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Post by jdredd on Aug 9, 2012 2:08:10 GMT -5
www.economist.com/node/21559614?spc=scode&spv=xm&ah=9d7f7ab945510a56fa6d37c30b6f1709"THE worst nightmares are the ones you cannot wake up from. Just ask Spain. A year ago the cost of Spanish government borrowing soared as euro contagion spread from Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Panic seemed to subside with central-bank intervention and the promise of a new reforming government in Madrid. Since then Spain has, broadly, been as good as its word and Mariano Rajoy’s government has cut budgets, freed its labour market, played its part in countless “make-or-break” summits in Brussels and secured up to €100 billion ($121 billion) to prop up its banks. Yet despite all its efforts and pain, Spain cannot shake off that sense of doom. On July 25th the yield on ten-year bonds touched a euro-era record of 7.75%. Two-year bonds have climbed above 7%: investors fear that Spain must soon ask for a bail-out—or default. Spain’s nightmare is a symptom of what is wrong with the entire euro zone. As the months drag on, the crisis is deepening. Europe’s leaders have asked the world to trust that they will do what it takes to save the euro. They have also pleaded for more time to sort out the mess. Their task is indeed immense, but as they disappear to their chateaux and beach villas, trust is draining away and time is not their friend."
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Post by jdredd on Aug 22, 2012 3:30:23 GMT -5
www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-21/spain-deficit-goals-at-risk-as-cuts-consensus-fades-euro-credit.html"Quarrels over who bears the brunt of cuts worth more than 10 percent of Spain’s annual gross domestic product threaten Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s plan to tackle the euro area’s third-largest deficit as a second bailout looms." "Support for Rajoy’s PP has slipped 8 percentage points since it won 40.6 percent of votes in a landslide in November. Since then, Rajoy has announced more than 100 billion euros of budget cuts, raising income and value-added tax, scrapping a tax break for home owners and cutting civil servants’ wages, unemployment benefits and health care and education spending against his word. “We believe the Spanish bond market is in a perilous halfway house,” Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy Ltd. in London, said in an e-mailed comment. “Germany is unwilling to sanction unlimited and unconditional support while Madrid is reluctant to cede more fiscal and economic sovereignty.”
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Post by jdredd on Aug 26, 2012 0:23:22 GMT -5
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19377666"French President Francois Hollande has urged Greece to prove it can pass reforms demanded by international creditors, after talks with Greek leader Antonis Samaras. Mr Samaras has been appealing for more time to introduce the reforms. But Mr Hollande said no further decision could be taken until European ministers consider a major report on Greece's finances, due in September. Donors including the EU insist Greece has to make major spending cuts. These are needed if Greece is to secure the next tranche of its bailout. The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the Greek government is under pressure to win concessions from Europe to placate the tired nation and lessen the likelihood of a destabilising period of social unrest." "Athens is trying to finalise a package of 11.5bn euros ($14.4bn; £9.1bn) of spending cuts over the next two years. It is also being asked to put in place economic and structural reforms, including changes to the labour market and a renewed privatisation drive. The measures are needed to qualify for the next 33.5bn-euro instalment of its second 130bn-euro bailout. Greece needs the funds to make repayments on its debt burden. A default could result in the country leaving the euro." Investors to Greece: "Stick it to labor and privatize everything so we can get back our money? Works for us! The Greek people? Screw 'em!"
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Post by SAMCRO IRISH on Aug 26, 2012 9:11:36 GMT -5
What else can be done ? I'm no scholar ,but in my home when we see we maybe short on rent , we stop spending on unnecessary items no matter how much we may enjoy them . Why is privatisation such a bad thing? Please explain . ROLLING STONES plays here "You can't always get what you want ".
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Post by jdredd on Aug 26, 2012 23:36:36 GMT -5
What else can be done ? I'm no scholar ,but in my home when we see we maybe short on rent , we stop spending on unnecessary items no matter how much we may enjoy them . Why is privatisation such a bad thing? Please explain . ROLLING STONES plays here "You can't always get what you want ". . What else can be done? That's a good question, which if I had the answer to I'd be rich and famous. My point is, how much more can lenders ask of Greece before the Greeks rise up and say no? What percentage of the fruits of Greek labor can be given to foreign banks before there is a backlash? As for privatization, how much is enough? There are some people who are ideologically opposed to ANYTHING public. I'm not sure what is left to privatize in Greece, but the cliche example is selling off the Parthenon to the highest bidder. That hill would be a great place for some high rise condos, or some billionaire's mega-mansion.
