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Post by jdredd on Jun 29, 2011 23:25:18 GMT -5
www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/tough_austerity_measures_pass_in_greece_110629/"TOM HUDSON, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Susie, the Greek Parliament still needs to vote on a second bill authorizing specific austerity cuts in greater detail. That could happen tomorrow. Ahead of that vote, thousands of people took to the streets in Athens protesting right in front of the parliament building. Riot people -- riot police responded, firing tear gas into the crowds. The protesters are angry about facing more cuts in pensions and more hikes in taxes on top of what was agreed to last year. GHARIB: Well, as the situation in Greece intensifies, many people here in the U.S. are asking, what does this mean to me, my business, and my investments? Joining us now to answer those questions, Jim Awad, he`s an investment strategist at Zephyr Investments. Hi, Jim. JAMES AWAD, INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, ZEPHYR INVESTMENTS: Hi, Susie. GHARIB: All right. Well, let`s get right to it. A lot of people are saying, you know, what does this mean to me? What would you say? AWAD: Well, what I would say is that if Greece were to default, it not only would affect the financial system and the banks and the liquidity in Europe, it would negatively impact their economies, it would flow right back to the U.S. financial system and the U.S. economy. So it matters a lot to us if Greece defaults or if other countries -- other peripheral countries end up defaulting. GHARIB: And another thing I think a lot of people might not realize is that their money market investments, many of them are -- money market funds are invested in European banks which have made loans to Greece.So the question is, how safe or how vulnerable are those money market investments? AWAD: Well, left to their own they would be vulnerable, because if Greece defaulted there would be a lot of banks that would have capital hits, and there`s the question as to whether they would be able to repay their money market loans to the United States.But I think in that system, you would have the U.S. central bank and the European central banks go in and engage in extraordinary measures like they did in 2008 to keep the funds solvent and the dollar a share limit. So it`s a worry, but I think it`s probably a manageable worry unless you have two or three countries default at the same time.GHARIB: But for people who want to play it on the safe side, what investment moves should they make? AWAD: Well, I would migrate up the quality scale in every asset class, whether you own bonds or stocks, you want to migrate up to big conservative stocks with a global footprint that are geographically diversified. You want to migrate away from risky debt towards high quality AAA- rated debt. It`s not a time to run into a foxhole, but it`s a time to put up a fence because there`s a lot that could go wrong. Migrate to quality."
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Post by jdredd on Jun 30, 2011 14:28:27 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-30/asian-stocks-euro-advance-as-greek-default-concern-eases-treasuries-gain.html"Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou gained approval today from lawmakers to implement his 78 billion-euro ($113 billion) package of budget cuts and asset sales after winning parliamentary backing yesterday for the bill. Germany’s biggest banks and insurers and the government agreed on a proposal to reinvest money from maturing debt holdings into new Greek bonds through 2014. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said its business barometer unexpectedly rose in June. “There are nice things coming together,” said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Minneapolis-based Wells Capital, which oversees $340 billion. “Europeans are kicking the can down the road a bit further. It seems that the Greece situation is closer to being put on the back burner. The bottom- line is whether or not we recover from the soft patch. Most reports indicate that the economic softness has been only temporary.”
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Post by jdredd on Jul 3, 2011 17:01:48 GMT -5
www.thenation.com/article/161685/greece-debt-eurozone-crisis"As the authorities abdicate from policing parts of the city, the task of “keeping order” is assumed by vigilantes affiliated with the neofascist party Chrysi Avgi, or Golden Dawn, which last year won its first seat on the City Council. Chrysi Avgi patrols large areas of Athens, with the explicit or tacit support of many Greek residents and often of the police, staging pogroms against migrants and pitched battles with bands of anarchists who oppose them; on May 19 more than 200 people rampaged through the center, smashing shop windows and kicking or beating every dark-skinned man they saw while the police stood by."
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Post by jdredd on Jul 5, 2011 23:41:17 GMT -5
latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/07/portugal-debt-moodys-rating-cut-junk-greece-bailout-euro.html"Portugal's government debt was downgraded to junk status Tuesday, another reminder that the European debt crisis is far from over. Moody's Investors Service slashed Portugal's rating to Ba2 from Baa1 and said the outlook remained negative. Any rating below Baa means the issuer’s debt no longer is considered investment grade." "But a potential sticking point in the latest Greek rescue is whether banks and other private investors that hold outstanding Greek bonds can agree to restructure the debt as a way of contributing to a second bailout -- a key demand of a group of German legislators. A restructuring could mean investors would accept a cut in their interest earnings or exchange existing bonds for longer-term securities.Another ratings firm, Standard & Poor’s, has warned that even a voluntary restructuring by investors could be considered a “selective default” by Greece. Even though everyone knows Greece is insolvent, actually labeling the debt in default could wreak havoc with the European financial system by potentially cutting off market funding to Greek banks that own hefty amounts of Greek bonds." "Moody’s, in downgrading Portugal, clearly is worried that a Greek deal with private bondholders could set the stage for Portuguese bondholders also to be forced into concessions."
