It reeks of storm!

Do you smell it?

I do not think I do: I really do. It rather stinks; it is going to be one of those storms described as perfect. Perfect because things are starting to fall into place that we expected to eventually fall but not all at once.

I could live with bad management, lousy and/or corrupt managers being punished like it finally seems to happen with RBS and HBOS’ so called former bosses. Whether in the end any of those heroes will ever really get punished - I doubt it. See the Libor scandal! What scandal you might ask? True: that law-breaking insolence is dealt with behind those thick curtains that protect today’s banksters’ offices from any light; just in case Deutsche Bank and others set up provisions, some hundred million Euro, measurements in return reducing their tax load and buying them off. But, that scam will end without further consequences except for them trying harder, next time.

That Offshore Leak might be a different story; for one there is not much about that in British media, yet * ; may be that is because there are many off-shore paradises, money wise in this case, that speak English, some very close, and many are somehow related to thee Queen, thee Commonwealth and thee City? Mind you, we are told it involved 170 countries and 120.000 letterbox-companies. Mind boggling that amount of data going back 30 years and as much as this needs to be dealt with ** – I am afraid this could be a financial and social tsunami. What if the Queen and the Camerons are part of this, or even Tony and George? What if Putin, Merkel, Hollande and Berlusconi plus Sarkozy needed to be arrested and put into the same jail cell? Well, guess somebody would notice and put Madame Merkel into the female block.

Watch the suicide and emigrant lists of those 170 countries … and do not believe a minute that any criminal or immoral aspect of all this will be put into any bankster's basket; evil to him who evil thinks and while all banks offer sophisticated off-shore services it is the stupid customer that gets caught, eventually.

Emigration will not really help anybody to avoid that global currency battle, now entering an unknown dimension with Japan going berserk. As a measurement of last resort they are printing vast, vast, vast sums of money – mind you, that’s hitting return after punching in 12 or 15 zeros behind a 1 or a two or actually any figure and that not only once but monthly from now on – fiat money the easiest way, ever - to buy back their own crap; recycling, snow-balling, ponzi-ing? Government bonds and then dump them in a bin, or the worst bank, if that’s the better name for it. That is the most daring monetary experiment of modern times as The Telegraph titled this flooding the market with YEN; the idea is to massively devalue the currency for exports (jobs!) to grow fast and furious, to force-inject inflation into what is a deflating economy and hope for nobody else following that pattern.

That’s hopeless, stupid! What BO and BSB do for the greenback in the US, why Merkel insists on a EURO agitated by the PIIGS’ and french stress to keep it soft, DC and GO want to do in the UK; strengthen UK exports by weakening the Pound or rather vice versa; woau! How much of that export strength is left? I believe proper schooling, training, apprenticeships worth the title, dual education plus on-going, extensive studies and education would do much better!  Want an example?

While discussing Passiv Haus Standard during this year’s ecobuild seminars and the installation of a MVHR, a mechanical ventilation system including heat recovery, UK experts explained coram publico that this would make things too complicated, too difficult a gadget for the average British tenant/owner to cope with.

Sorry? Hellooow!? Such a system includes a ventilator and a mechanical heat exchanger controlled by three or four buttons to press – basta.

Frightening; and insulting: why would the average middle-European be able to cope with that kind of high tech while the British … ? Or, this very likely is the early result of adding the word vitiosus to this circulus of cuts and savings into schools, training, education? Next step will be to forbid knife and fork endangering the hungry!

Apropos weak: how much does a weak Pound buy? We import more than 50% of our energy and, while you might like it cold, more than 50% of our food! Do you like strict diets? This year we might even have to import much more, or do you see UK potatoes growing with the coldest March on record?

Just for another record: in general terms importing means we have to pay in a foreign currency after swapping Pound into $, € or ¥ where, please note, the last stands for the YEN but also for the YUAN!

China is boosting its defence spending by almost 11% - this year! Obviously China has the funds, hardly any debts and something to prepare for or against? It is also growing its agriculture and pumping a lot of money into renewables. Funny, isn’t it? We are cutting any incentives, we are discussing silly bedroom taxes for the poorest and whether to install Casinos in Cyprus to save its economy, Merkel’s Euro and Schaeuble’s regime - while China prepares for its future. They might not value human life as high as we are rumoured to do, but then...

Well - the Euro! Really, I wanted to avoid that criminal rubbish; it is still alive; rather, it is not disconnected, yet, from life supporting but until lately utterly illegal instruments such as bad banks, bail-outs and bail-ins, and the on-going … here we are again: money printing.

A pity they cannot print jobs. Unemployment in the EU rates are soaring, even the official ones, the ones that lack continuity and belief:

Spain 26.3%, Portugal 17.5% Italy 11.6%, Greece 26.4%; that’s the overall one.

But our future even looks more difficult and much darker:

Spain 55.7%, Portugal 38.2%, Italy 37.8%, Greece 58.4%, France 26.2%; the official figures for those between 18 and 24 years old. Official! And what kind of jobs does the rest have? Low-paid ones, un-trained ones, picking tomatoes or serving beer to poor tourists? How many of them all have gone through any decent apprenticeship and can base their lives on the founds of a sustainable education?

