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Setbacks in Portugal and Ireland Renew Worry on Debt Crisis
Allied Irish Bank is one of several prominent financial institutions in Ireland in need of a rescue.
LONDON — A higher-than-expected budget deficit in Portugal and the need for more money to rescue Ireland’s failing banks have renewed fears that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening despite its sizable bailout fund.
Officials in Lisbon said Thursday that the country’s budget deficit last year was 8.6 percent of its gross domestic product, well above the goal of 7.3 percent. Although officials said the revision would not affect the government’s goal of reaching a deficit of 4.6 percent of domestic product in 2011, the news was a reminder that, even after the problems from Greece’s fraudulent deficit statistics, some numbers from the euro zone remain unreliable.
Also Thursday, Ireland’s central bank announced that four of the country’s most prominent financial institutions would need an additional 24 billion euros to cover sour real estate loans, a move that pushes the Read more…
Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe
Marks on a clay tablet fragment found in Greece are the oldest known decipherable text in Europe, a new study says.
Considered “magical or mysterious” in its time, the writing survives only because a trash heap caught fire some 3,500 years ago, according to researchers.
Found in an olive grove in what’s now the village of Iklaina (map), the tablet was created by a Greek-speaking Mycenaean scribe between 1450 and 1350 B.C., archaeologists say.
The Mycenaeans—made legendary in part by Homer’s Iliad, which fictionalizes their war with Troy—dominated much of Greece from about 1600 B.C. to 1100 B.C. (See “Is Troy True? The Evidence Behind Movie Myth.”)
So far, excavations at Iklaina have yielded evidence of an early Mycenaean palace, giant terrace walls, murals, and a surprisingly advanced drainage system, according to dig director Michael Cosmopoulos.
But the tablet, found last summer, is the biggest surprise of the multiyear project, Cosmopoulos said.
“According to what we knew, that tablet should not have been there,” the University of Missouri-St. Louis archaeologist Read more…
IMF Prepares For “Threat To International Monetary System”
Back in April 2010, before Waddell and Reed sold a few shares of ES, effectively destroying the market on news that Europe was insolvent, we made the following observation: “The IMF has just announced that it is expanding its New Arrangement to Borrow (NAB) multilateral facility from its existing $50 billion by a whopping $500 billion (SDR333.5 billion), to $550 billion.” Little did we know that our conclusion “something big must be coming” would prove spot on just a month later after Greece, then Ireland, then Portgual, and soon Spain, Italy, Belgium, and pretty much all other European countries would topple like dominoes tethered together by a flawed monetary regime. Well, based on news from Dow Jones we can now safely predict the following: “something bigger must be coming.” As if the IMF’s trillions in open lending facilities (many of which have recently been adjusted to uncapped) were not enough, we now learn that the world lender of last resort (which in theory is the Fed, but apparently Bernanke has been getting a little Read more…
Worldwide Silver Shortage?
FutureMoneyTrends.com has recently received several reports, published and non published reports about possible silver shortages. Is their a very limited supply of silver, yes, is there a worldwide shortage happening right now, well not exactly. Under the agreement that we wouldn’t reveal their name, a major bullion dealer who we are friends with, told us that their traders are not having any issues buying physical silver, and that their warehouse had a significant amount of physical silver. Now, will there one day be a shortage of silver, in our opinion at these prices, yes, the price for silver will have to move up considerably in order to come in line with the above ground available supply and ever increasing demand. Sorry to disappoint you, Read more…
Portugal’s Government May Collapse Before EU Summit
In a report published by Reuters, the Portuguese parliament is expected to reject government austerity measures on Wednesday, which could lead to the collapse of the minority Socialist administration one day before the EU summit.
The country’s Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, has declared that he will resign if the plan is defeated, due to the fact that its rejection would force debt-ridden Portugal to seek a similar international bailout to Greece and Ireland.
