International Forecaster Weekly

A Higher Cost of Living and A Weaker Economy The Reality

Euro zone implosion, more bailouts, and more money for more bailouts, doubts for Euro zone, likely economic austerity to come, Goldman Sachs sold the swaps to the Euro nations now seeking bailouts, weak housing market in US.

Bob Chapman | May 18, 2011

The problems in the euro zone continue to multiply. Greece, Portugal and Ireland are dominating the news at least in Europe, as America is mostly shut out by the controlled media. The events in the euro zone are every bit as important as those regarding US problems.

Portugal now has its first bailout package. How long that will help we do not know, but perhaps a year. The year old Greek bailout just can’t reach so more money is needed. The bankers are refusing to loan more funds unless Greece is willing to collateralize further debt by pledging their national assets, such as all national treasures, all seaports and airfields, all the islands and mineral rights, the national airline and all utilities, water, electric, gas, trains and buses. Thus, the bankers, bureaucrats and politicians had secret meetings to which only a select few were invited. Senningen Castle in Luxembourg hosted the first secret enclave attended by creditors. Germany, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria and Luxembourg. The attendees were more interested in whether they’ll get their money back than contemplating lending more.

The IMF and EU members and euro zone participants were arguing along with bankers how they were going to split up Greece’s assets, as Greece’s economy was about to blow sky high. The one interest rate fits all turned lower tier euro zone members into gamblers. The banks, of course, were the biggest shooters applying monstrous leverage. As we said, at Maastricht, and again at the euro zone formation, the euro zone and the EU were unnatural associations. The euro zone should have never begun and as six members skate on thin ice it should be abandoned. This was nothing less than an attempt to create a one-world currency, which has failed. Greece has received $156 billion over this last year. Greeks have lived a Draconian lifestyle of austerity that has produced little success. As a result Greece has had daily demonstrations to protest their deep economic crisis. The demand for collateral by lenders is ludicrous. It only pushes Greece further toward default. Bankers always consumed with greed could care less about that. Even with an additional bailout package Greece simply cannot make it. Greece is in an impossible position, especially next year when they have to raise an additional $60 billion in the bond market. The requirements are even bigger the following year. They are already paying more than 25% to raise 2-year money. Even if Greece gets another bailout this year, what do they do next year, default? Greece needs the best possible deal just to stay alive. It should not be surprising that lenders don’t know what to do and the Greeks are in despair. Sooner or later in order to prevent the complete collapse of Europe, the bureaucrats and one-worlders will have to break up the failed euro zone and return to sovereign currencies.

Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium and Spain should leave the euro. In Greece if they cut any further in this time frame you can count on revolution. As we have said for 1-1/2 year’s default is inevitable. They’ll call it restructuring, but either way it is failure. Greece and all the other troubled countries have to stop bailing out the bankers. These criminals lent money when they knew full well it should have never been lent, and the funds lent were created out of thin air. Over in Portugal, where a bailout deal was just cut, they have implemented austerity to bail out the banks. In order to fulfill their obligations to the banks, Portugal is considering taxing pensions above $2,100 a month. France and the US are thinking about similar plans. In Portugal unemployment payments will not be paid for longer than 18 months versus three years previously. This as the government gives the banks $17 billion. What is happening in Portugal is but a reflection of what has happened in Greece and Ireland. Next come the states in the US, such as California.

What the euro zone has become and we pointed this out 12 years ago, is a debtor’s prison to the weaker countries at the expense of the stronger ones. Social welfare for the weaker countries.

Illegal immigration and organized crime has caused Denmark to reintroduce custom’s inspections on its borders with Germany and Sweden. What is being seen, not only in Denmark, but also throughout the European Union, is a demand to end the failed experiment of unbridled immigration, both legal and illegal. Generally, governments have failed to act on the wishes of the people and right-wing parties are gaining in strength as a result. We mention this because it is a strong social issue and could well lead to social discontent on a major basis to go along with economic austerity.

In Denmark random checks have begun, but irrespective of the rules of the Schengen Agreement we see full customs inspections in the near future. Another step toward a breakup of the EU. The EU only acts when it is forced to. In this case they acted after Denmark had already gone ahead with controls.

All of these events are leading to a weaker EU and they could lead to an EU breakup, which would be a major setback to those trying to implement a new world order.

Diplomacy between Athens and Brussels has been at a fever pitch for the past two weeks as the EU, IMF and Greece search for solutions to Greece’s financial dilemma. Mr. Antonis Samaras, the political apposition to Mr. Papandreou, has been harvesting support for opposition to a debt collateralization plan, which PM Papandreou agreed to before he was elected.