Source: www.querschuesse.de

Shows unemployment of the 18-24 in countries…

Please see Greece, Griechenland!

30% when it entered EURO-Casino!

You could call it the Euro’s unemployment bomb - until it explodes; no wonder DC and GO think, why should they put any money and effort into a dying market of people needing training and education?

Guess what, at least car sales show some sympathy:

Spain minus 13.9%, France minus 16.4%, Austria minus 19.9%, Finland minus 58.6%, Germany minus 17.1, Netherlands minus 31.4, and in addition Japan minus 16.7, Brazil minus 4.7%. So, really, how long can we be happy and proud on headlines like UK car sale rise for 12^th consecutive month? And what is the base of this rise, how are they paid for, those cars, and how long do they or does this last?

Is it a coincidence that VW is creating new jobs, outside the EU?

It becomes apparent that Mr Neo and Mrs. Lib have not only allowed all those jobs to be exported to – mainly – China; any kind of job machine has been given up for nothing, for free. This is the third time I add this video… I think it should now read 2020, not 2030:

My respect, China. Age must help in becoming wiser.

While Gobi Dessert is growing steadily, 28% of Chinese landmass is dessert-like area, anyway, and China buying all kinds of land worldwide, we are all in for increasingly bad weathers; if you thought that cold lately would tell us Global Warming has had it then I would recommend to come to senses and title the problem Climate Change. And that’s what it is.

http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/

http://climatecrocks.com/

http://tamino.wordpress.com/

The rate of changes multiplied by the level of ignorance in solving any of our problems is unbelievable; we are presented with scientific results by crowds of scientists from all over the world, they describe the problems we face, we see and in many cases feel those; we do understand most of them but we are unwilling or incapable of addressing and solving them; or, even worse, we wilfully ignore them all for all kinds of stupid, bad and criminal reasons; that makes it easy for the storm to become that perfect storm.

I can smell it.

Carpe diem!

 

* … might be that they all need time; similar to the big fish on Cyprus when Putin took two days to decide whether he would support Cyprus or rather give his friends and soon-to-be-friends time to visit those London branches of the Cyprus banks to sort out their accounts just in time…

** ... we will see capital control mechanisms installed like we had them before 1985, no question.

 

Ponzi's late revenge...

or David's long term plan?!

source

I was trying to find a photo showing David Cameron and Mario Draghi, possibly arm-in-arm; instead one jumped at me that shows Mr. Big Bertha and Mr. Soduku. There you go!

Mr. Big Bertha's LTRO programme, stage II, has even attracted UK banks, explicitly those owned by the tax payer: RBS at 84% and Lloyds anything from 43% to 77% depending who you ask and what you count; RBS has asked for £5bn and Lloyds for some £11bn out of this ECB QEx pot for Euroland banksters suffering from that lethal currency.

At 1% interest this is possibly big business for the UK tax payer; it might reinforce the tax payers' investment into those banks and it might make big profit; better not by investing that kind of money into credit crunched SMEs not only as the billions have to be repaid on February 26th, 2015, noontime. It might be much more lucrative to put it into the two tax payers' banks' investment departments, securing big boni and en passant making some tremendous margins in the casinos of wheat, rice, oil and gas; things that the masses need anyway and pretty much for sure... and if not, the, rather all losses are covered anyway.

So why did I want David and Mr. Big Bertha on one picture? Oh, yes, it could have underlined the stitch-up of David leaving that table in December only for Mario to drag him back by financing not only the Euro's insolvent Ponzi banks but also the ones owned by the British Government.

All it needs is a Big Bertha.


Carpe diem!

bank recapitalisation, i.e. bailout #?

The book is worth reading, same for Simon Johnson's blog The Baseline Scenario. Yet, as for many economists if not for all the "turning in circles" is becoming a regular form of commenting as, really, this current crisis is now boiling down to the classical Catch-22 situation. I commented on Simon's blog post Should we expect another round of bailouts where he supports not another bail-out but "a full-scale recapitalisation program" for the banks...

“A full-scale bank recapitalization program is required, along with management changes at almost all major European financial institutions.”

Simon,

I disagree; this “full-scale bank recapitalisation” you suggest will be nothing else but another bailout!

Why would any private third party recapitalise any bank, if the bad debts (and any trailing Bad Bank) wouldn’t be taken over by who else but the tax-payer and how would you recapitalise and sort out e.g. the ECB, the Worst Bank next to the FED, I guess, sitting and whining on stacks or call it bombs of worthless PIIGS bonds?

And, what you call “management changes” – I suggest you replace the “almost” by the term “all” and add a “complete” – is what James K. Galbreith put into simple words in March 2009 , already – nobody listened, the Banksters got bigger and even more successful, since:

…as long as the old management is in place, there are no incentives to cooperate in the evaluation you need to make.

There was clearly a systematic failure. But that does not mean there was no criminal energy around.

When a bank is insolvent, the incentives for normal banking practice disappear. They become perverse.

“Perverse” might sound inappropriate, but it hits the nail on the head of a trade that lost its function, purpose and dignity – long ago.

