are even a little jealous."
Ironic timing, as children in Nicosia left the classroom to protest against the bailout terms.
His Cyprus counterpart, Michalis Sarris, looked like a man still reeling from a nasty encounter with an exam paper* this morning. He told Bloomberg that there's been little Esprit de corps during Sunday's negotiations. Europe Union should be about showing support to fellow members, but...We did get some support from some participants, but there was a definite hard line by others.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Cypriots face a suspension of credit card payments for overseas goods and a ban on cashing cheques under draft capital controls designed to avert a run on the banks. Here is the government document outlining the capital controls in full. The only notable correction from the measures outlined at 15.51 is that the limit on cash that can be taken out of the country per trip abroad is €1,000, not €3,000 as previously reported: Cypriot finance minister Michalis Sarris has said capital controls are needed because of the "lack of substantial liquidity and significant risk of deposits outflow, with a possible outcome the collapse of the credit institutions". This could cause "chain effects that could lead to systemic instability of the financial system and have destabilizing consequences on the economy as a whole".... Cyprus central bank official Yiangos Dimitriou has confirmed that the cashing of checks will be banned as part of the introduction of capital controls. Dimitriou also told state TV channel CYBC that bank withdrawals will be limited to €300 a day, and that the effectiveness of the controls will be evaluated on a daily basis.
Hundreds of protesters massed outside the floodlit presidential palace in Nicosia late yesterday, shouting for the bailout “troika” of the EU, European Central Bank and IMF to leave Cyprus, a country of 862,000 people.
The streets in Nicosia were quieter today because of a national holiday to celebrate Greek independence, with school children parading to the Greek embassy. Lines remained at Popular Bank’s cash machines after the daily limit was lowered to 100 euros yesterday from 260 euros.
Anastasiades was running out of options after failing to get help from the Russians, whose holdings in Cypriot banks Moody’s Investors Service estimated at $31 billion.
The deal imposes losses that two EU officials said would be no more than 40 percent on uninsured depositors at Bank of Cyprus Plc, the largest bank, which will take over the viable assets of Cyprus Popular Bank (CPB) as it’s wound down.
“I’m not happy with the agreement because it will be a destroyer for the Cyprus economy,” said Yannis Emmanouilidis, 50, a chemist. “Because if our bank system is destroyed, the whole economy will be destroyed.”
Bank assets in Cyprus swelled to 126.4 billion euros at the end of January, seven times the size of the 18 billion-euro economy, from 78 billion euros in 2007, data from the ECB and the EU’s statistics office show.
Emmanouilidis said he has an account at Popular Bank, or Laiki in Greek, and is thinking about withdrawing his money, though he doesn’t want to exacerbate the economic problems.
If he does, he will have to wait. Banks in Cyprus, which have been shut for the past week, remain closed and lawmakers voted last week to impose capital controls to prevent a run on deposits when they reopen.
“Maybe we won’t have the right to take out our money,” Emmanouilidis said. “This is a free market and the banks won’t let us take our money out? This is amazing in a democracy of the European Union.”

Monday, March 25, 2013

Angela Merkel said last year, if The Euro collapsed "there might not be peace in Europe in sixty years"....Sounds like a threat...The Germans are sending out a clear message. Get your finances in order if you want to be treated as a Eurozone member. There can be no sound money unless and until all the member states of the Eurozone play by German rules. Cyprus are disposable when it comes to German exports.
Strange how they didn't send out that message so clearly fifteen years ago when Kohl rejected economic advice and insisted that Italy must be allowed to join the euro on political grounds.
"Operation Self-Deceit: New Documents Shine Light on Euro Birth Defects  Newly revealed German government documents reveal that many in Helmut Kohl's Chancellery had deep doubts about a European common currency when it was introduced in 1998. First and foremost, experts pointed to Italy as being the euro's weak link." Well....
The eu allowed countries to break the entry conditions of joining the EZ. They then allowed countires to break the ficsal stability pact that was suppoed to hold everyone together. Germany were the first to break the deal, so you cant blame the med countries from realising that the rules do not apply.
I do not support the incompetatance theory. The EU knew exactly what it was doing. By providing enough rope the smaller weaker countries have been allowed to hang themselves. If there was any real motive to have all the EZ countries performing the EU would and should have stepped in long before the situation became serious. They had the law in the terms of the treaties to force the med countries to comply, but did not take any action. They are complicit in problem that these countries face and are now taking advantage to destroy competition and asset strip where they can.
Meanwhile : The central bank in Cyprus imposed a €100 a day withdrawal limit at cash machines for all local banks on Sunday to avert a run on lenders, as the island's leaders meet its international lenders for last-ditch talks to avert a financial meltdown.