As we pointed out Mr. Samaras, laid out his plan for Greece, so that the Greek population could see through the banker’s plans and the complicity of Mr. Papandreou’s in those plans to end up with most of which belongs to the Greek people. In a recent speech Mr. Samaras laid out a plan on how to restore Greece in three years. He has also arisen as the only hope of stopping the bankers from raping the country. He held secret talks with the banks in Brussels and in no uncertain terms let them know he wouldn’t allow them to do what they wanted to do and refused to become a co-conspirator against his own people. If any assets had to be sold, they’d be sold for actual value. He recommended lower taxes to promote business and an increase in minimum pensions, at the same time capping high pensions. What is absolutely terrifying to the opposition and to members of Congress is his position to go back to 1974 and assess blame up to the present as to how the current situation came about and to prosecute those who contributed to this state of affairs. In 1974 a military hunta ruled the country. They were convinced of a Communist threat by David Rockefeller and began this long line of loans that will address shortly.

Major mainline media has made a big issue of three days of attacks by both Greeks and dark-skinned foreigners most of whom are illegal aliens. Greece is the main gateway to the EU for tens of thousands of illegal migrants from Africa and Asia that have transformed the capital’s ethnic makeup by moving into central neighborhoods, just as they have in every major city in Europe.

These events have caused tension and backlash in a nation beset by terrible financial problems. What the mainline media forgot to report was that the attacks were the result of the murder of a Greek man who was taking his pregnant wife to the hospital by illegal aliens. Due to these conditions Greeks dare not venture onto the streets after sundown.

Mr. Samaras has pointed out that Portugal has not been directed to collateralize their loans and has asked the EU, banks, and the IMF why there are two sets of rules. One for Portugal and a different set for Greece. He wants the government and the EU to get out of small proprietor businesses, which are the backbone of Greece. Such actions have demoralized the country and brought Greece to the edge of anarchy and revolution. In this process the middle class, caught in the middle, is being destroyed as well.

Getting back to how these states of affairs come about we have to investigate. Eurostat says Greece hid its debt over the past decade by entering into 13 currency swaps contracts with Goldman Sachs that we reported on over a year ago. These transactions were based on a group of currencies versus the euro as well as a swap versus the US dollar and Swiss franc. The National Bank of Greece off the books put some of these swaps in motion.

All the swaps were securitized and sold by Goldman Sachs. Due to these illegal dealings and their depth it is not possible to realize the depth to which Greece’s financial problems go too. There has to be a through investigation to determine that and who was responsible. Bloomberg has sued the ECB and asked the EU to stop the ECB from blocking the disclosure of documents that would clarify what actually took place. As you can see the EU is into this scam up to their eyeballs, just as the Fed was in lending to foreign banks. These documents will prove how sovereign debt was hidden. Incidentally, Italy did the same thing in order to qualify for the euro zone ten years ago.

Not only did the politicians and the Greek National Bank commit fraud, but also so did the ECB. Isn’t this what the world of derivatives is all about? Disclosure by the ECB would show all of the nefarious activities they have been involved in to keep nations and banks from collapsing. In response the ECB has implied that if they have to expose these fraudulent deals the whole European financial system would collapse. This is why the documents will never be produced and why the fraudsters will never be brought to justice. As you can see these kinds of problems are rife worldwide in the financial communities and with central banks. The corruption runs so deep that in order to expunge it the whole world financial system would have to be taken down and replaced by sovereign central banks, whose currencies would have to be backed by gold. We have four major problems, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, which point up the deliberate illegal activities of a number of banks and central banks. These bankers knew exactly what they were doing in having purchased politicians to do their bidding. Now the problems are manifest and can no longer be hidden. Sooner or later we will know what happened, unfortunately not now. The amounts of money made by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase has been colossal.

We have believed from the beginning some 12 years ago that the only way to expose what these criminals have been up to is to have one of them go into default and into bankruptcy. That would expose the ongoing chicanery. In addition, if four or six nations withdraw from the euro it would probably cause it to be disbanded. That also would allow us to find out just what the ECB was up to or had been up too. Such exposure would have the citizens of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland up in arms and ready to prosecute. Now you know why the bankers need another world war to cover up what they have done and blame the problems on the war. Read history – it is all there. They do the same things over and over again.

This is why Greece going into default is so important. If default happens it will expose exactly what has gone on in Greece and other countries, because it all ties into a vast criminal financial network. Any system that is forced to function in grey areas has something to hide. There are things that they shouldn’t be doing. Maybe the Greeks do not realize it, but they are an extremely important catalyst in exposing this ongoing fraud. If Ireland, Portugal and Spain follow, we’ll finally be able to take down this elitist criminal edifice. Sometimes building for the future involves destruction of the past, and this is one of those instances. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are involved in many things that the financial community and the public know nothing about. Those activities have to be exposed if we are to fix and change the financial system. The only way change can be accomplished in Europe is by a breakup of the euro and an end to the European Union. In the US legislation and the disbanding of the Fed can only accomplish it.

As we come to a close on this issue we find hooded attackers have burned down a police station in the middle of Athens. The bankers are certainly behind this action considering that their aggressive demands for collateralization are getting nowhere, especially with our Anthonis Samaras. The CIA and MI6 have agents in Greece. We see it as another false flag operation and we cannot help but think that George Soros was part it. Violence will not force Greece into anarchy. All such incidences can do is harden Greeks’ resolve.

