THE BENEFITS ??? - EU should leave us alone !!!!

Greece has endured deep budget cuts tied to its massive bailout from the so-called troika - the EU, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB).
The possibility of a Syriza victory in Sunday's vote has sparked fears that Greece could default on its debt and exit from the euro.
THE BENEFITS OF E.U. AND THE EURO

Average wage is €600 (£450: $690) a month

Unemployment is at 25%, with youth unemployment almost 50%

Economy has shrunk by 25% since the start of the eurozone crisis

Country's debt is 175% of GDP

Borrowed €240bn (£188bn) from the EU, the ECB and the IMF

 

After more than four years of harsh restrictions imposed by the so-called "troika" of the EU, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, elections here come just as Greece actually begins to see small signs of recovery. But it is macroeconomic growth that has yet to reach the pockets of ordinary Greeks, who have seen their companies shuttered and their pensions slashed... if Europe is forced to respond to new demands from Greece, it will test cohesion already strained by tensions over NATO and Britain's flirtation with an exit from the EU, says Ian Kearns, director of the policy group European Leadership Network in London. “In that reaction we will see the definition of the European project,” Mr. Kearns says. “It will be the movement of Europe into a new era, one that will lock in austerity or [take] a new path.”   It could also challenge a Greece that has in some ways felt on the mend.  Antonis Birbilis, a volunteer at the electoral stand for New Democracy in Syntagma Square, which was the site of near daily violent protests against austerity, says he fears the election could bring Greece back to darker days.

 

9 trillion dollars goes "missing" - how much of it is in The Budesbank???

There is one major flaw in the money system that I have never heard a single person mention, don't know why, maybe only I can see it, maybe it is the tin foil hat I wear that gave me it, but I am watching the most powerful man in the world clueless on how this happened, well the way I see it is that other countries like china created wealth, but did they really create it or did they borrow it.  If china created its wealth then that would have meant that it built its infrastructure and businesses internally, then it would have added wealth to the worlds circuit of money and been stable.  But if its infrastructure and businesses were borrowed from somewhere else then that is a transfer of wealth from one area to another and if the market of each depend on each other then its life is limited to the point when so much has been transferred so that it reverses in direction so starts an harmonic cycle decreasing in height until both end up even or at war, so very unstable.  This also means that's china's development was not natural as was the development in the west, now if china was many years ago about to start natural development and the west wanted to stop it or control it then this would have been a good plan. but that would have meant a Kissinger type person was about when the US and china first talked.  Anyway as china's development is not natural then it will collapse when who ever borrowed them the stuff wants it back.  And that's why I think it is all a Hollywood script, all written years ago by the likes of Kissinger. they are playing global power games using us poor mugs as pawns.   My simple high school / secondary school dropout understadning is that the United States government ( specifically the Obama adminstration) is operating one of the biggest PONZI schemes in history. OK, I have no law training or degree and I ain't no bean counter. However, this particular administration blackmails the house ( read Republicans) to constantly increase the debt limit. My understanding is that the main buyers of US Treasuries (China and the UK) are farely well maxed out on purchasing US Treasuries and there are no new substantial buyers, so, as the US $ is the main reserve currency it somehow has the right to print more money without having actual physical reserves (gold) to backup all the money it has spread aropund the world. Thus when they increase the debt limit they print more money in order for the Fed (Federal Reserve) to buy (although I understand not directly) their own older treasuries and even newly printed treasuries. His Obamaship and his sycophantic Democratic poodles are intent on going ahead with the Demoncare (the Demoncrats own it as no Republicans voted for it and the majority of the US public do not want it) despite the fact that it is going to need 1.8 trillion dollars to set it in motion. They cannot raise taxes to pay for that so they will increase the debt limit next year, print some more money. Prince Harry over at the Senate meanwhile want to increase next years budget by 1 trillion 5 billion (strange figure). Today the Whitewash House announced that it was going to bail out the forever profligate Democratically controlled bankrupt city of Detroit. Another 17 billion dollars. Has the US taxpayer agreed to that and do they have the money to even do it? Perhaps, they will print more money and also shaft the Detroit debtholders just as they did with Chrysler and GM and favoured banks and financial institutions.    I wonder what the true value of the US $ is today compared to when the investors in US Treasuries bought them. To me it's like when I bought my house for 220,000. I sold it 17 years later for 405,000 and everyone said what a great profit I made on my "real eastate investment". Except, that when I tallied up that I had paid about 370,000 in interest to the kind and gentle banks and the value of the CDN $ had declined I do not think I made anything.  If the house (which i understand is supposed to control the purse strings - although the Emperor Obama (O.K. he has some nice clothes except for nasty golfing shorts and grandpa jeans says he will not negotiate on Demoncare, the debt ceiling, the public debt, any move to cut spending, any move to reduce taxes any attempt to prevent tax increases) allows the Administration to increase the debt ceiling and stop the profligate spending the the rating agencies need to downgrade the US credit rating  (that will help exports from the US anyway and increase the cost of imports (which may provoke the use of every available US sourced  enernergy resource instead of the trillions that it costs to import from countries that hate the US anyway). The mandarins should also stop giving further credit to the US (cut up it's credit card and force it to use a current account debit card). And while they are at it maybe they should devalue the greenback.  The US currency has the motto "In God We Trust". I have news for the big spenders, that was not put on the currency to indicate that they trusted God to be the lender of last resort when they had spent their money on idols. Plus, if there is a deity I doubt that he has much trust left in the three equal but separate parts of the US government or any level of US government. OK, you can now tell me I do not know what I am talking about and how everything I said is wrong (no abusive language please, it just reflects on you, not me). However, when you are telling me how wrong I am then tell me how wonderfully brilliant and correct the US governance is.
 