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Post by jdredd on Jul 7, 2011 3:25:26 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/hedge-funds-move-past-greece-with-bets-that-sovereign-debt-crisis-expands.html"Hedge funds that trade bonds and loans are increasing bets that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis will spread to Portugal, Spain and Italy, even after Greece won a temporary reprieve with 12 billion euros in aid. “Nothing you’ve seen so far has dealt with solvency, just liquidity,” said Simon Finch, head of credit trading at CQS UK LLP, a London-based hedge fund that oversees $11 billion." "CQS is among the hedge funds that say investors are underestimating the odds of distress or even default not only by Portugal, whose credit rating was downgraded this week to junk status by Moody’s, but also by the bigger Italy and Spain. The funds are moving beyond a direct wager that sovereign debt values will tumble, targeting potential fallout in the corporate-debt market and the banking industry." "Now that an immediate Greek default has been avoided, investors are looking for ways to play continued distress among countries including Italy, the euro-area’s third-largest economy, and Spain, its fourth. The extra yield investors demand to hold Portugal’s 10-year bonds over German bunds slipped 41 basis points today to 974 basis points from a euro-era record of 1015 basis points yesterday, when Moody’s cut the country’s credit rating four levels to Ba2, below investment grade."
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Post by jdredd on Jul 9, 2011 18:34:22 GMT -5
latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/07/italy-debt-crisis-bonds-yields-greece-portugal-ireland-ecb-eu.html"The dismal U.S. jobs report for June is getting most of the attention on Wall Street Friday, but the greater risk to the global economy may be the spreading debt crisis in Europe. The “contagion” that has forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts from the rest of Europe now is threatening Italy, as investors demand ever-higher interest rates on Italian government bonds. The yield on two-year Italian bonds (charted below) surged to 3.51% on Friday, the fifth straight increase and up from 3.32% on Thursday. On Monday the yield was 3.04%."
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Post by jdredd on Jul 10, 2011 19:31:46 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-greece-austerity-20110701,0,4755540.story Reporting from Athens— Greece's Parliament on Thursday passed crucial legislation implementing unpopular austerity measures demanded by international creditors to unbolt rescue funds and ease fears of Europe's first sovereign default. The legislation, enabling swift implementation of $40 billion in budget cuts, plus a $72-billion sell-off of state assets, was backed by 155 lawmakers of the 300-member Parliament. Five abstained, four were absent and 136 lawmakers, mainly opposition conservatives, voted against the bill, the second and final piece of austerity legislation put to the test this week.
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Post by dj on Jul 10, 2011 21:40:06 GMT -5
latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/07/italy-debt-crisis-bonds-yields-greece-portugal-ireland-ecb-eu.html"The dismal U.S. jobs report for June is getting most of the attention on Wall Street Friday, but the greater risk to the global economy may be the spreading debt crisis in Europe. The “contagion” that has forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts from the rest of Europe now is threatening Italy, as investors demand ever-higher interest rates on Italian government bonds. The yield on two-year Italian bonds (charted below) surged to 3.51% on Friday, the fifth straight increase and up from 3.32% on Thursday. On Monday the yield was 3.04%." Wow, 3.51% bond yields. This is what is driving Italy to her knees?
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Post by jdredd on Jul 11, 2011 3:18:18 GMT -5
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-....d.html?ITO=1490"James Murdoch’s hopes of succeeding his father at the top of News Corporation were thrown into doubt yesterday as the phone-hacking crisis deepened, writes Hugo Duncan. Rupert Murdoch’s embattled son, who is chairman of News Corp’s News International arm, which owns the News of the World, could be quizzed by police in the wake of the scandal at the Sunday tabloid. Analysts and investors are now questioning whether the 38-year-old should take over from his father when the 80-year-old media mogul steps down. US investor Yacktman, the eighth largest shareholder in News Corp with a 3.2pc, backed Rupert Murdoch’s right-hand man Chase Carey. ‘We would be thrilled if Chase Carey became successor,’ said Yacktman vice president Jason Subotky." Even Murdoch must bow before investors!
