"It is not enough to know that there is a shadow government pulling the strings of the visible government- we must also act to expose it, and defeat it!"-Mark Matheny
Matheny's Note: The old saying of "follow the money" in this case shows that middle class families are feeling the pain of government intervention in the economic sector. Families are paying in higher taxes while corporations get a pass. This is not a recovery, but a restructure of our country, consolidating power into the hands of a few and securing of Elite family "Dynasties" who really run things here in the U.S. and around the world....
Households are bearing the weight of austerity, while corporate taxes are reduced. This can't last, says Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management. He tells John Authers why emerging market government debt is a risk worth considering.
The global debt crisis has reached a dangerous new phase. Unfortunately, most Americans are not taking notice of it yet because most of the action is taking place overseas, and because U.S. financial markets are riding high. But just because the global economic crisis is unfolding at the pace of a “slow-motion train wreck” right now does not mean that it isn’t incredibly dangerous.
As I have written about previously, the economic collapse is not going to be a single event. Yes, there will be days when the Dow drops by more than 500 points. Yes, there will be days when the reporters on CNBC appear to be hyperventilating. But mostly there will be days of quiet despair as the global economic system slides even further toward oblivion. And right now things are clearly getting worse. Things in Greece are much worse than they were six months ago. Things in Spain are much worse than they were six months ago. The same thing could be said for Italy, France, Japan, Argentina and a whole bunch of other nations. The entire global economy is slowing down, and we are entering a time period that is going to be incredibly painful for everyone. At the moment, the U.S. is still experiencing a “sugar high” from unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, but when that “sugar high” wears off the hangover will be excruciating. Reckless borrowing, spending and money printing has bought us a brief period of “economic stability”, but our foolish financial decisions will also make our eventual collapse far worse than it might have been. So don’t think for a second that the U.S. will somehow escape the coming global economic crisis. The truth is that before this is all over we will be seen as one of the primary causes of the crisis.
The following are 21 signs that the global economic crisis is about to go to a whole new level….
#1 Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer says that the global economy is “awfully close” to recession.
#2 It was announced last week that the unemployment rate in Greece has reached an all-time high of 25.1 percent. Unemployment among those 24 years old or younger is now more than 54 percent. Back in April 2010, the unemployment rate in Greece was only sitting at 11.8 percent.
#3 The IMF is warning that Greek debt may have to be “restructured” yet again.
#4 Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg says that it is “probable” that Greece will leave the euro, and that it might happen within the next six months.
#5 An angry crowd of approximately 40,000 angry Greeks recently descended on Athens to protest a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel…
From high-school students to pensioners, tens of thousands of Greek demonstrators swarmed into Athens yesterday to show the visiting German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, their indignation at their country’s continued austerity measures.
Flouting the government’s ban on protests, an estimated 40,000 people – many carrying posters depicting Ms Merkel as a Nazi – descended on Syntagma Square near the parliament building. Masked youths pelted riot police with rocks as the officers responded with tear gas.
The authorities had deployed 7,000 police, water cannon and a helicopter. Snipers were placed on rooftops to ensure the German leader’s safety.
#7 The government debt to GDP ratio in Italy is expected to hit 126 percent this year. In Greece, it is expected to hit198 percent. In Japan, it is expected to hit a whopping 237 percent.
#8 Standard & Poor’s has slashed the credit rating on Spanish government debt to BBB-, which is just one level above junk status.
#9 Back in the year 2000, the ratio of total debt to GDP in Spain was 192 percent. By 2011, it had reached 363 percent.
#10 Record amounts of money are being pulled out of Spanish banks, and many large Spanish banks are rapidly heading toward insolvency.
#11 Manufacturing activity in Spain has contracted for 17 months in a row.
#12 It is being projected that home prices in Spain will fall by another 15 percent by the end of 2013.
Starving Greeks queued around the block for free food handouts yesterday as the country's politicians managed to end a crippling stalemate to form a coalition government.
Young children as well as the elderly waited in line in Athens to collect the parcels of fruit and vegetables donated by farmers from Crete to help ease the devastating austerity faced by many Greeks.
But as hungry people collected food, a few miles away a new conservative-led alliance was formed, vowing to renegotiate the country's strict European bailout in a bid to breath economic life back into the debt-stricken country.
Lifeline: Hundreds of poverty-stricken Greeks are queuing for free vegetable handouts as politicians finally agree to form a coalition government
Desperate: An elderly lady, left, and a woman, accompanied by her son, carries a box of vegetables as thousands of Greeks and foreign immigrants line up during a free vegetables
Despair: Pensioners joined the lengthy queues behind barriers in Athens where people were waiting for a free food handout
Hungry: Greeks line up for the food handouts, donated by Crete's farmers
Conservative Antonis Samaras was sworn in as prime minister and head of a three-party coalition that will uphold the country's international bailout commitments.
