Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Contract Killing: 'UK bombs its way to Libyan oil'

From: RussiaToday  | Nov 15, 2011

 

Kyle Bass - 'Only massive debt restructuring can save EU'

Kyle Bass is a hedge fund founder who saw the financial crisis coming and made a fortune from it - first from America's sub-prime mortgage crisis and then from betting that Greece would default.

Mr Bass told Sarah Montague that Germany cannot be expected to bail out the PIIGS countries - Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, and that only a massive write-down in those countries' debts will solve the crisis.

click on image to thru to the video

Physical gold to trump ETFs by 500% in 2011

From ArabianMoney.net:

Physical gold will outsell ETFs by 500 per cent this year, Standard Bank’s Walter de Wet told the 8th Dubai City of Gold Conference today. Two years ago the position was completely reversed with physical gold sales running at only 20 per cent of ETFs.

‘It’s a complete flip from ETFs to physical gold,’ he said. ‘And it seems to reflect people’s lack of trust in financial systems and the shift in investment flows towards Asia and the Middle East.’.....more

France under threat from euro debt crisis?

From: Euronews  | Nov 15, 2011

The EU targets rating agencies

From: Euronews  | Nov 15, 2011

Euro Bonds Burn

From The Hong Kong Standard:

Amid concern that the European debt crisis is escalating, Spanish bonds fell - pushing 10-year yields to a record relative to safe-haven German bunds.

Yields later continued the surge higher - to 6.27 percent - after a disappointing auction of Spanish bills. The key level is seen as 7 percent, where other debt-hit countries had to seek financial help from outside groups.

Italian securities also declined as premier-in-waiting Mario Monti faced political resistance in forming a Cabinet for his so-called technocrat government.

The extra yield investors demand to hold French, Belgian and Austrian debt instead of bunds widened to euro-era records after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party voted to allow euro states to quit the currency area.


"At this stage there's fear," said Achilleas Georgolopoulos, a fixed- income strategist at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets in London. "You have the same disbelief about Italian politics and that's apparent in Italian spreads widening today. Spain is following." .......read on


Greek Bailout Explained

Sent to me from one of my clients.


 How a bailout package works

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit. The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how a bailout package works.

Keiser Report: Corporations Fear OWS

By on Nov 15, 2011

This week, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the Good, The Bad and the Schwing Schwing of making companies scared by putting risk back onto their balance sheet. They also discuss clients getting smoked through massive ploys in the commodity markets.

In the second half of the show, Max Keiser interviews Mike Maloney of GoldSilver.com about the latest in the precious metals market and about a $15 trillion Dow.