It seems a crimp has been encountered in the Greek government, IMF, EU bailout talks. The head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn, known in France, his home country, as a womanizer has been charged in NYC with sexual assault. At his hearing the judge denied an offer of $1 million bail, as the judge believed that Strauss-Kahn was a flight risk. He was just arrested in first-class on a flight headed to Paris.

Our belief in cases such as this, when an Illuminati member is arrested, a deal to drop the charges or plead to solicitation would be accepted. The maid would be paid millions and disappear.

In the Greek negotiations Mr. Strauss-Kahn is being replaced by fellow Illuminist John Lipsky who is a former US Treasury executive and banker from JPMorgan Chase.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn was staying in a $3,000 a night suite, which he paid for.

This means socialist Mr. Kahn won’t be running for the French presidency. It throws the race wide open. He had been at the top of the French polls, as the man to succeed Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn spent money extravagantly. His wife, Annie Sinclair, drives a $150,000 Porsche Panamera, which Strauss-Kahn denied. He has a $4 million home in Washington, two luxury apartments in Paris and a vacation home in Marrakech in Morocco, a city long known for anything goes.

This is a good picture of what the elitists are all about.

The housing market continues to stagger under massive inventory, which could rise substantially this year. In NY-NJ you can live in your house for three years without making a payment.

Last week the Dow lost 0.3%; S&P 0.2%, the Russell 2000 rose 1.7% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2%. Consumers rose 1.7%; utilities 1.8%, as banks and broker/dealers fell 2.4%. Transports fell 1.6%; high tech fell 0.1%; semis fell 0.6%, Internets rose 0.2% and biotechs rose 1.8%.

The 10-year T-note rose 2 bps to 3.17%, the 2-year bill fell 2 bps to 0.53% and the 10-year German bund fell 9 bps to 3.08%.

The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 4.63%, the 15’s fell 7 bps to 3.82%, the one-year ARMs fell 3 to 3.11% and the 30-year jumbos fell 9 bps to 5.16%.

Federal reserve credit surged $26.1 billion to another record at $2.713 trillion. That is up 17.4% year-on-year. Fed foreign holdings of Treasuries and Agency debt rose $8.5 billion to another record $3.461 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks have risen $110 billion year-to-date and $397 billion or 13.0% yoy.

M2, narrow money supply jumped $28 billion to a record $8.993 trillion. Money fund assets jumped $28 billion. Commercial paper rose $29.0 billion to a 26-week high of $1.159 trillion.

The cost of living in the U.S. rose in April, led by increases in food and fuel that are starting to filter through to other goods and services.

The consumer-price index increased 0.4 percent, matching the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and following a 0.5 percent advance in March, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Excluding food and energy, the so-called core gauge rose 0.2 percent.

Housings starts in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in April as flooding and tornadoes in the South shut down construction sites and homebuilders continued to struggle almost two years into an economic recovery.

Work began on 523,000 houses at an annual pace, down 11 percent from the prior month and less than the 569,000 median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Building permits, a sign of future construction, also decreased.

Falling home values and the prospect of more foreclosures entering the market mean home construction will be slow to gain traction. Unemployment at 9 percent and stagnant wages indicate any recovery in housing may take years to unfold.

“Job growth is essential to household formation and to keep home prices from falling further,” said Eric Green, chief market economist at TD Securities Inc. in New York, who forecast permits at 550,000. “I don’t see home sales doing much of anything” for the foreseeable future.

Another report today showed industrial production unexpectedly stalled in April, reflecting a temporary drop in auto making after supplies of parts were disrupted by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Output was unchanged after a 0.7 percent gain in March, figures from the Federal Reserve showed. Manufacturing fell 0.4 percent, the report showed.

 

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and IntercontinentalExchange Inc. dropped their bid for NYSE Euronext after discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice made “clear” they wouldn’t secure regulatory approval.

Deutsche Boerse AG of Frankfurt agreed to buy NYSE Euronext on Feb. 15 to create the world’s largest exchange operator. The NYSE board twice rejected the Nasdaq OMX-ICE proposal and said they declined to meet with the CEOs because the unsolicited deal would lead to too much debt and regulatory opposition.

“We took the decision to withdraw our offer when it became clear that we would not be successful in securing regulatory approval for our proposal despite offering a variety of substantial remedies,” Bob Greifeld, chief executive officer of Nasdaq said in the statement today. “We saw a unique opportunity to create more value for stockholders and strengthen the U.S. as a center for capital formation amid an ongoing shift of these vital activities and jobs outside of our country.”

Nasdaq OMX again finds itself without a partner in the global wave of mergers that has swept the exchange industry. The second-biggest U.S. exchange operator was counting on its plan to merge its stock-trading and listings operations with NYSE Euronext as a way to eliminate costs in businesses where competition has reduced its profits and market share.

The Nasdaq OMX-ICE proposal would have broken up NYSE Euronext, with Nasdaq OMX taking the stock and options trading and the listings businesses. ICE would have kept the Liffe futures markets.