In the hot seat: New Prime Minister Antonis Samaras vowed to rescue Greece's economy as he spoke for the first time after being sworn in to office at the presidental palace
The move ends a protracted political crisis that had cast grave doubt over the country's future in Europe's joint currency and threatened to plunge Europe deeper into a financial crisis with global repercussions.
Samaras, an American-educated 61-year-old economist, was sworn in three days after his party won the second national elections in six weeks but without enough votes to form a government on its own.
His New Democracy party will join forces with the socialist PASOK party, which came in third place, and the smaller Democratic Left led by Fotis Kouvelis.
Discussions on the lineup of ministers were expected to be completed by Wednesday night.
‘I will ask the new government that will be formed tomorrow to work hard so that we can offer tangible hope to our people,’ Samaras told reporters as he left the presidential mansion.
Greek stocks rose marginally in response to the news, with Athens shares closing up 0.5 percent, limiting earlier gains.
The new prime minister was to meet with outgoing Finance Minister Giorgos Zanias, PASOK head Evangelos Venizelos and Kouvelis on Wednesday evening.
All three parties broadly back Greece's pledges to bailout creditors for further austerity and reforms, although they have pledged to renegotiate some of the terms for the rescue loans.
Vow: Antonis Samaras, right, crosses himself during a swearing-in ceremony at the Presidential Palace as at the background Greek president Karolos Papoulias looks on
Deal: Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras, left, shakes hands with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, center, as Greece's Orthodox Archbishop Ieronimos looks on after a swearing in ceremony at the Presidential palace in Athens
Ceremony: Newly elected Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, right, bows in front of Ieronimos, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, during a swearing in ceremony
New Democracy and PASOK are also looking for an extension of at least two years in the deadlines for implementing fresh cutbacks worth a total 14.5billion euro ($18.42 billion).
Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis went a bit further today, saying that Greece should eventually ‘disengage’ from the austerity commitments and ‘lift those measures that have literally bled society.’
Greece has been dependent on the loans from other Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010. In return, it has imposed deep spending cuts, slashed salaries and pensions, and repeatedly hiked taxes.
The measures have left the country struggling through a fifth year of recession, with unemployment spiraling to above 22 percent and tens of thousands of businesses shutting down.
The face of the crippling poverty gripping the country was plane to see as hundreds of poverty-stricken Greeks queued in a central Athens park for free vegetables.
Misery: A young mother with her two daughters carries away a box full of vegetables to help feed her family in the debt-stricken country
"I believe it’s better for the Greeks to stay in the euro area, but that also requires that we set out a path on which Greece gets back on its feet step by step," said the German chancellor. Photo: AFP
Raising the spectre of a Greek exit, the German chancellor said “solidarity for the euro” was threatened by the ongoing political crisis in Athens.
Stock markets around the world fell sharply with fears mounting that a euro break-up could lead to renewed financial turmoil. The FTSE-100 index of Britain’s major companies fell by two per cent to 5465, with bank shares hit particularly hard.
The cost of Spanish government borrowing also hit a record high since the single currency was introduced because of concerns that the crisis will spread.
Today, François Hollande, the new French president, will be sworn in and, in an indication of the concern gripping Europe, will almost immediately travel to Berlin to hold talks with Mrs Merkel that will be dominated by Greece’s plight.
Attempts to form a new government in Athens have been thwarted for the past nine days, although the country’s president will meet all major parties this afternoon to discuss the forming of a “technocratic” administration rather than a coalition.
An outgoing Greek minister warned that the country could descend into “civil war” amid the chaos of a euro exit. “If Greece cannot meet its obligations and serve its debt the pain will be great,” Michalis Chrysohoidis was quoted as telling a local radio station. “What will prevail are armed gangs with Kalashnikovs and which one has the greatest number of Kalashnikovs will count … we will end up in civil war.”
New elections may be held next month and Greek voters are likely to be warned by European leaders that their country may be ejected from the euro if they do not support parties backing austerity measures.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, travelled to Brussels yesterday to take part in meetings with other European finance ministers about the worsening crisis.
Speaking on arrival, he said: “The eurozone crisis is having a real impact on growth across Europe.
“The British recovery has been damaged over the last two years not by Britain getting a grip on its public finances but by uncertainty in the eurozone. It is that uncertainty, not austerity, that is doing the real damage to the European recovery, and indeed the British recovery.” Read the entire article
UKIP leader warns of re-emergence of National Socialism
Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com Thursday, May 10, 2012
MEP Nigel Farage gave a rousing speech in the European Parliament yesterday during which he warned that the actions of the EU were setting the stage for the re-emergence of National Socialism and that the continent faced the prospect of mass civil unrest.
