Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Lies and deceit ....

Besides the 26 trillion Dollars pumped by The FED in Budesbank, The ECB pumped more than €1 trillion (£840bn) of liquidity into the banks through two long-term refinancing operations (LTROs) to stabilize financial markets, in December 2011 and February 2012,  The move has come to be seen as the first step towards bringing Europe’s crisis under control and was reinforced by Mr Draghi’s promise in July last year to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. Yesterday(MOn, addressing the European Parliament, he said: “We are ready to use any instrument, including another LTRO if needed, to maintain short-term money market rates at a level which is warranted by our assessment of inflation in the medium-term.”  His fresh commitment is likely to allay any lingering concerns about the state of Europe’s banks, which face another stress test in the coming months. His comments came amid signs of improvement in the eurozone economy. Business activity in the region picked up to a 27-month high in September, the closely-watched purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed. Meanwhile, European markets edged lower as traders awaited news from Germany after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s election victory over the weekend. Traders urged her to strike a coalition deal swiftly to stop bail-out fears spreading among the eurozone’s troubled nations. Markets expect Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats to go into partnership with the Social Democrats, the main opposition party, but observers noted that it took two months to negotiate an agreement last time the parties worked together. Given the fragile eurozone, traders called for Ms Merkel to move fast. Peter Schaffrik, head of European rates strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said: “If finding a new government takes too long, markets might get jumpy as regards the stability of the German government, particularly with key European issues – the Portuguese, Irish and Greek programmes – coming up for a negotiation." ... They will do whatever it takes to save the € up to and including - the theft of people's money in their bank accounts as per Cyprus - after all the sheep didn't protest - they just accepted their shearing without a murmur - and so will all the other sheep in the corrupt EU.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Pier Carlo Padoan, the OECD's chief economist, said he expected growth in the 17-nation bloc to be negative this year, despite several countries showing signs of recovery." That's not bad , under half are showing signs of recovery. However, what about the rest, the other 10 countries who are not showing signs of recovery? It all depends on Angie, and in response to our old friend Shakey, she hasn't started singing yet.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this the message we've been hearing year after year, that "next year" the Euro Zone will be OK, yet "next year" never seems to arrive? Whilst Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece continue to belong to the Euro, their broken economies threaten to pull apart the Euro experiment. Rome burns whilst Nero fiddles has never been truer.

Anonymous said...

European Central Bank rate-setter Ewald Nowotny said on Tuesday that the bank had "flexible" tools at its disposal if it needs to take additional measures, including providing banks with additional central bank money.

ECB President Mario Draghi said on Monday that the ECB stood ready to deliver a fresh injection of cash into Europe's banks. Asked about the possibility of the central bank giving banks another chance for those loans, known as Long Term Refinancing Operations (LTRO), Mr Nowotny said: "It is certainly important to show all that we have in the way of instruments, which are flexible.

Anonymous said...

in an atmosphere of tension and strife.

Ongoing confusion over the US Federal Reserve's plans to slow its bond-buying stimulus programme (maybe next month? Maybe not until 2014?) are also casting a shadow over Europe, just when we'd hoped for some real clarity and progress.

As Michael Hewson of CMC Markets puts it:


If investors had been hoping that the latest Fed meeting and the result of the German elections would help bring much needed clarity to the uncertainty that has bedevilled markets for weeks now, the events of the last few days have soon dispelled that notion with the result that the current state of affairs is becoming quickly like the proverbial itch that you just can’t scratch.

This has inevitably meant that investors have become much less inclined to take on risk and has seen them start to once again err on the side of caution, pulling stocks down from recent all-time highs.

As we covered yesterday, the German coalition talks are going to be a long grind. Angela Merkel reached out to the Social Democrats yesterday, but their leadership group aren't expected to meet until Friday.

This process could take several weeks, as the SPD is sure to drive as hard a bargain as it can in return for supporting Merkel's CDU party

Anonymous said...

UNITED NATIONS—President Barack Obama argued the U.S. case before world leaders for resolving the Middle East's deepest conflicts, but pushback from Iran dimmed hopes that had been building for a rapid leap forward.

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani's decision against meeting Mr. Obama—or even exchanging a handshake—at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday soured what American and European officials had hoped would mark an advancement in efforts to wind down tensions.

Mr. Rouhani followed that rebuff with an address to the U.N. in which he aired his hopes for reconciliation while holding firm on Iran's right to enrich uranium and criticizing some aspects of American foreign policy, including economic sanctions on Tehran.

Anonymous said...




Today's public sector walkout in Greece is the second 48-hour strike in as many weeks.

It's expected to hit schools and hospitals, and is timed to coincide with the Troika's visit to Athens. As before, the unions are protesting about the government's 'mobility scheme', part of the drive to cut thousands of public sector jobs.

The private sector GSEE union has called a four hour stoppage, from 11am local time (9am BST) - so it'll be joining a protest rally in Athens.

While workers march through the streets, officials from the IMF, ECB and EU will be taking a close look at Greece's budget for 2014. Greece's Kathimerini newspaper reckons the Troika don't share the Athens government's optimism:


High-ranking Finance Ministry sources said that while the representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund agree that Greece will produce a primary surplus at the end of the year, they think it will be minimal. The troika is also skeptical about Greek projections for a primary surplus of 1.5 percent of GDP at the end of next year.

It is thought that one of the reasons Greece’s lenders are downplaying the possibility of Athens producing a sizable surplus is that they are alarmed by the debate in Greece about how this amount will be allocated and whether social spending could be increased.

With regard to the 2014 budget, the troika still has doubts about the effectiveness, in terms of revenue raising, of the unified property tax. Next year will be the first time the levy, which combines several property taxes into one, is applied.

Anonymous said...

German firms have reported that the business climate improved slightly in September, but they're not as upbeat about the situation today as economists had expected.

That's the top line from the monthly IFO survey, which was released a few minutes ago.

The IFO German Business Climate index came in at 107.7 in September - up from 107.6 in August, but lower than the 108.2 which the City had expected.

The Current Conditions index missed expectations, at 111.4 versus a consensus of 112.5. That's also a fall compared with August's reading of 112.0.

And IFO's Future Expectations index came in at 104.2, just above the 104.0 that was pencilled in.

So, a mixed picture in Europe's largest economy.

A year ago, the IFO business climate index was just 101.4 -- so today's 107.7 does show how the situation's improved now Germany has left recession. But the fact firms aren't as confident about current conditions as expected may show that growth this quarter will be a little weaker than hoped (although still quite robust)