Monday, February 25, 2013

“it was only 'a failure of animal spirits' (to use Keynes' description of the loss of confidence) that caused the 1930s economic depression.” ...It was the same economic measures of calling in their loans (as they are doing to Greece, Spain, etc.) and tightening the money supply as well as raising interest rates that caused the FED orchestrated “Great Depression” of 1929. This is what precipitated the Stock Market Crash – and then they used that as the excuse for further controls on the money supply, instead of doing what Keynes wanted: flow more money into the system to stop the growth of unemployment so as to kick-start the economy again. This time though they used the “bad debt trading of derivatives on the housing bubble” to orchestrate this upcoming depression. If the people of Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy etc. were given a fair paper ballot referendum (not computers so easily manipulated as the Bush elections showed us in America) then I believe they would get out of the Euro. Argentina managed it, and now the IMF and the FED are seething and frothing at the mouth and taking them to court or rather suing them because they had the audacity to want their national sovereignty back! Check out "fractional reserve" lending on "The Money Masters" on You Tube to get a clear picture as to how the whole civilized world is being fleeced for the gain of a few private individuals. It is not a conspiracy theory, it is simple fact. Another of their goals is to have us fight amongst ourselves, instead of trying to solve the real problem which is “fractional reserve lending.” The German taxpayers, for example, are rightly angry but for the wrong reasons! The ECB is pulling the wool over their eyes just like the FED is pulling the wool over the eyes of America. The ECB is making out that they need money to bail out Greece, Spain, etc. when they have really lent out far more than they have in their vaults already! They are also being backed by the FED with “fractional reserve” dollars to the tune of 85% of their assets. The whole Ponzi scheme is based on thin air dollars – so in effect there is no need to fleece the German taxpayer as well. But it does serve to divert attention from the real culprits: private banking in the form of the ECB, the FED and the IMF! In this way the Greeks are seen as lazy, no-good for nothings to the Germans and the Germans are seen as “Nazis” by the Greeks. Divide and conquer is an age old adage and it is diverting attention from the real culprit: Private Banking in the form of the FED and the ECB and they are getting away scot-free when they are causing this depression in the first place. Since everything anyway is based on “fractional reserve lending” or “thin air” debt, then why are interest rates up and money tight in both America and Europe? This is the cause of the economic crisis – not because some Greek café owner didn’t give out a receipt to a customer! The FED did it in 1929 to cause the Great Depression: raise interest rates and tighten the money supply just when they should be doing the opposite according to Keynes to get out of this slump. Private banking is orchestrating this depression and it is getting worse and worse every day leading to more nations slowly falling under their total control. It is ironic that Greece is the first victim of this multi-headed Hydra from Greek Mythology composed of the IMF, the FED, the ECB, the NCBs, and others! Even Hercules would have a hard time with this one as there are too many heads working in concert this time to enslave the world in debt. Whenever nations or empires printed or coined their own money that was debt and interest free the world prospered. The Romans with their bronze coins, England with her Tally Sticks, and Lincoln with his “Greenback Dollars” printed directly by the US Treasury. Many would argue that money would be worthless if we cut out private banking to print our money, but just the opposite would happen. If a country can issue a debt-laden interest bearing bond on good faith to a private bank to print its money, it can also issue a debt-free paper note to the public directly!