Sunday 28 February 2010

perspectives

energy, EURO, warming, snow
and other gates and crunches


The snow has piled up higher than ever during our years here in the Scottish Highlands; yet, its sheer mass and the fact that it came in just one 36 hour blizzard inspires to go back and dig out the experts' headlines about the North Atlantic Drifts slowing down etc. Together with that impressive photo documentary on ICE it could make sense. "Could" because it certainly needs more scientific background and evidence than what one lay man can deliver.

However, while I rather stick to the "collecting" of evidence and perspectives I found the below links interesting:

Bill Gates on energy






Al Gore's opinion: NYT OP-ED Contributor


Kate Sheppard: Most Credible Climate Skeptic Not So Credible After All


BBC's Robert Peston: Why withdrawal of Rock guarantee matters


CrisisMaven: The Euro as a Basket Case



Nice views.


Carpe diem!

Thursday 25 February 2010

"in the year 2010": rubbish construction

BBC: 'house of the future' is plastic

Please click above BBC link and please watch that video describing our future in plastic houses... it is dated February 24th, 2010; so it definitely is not from the early days of trying to understand what sustainability might be about; this is what a BBC reporter and a construction company come up with today, in the year 2010 ... or have they offered him plastic shares of any kind ...; it begins:

This is a pile of rubbish; a mix of household and industrial waste that would normally go to fill a hole in the ground: utterly useless stuff...

You will see panels made from 'chopped up old television sets' and hear the statement that among others 'those panels will be used to build sustainable houses while at the same time waste is recycled'. The material is explained to be 'substantial', 'waterproof', that 'it doesn't rot' and would have 'a long, long life durability'. Each house would contain 'about 18 tons of 'Thermo Poly Rock', abbreviated most modern into a 'TPR' token, 'recycled waste' that 'otherwise would have gone to landfill'.


This and the rest of that miserable piece of information is either a prime example of how bad journalism has become - was it ever any better? - or, of how desperate that one member of the construction industry is trying to survive our current crisis. And how desperate must those politicians and decision makers of BRE and Carbon Trust be to give their "good names" for this piece of medieval and destructive innovation.

If you need any more you will find it in this BBC article.

I won't go into the details of how pleasant it must be to live in a 18 ton waste plastic house and I won't discuss whether pressing "rubbish" to form panels and hide those behind dwelling walls can really be regarded as a sustainable "recycling" process but I would like to add another video, a trailer of a new movie hitting the theatres soon; it is called 'Plastic-Planet' and describes in German and English the plastic world we live in - all the pictures are bilingual, so don't hesitate to take the time:





I have blogged on phthalates twice before. Ugly chemicals that explain a lot of why and what is going wrong. Plastic is poisonous but also a valuable commodity; it needs to go through controlled recycling processes - not into holes in the ground and not into walls for us to live in.

The above BBC report is what is utterly useless stuff - not that pile of rubbish!

Carpe diem!


Wednesday 24 February 2010

climategate: another red herring

It is very easy to be a sceptical or a denier; just takes a line, a "No!", a minute, a second and you are done with the subject; the question remains: is the subject done with us, yet, or will we be caught in the act?



Do we have a cold winter because the changing ratio of cold salt water and waters from melted ice influences the oceanic drifts? And do we have lots of snow as the overall atmospheric humidity is increasing?

James Balog : http://www.extremeicesurvey.org/

I recommend to take the time and watch above video and visit the link; it is not on numbers or lists, temperatures or percentages; it is for your eyes, only.


Carpe diem!


euro's song of swan

EURO is history!

Its failure was programmed when this artificial currency was forced over so different economies such as the German and the Portuguese or the French and the Italian; during the last weeks there was not even the slightest hint that any or a certain group of the member states, the ECB or the EU is working on a plan to safe the currency by installing measurements that would allow economies of different levels and needs (!) gather under the same currency roof.

Not that I know all the answers and it very likely is long past 12 o’clock but it is obvious that there are no solutions to heal the programme’s failures.

To collect vast sums of money for filling a Greek hat (how often?) will see a number of other hats pop up, some larger, some smaller; the economies slipping almost on a global scale emphasising the battles for labour and commodities, also for weak currencies and low labour cost, this all inflamed by the banksters' egoism will all but protect the EURO.

So the question is: "What’s next?". Not so much a “how does this end?” but rather a “what will we be left with?” and “how will we go on?”.

Anyway, it might take a little or much longer; but an awful end might shorten an awful time!