....So 9 trillion dollars goes "missing" and I'm sitting here poor, eating GMO foods because I can't afford anything better... my cat has problems breathing and I don't know if I'll have the money to take her into the veterinarian but hey! at least they all the money they could ever need, they probably wipe their ass with money they are so rich.

Merkel does put German interest above European interest. But that's not the whole story. She also puts German corporate interest above German public interest. And most of all, her own interest above anything else.

I understand people in Germany being upset about everyone in Europe wanting their tax money. But that's only half the truth. The other half is, Germany profits from investors taking back their money from other European countries, and now investing it in the much safer and quite profitable Germany. Our interest rates in Germany have reached an all-time low in the crisis, so German economy profits from this crisis. And we still live from exports, and so from the EU. German economic interest is: try to keep up the status quo as long as possible, and that is what Merkel does.

Problem is, in my opinion, that will be disastrous for Europe. Polemics aside, the south europeans have a point. There's need for reforms, there's need for savings, but there also needs to be a perspective. You can't just close schools, hospitals, stop investments in infrastructure and deny people their healthcare for nothing in return but a lack of perspective. Just fire everyone from public service and don't offer any alternative for them. You can't just sacrifice the future of countries and societies for nothing but the need to save money.

It almost seems like Britain was right in its Euro-scepticicm. And everyone who was afraid of a too strong Germany after its reunion. That doesn't mean we should split up. In present and future, we simply have no choice but to work together in Europe. We're all in the same boat. If Britain wasn't in the European boat, few would care about it anymore. UKIP is wrong, British interest has to be in a strong Europe, not in a lone Britain.

Our unpopular former chancellor Gerhard Schröder made the reforms that led to present German economic strength. He risked his chancellorship, against his own party, to put through inevitable reforms. He turned the inert giant into an economic powerhouse. Merkel hardly does anything, the economic success she rests on was caused by her predecessor who took great risks. Risks that Merkel would never take. She's not the risky type. Schröder made reforms that were in parts flawed, but his own party, the SPD, is willing to work with and against the flaws today. Merkel is nothing like that. Her own influence is everything, and everything else plays second role, be it Germany, be it Europe.

Chancellor Schröder would have forced similar reforms on those countries, but he would have tried to convince them. Something like "it's going to be hard, but we're in the same boat, and we need to work together to get out of the crisis with greater strength". Even if it would damage his reputation in Germany. Merkel doesn't care about that. She simply says: "it's inevitable, deal with it. German savings are secure, I don't care a lot about the rest of Europe". She only cares about her position. And her position doesn't depend on Greece, Italy, Spain, or Britain. It only depends on Germans wanting to keep their money, and German economy, which is, again, profiting from the Euro crisis.

