Bailout Fail

Evictions Become Focus of Spanish Crisis

"There are now 1.7 million Spanish households in which not a single family member still earns a salary. Nearly 4 million people have lost their jobs since late 2007, when the real estate bubble burst. More than half of those out of work in Spain are now considered to be long-term unemployed. The result is that an increasing number of them can no longer service the loans they took to purchase apartments, houses and commercial space during the boom years prior to the crisis. According to a forecast by the Spanish central bank, the number of foreclosures will increase by another 30 percent in the coming year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEvictions Become Focus of Spanish Crisis

Greece: Crony Capitalists Will Squeeze You and Freeze You

"The household price for heating oil in Greece reached 1,266 euros per 1,000 liters (264 gallons) in the second quarter of 2012, surging 48 percent from a year earlier, according to the International Energy Agency. Greeks pay both excise and value-added taxes on heating oil that can make up 42 percent of the total cost. Greece’s oil prices are high because of laws that protect the country’s two refining companies and prevent competition, said Pavlos Eleftheriadis, a lecturer in law at the University of Oxford in England, who studies monopolies. 'The Greek political system works for the insiders,' said Eleftheriadis, a native of Greece." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGreece: Crony Capitalists Will Squeeze You and Freeze You

What the Eurozone Financial Crisis Is Really About

"Greek hospitals are in such dire straits that staff are failing to keep up basic disease controls such as using gloves and gowns, threatening a rise in multidrug-resistant infections, according to Europe's top health official. Greece already has one of the worst problems in Europe with hospital-acquired infections, and disease experts fear this is being made worse by an economic crisis that has cut health care staffing levels and hurt standards of care. With fewer doctors and nurses to look after more patients, and hospitals running low on cash for supplies, risks are being taken even with basic hygiene." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat the Eurozone Financial Crisis Is Really About

Moody’s downgrades France’s credit rating

"In what will be a severe blow to Socialist president François Hollande, the agency said it was reducing the country’s rating from AAA to AA1, claiming France’s ability for economic growth was being hampered by 'structural challenges' including its lack of competitiveness, high unemployment, public debt and market rigidity. It said it was not confident Hollande’s government could – or would – introduce the necessary structural reforms and spending cuts to improved its rating in the medium term and expressed concern over France’s exposure to risks from other ailing eurozone countries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMoody’s downgrades France’s credit rating

Greeks commemorate 1970s student uprising crushed by US-backed military junta

"Thousands of Greeks marched behind a blood-stained national flag on Saturday to commemorate the violent suppression of a 1973 student uprising against a US-backed military junta. The bloodied flag that flew over the Athens Polytechnic on the night of November 17, 1973 — seen as a key moment in the restoration of democracy to Greece — was carried as usual at the head of the annual demonstration in memory of those who died. Police said about 20,000 people marched in total in the capital. Outside the U.S. embassy, some of the protesters set fire to an American flag." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGreeks commemorate 1970s student uprising crushed by US-backed military junta

Here’s What’s In That Economist Article That Has France Outraged

"Here are some key bullets from the report. Public spending is 57% of the nation's output. Debt-to-GDP is 90%. No new company has entered the CAC-40 stock market index since 1987. Nobody gets fired. Unions protest over any reforms. France still has a high standard of living, and has some of the best companies in the world, but growth has stalled. Unemployment is 10%. Youth unemployment much higher. France can still borrow cheaply, but it's also resting on past laurels (it's still a gigantic tourist destination). New President Francois Hollande is ostensibly powerful, but his approval rating has plunged." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHere’s What’s In That Economist Article That Has France Outraged

The Crack-Up of the Eurozone Detailed in One Chart

"Keep in mind that Greece is in such bad shape that it didn't even make this chart. Only Germany of the Eurozone Big 5 is showing positive industrial production [growth] over the last 7 plus years. Germany will not be able to bail everyone else out. It comes down to European Central Bank money printing which will result in a devalued euro, making the debt easier to payoff in the cheaper euros, or it is collapse of the Eurozone." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Crack-Up of the Eurozone Detailed in One Chart

Merkel booed as she praises austerity cuts in bailed-out Portugal

"Police deployed in large numbers in Lisbon, blocking off some streets and keeping at bay demonstrators who booed Merkel as she arrived at the presidential headquarters. Activists brandished banners reading: 'She wants to kill the Portuguese, she wants supremacy in Europe!'; 'Portugal is not Merkel's country'; 'Angela Merkel assassin'; and 'A European Germany yes, a German Europe no'. Demonstrators released black balloons in a sign of 'mourning' and covered several Lisbon monuments in black sheets to show their discontent." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMerkel booed as she praises austerity cuts in bailed-out Portugal

Francois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

"French president François Hollande has bowed to massive pressure for business tax cuts to pull France’s economy out of slump and stave off industrial decline, ditching a core element of his socialist platform. Company taxes will fall by €20bn a year equal to 1pc of GDP, to be phased in gradually by 2015 under a convoluted system of rebates. Spending cuts will plug the revenue gap in order to meet the EU’s 3pc deficit target. Critics call it the most humiliating U-turn in French politics since François Mitterrand abandoned his disastrous experiment of 'Socialism in one country' under a D-Mark currency peg in 1983." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrancois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

Francois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

"French president François Hollande has bowed to massive pressure for business tax cuts to pull France’s economy out of slump and stave off industrial decline, ditching a core element of his socialist platform. Company taxes will fall by €20bn a year equal to 1pc of GDP, to be phased in gradually by 2015 under a convoluted system of rebates. Spending cuts will plug the revenue gap in order to meet the EU’s 3pc deficit target. Critics call it the most humiliating U-turn in French politics since François Mitterrand abandoned his disastrous experiment of 'Socialism in one country' under a D-Mark currency peg in 1983." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrancois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy