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Posts Tagged ‘Portugal’

Europe Is On The Verge Of Collapsing

August 8, 2011 Comments off

globalresearch

Photo by Dieter Heinemann

The scale of impact is unpredictable, but potentially worse than that of the recent toxic assets crisis. The European bloc is the second largest economy, the first trade partner of China, the largest importer of Russian energy and the first buyer of high quality raw materials (it still holds the Hilton quota, the world’s most expensive meat quota).

All over the world European debt holders and many states maintain their reserves in euros. China, for example, has one-fourth of its reserves in such currency and holds a large amount of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish debt bonds….

Without debt restructuring involving important debt amount reductions and extended maturities, Greece will not be able to meet her commitments, just like the rest of Europe’s debt-overhung Europe’s periphery economies – Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and the effects would certainly contaminate the rest of Europe including the region’s strongest economies.

The illusion of dampening the fire by deferring debt maturities is just that – a chimera. Unless public and private bondholders’ debts are reduced and longer maturities granted, default and meltdown are Read more…

Categories: EU, Euro, Europe Tags: , , , , , ,

Euro zone boosts powers of rescue fund to aid Greece, Ireland, Portugal

July 22, 2011 Comments off

theglobeandmail

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, left, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso speak after the EU summit Thursday in Brussels. - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, left, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso speak after the EU summit Thursday in Brussels. | AFP/Getty Images

Euro zone leaders agreed at an emergency summit on Thursday to give their financial rescue fund sweeping new powers to help Greece overcome its debt crisis and prevent market instability from spreading through the region.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said leaders of the 17-nation currency area had agreed to ease lending terms to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, while private investors would voluntarily swap their Greek bonds for longer maturities at lower interest rates to help Athens.

Categories: Euro, Europe Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Poor Man’s Gold is Breaking Out — Sell Your House and Buy Silver?

July 18, 2011 1 comment

businessinsider

   Investors have pushed silver above the recent channel high at around $39 or so per ounce and I fully expect a retest of $50 if any more talk is given about QE3 — Silver rises because of the rising digital money supply, not from speculation. Owning cash is speculative whereas owning metals is conservative or a safe haven at current prices.

Many people will tell you that silver and gold are in a bubble but the fact is that commodities in general are one of the only asset classes that work here because the consolidated banking system is holding our economy hostage and Bernanke is solely focused on saving the banks. Right now, shorting European banks and going long silver and gold looks to be about as good of a “trade” as possible — investors are essentially betting that Europe will face massive credit problems because of the obvious insolvency of Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland.

The next shoe to drop is the US… We are facing the exact same issues as Read more…

Categories: Coming Events, Silver Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Gold hits record high near $1,580 an ounce

July 13, 2011 Comments off

afp

The price of gold reached $1,578.73 an ounce at 1130 GMT on the London Bullion Market (AFP/File, Sebastian Derungs)

LONDON — The price of gold surged to a record close to $1,580 an ounce here on Wednesday, as investors switched into the metal for safety from the eurozone debt crisis, traders said.

The price of gold reached $1,578.72 an ounce by mid-day on the London Bullion Market, beating the previous record of $1,577.57 set on May 1. It later stood at $1,573 an ounce in afternoon London trade.

“Gold hit a new all-time high today as investors continue to fret over the European sovereign debt situation,” said analyst Ian O’Sullivan at trading firm Spread Co, noting that the metal has risen for eight days in a row..

“With Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal worries intensifying and now the Fed minutes suggesting some members were thinking about the need for additional easing, investors have just hit the panic buy buttons this week.

“We think that gold ma Read more…

Categories: GOLD Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Economist Charles Gave: The Euro Will Not Exist In One Year!

June 28, 2011 2 comments

businessinsider

Charles GaveCharles Gave is the French economist whose research firm GaveKal is fairly well known, and read in some hedge fund circles.

In his latest note, John Mauldin reports on a dinner he attended with several investors and experts, of which Gave was one. At the dinner, he predicted the Euro’s imminent demise.

The section of the note is below.

——–

Will the Euro Survive?

We had dinner on Monday night at the home of Hervig von Hove of Notz-Stucki Bank, where I was speaking the next morning. There were 16 of us at the table, and these people represented a great deal of money as managers and investors. All very well-informed. We sat outside in perfect weather in the Swiss countryside. Charles Gave sat across from me at the middle of the table, and we talked and debated as the rest asked questions and offered opinions for 3-4 hours. The wine was flowing, and it was a most interesting evening. Now, with that set-up…

I was asked if I still thought the euro was going to parity with the dollar, and I said I did, although I was not sure what the euro would look like in three years, or who would be in it. There was some pushback from people who thought the dollar would be the weaker currency. So I asked for a show of hands as to how many people thought the euro would be higher in one year’s time. There were 6 hands raised, but one gentleman said he was actually abstaining. So I asked how many thought the euro Read more…

Categories: Euro Tags: , , , , , ,

European Union growing more divided

June 26, 2011 1 comment

freep.com

IN GREECE: About 3,000 police officers, coast guard workers and firefighters protest salary and budget cuts on Thursday in Athens. Austerity measures in Greece have fueled disenchantment with the European Union.

 IN GREECE: About 3,000 police officers, coast guard workers and firefighters protest salary and budget cuts on Thursday in Athens. Austerity measures in Greece have fueled disenchantment with the European Union. / DIMITRI MESSINIS/Associated Press

FLENSBURG, Germany — Erik Holm Jensen slips between countries without a thought or a passport.

The 60-year-old business consultant drives from Denmark into northern Germany as smoothly as an American going from Delaware to New Jersey. There’s no hassle at the border, no guards to stop him. If he blinks, he misses the modest sign indicating he’s crossed from one country into another.

Such seamless travel is one of the European Union’s greatest achievements in its pursuit of a stable, prosperous continent built in the lingering aftermath of World War II. The other is the euro, like the wad in Jensen’s wallet that he can use in 17 nations.

But the twin pillars of Europe’s grand project are now Read more…

Categories: EU Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

EU Ministers OK $110.8 Billion Portugal Rescue

May 16, 2011 1 comment

European Union finance ministers cleared the way for Portugal to receive 78 billion euros ($110.8 billion) in aid, making it the third euro-area country to fall back on official loans.

The EU’s two bailout funds, the European Financial Stability Facility and European Financial Stabilization Mechanism, will each provide one-third of the assistance, while the International Monetary Fund will contribute the rest, the EU said in a statement after a unanimous vote in Brussels today.

Finance ministers called Portugal’s planned budget cuts “ambitious but credible,” according to the statement. The aid program will run for three years.

Portugal follows Greece and Ireland in requesting a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund. Politicians are struggling to convince investors that 256 billion euros in aid to the three countries will be enough to stamp out Europe’s debt crisis and prevent the euro region’s first restructuring.

Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said before the meeting he was confident of approval because “all the issues that we had to clarify were clarified.” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had also been upbeat about Portugal’s aid request.

The meeting was clouded by the May 14 arrest of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Read more…

Categories: EU, Europe, Portugal Tags: , , , , , , ,

Signals Spain may seek bailout spelling disaster for eurozone

May 16, 2011 Comments off

rt.com

Violent protests against austerity cuts have broken out in Spain, as the country struggles to deal with record-high unemployment signaling that Madrid could possibly be next in line for an EU bailout.

Across the border, Portugal’s crumbling economy is desperate for a €78 billion rescue package. Read more…

Categories: Spain Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

IMF Says Europe’s Debt Woes Could Spread

May 13, 2011 Comments off

chosun

The International Monetary Fund is warning that the governmental debt problems in Greece, Ireland and Portugal could spread to other European countries that employ the euro currency and also to the emerging economies in eastern Europe.

In its semi-annual report on the European economy, the IMF said Thursday that officials so far have been able to contain the continent’s debt contagion to the three countries on Europe’s geographic periphery. But the Washington-based financing agency said there “remains a tangible downside risk” of debt problems spreading. It said European nations will have to make “unrelenting” efforts to contain their financial problems.

The IMF said weak banking systems remain a threat to the financial health of the 17 nations where the euro is the common currency. It said the reduction in the number of banks in Europe is proceeding too slowly and that greater financial integration on the continent is needed.

Greece and Ireland reluctantly accepted bailouts from the IMF and their European neighbors last year and now Portugal is Read more…

Categories: Europe, IMF Tags: , , , , , , ,

Why Is the U.S. Bankrolling IMF’s Bailouts in Europe?

May 3, 2011 2 comments

humanevents
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund held their spring meeting April 14 to 18 in Washington, D.C.  Both financial titans were created after World War II to foster economic cooperation and development around the globe.  With 16.2% of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shares, the United States is the largest shareholder among the 187 nations who belong to the fund—even though its managing director has always been a European.

Remote to most Americans, the IMF has been in the headlines recently because of its role as one of the financial rescuers of three European nations whose economies collapsed last year.  Under Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (the former French finance minister, who is considered the leading Socialist candidate for president of France in 2012), the IMF has joined with the European Union to sculpt bailout packages for Greece, Ireland, and Portugal.  Coupled with loans from the EU, the price tags on the bailout packages come to $157 billion for Greece, $122 billion for Ireland, and most recently, $116 billion for Portugal.

Obviously, these are quite substantial packages for the three economically devastated countries.  They will become very relevant to U.S. taxpayers when they realize that, because we are the largest single contributor to the organization, and with Spain and Italy now Read more…

Categories: Europe, IMF, United States Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,