I am convinced that will destroy Europe, and I will vote for her adversary this month, but I have very little hope in a regime change. My hope is for a large coalition in which the SPD will have a little bit of influence on her Europe policy. A Europe policy, that is, contrary to her claims, careless and heartless.I find the idea that a German chancellor is responsible for solving the European economic crisis quite ridiculous. It is not in her powers to do so as she is no monarch but the democratically elected head of the German government. To all those moaning about her putting Germany's interest first - well that's actually her job description. That means, that she will, quite free of any ideological leaning decide hand in hand with the German industry what should be pursued for Eurozone. Be the next chancellor Steinbrueck or Merkel, nothing will change that.

Europe’s largest gold mine project following protests against technology that made the country home to one of the continent’s worst environmental disasters.

Romania’s President proposed a vote on allowing development of Europe’s largest gold mine project following protests against technology that made the country home to one of the continent’s worst environmental disasters.

A day after thousands of demonstrators rallied against the use of cyanide in gold mining, President Traian Basescu said he may call a referendum next year on the Rosia Montana mine. That may delay the project, for which Canada-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. (GBU) said it could “hopefully” receive approval by November.

The rallies followed the government’s unveiling last week of a draft law to raise the state’s stake in the project, rekindling anger over the 2000 Baia Mare spill. Listed by the United Nations Environment Programme alongside Chernobyl as one of Europe’s major human-caused disasters, the spill happened when a dam holding back mine debris burst, flooding the Somes, Tiza and Danube rivers with tens of thousands of tons of cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water.

“The biggest scare about the Rosia Montana mine is the cyanide process, which should have been discussed with experts,” Basescu said on newspaper Adevarul’s website. He said “society is rightfully reacting to this” because Romania had suffered from the Baia Mare spill.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta showed similar support, saying in a televised speech today from Bucharest that a referendum was “a good idea,” after the government had finished the “technical negotiations” on the project. The project is subject to a final decision by parliament, Ponta said.

Gold Reserves

Last month, Gabriel Resources said if parliament adopted the bill -- which increases the state’s stake in the mine to 25 percent and raises its royalties by half to 6 percent -- in a session that begins today, it would be able to accelerate its development of Rosia Montana and other mining projects.

Gabriel expects to get parliamentary approval as soon as November, Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Henry said today in a telephone interview with Bloomberg.

“Hopefully it could be a two- to three-month process,” Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Henry said today in a telephone interview. “It’s a little bit undefined.”

“We are hopeful that it will be smooth process to approval and it will be a fast process to approval. We’ve been waiting a long time and need to get on with things.”

Basescu said a referendum may take place during European Parliament elections next year. Such a vote would need a minimum turnout of 50 percent to be valid, a difficult prospect in a country where voter participation is historically low.

Opposition Rising

With proven reserves, estimated by Gabriel, of 10.1 million ounces of gold and 47.6 million ounces of silver, Rosia Montana is worth about $15 billion, or a 10th of Romania’s annual output, according to today’s spot price of the metals and World Bank data on the size of Romania’s economy.

The company, which has spent about $400 million and more than a decade trying to develop the gold mine, says it will be Europe’s biggest when it is operational.

The draft law has stoked opposition. About 2,000 people took to the streets in Bucharest yesterday and hundreds protested in big cities across the country against the project, Mediafax news service reported today.

Non-profit organization Alburnus Maior, one of the protests’ organizers, said in an e-mailed statement they had filed a request to the government today, asking for the “immediate rejection of the draft law by parliament” and “the immediate ban of the use of cyanide in mining.”

The mine may produce an average of 375,000 ounces of gold a year and cost $1.5 billion, Stephen Walker, a Toronto-based analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, said on Aug. 28.

The wounded, bleeding elephant in the room in Brussels today is the awful damage that has already been done to Europe's economy.

Local firms in Cyprus saw business dried up as the country's banks remained closed, and customers learned the full scale of the crisis.