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Post by jdredd on Nov 5, 2012 5:01:07 GMT -5
www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2012/11/2012112172336566897.html"Their critics call them vulture funds because they prey on vulnerable countries that have defaulted on their debts - usually poor countries in Africa. But this time, a vulture fund has swooped on the Libertad, a ship belonging to the Argentine navy and now docked in a port in Ghana. A court there impounded the ship at the request of NML Capital, which is owned by a US hedge fund called Elliot Associates and run by Paul Singer, one of Mitt Romney's supporters. The dispute goes back almost a decade to when Argentina decided to default during its economic crisis. Vulture funds hold countries to ransom - some would say preventing them from getting out of poverty. But it is all legal and they make massive profits. And vulture funds are no longer just targeting developing countries. Eurozone nations like Greece and Ireland could be next."
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Post by jdredd on May 17, 2014 16:07:29 GMT -5
www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/us-astrazeneca-pfizer-sweden-idUSBREA4F06G20140516"(Reuters) - The Swedish government launched a fightback on Friday against U.S. drugmaker Pfizer's (PFE.N) proposed takeover of AstraZeneca (AZN.L), which has half its roots and more than 5,000 staff in Sweden, highlighting the risks to jobs and science. In an unusual move for the center-right government which favors an open economy, three ministers spoke out against the deal at a joint press conference, pointing to Pfizer's history of job cuts after previous acquisitions. The three - Finance Minister Anders Borg, Enterprise Minister Annie Loof and Education Minister Jan Bjorklund - said AstraZeneca's shareholders should "seriously consider rejecting" Pfizer's plan. "We are saying that there are risks in terms of Swedish research, the entire life science cluster, and also potentially jobs in Sweden," Borg said." Here's what I'd expect our politicians to be doing. Trying to preserve technology research and jobs, instead of hewing to a free market political ideology at all costs. Even Saint Ronald sold out the American worker.
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Post by jdredd on May 27, 2014 23:07:11 GMT -5
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Post by jdredd on Jun 17, 2014 17:21:17 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/business-27886361"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Argentina's legal defeat in its fight against hedge fund investors may have wider implications. On Monday, a US Supreme Court ruling sided with bondholders demanding Argentina pay them $1.3bn (£766m). The IMF said it was concerned about "broader systemic implications". Meanwhile the ratings agency S&P cut Argentina's credit rating, warning the ruling made it more likely that the country would default. "The Argentine government has limited capacity to pay the plaintiff creditors while servicing its current debt", S&P said. S&P reduced the credit rating by two notches from "CCC+" to "CCC-". The move makes it more expensive for Argentina to borrow money. The stock market was also lower on Tuesday, after closing 10% down on Monday. This was despite President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner saying her country would not bow to "extortion", in a reference to the court's ruling. She urged her countrymen to "remain tranquil" in the days ahead." One country's fight against loan shark investor bullying.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 17, 2014 17:32:32 GMT -5
latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2014/06/17/argentine-president-refuses-to-honor-15b-debt-despite-us-supreme-court-ruling/"U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa order requires that $1.5 billion be paid "all together, without quotas, right away, now, in cash, ahead of all the rest" of bondholders, Fernandez said. "This represents a profit of 1,608 percent, in dollars!" she complained. "I believe that in all of organized crime there has never been a case of a profit of 1,608 percent in such a short time." But Fernandez also said repeatedly that her government is ready to negotiate with the "speculators" who scooped up Argentine junk bonds after the country's 2001 default. Owners of more than 92 percent of the nearly worthless debt agreed to accept new bonds worth much less than their original face value, but investors led by New York billionaire Paul Singer held out and litigated instead, seeking to force Argentina to pay cash in full plus interest." I think if I was Argentina's President I would be tempted to send some of my Intelligence Agency types to visit Paul Singer and "make him an offer he can't refuse". Or maybe I've been watching Game of Thrones too long.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 19, 2014 11:17:37 GMT -5
dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/in-new-twist-argentina-offers-to-negotiate-with-hedge-funds/?ref=business"Updated, 8:46 p.m. | A fierce legal battle between Argentina and New York hedge funds took a new twist on Wednesday when the country offered to negotiate with the funds just hours after announcing measures that would help it avoid a settlement. The dispute returned on Wednesday to the Federal District Court in Manhattan where the hedge funds, including a unit of Elliott Management, had previously gained important victories. Appearing before Judge Thomas P. Griesa, Argentina’s lawyer, Carmine Boccuzzi of Cleary Gottlieb, said that officials from Argentina’s government would be traveling to New York next week to negotiate with the hedge funds, which are suing to be paid in full on $1.3 billion of bonds." I guess I shouldn't care about this beyond the rather amusing spectacle of US judges requiring the sovereign nation of Argentina to pay back it's hedge fund loan sharks. How do they enforce that exactly? Break Argentina's knees? I don't know. But the Argentine people will get what they deserve for electing a pussy as President who will not do what is necessary to protect her nation.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 22, 2014 14:32:44 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/argentina-debt-courtdecisiondefaultfinance.html"While the prospect of a second default is likely to be a blow to Argentina’s economy, the real loser in this story is likely to be the United States. At least this was the argument of the Justice Department, the State Department and the Treasury Department in a friend of the court brief on this case. The brief argued that the lower court’s decision would make it impossible for countries ever to arrange debt restructuring for bonds issued under U.S. jurisdiction. This would likely lead foreign governments to turn to alternative venues to issue debt, shutting New York banks out of a lucrative market. The Obama administration did not file a brief on the case for the Supreme Court, perhaps because of successful lobbying by the vulture funds." The appellate court brief was accurate. The lower court’s requirement that Argentina pay off the vulture funds at the face value of the bonds is likely to undermine faith in the integrity of the U.S. judicial and financial system. In addition to the other 90 percent of creditors, the rest of the world, including the IMF, was prepared to accept the terms that Argentina negotiated and move on. Only the United States was standing behind the obviously impractical position that none of the debt could be written down." Ha-ha! Looks like the USA will pay the price for the courts and Obama toadying to vulture Capitalists.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 26, 2014 17:14:18 GMT -5
www.cbc.ca/news/world/argentina-facing-default-on-1-5b-debt-1.2718825"Argentina's negotiations with creditors to resolve a dispute over $1.5 billion in unpaid debts remained deadlocked following talks Friday, setting it on a course for a possible catastrophic default next week. Argentina will default for the second time in 13 years if it cannot reach a deal with the U.S. hedge funds before July 30. Daniel Pollack, the court-appointed mediator in the dispute, met with Argentine officials and in a statement released after the talks said that progress had not been reached. Pollack also said the Argentinians were returning to Buenos Aires Friday night, but he expects more talks before the deadline." Now this is what I consider real news, not more ethnic bloodshed in the Middle East, Problems in Russia's neighborhood, or the idea that a bunch of kids from Central America is a threat to America's survival.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 30, 2014 16:01:55 GMT -5
online.wsj.com/articles/argentine-debt-crunch-puts-u-s-judge-in-focus-1406660549?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_markets"Cartoons in Argentine newspapers have shown the judge with a vulture perched behind him, accusing him of cozying up to the bondholders that Argentine government officials call "vulture funds." A journalist appearing on Argentine television said Judge Griesa is "not right in the head." A newspaper ad placed by the Argentine government blamed the judge, who has presided over the government's disputes with bondholders for more than a decade, for pushing the country toward default. Judge Griesa is squarely in the spotlight as Argentina faces a Wednesday deadline for more than $500 million in debt payments. It is uncertain whether Argentina will be able to make the payments, bringing to a head a standoff with holdout hedge funds that have refused the country's two debt-restructuring offers over the past decade." SO the judge in this case is an 83-year-old fossil appointed by President Nixon, and is now a tool of Paul Singer. And who is going to pay the price? The people of Argentina.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 31, 2014 0:34:56 GMT -5
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/30/argentina-economy-defaulting-debt-hedge-fund"Here’s Argentina’s conflict. It’s not complicated. The country borrowed a ton of money, $132bn. Then it had a financial crisis in 2001 and decided it couldn’t pay the interest. Argentina asked bondholders to help it out by trading in their bonds for cheaper ones, which would pay only 30 cents on the dollar. It’s better than zero, so the holders traded in 93% of the old bonds. A group of hedge-fund holdouts, led by Wall Street billionaire Paul Singer, wanted no part of this. They still wanted Argentina to pay the original interest, so they went to a US court. After 13 years, a US judge ruled last month that Argentina lost and has to pay up by Wednesday. Still, Argentina still refuses to pay."
What this apologist for Vulture Capitalism conveniently left out was that Paul Singer bought Argentina's debt at pennies for the dollar, and now wants full face value. He stands to make a sh*tload of money for doing nothing, which is what Capitalism is all about, and is why 95% of the world's wealth created since 2008 has gone to the 1%. Alas, usury is no longer a sin.
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