Carpe diem!


in dubio pro banks

Citi Notice Causes Customer Angst


Citigroup added a note to the banks statements to their customers:

"Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change."



It comes through the back door and hardly is worthwhile a note in the news.

Is this just to be prepared?

Carpe diem!



Monday 22 February 2010

what took you so long, oh lord?


telegraph: Lord Mandelson backs state investment bank plan

The Business Secretary believes that a state-run bank could create funding streams for sectors that traditional banks might otherwise ignore.

It took the politicians far more than 12 months to finally understand that the collapse and then absence of "traditional banking" in connection with the banksters' egoism is drying out the economy; now of all things the German kfw has been detected as the possible bank-business-model that could help supplying the markets with credit. That's a joke?! Just remember the IKB disaster!

1
By the way, the proposed €5bn that Germany has to throw into Greek's hat to collect the €25bn will be printed by the same kfw. What a career from the Marshall Plan to the "global economic crunch super print shop"?

2
kfw = "Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau" meaning something like the "bank institute for reconstruction".

3
Why seek far afield and go through all the expense to "learn" from kfW? We own the RBS where "RBS" could well stand for "Re-Build-from-Scratch"!


Carpe diem!


Thursday 18 February 2010

status quo - february 2010

I have little to add to GEAB's blunt analysis and summary of what has (not) been achieved and what we might see happening unless some smart people come up with even smarter ideas to cut that Gordian knot we - driven by our super smarties of politics and economics - have managed to get ourselves into.

For the article in German language (French, Spanish) please see here.

- - - - -



GEAB N°42 is available! Second half of 2010: Sudden intensification of the global systemic crisis – Strengthening of five fundamental negative trends
LEAP/E2020 is of the view that the effect of States’ spending trillions to « counteract the crisis » will have fizzled out. These vast sums had the effect of slowing down the development of the systemic global crisis for several months but, as anticipated in previous GEAB reports, this strategy will only have ultimately served to clearly drag States into the crisis caused by the financial institutions.

Therefore our team anticipates, in this 42nd issue of the GEAB, a sudden intensification of the crisis in the second half of 2010, caused by a double effect of a catching up of events which were temporarily « frozen » in the second half of 2009 and the impossibility of maintaining the palliative remedies of past years.

As a matter of fact, in February 2010, a year after us stating that the end of 2009 would mark the beginning of the phase of global geopolitical dislocation, anyone can see that this process is well established: states on the edge of bankruptcy, remorseless rise in unemployment, millions of people coming to the end of their social security benefits, falling wages and salaries, limiting of public services and disintegration of the global governance system (failure of the Copenhagen summit, growing Chinese/US confrontation, return of the risk of an Iran/Israel/USA conflict, wars worldwide… (1)). However, we are only at the start of this phase for which LEAP/E2020 will supply a likely timeframe in the next GEAB issue.

The sudden intensification of the global systemic crisis will be characterised by the acceleration and/or strengthening of five fundamental negative trends:

. the explosion of the bubble in public deficits and a corresponding increase in state defaults
. the fatal impact of the Western banking system with mounting debt defaults and the wall of debt coming to maturity
. the inescapable rise in interest rates
. the increase in issues causing international tension
. a growing social insecurity.

In this GEAB issue our team expands on the first three trends of these developments including an anticipation on Russia’s position in the face of the crisis, as well as, of course, our monthly suggestions.

In this public announcement, we have chosen to analyse the « Greek case », on the one hand because it seems indicative of what 2010 has in store for us, and on the other because it is a perfect illustration of the way in which news and information on the world crisis is moving towards « make-believe news » between blocs and interests which are increasingly in conflict. Clearly it is a « must » to learn how to decipher worldwide news and information in the months and years to come which will be a growing means of manipulatory activity.

Progression of the percentage of net new U.S. debt bought by China, net new U.S. government borrowing, percentage of outstanding U.S. Treasuries owned by China (2002-2009) – Sources: US Treasury, Haver Analytics, New York Times
Progression of the percentage of net new U.S. debt bought by China, net new U.S. government borrowing, percentage of outstanding U.S. Treasuries owned by China (2002-2009) – Sources: US Treasury, Haver Analytics, New York Times

The five characteristics which make up the « Greek case » into the tree with which one tries to hide the forest

Let’s take a look at the « Greek case » which has concerned the media and experts for several weeks now. Before entering into the detail of what is happening, there are five key points to our anticipation on the subject:

1. As we stated in our anticipations for 2010, which appeared in the last GEAB issue (GEAB N°41, the Greek problem will have disappeared from the international media’s radar several weeks from now. It is the tree used to hide both a forest of much more dangerous sovereign debt (to be precise that of Washington and London) and the beginning of a further fall in the world economy, led by the United States (2).

2. The Greek problem is an internal issue for the Eurozone and the EU, and the current situation provides, at last, a unique occasion for the Eurozone leaders to require Greece (a case of « failed enlargement » since 1982) to leave its feudal political and economic system behind. The other Eurozone countries, led by Germany, will do the necessary to make Greek leaders bring their country into the XXIst century in exchange for their help, at the same time making use of the fact that Greece only represents 2.5% of Eurozone GDP (3) to test the stabilisation mechanisms that the Eurozone needs in times of crisis (4).

3. Ango-Saxon leaders and media are using the current situation (just like last year with the so-called banking tsunami coming from Eastern Europe which was going to carry the Eurozone away with it (5)) to hide the catastrophic progression of their economies and public debt and attempt to weaken the attractiveness of the Eurozone at a time when the USA and the United Kingdom have increasing difficulty in attracting the capital which they so desperately need. At the same time Washington and London (which, since the coming into effect of the Lisbon Treaty is completely excluded from any management of the Euro) would be overjoyed to see the IMF, which they control completely (6), brought into Eurozone management.

4. Eurozone leaders are very happy to see the Euro fall to 1.35 against the Dollar. They well know that it won’t last because the current problem is the fall in the value of the Dollar (and the Pound Sterling), but they appreciate this « whiff of oxygen » for their exporters.

5. The speculators (hedge funds and others) and banks heavily involved with Greece (7), have a common interest in trying to bring about rapid Eurozone financial support for Greece, since otherwise the rating agencies will, unintentionally, pull a fast one on them if the Europeans refuse to dig into their pockets (like the scandalous actions of Paulson and Geithner over AIG and Wall Street in 2008/2009): indeed a lowering of Greece’s rating will plunge this small world into the throes of serious financial losses if, for the banks, their Greek loans are similarly devalued, or if their bets against the Euro don’t work out in due course (8).

2008 comparison of the deficits and Eurozone GDP of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France and Germany – Source: Der Spiegel / European Commission, 02/2010
2008 comparison of the deficits and Eurozone GDP of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France and Germany – Source: Der Spiegel / European Commission, 02/2010

Goldman Sachs’ role in this Greek tragedy… and the next sovereign defaults

In the « Greek case », just like in every suspense story, a « bad guy » is needed (or, following the logic of an old-style tragedy, a « deus ex machina »). In this phase of the global systemic crisis, the role of the « bad guy » is usually played by one of Wall Street’s big investment banks, in particular by the leader of the gang, Goldman Sachs. The « Greek case » is no different as indeed this New York investment bank is directly implicated in the budgetary conjuring tricks which allowed Greece to qualify for Euro entry, whilst its actual budget deficits would have disqualified it. In reality it was Goldman Sachs who, in 2002, created one of its cunning financial models of which it holds the secret (9) and which, almost systematically resurfaces several years later, to blow up the client. But what does it matter, since GS (Goldman Sachs) profits were the beneficiary!

In the Greek case what the investment bank proposed was very simple: raise a loan which didn’t appear in the budget (a swap agreement which enabled a ficticious reduction in the size of the Greek public deficit (10). The Greek leaders at the time were, of course, 100% liable and should, in LEAP/E2020’s opinion, be subjected to Greek and European political and legal process for having cheated the EU and their own citizens within the framework of a major historic event, the creation of the single European currency.

But, let’s be clear, the liability of the New York investment bank (as an accomplice) is just as great, especially when one is aware of the fact that Goldman Sachs’ vice-president for Europe was, at the time, a certain Mario Draghi (11), currently President of the Italian Central Bank and a candidate (12) to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet at the head of the European Central Bank (13).

Without wishing to pre-judge Mr. Draghi’s role in the affair of the loan manipulating Greece’s statistics (14), one should ask oneself if it wouldn’t be worthwhile to question his involvement in the affair (15). In a democracy, the press (16), like parliaments (in this case Greek and European), are expected to take on this task themselves. Considering the importance of GS in world financial affairs these last few years, nothing that this bank does should leave governments and legislators indifferent. It is Paul Volcker, current head of Barack Obama’s financial advisors, who has become one of the strongest critics of Goldman Sachs’ activities (17). We already had the occasion to write, at the time of the election of the current US President, that he is the only person in his entourage having the experience and skills to push through tough measures (18) and who, at this moment, knows what, or rather whom, he is talking about.