The looming capital controls (restrictions on cash withdrawals, bank transfers, etc) will hurt trade, possibly for months. And the destruction of parts of the Cypriot banking sector will take a great, big chunk out of the country's economy.

A well-respected fund manager based in London who blogs/tweets as Pawelmorski says the scale of the economic destruction achieved in the last week is unheard of 'without the use of weapons'.

He wrote yesterday....The combination of laying waste to the financial sector and tearing up the savings of thousands of residents means that Cyprus won’t return to current levels of output for a decade, a funeral pyre which bears comparison only with Greece.   There are four shocks happening at once; the bog-standard austerity shock; the trauma of bank withdrawal controls; the wealth shock; and the structural shock of wiping out the financial sector. The bailout bill is certainly going to get a lot higher too, as a larger amount of debt is piled onto a smaller economy.
The central bank in Cyprus imposed a €100 a day withdrawal limit at cash machines for all local banks on Sunday to avert a run on lenders, as the island's leaders meet its international lenders for last-ditch talks to avert a financial meltdown.

Staple foods became 20 to 40% more expensive between July 2010 and February 2011, shows the Z.F. index calculated based on prices in Bucharest hypermarkets. ZF selected 15 products whose price it has been following since 2008, once every six months, at the same Bucharest hypermarkets, Carrefour Orhideea and Real Afi Cotroceni. These products were chosen because they are most often to be found in Romanians' purchase basket. (Z.F.)

In the calculation of this index, ZF chose one brand from each category of products, a brand that is well positioned in terms of market share, produced by one of the top-five players in the category. Therefore, one kilo of Băneasa flour costs 2.8 lei in February, 41.4% more than in July 2010. 1 Kilo of Lemarco sugar now costs 4.295 lei, compared with 3.28 lei, an increase of 30.9%. Similarly, the price of Floriol vegetable oil (1 litre) rose over 35%, from 5.11 lei to 6.91 lei. Data from the National Statistics Institute (INS) point to a 10.2% price increase for flour in the July 2010 - January 2011 period. Similarly, the increase amounted to 8.1% for sugar. The only products whose prices fell, of those analysed by ZF, were beer, mineral water, apples, with the decline amounting to 6.1%, 0.1% and 12.4% respectively.

Romanian tax authority ANAF will refund in January value added tax to companies worth 1.36 billion lei (EUR1=RON4.2621), the highest sum returned so far in a single month, the authority said Wednesday.

Romania To Pay VAT Refunds Worth RON1.36B In January

Of the total refunds, ANAF has already paid Monday RON557 million, and will pay the rest of the sum by the end of the month. Some RON1.21 billion of the total refunds represents compensations.

Real estate developers scheduled for delivery in 2011 at least eight retail projects in Romania totaling a surface of over 230,000 square meters, 17% more than the total area of projects completed in 2009, according to property analysts.

In 2009, developers completed retail projects totaling 195,000 sqm, according to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) data.

Oradea Shopping City, Uvertura City Mall Botosani, Vitan Outlet Bucharest, Policolor Shopping Center Bucharest and Electroputere Shopping City Craiova are other projects scheduled for completion in 2011. Read more on http://www.mediafax.biz/. (Z.F.)euro, criza datoriilor de stat, euroscepticismul, monede nationale, renuntarea la euro, salvare euro, zona euro

Germany sees no alternative to the Euro

(Reuters) - Germany sees no alternative to the euro and Angela Merkel's government believes the best way to strengthen the currency which has helped make the German economy so competitive is closer policy convergence across Europe.
But with German public support in the balance for rescuing euro partners Greece, Ireland and possibly others, it is a tough message for the domestic audience. This explains the apparently mixed messages emerging from Berlin. Germany voices strong objections to some of the proposed solutions to the euro crisis, such as joint euro zone bonds, and Merkel's insistence on a crisis mechanism from 2013 involving private investors has upset markets.
"But in the end Germany has a vital interest in the survival of the currency union," Dekabank economist Andreas Scheuerle said. While mass-selling daily Bild runs headlines like "How Long Will the Euro Hold Out?" and some pundits suggest a north-south euro divide, the crisis seems to have hardened the German establishment's view that there is no alternative to the single currency. The government, including the sometimes fractious members of Merkel's centre-right coalition, plus the business world and the serious media are at pains to nix any talk of Germany losing its enthusiasm for the euro or returning to the deutschemark. Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, from the Free Democrats, Merkel's often uneasy coalition partners, said on Thursday reinstating national currencies in the euro area was "not realistic". Merkel repeats that Europe's fate is inextricably tied to the currency shared by 16 countries and her comments on private investors needing to share in sovereign risk from 2013 reflect a belief that the euro will still be around. Currently enjoying a much stronger economic recovery than its partners, Germany may return to pre-crisis growth levels as early as next year, largely thanks to exports. So grumbles about the euro are slapped down with the argument that a revived deutschemark would quickly render German exports too expensive."The mark would be so overvalued against other currencies that our exports would be in trouble," said Andre Schwarz of the exporters' association BGA. "The solution is not to let the euro break up."Agerpres, Mediafax, Romanian Vancouver Sun,Global News, Financial Times,Le Monde,Tribune, ,Wall Street Journal,The Washington Times,Athens News,The New York Times,USA Today

The Irish government stood on the brink of collapse Monday

DUBLIN (Nov. 22) -- The Irish government stood on the brink of collapse Monday, a day after being forced to accept a massive bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said he would call an election for early next year, once Ireland passes an emergency budget and finalizes the bailout.The admission represented a huge political blow to Cowen, who only days ago was denying even the need for a bailout to solve the problems brought on by Irish banks' reckless speculation in overpriced real estate.
Ireland's six banks, five of which are already nationalized or part-owned by the state, would be pruned, merged and possibly sold off."Because of the huge risks they (Irish banks) took earlier this decade, they became a huge risk not only to this state but to the eurozone as a whole," he said.Irish banks invested aggressively in runaway property markets at home and abroad. After the 2008 credit crunch sent property prices into freefall, the government tried to save the banks from bankruptcy by insuring all of their borrowings against default. That unprecedented promise - made to retain investor confidence in the country - cannot be kept without a bailout, the government has finally been forced to concede.Unions warned that overhauling the banks would mean thousands more lost jobs in Ireland, where unemployment has already reached 13.6 percent, the second-highest rate in Europe after Spain.Banca Mondiala,FMI, Guvern,agenda de business, bugetul de stat, economie, revistapresei,romania,antena3.ro,realitatea.net,mediafax,bucuresti,camera de comert

"ID card-based" lending?

Bankers, who during the economic boom period lured clients with consumer loans granted upon proof of ID, have over the past two years been trying to offset the declining demand for large loans through aggressive promotional offers for credit cards, which have become the main growth driver of the retail segment overnight.
Amid the falling sales of traditional loans, could credit cards become the new form of ID card-based loans, given that as small sums are involved clients get such a product more easily?

Economists do not like such an outlook, rather viewing this as a bet on the future that could prove risky.Last year, many banks reported two-digit increases in the number of issued cards and the value of sums approved on such cards, as consumer loan portfolios shrank and housing loans were supported only by the "First Home" scheme.In 2010, card portfolios rose at a slower pace amid the prolonged recession, but promotions offers are still driving sales, even though at a slower pace. Banca Mondiala,FMI, Guvern,agenda de business, bugetul de stat, economie, revista presei,romania,antena3.ro,realitatea.net,mediafax,bucuresti,camera de comert

Statistics

On the Bucharest Stock Exchange there are over 91,700 investors, 2800 fewer than at the beginning of the year, the bulk of whom have shares worth less than 15,000 euros in their portfolios, the cap for full compensation in case of losses generated by the bankruptcy of a brokerage firm.The overall value of portfolios held by Stock Exchange investors has fallen by 94 million RON (22 million euros) in the first nine months of the year to 11.4 billion RON (2.68 billion euros), while the number of investment accounts fell by 2,790 in the first nine months, to 91,721, according to statistics supplied by the Investors Compensation Fund - the institution in charge of compensating investors in case of a broker's bankruptcy.