One more point: even bailing out the banks again would not take us anywhere if at the same time this EURO problem wouldn’t be solved. It is a Catch 22 situation; call it a Gordian knot which according to the myth needs one hard swing of a sword to cut it, only; but then there is the Dollar, the YEN, China, peak everything and anything.

All in all it is going to be one long da.. hard touch down!

...

There is not much I could add at this point other than there will be no easy or simple solution for what Mr. Kohl and friends created when they played gods of all currencies and installed a completely immature EURO and at the same time there is no easy way forward for our world that is peak-almost-everything including coming up to 8 thousand million people living beyond its, our habitat's means on a finite and insolvent planet.

Carpe diem.

$ € £ ¥: it is forlon hope!

I know it seems like currency related topics are taking over, even this blog that would rather discuss solutions to our lives' sustainability issues than what is forlorn hope, anyway; but I should, at least, mention today being a special day for Germany and the rest of Europe.

As expected China does not miss any chance to stay on top of the game and therefore will help Greece with a €3.6bn fund designated to buy Chinese ships. Interest will be ultra low, so Greece will be able to undercut international shipping rates running the latest state-of-the-art-ships even more. China gets its money back which is nothing else but those USD bonds which the US are printing, printing and again printing - in what obviously are totally uncontrolled but desperate processes (from 3 minutes in the video becomes really painful for Madame Inspector General for the Federal Reserve Coleman!):

Yes, the video dates back to 2009, March; but yes, the ECB, the BoE and the BoJ are all busy sucking up (their own) bonds, approving dozens of Bad Banks while pressing return, return, return - nothing else but the modern, though very green alternative, of printing money ponziing the scheme!

That wouldn' bother me too much; what really bothers me is the fact that while some countries seek their rescue in printing, others print and at the same time implement cuts that threaten social peace while all the custs of this world won't catch up with what is thrown into black holes and banksters' pockets.

This could all be cut short: new banks, new money, corrected rules, all said already long ago! Alone, now it needs new currencies as well! So, what's next? The longer we wait the more damage will be done.

The human races' stupidity to not being able to keep pace learning while progressing is closing in on the worst case scenario.

But then there seems to be one country on the edge of a continent, far away, one human race, that understood the rules and regulations of what it was allowed and invited to play with faster and better than all the others combined: China! The one and only global player which has now, watching its rivals' disintegration, decided to spur domestic demand to stabilise economy.

The rest is putting funny text over aging generations' hymns.

Carpe diem!

In German: HypoRealEstate

... a report on and about Hypo Real Estate

Sorry, this comes in German language, only, even though the bankster's crime scene was very proud to have an English, an international, even a global name, one that most Germans would translate with something like "Hypo: True Property". Well, they changed the name to a now pure German one, at least they are all German property now.

I think it is worthwhile to add this here for those who understand (some) German: the report on this "system relevant" bank and how it was nationalised reveals how much criminal energy and intelligence "was" behind what is now a €200bn grave in a Bad Bank, guaranteed by the German government, the tax payer; soon to become real debts: shit (will) happen(s)!

Carpe diem!

warming up the leftovers...

... but who will deal with the failed!

It is very close to 12 months ago when I blogged on an interview with US economist James K. Galbraith; I did this because I thought at that time that his summary was very accurately describing the situation then.

Why do I pick it up again? Because the situation is no different but worse, Galbraith's answers are very much up-to-date and the recipes to solve the crisis explained how insolvent banks should be dealt with:

In a situation when a bank has suffered losses sufficient to impair its capital, you need to have regulatory supervision in place.

This does not mean that you necessarily close the bank. The way it usually works in the USA is that a bank is closed on Friday and re-opened on Monday under a new name, with a new leadership and with a team of examiners who are going through the books, trying to sort the good business loans and personal loans from those which are hopeless. Then you isolate the hopeless stuff, you force a write down of the equity and the subordinated debts of the people who put in risk capital -- so they have to take their losses as they should. And then you break up the bank into pieces which have a better prospect to gain viability soon. That's a process of re-organization and re-capitalization.

A change of management is essential, because firstly, the incumbents are responsible, whether they were culpable or not, and secondly, you need new people who are in line with the public purpose of this re-organization. It's the same principle in the navy: When a ship runs aground, the captain is removed, no matter if he caused the accident or not. No one would think it's a good idea to have the subsequent investigation headed by the ones who are to be investigated.

For another up-to-date interview click here.

Any kind of stimulus programmes, any new debts or any new, distortable balance sheets (e.g. EMF or similar) will not offer any sustainable solution unless independent governments are setting and enforcing new rules for new banks; I don't see those coming and I also doubt any new government will be anywhere near a position to finally clean up the mess.

So the crunch(-es) will go on; the credit-crunch will feed the EURO/currency-crunch, the climate-crunch will enhance the water- and energy-crunches or all vice versa; we better get used to it.

Btw: are you aware of an island called "Diego Garcia"? Or "Camp Justice"? It would not be the first time the world would seek its hail in war; preparation is on as you can read in the HeraldScotland.


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!

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!