Comparing the eurozone crisis to the failure of Communism, Farage said the EU was a titanic which has hit an iceberg.
“It is a European Union of economic failure, of mass unemployment, of low growth; but worst of all it’s an EU with the economic prison of the Euro. This now poses huge dangers to the continent,” he stated.
“We face the prospect of mass civil unrest, possibly even revolution in some countries that have been driven to total and utter desperation.”
A first-person look at how IMF austerity is wrecking the Greek economy with a leading Greek blogger.
Other topics include Hillary Clinton’s war ultimatum given to Sergei Lavrov for Iran, and Rand Paul’s support of the draconian Iran sanctions. From Syria: more splits in the “Syrian National Council,” while pro-Assad forces finish mopping up the armed resistance and huge pro-Assad demonstrations penetrate even the controlled western media. Has the US undergone a self-inflicted, slow motion Tet debacle in Afghanistan leading to the iplementation of the CIA’s Devine Plan? The BRICS summit to meet in India, March 29: ways to finance international trade outside of the dollar. The Carterization of Obama as he wallows in malaise and calls on Americans to “use less.” Obama’s bind: he fears alienating radical environmentalists by increasing oil production, and refuses to attack Wall Street speculators who are driving up the oil price for us “muppets.” A catalogue of the measures a real President would to cut the price of oil. Ron Paul teams up with Romney to prevent a GOP debate in Oregon.
"In the darkness, the question sounds as clear as ever, Britain where are you?" This is what the head of the Church of England; Rowan Williams is asking the British public and officials. He says Britain risk tearing itself apart, blaming it on riots and bankers greed. His warning comes as the British economy is close to another period of contraction, though it still under the pressure of the worst recession since WWII. Unemployment is on the rise, with youth joblessness at the highest since 1992. The government is taking austerity measures including cuts in public spending and jobs to reduce its record budget deficit. While the public experiences the economic hardship, banker still receive huge pay packet on bonuses. The government claims that its reforms will make the system fairer.
While I agree with most of what Webster Tarpley and the other guest says in this news interview, I disagree with Tarpley's comment on Ron Paul, and his proposal to cut $1 trillion in the first year in office if he wins. Tarpley stated that Ron Paul's plan was not popular in the States among it's citizens and would lead to rioting. I believe he is wrong about this. Cutting $1 trillion would be beneficial in the way Ron Paul has proposed to do so, and his message of spending cuts in big government are what most Americans want (unless they are on the government payroll or welfare list).
As far as the Archbishop of Canterbury is concerned, I do agree with Tarpley's assessment of him and what he represents, when Tarpley stated these words:
"I would like to say something first about the Archbishop of Canterbury, I don't regard him as a humanitarian leader, I don't regard him as a moral authority, I regard him as a kind of signal light for the British ruling class, for the British oligarchy, for.. the financiers of the City of London, .... and everything that goes with the British establishment. What he's basically saying to them is 'Our power could be in danger.' A signal light goes on,..."
This was in reference to Cameron and the upheaval and rioting being caused by the severe austerity measures being imposed upon the people of London.
Of course the Archbishop of Canterbury is Catholic, and obviously any upheavals in London that would affect the Ruling Class, or economy of Britain as well as the United States, would be of great concern to the Vatican.
Last October I wrote an article called "In Austerity We Trust", where I discussed the possibility of a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, and the possibility of austerity measures that may follow. S&P has now put the U.S. on a "negative Watch" status saying that unless the U.S. takes measures to decrease spending, the U.S. AAA credit rating may be downgraded.
Back on July 17, 2010, I reported on the fact that China-based Dagong International credit Rating Agency had announced its downgrading of the U.S. AAA status to to AA with a negative outlook.
The UNTHINKABLE has happened. U.S. government debt has lost its sterling AAA credit rating! Like Greece, Iceland, and Dubai, the runaway spending from our Washington, D.C., politicians has caught up with us.
The good news is that the downgrade has come from upstart rating agency China-based Dagong International Credit Rating. The bad news is that Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch are almost certain to follow, and that will mean disaster for the dollar as well as dollar-denominated assets.
The head of China’s largest credit rating agency has slammed his western counterparts for causing the global financial crisis and said that as the world’s largest creditor nation China should have a bigger say in how governments and their debt are rated.
“The western rating agencies are politicised and highly ideological and they do not adhere to objective standards,” Guan Jianzhong, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating, told the Financial Times in an interview.
