A blatant act of fear mongering: if Greece were allowed to exit the Eurozone, it could end up costing the world €17.2 trillion, the study said; it would be “incumbent upon the community of nations to prevent” that. The study was commissioned by the powerful Bertlesmann Foundation, propagating the doctrine that certain bondholders must always be bailed out to prop up confidence in the financial markets. “Insolvency procrastination” is how a quintessential German industrialist responded.
Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Fiasco
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Fiasco
Militants attack oil infrastructure and staff. Oil theft leads to severe pipeline damage, causing loss of production and pollution. There is piracy, sabotage, violence, and decrepit infrastructure. Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and has the ninth largest natural gas reserves in the world. Yet only 50% of the people have access to electricity.
Fear of Impending Economic Collapse Or Just Manipulation?
by Wolf Richter • • 1 Comment
Two thermometers into the brains of corporate America plunged to depth not seen since the trough of the Great Recession when the US was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month. One was based on responses from CEOs of America’s largest corporations; the other was based on responses from analysts who’d listened to their industry contacts. Just before Lehman, these people had exactly zero predictive capabilities. So, could they now have ulterior motives?
Political Violence Scares Japanese Investors, Acrimony Flows Instead Of Money, But It Doesn’t Stop Japan Inc.
by Wolf Richter • • 1 Comment
Softbank’s announcement to buy 70% of Sprint for $20.1 billion caused its stock to plunge 17% in Japan that day. Investors had been through it before: a company paying way too much to accomplish a CEO’s megalomaniac goals, only to get mired in a corporate culture clash and other nightmares overseas. Japanese acquirers have a “terrible” track record.
Spain Is Losing Its People, Catalonia Fights For Independence, And The EU Gets Pushed Into The Conflict
by Wolf Richter • • 6 Comments
“Do you want Catalonia to become a new state within the European Union?” That may be the question on the referendum that is causing a constitutional crisis in Spain even before the final wording has been decided. Efforts by Artur Mas, President of Catalonia, to pry his region loose from Spain are not only shaking up Spain but are pushing the European Union deeper into the conflict—just as Spain is plunging into a demographic nightmare.
What do Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho, Yasser Arafat, Barak Obama, And The EU Have In Common?
by Wolf Richter • • 1 Comment
Maybe the Norwegian Nobel Committee ran out of candidates for this year’s Peace Prize and didn’t want to transfer the money to the Main Fund, as they’d done in the past. So they handed it to the European Union, which triggered an avalanche of snickering and mocking. Its government is engaged in a phenomenal power grab, and its Eurozone is mired in an extraordinarily screwed-up debt crisis with bloody protests in the streets. But peace is a new phenomenon in Europe.
Fear Mongering And Hysteria About The Fiscal Cliff
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Fear Mongering And Hysteria About The Fiscal Cliff
It’s been a phenomenal circus, the screaming and hollering on all sides about the “fiscal cliff,” in the media, from lawmakers, from chieftains of our industries, particularly those that feed at the government’s big trough, such as defense contractors, which include some of the largest global corporations. Even NPR this morning postulated that it would cause a million job losses. Hysteria comes to mind.
Gold, Molotov Cocktails, Rubber Bullets, And Teargas: A Rift In Greece
by Wolf Richter • • 2 Comments
A Greek economist’s terse sarcasm: “GDP has decreased by €47 billion in the last five years. Economy is expected to contract by 3.8% in 2013, the 6th straight year of recession! Unemployment has reached 24.7%. Youth unemployment… 55.4%! No worries though—we have the sun, the sea, our cultural background.” And GOLD.
Merkel Hides Behind The Troika Report, The Greeks Seethe, And The Drachma Advances
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Merkel Hides Behind The Troika Report, The Greeks Seethe, And The Drachma Advances
When an acquaintance of mine in Greece had dinner with one of his relatives, a ranking official at the Bank of Greece, the discussion inevitably came around to the Troika—the bailout and austerity gang from the EU, the ECB, and the IMF—and how Greece should send them packing. “Of course,” the central banker said, “it would help considerably if we actually had a functioning government these past 182 years.”
Punishment Of The Spanish Political Class By The People
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has a singular problem: 84% of all voters have “little” or “no” confidence in him. The fate of Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, leader of the opposition Socialist party, is even worse: 90% of all voters distrust him! Those are the two top political figures of the two major political parties, and the utterly frustrated and disillusioned Spaniards are defenestrating them both.