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Post by jdredd on Jul 12, 2011 0:21:37 GMT -5
While Congress and the Prez fiddle, Europe burns...if Italy, Spain falter and the Eurozone goes into crisis, as the USA flirts with default (because of some stupid no-tax pledge the GOP congressmen took), it could be a perfect financial storm which could make 2008 look like a rehearsal for the real thing...or not. Let's roll the dice and find out!
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Post by jdredd on Jul 13, 2011 23:31:30 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-14/pickens-water-to-riches-dream-unravels-as-11-texas-cities-scoop-up-rights.html"Amarillo, Lubbock and nine other West Texas cities coping with the worst drought in more than 50 years solved some of their water problems by waiting out Boone Pickens, the billionaire Dallas oilman. The Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, supplying the 11 cities with a combined population of about 500,000, will issue bonds to buy Pickens’s water rights on 211,000 acres, General Manager Kent Satterwhite said. Most of the rights are in Roberts County, which has more groundwater than any Texas county, according to Amarillo Utilities Director Emmett Autrey. Pickens, 83, started buying water rights northeast of Lubbock and Amarillo more than 10 years ago. By 2002, the investor was predicting that he could start selling water in three years to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Satterwhite said. Pickens sought to build a $3 billion pipeline to the fourth- largest U.S. metropolitan area by population, 350 miles (560 kilometers) away, yet couldn’t make a deal." Gosh, a rare setback for privatization, and in Texas no less. Sorry, Boone, your bony hand won't be on the spigot for the time being...damn government...
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Post by jdredd on Jul 25, 2011 19:45:52 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/business/debt-ceiling-fight-has-markets-holding-their-breath.html?_r=1&hpw"John Canavan, a market analyst at Stone & McCarthy Research, a research firm in Princeton, N.J., said that he thinks investors might sell some United States bonds to buy German bonds, or assets in Asia and emerging markets. Foreign investors, he noted, own a far greater share of United States debt than was the case several decades ago.
“They don’t hold them because they have any patriotism or anything else and they’re going to be quick to unload them if they feel there is danger to hold them,” Mr. Canavan said."
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Post by jdredd on Jul 26, 2011 3:27:13 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-25/societe-generale-undermined-by-greek-debt-crisis-in-recovery-from-kerviel.htmlToday, Oudea, 48, faces hazards from a different direction. SocGen and other French banks are heavily exposed to the sovereign-debt crisis enveloping Greece and other euro-zone nations. SocGen owns 88 percent of Athens-based Geniki Bank (TGEN) SA - - whose stock was down 51.9 percent this year as of July 25 -- and held 2.5 billion euros of Greek debt at the end of March, SocGen reported. “A default by Greece would trigger a catastrophe for Societe Generale,” says Jacques-Pascal Porta, who helps oversee $400 million, including SocGen shares, at Paris-based investment firm Ofi Gestion Privee. Oudea insists the bank has the resources to weather whatever happens in Greece. “Given our exposure to Greek sovereign debt, the direct impact of any restructuring scenario would be manageable for the bank,” he said on June 28.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 28, 2011 14:01:37 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-28/humala-backers-cry-foul-as-former-peru-rebel-tilts-to-investors.html"Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala spent the last two months convincing investors he won’t stifle economic growth with an anti-business agenda. He now faces the anger of backers who say he pandered to the markets. Humala, 49, has already seen support taper off in polls. If the decline continues, he may attempt to rally the Andean nation’s mostly-indigenous poor who celebrated his victory and abandon the restraint that’s surprised investors, according to the Eurasia Group, a New York-based research company. Humala during the campaign vowed to raise the monthly minimum wage to 750 soles ($274) from 600 soles starting in 2012, create pensions for the indigent, and boost spending on health and education through a windfall tax on gold and copper producers such as London-based Anglo American Plc and Southern Copper Corp. of Phoenix, Arizona. “He has to find a way to keep the base close while not letting it dictate economic policy,” Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute research organization in Washington and the son of novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, said in response to e-mailed questions." Of course he does. Dictating economic policy is the job of multinational investors...
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Post by jdredd on Aug 6, 2011 1:25:04 GMT -5
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14428930"One of the top credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor's, has downgraded the United States' top-notch AAA rating for the first time ever. S&P cut the long-term US rating by one notch to AA+ with a negative outlook, citing concerns about budget deficits." "Correspondents say the downgrade could erode global investors' confidence in the world's largest economy, which is already struggling with huge debts, unemployment of 9.1%, and beset by fears of a possible double-dip recession." "The agency said it might lower the US long-term rating another notch to AA within the next two years if its deficit reduction measures were deemed inadequate." So now the investors are Greeking the USA, threatening us with more expensive loans unless we make the changes they dictate.
Alas, it's the Golden Rule: He who has the gold, rules. World Plutocracy, here we come...
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