Only months before the announcement by the chinese agency, Timothy Geithner confidently stated that the U.S. Government "will never" lose its AAA credit rating, despite its increasing annual budgets, and a massive national debt of $14 trillion.The White House chose to ignore the announcement by Dagong International, while it sold the American Boob-tube watchers its "summer of recovery" propaganda.
Of course in April of this year, S&P came with the announcement that it was putting the U.S. AAA credit rating on "negative watch", giving the U.S. Government a warning to cut spending within the next two years, or face a possible downgrade in its credit rating.
To this announcement, geithner then came out once again to defend the monetary policy of the government and its partner in crime, the Federal Reserve.
When asked if the debt ceiling would be raised again, Geithner stated:
“That’s the judgment Congress has to make and it’s just about how often they want to vote for this. We are the only country in the world that does this; the debt limit that is authorized is just to give us the chance to borrow to finance commitments Congress has already made. There is no reason Congress won’t raise it, they always raise it. They have to decide how often they want to raise it. There is no reason why they have to put their members through the torture of having to do it frequently.”
We are the only country that does this because we are hold world reserve currency status. When geithner was asked how much the debt ceiling would be raised he stated:
“If it were up to me, knowing you want the world to know that our commitment will never be in question, you would do it for as long as possible. Even under Paul Ryan’s budget plan, you would have to raise the debt limit by 2 trillion dollars to get through this.”
My prediction on what the ceiling will be raised to was between $16 -20 trillion this time. I believe this will be done to put off the next raise until after the coming elections in 2012.
Well, with all of that said, will austerity measures come to America? You can almost assuredly count on it.
Once again Americans will be called upon by the criminal Banksters and co-conspirators in the White House to obediently surrender our paychecks, retirement savings, and our freedom and dignity in order to save the empire, (which really means becoming slaves to globalism and a global New World Order.)
In an article titled "IMF Austerity Is Headed to America – Watch Out!", it states that IMF style austerity measures will more than likely come to America. It states that America's future is "one of government-induced privation and societal misery". Financial Times stated that the move by S&P was purely a political move:
"S&P's aim plainly was political. US politicians must agree on a policy to reduce the deficit. This must involve cutting spending, reducing entitlements and raising taxes. Who exactly bears the brunt of these remedies is a political question, not an economic one. No politician wants to be responsible for such things, so it is no surprise that they avoid the problem."
Also noted in the article "IMF Austerity Is Headed to America – Watch Out!" is the fact that the western power elites are promoting a larger fear based form of hysteria among the American people in a 'problem- reaction - solution' scenerio saying:
One needs a problem in order to provide a solution. And the move is on, most obviously, to create ever-closer global governance and perhaps an alternative currency. Modern central banking has done its work, throwing Western economies into confusion and disarray. Europe is already suffering from IMF-style austerity tactics and Britain is implementing them now. The US is next on the list.
The article goes on to say:
IMF provisions featuring privatization, tax hikes and public sector "austerity" are designed in my view to provoke the very public anger that Western elites are counting on to fuel a conversation about yet MORE centralization and MORE governmental control – of a "transparent" and "disciplined" type. The conversation is constantly to be focused on "better" government, not less of it. We can see the problem coming into focus now for the US, and the solution shall not be far behind. Expect the same sort of civil unrest that is currently afflicting Europe to visit the US if this conversation continues to be pushed along its current track.
While our credit rating is being downgraded and our economy goes further into crisis mode, Obama and his administration have entertained the masses with a dubious copy of his recently found long form birth certificate, and the announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Both announcements of course have many holes and conflicts within themselves, but nevertheless achieve what the White House intended them for - distractions from the real crisis coming at us in the form of economic meltdown.
"Doubtful it stood, as two spent swimmers that do cling together, and choke their art." -Shakespeare, "Macbeth"
The Greek bailout was supposed to be an isolated case, a test of the European Union's (EU) ability to quarantine an infected member, preventing it from spreading "debt contagion."
But that was before Ireland failed. Ireland was the poster child for how to conduct a successful austerity program. Unlike the Greeks, who were considered profligate spendthrifts, the Irish did everything their creditors asked. The people sacrificed to pay for the excesses of their banks, but still the effort failed. Ireland was the second domino to fall to an International Monetary Fund (IMF)/EU bailout.
On December 17, Moody's Investors Service rewarded it for voting to accept the "rescue" package with a five-notch credit downgrade, from AA2 to BAA1, with warnings that further downgrades could follow.
Spain is rumored to be the next domino poised to fall. If it falls, it could bring down the EU.
TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio
