Europe

Chinese solar panel company defaults on $541 million worth of bonds

"One of the world’s top two solar cell and panel producers, targeted last year by US trade sanctions, Suntech said it had already entered an agreement with 60 percent of the bond holders to hold off legal claims while a debt restructuring can be negotiated. The European Union began an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese solar panels in September last year, followed by an anti-subsidy probe in November. The United States last October confirmed hefty anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese solar cell makers, adding to trade tensions between the two economic powers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese solar panel company defaults on $541 million worth of bonds

A Fiscal Lesson in Cyprus for Americans

"Would the U.S. government ever do these sorts of things? Well, don’t forget that President Roosevelt did it during the Great Depression when he nationalized gold and made it a felony offense to own it, notwithstanding the fact that it had been the official constitutional money of the United States since the founding of the nation. FDR ordered Americans to deliver their gold to the federal government, which paid them off in cheapened, devalued, irredeemable notes. It was a confiscation of wealth no different in principle from that that was done by the Argentine government and that is now being conducted by the Cyprus government." Continue reading →

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The Deeper Meanings of Cyprus

"This is not just the perfection of neocolonialism but of neofeudalism as well. The peripheral nations of the E.U. are effectively neocolonial debtors of the core (quasi-Imperial) banks, and the taxpayers of the core nations (now reduced to Germany and The Netherlands) are now feudal serfs whose labor is devoted to making good on any bank loans to the periphery that go bad. Though we can term the E.U. a plutocracy or oligarchy, the neofeudal structure compels us to distinguish a class of those holding wealth and political power that is not limited to national border: this is an Aristocracy." Continue reading →

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Gold Rises, Dollar Rises, Stocks Fall: The Cyprus Disaster Begins

"Over the weekend, Eurozone bureaucrats at a closed meeting came up with a plan. The committee demanded that the government of Cyprus impose a tax of 3% on all bank accounts under $130,000, and close to 10% on all accounts over $130,000. If the government refuses, the Eurozone will not provide a $13 billion bailout for the banks of Cyprus. The story is all over the European press, for good reason. The Eurocrats had always said that bank accounts would be sacrosanct. This announcement says, 'We lied.' But they also assured depositors that this will never happen again. 'Trust us.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGold Rises, Dollar Rises, Stocks Fall: The Cyprus Disaster Begins

Believe a Politician and You Will Lose Your Money

"The president of Cyprus assured voters that he would never, ever tax their bank accounts. Now he says the government must do this. Any voter who heard this assurance should have gone to his bank immediately and withdrawn half of his money. Then he should have sent another 40% to a German bank. The other 10% he might have left in his bank to meet existing expenses. Anyone who left all of his money in the bank was a fool. He trusted the head of the country." Continue reading →

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In crisis-ravaged Greece, ‘laughter clubs’ are booming

"Three years into a crippling recession that has reduced incomes here by as much as 60 percent, increased the number of suicides by 40 percent and forced 1.3 million people onto growing unemployment lines, Greeks are grappling with ways to remain sane. Many of them are turning to what some call a free cure to just about any ailment: laughter. In one improvised routine, members are taught to laugh at the sight of an electricity bill or the kind of tax notice that Greeks have been repeatedly served in recent years as part of new austerity measures intended to make up for decades of profligate spending by the state." Continue reading →

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In Greece: As ‘Austerity’ Ignites Masses, Elites Turn To Imperial Stormtroopers

"The usually reserved waitress at our favorite Greek-owned Sunday breakfast place approached us in dismay. Her daughter and son-in-law were escaping Greece for the US. Even middle class professionals were finding themselves digging in the garbage for food to eat, she said. Former Greek career diplomat Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos says that the government has hired Blackwater, the American private military firm infamous for its activities in Iraq, which now goes by the name 'Academi', along with five other international for-profit security outfits. He says bluntly: 'The Greek government does not trust the police whose salaries have also been cut.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIn Greece: As ‘Austerity’ Ignites Masses, Elites Turn To Imperial Stormtroopers

The EU Robs the Bank In Cyprus – Coming to the USA Too?

"The Cyprus case illustrates that raiding savings deposits, which were once thought of as off limits, is an option that is very much on the table for desperate Western governments. They didn't ask. They just took, without permission, with no warning, and amid secret discussions. By hook or by crook, desperate governments will grab anything within their reach when they want to. They are not constrained by the laws that apply to the average citizen, or any sort of ethical considerations. They are only limited by 'what they can get away with.'" Continue reading →

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Euro Minister Doesn’t Rule Out Taxes on Bank Deposits Beyond Cyprus

"Anxious depositors drained cash from automated teller machines in Cyprus over the weekend, hours after European officials in Brussels required that part of a new €10 billion bailout be paid for directly from the bank accounts of ordinary savers. The decision — a first in the three-year-old European financial crisis — raised questions about whether bank runs could be set off elsewhere in the euro zone. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of euro area ministers, declined Saturday to rule out taxes on depositors in countries beyond Cyprus, although he said such a measure was not currently being considered." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEuro Minister Doesn’t Rule Out Taxes on Bank Deposits Beyond Cyprus