If Socrates stands by his word, then he appears to be heading for the exit door as all opposition parties have proposed resolutions calling for the rejection of the measures, which would look to cut the debt by reducing pensions and state spending.
The main opposition is the Social Democrats, and the party has already begun talking about a snap election. When asked if it is likely that the government will step down, Socialist bench leader in parliament Francisco Assis said that, “If all these positions that now seem irreversible are confirmed, then yes.”
“The prime minister does not want to resign, but he cannot govern against his convictions,” Assis said.
Pressure on Portugal After New Credit Downgrade
LISBON — Portugal’s borrowing costs pushed higher after Moody’s downgraded the country’s credit rating, stoking the pressure on the country’s beleaguered minority government.
The yield on Portugal’s ten-year bond rose 0.04 percentage point to 7.44 percent. The equivalent yields for Greece and Spain, two other euro countries struggling with high borrowing levels, were down modestly.
Moody’s Investors Services cut the country’s rating by two notches to A3 late Tuesday, saying the debt-stressed country is struggling to generate growth and faces a tough battle to restore the fiscal health needed to calm jittery financial markets.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates said late Tuesday he would quit if Parliament doesn’t consent to his government’s latest batch of contested austerity measures.
Portugal aims to raise up to €1 billion in a sale of Read more…
People Of Earth: Prepare For Economic Disaster
It is not just the United States that is headed for an economic collapse. The truth is that the entire world is heading for a massive economic meltdown and the people of earth need to be warned about the coming economic disaster that is going to sweep the globe. The current world financial system is based on debt, and there are alarming signs that the gigantic global debt bubble is getting ready to burst. In addition, global prices for the key resources that the major economies of the planet depend on are rising very rapidly. Despite all of our advanced technology, the truth is that human civilization simply cannot function without oil and food. But now the price of oil and the price of food are both increasing dramatically. So how is the current global economy supposed to keep functioning properly if it soon costs much more to ship products between continents? How are the billions of people that are just barely surviving today supposed to feed themselves if the price of food goes up another 30 or 40 percent? For decades, most of the major economies around the globe have been able to Read more…
Why the World Must Watch Europe
Beyond the EU Debt Crisis
The continent’s financial crisis gave rise to bailouts, infighting and demands for sweeping financial reform. Could there still be a bright future over the horizon for the European Union?
Amid the shift in global superpowers, two names come up as heavyweight world championship opponents: China and the United States.
The constant media exposure and speculation could be likened to a pay-per-view boxing matchup.
In one corner: the world’s largest energy consumer—with a 1.3-billion-strong population—endlessly stockpiling natural resources—and holding nearly $900 billion in United States’ debt.
In the other: longtime democratic world champion—largest economy—and leader in manufacturing.
China is the clear favorite, but the U.S. is still in the running. On its way down from unmatched superpower, it is still a formidable opponent, with its manufacturing sector out-producing China by 40 percent.
Yet America is weighed down by a $14 trillion federal debt and rampant Read more…
U.S., NATO worry about European defense cuts
BERLIN — First, Germany announced that it would suspend its draft, ending one of the touchstones of its post-World War II society. Then Britain and France, frequent rivals since at least the Norman Conquest, announced plans to share military equipment and research. And smaller countries across Europe are cutting defense budgets and shrinking militaries that were never large to begin with.
European policymakers say that the cuts are necessary given their financial straits, and that training, not sheer numbers, is what matters in a post-Cold War world.
But some top officials, including the U.S. defense secretary and the NATO secretary general, worry that the changes could burden the United States by reducing the number of European troops available for NATO missions and other military efforts around the world. NATO’s ability to function as a collective defense pact may be Read more…
“Shocking Images” Coming Out of Greece
Protesters have once again taken to the streets in Greece today. And once again, the marches have turned violent as rioters are hurling firebombs at police. And the Associated Press reports many of them are wielding communist flags.
During one firebomb attack, rioters hit a police officer directly, engulfing him in flames:
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