With this same logic, on the issue of transparency in financial activities and state budgets and using the ill-fated role of Goldman Sachs and of the large investment banks in general as an illustration, LEAP/E2020 takes the view that it would be beneficial for the European Union and its five hundred million citizens, to exclude former managers of these investment banks (19) from any post of financial, budgetary and economic control (ECB, European Commission, National Central Banks). The mixing of these relationships can only lead to even greater confusion between public and private interests, which can only be to the detriment of European public interests. To begin with, the Eurozone should immediately require the Greek government to stop calling on the services of Goldman Sachs which, according to the Financial Times of 01/28/2010, it still uses.

If the head of Goldman Sachs believes he is « God » as he described himself in a recent interview (20), it would be prudent to consider that his bank, and its lookalikes, can seriously behave like devils, and it is therefore wise to draw all the consequences. This piece of advice, according to our team, is valid for the whole of Europe, as well as every other continent. There are « private services » which clash with « public interests »: just ask Greek citizens and American real estate owners whose houses have been repossessed by the banks!

To conclude, our team suggests a game to convince those who seek where the next sovereign debt crisis will surface: simply look for those states which have called upon Goldman Sachs’ services in the last few years and you will have a serious lead (21)!

-------
Notes:

(1) The recent statements of G. W. Bush’s Secretary to the Treasury, Hank Paulson, about the fact that Russia and China plotted to bring down Wall Street in the autumn of 2008 show the extent of the big global players’ paranoia. Source: Daily Mail, 01/29/2010

(2) During the last four years our team has regularly exposed the anomalies in calculating US GDP. We will make no further comment here on this very « Greek » aspect of American statistics. As to the development of the American economy over the next few months, it is sufficient to note that the Truck Tonnage Index went into freefall in January 2010, just as it did at the end of the first half of 2008. Source: USAToday, 02/11/2010

(3) See the chart below which puts the « Greek problem » into proportion against Eurozone GNP.

(4) For which GEAB has emphasized the necessity for four years, as well as the wide public support (an average of more than 90% according to GlobalEurometre monthly polls) a Eurozone economic governance could count on.

(5) As a reminder here, GEAB N°33 was one of the rare media sources which, in Spring 2008, revealed the dishonest and manipulative aspects of the big fear of a « banking tsunami » coming from Eastern Europe which was supposed to carry away the Eurozone banking system. At the time, the Euro had fallen to much lower levels than those seen today…only to rise again several weeks later. For those who wish to understand the current media position, we suggest a re-read of the GEAB N°33 public communiquĂ©.

(6) The fact that a Frenchman is its head changes nothing.

(7) Source: Le Figaro, 02/12/2010

(8) That said, media manipulation in this area is remarkable. These last few days one has seen/read/heard almost everywhere that huge sums have been bet on a fall in the Euro, some eight billion US Dollars. In fact this « huge sum » is only a drop in the ocean of the world currency markets which turn over several hundred billion USD a day. Source: Financial Times, 02/08/2010

(9) With the same highly constructive regard for the countries where it operates as that which led it, in the United States in 2006/2007, to provoke a fall, for its own benefit, in the value real estate based financial products which it had sold to its own clients.

(10) Sources: Spiegel, 08/02/2010; Le Temps, 13/02/2010; Reuters, 09/02/2010

(11) During Italy’s preparation for Euro entry, he was Director General of the Italian Treasury. Sources: Bank of Italy; Wikipedia; Goldman Sachs.

(12) Very strongly supported by the London and American financial milieux, to which we have already alluded several months ago in one of our reports… and, of course, by Silvio Berlusconi. Source: Sharenet/Reuters, 02/10/2010

(13) His strongest adversary is Axel Weber, current head of the Bundesbank.

(14) What would be surprising is that the European head of the bank making a loan intended to hide a portion of a country’s public deficit, and himself the former Treasury head of a neighbouring country, should not be aware of such an undertaking.

(15) And, considering his past positions, one can only appreciate his sense of humour when he calls for a reinforcement of Eurozone economic management. Source: Les Echos, 02/13/2010.

(16) Which, for the present, satisfies itself by copying articles from the Anglo-Saxon press casting the Greek case in the role of « wrecker of world markets » repeating at length that the Euro will fall… whilst it trades at a level which the same media thought it impossible to achieve only four years ago.

(17) Source: Reuters, 02/12/2010

(18) He belongs to that generation of Americans who built the « post-war US empire », who know its weak points and exactly how it works, contrary to Summers, Geithner and others like Rubin. Our team rarely compliments Barack Obama, but if he continues to listen to the likes of Paul Volcker, he is definitely moving in the right direction.

(19) Our team knows, from first-hand knowledge, that there once was a time, thirty years or so ago, when investment bankers would take action having the long term interests of their clients at heart. This period is long gone and now they only act in their own short-term interests. From this, we should draw the inevitable conclusions and exclude them access to key posts in the public service, rather than try and reform their behavior. If there were child investment bankers (as there are child soldiers) one could, perhaps, hope to save a number of them from their addiction to short-term profits, but for adult investment bankers, it’s far too late.

(20) Source: Times, 11/08/2009

(21) For the private sector, ask Lehman Brothers, AIG…they will confirm its accuracy.

- - - - -

Carpe diem!


Monday 15 February 2010

call for disaster...


"Greece! RAUS!"

Following the international media more and more people refer to expelling Greece from EUROland as the prime solution of a problem they skin deep link to the alleged way of Greek people being especially attentive to black markets, laziness, tax fraud or simply not paying taxes at all.

There probably is a true core in everything you read but then many other nations and economies are not really far from what Greece is like. That goes for the above but also for the levels of accrued debts over the past years, the way those countries were made part of EUROland and the methods they were taken advantage of by the banksters, not only lately, as GS is a prime example for.

So would such an exclusion work? Certainly, the easiest way and the one with a majority of the voters supporting it would be to return to the good, old Drachma. Fine.

And then? Would that help Greece, or the EURO, or the Pound, even?

It is easy to forecast that inflation would be the most dominant of all Greek imports; exports might boom for a while depending on how long Greece had anything on offer besides olives and sheep; tourism could also draw many people into the country, a summer long at least. But then imports such as energy, food, cars and any other commodities would cost stacks of good, old Drachma, lots of paper to be printed; at the same time trying to repay old debts would be the killer: then, as it is today; Greece's rating would be down from triple "A" to mono "-Z".

The very moment Greece would give up on the EURO or was forced to do so
Greek creditors - not only banksters - would have a hell of a job to balance their sheets and currencies! That bailout could be called "Lehman II(GR)" with "Lehman III(x) " ... following right away.

By the way, one of those "Lehmans" will then go down in history as "x(UK)" even though nobody would need to shout "raus!". Here are more details on our "
quarter of a trillion pound exposure"; so much on how clever it was to not join the EURO - or vice versa!? Clever?

So asking to expel Greece from the EURO is very simple but programmed suicide; it is rather naive and hardly a solution to be looking forward to.

Or, as one of those naive EU commissioners put it the other day in his English voice "ve ar oll sittin in one boot".



Carpe diem!


Saturday 13 February 2010

greek times in piigs' land

Did anyone notice?


All these ECB, IMF, FED, BoE and more activities to fill holes and bridge gaps, alter accounting rules, invent pseudo-new measurements, install relief valves or boosting pumps, bad banks or stimulation packages - all this will not solve any of the system’s basic failures. It won't make a blind bit of a difference.

If it is not Greece that threatens to face the world’s economies with sudden death it will be any other one of the PIIGS, or Japan, or Belgium, or in fact just name any country; you will hardly fail to hit a “fit for failure” candidate.

What would it take to put a country like Greece back on track (if it ever was on one)?

That's simple: in today’s world it would be a competitive currency that allowed Greece to offer cheap labour; they would have to have low cost energy and affordable commodities at hand; a well-trained, skilled and willing workforce would be next on the wish list to not only fight but win the battles against countries like China, India, Russia…; of course, its domestic infrastructure from roads to collecting taxes would have to be sound and in working condition.


It is a pity that at the same time and just by chance every single one of the fellow countries are on the same trip enhancing the battles even more for exactly the same golden pitchers: labour, energy, commodities: growth for growth sake while facing the limited horizon of what can be stolen from the rest of the crowd.


That’s all daydreaming; in reality we have gone too far into that cul-de-sac that now does not even allow turning.


Carpe diem!


Monday 8 February 2010

not made in Greece but Japan?

While all are watching Greece and the ECB snowballing bonds and guarantees at each other and their bailed out banks it is worthwhile to take a look far East: Japan is up for trouble - and at the same time tells us what the chances of an economy are that since the nineties has never really made it out of deflation. One stimulus package after the other built up unbelievable sums of debts that have driven the country into a solid cul-de-sac.



We estimate that if the market demands an interest rate of anything more than 3.5% then Japan will not have the revenue to service its debt. In other words, as the interest rate approaches 3.5% Japan must use all its tax revenue to pay interest on its debt.

More details here.


Carpe diem!

Saturday 6 February 2010

believing is no science

If you come across a serious sceptic that is willing to listen may be this will help to ease the discussion...



Carpe diem!


more data: more thermal energy

The British Med Office has released the latest data on global surface temperatures based on now more than 3,000 land stations; there is no room for scepticism unless it is based on better, i.e. more and more reliable data; anything else is gobble-di-goo.


There are three independent sources that pretty much match:


Carpe diem!


Years later on "an island...

on its roofs"!

FITs for power from photovoltaic


So it only took a couple of - lost - years until finally a "Feed-in-tariff" will be introduced for power from photovoltaic cells on your roof animating and supporting you to invest into what is the one and only renewable energy - remember, water always needs to be on the high side ....

From 1 April, households with approved­ schemes will be paid for the electricity they generate, even if they use all of it themselves.
...
The payments will physically come from your existing electricity supplier, but will be overseen by the regulator Ofgem.

Endless times I had to listen to how bad and stupid those continental (not to say global) incentives schemes would be and what harm they did hindering the healthy and free development of a so-called "free market".

Rubbish! Yes, those schemes hinder, but they hinder the economies that pretend to think on a global scale while they are entrapped into national feud and lobbyism. If nothing else they hinder the ones not following such schemes as they get financially decoupled from investing into what has an extremely bad ROI lacking FITs. We wanted to play globally, so we have to face it.

So may be somebody read this blog post on the UK falling behind fast; most unlikely. Anyway, there is some hope that on their path to think energy and the known and proven methods to generate energies (yes, they are coming in plural) to an end our decision makers will find the guts to also put incentives in place for simple but highly efficient Combined Heat and Power units instead of half-hearted scrappage schemes. May be by then BRE will finally look into that technology - without inventing any wheels again!

That is because the final step taking energy seriously will be when we understand that efficiency comes close once avoiding wasting energy has become the dominating factor of all this.

Might only take some more years now.

Carpe diem!


Friday 5 February 2010

and the winner is...

Friday evening and the success story you have been waiting for all week: it is well worth a reminder what brilliant development China has been going through, a Developing Country supported by the UN and other global organisations to support it achieving all this and more...



It is hard to determine what it is one should wish China to be developing to the next years or even months. Anything you wished would be a catch-22 as it is directly related to the rest of the globe's well being, not to mention survival.
Certainly, to feed the masses providing food and energy the traditional ways by copying how we did it really needs the above development to not change much from what it is. Low cost labour, a soft currency and regulations concentrating on winning any kind of global competition for all kinds of resources are the basis for keeping the momentum; and, of course, vast parts of the globalised economy jump(ed) on the same train.


Carpe
diem!

more than a greek tragedy

Dante or Ponzi?

This is about to become a EUROpean tragedy; while failing Greek debts will be a problem for Euroland it could well ignite a global disaster once Spain and/or Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, not to forget Berlusconi's kingdom get into similar trouble; they all are in trouble, of course, now, but so far the lesser-in-trouble are obviously covering the more-in-trouble. The interdependency of international banks buying national bonds preferable those that pay top interest issued by countries that in the worst case will have to be bailed out by the same national banks that provide inexpensive liquidity to the international banks that in return - you guessed it - buy national bonds is a classic circulus vitiosus or, from a legal perspective, must be addressed as the most advanced Ponzi scheme ever. Let's refrain from discussing the truth or fantasy various countries, not only Greece, have put into providing the basic figures in the first place.


It is really not UK's above 9% nor the 4% share; it rather is the sheer enormity of the plain numbers, away from any percentage gobble; bailing out three relatively small countries alone will make the bank bailout look like ordering early morning tea; once this game of "Ponzi feeds Ponzi" is collapsing we will know the depression has begun.

But then, why bother, everything will be fine as long as
Mr. Trichet and the rest of the gang guarantee what they guarantee.

Carpe diem!