Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Fall of Erin Callan, CFO, Lehman Brothers



Video - Maria Bartiromo on Erin Callan

As you listen, remember that virtually every word you hear from Callan is a lie. Lehman was a cesspool of fraud with a $600 billion hole in in their balance sheet according to the bankruptcy report. Hedge Fund manager David Einhorn begins at the 3-minute mark, and touches on the fraud, though the stories below provide a much deeper analysis of the madness inside Lehman.

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Background reading...


Egyptians have their new hero called Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a rock star welcome in Cairo where activists, women and the media gushed over the region's new "hero" over his pro-Palestinian stand and his virulent criticism of Israel.

Erdogan, who on Tuesday kicked off a three-nation Arab Spring tour in Egypt, threw his weight behind Palestinian statehood during a keynote speech at the Arab League, bolstering his image as a regional leader.

His visit comes as activists who overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February are increasingly angry at their own leadership for backtracking on promises of reform.

Addressing Arab foreign ministers, Erdogan said the recognition of a Palestinian state is an "obligation" and reiterated that strained ties with Israel will not improve unless the Jewish state apologises over the death of nine Turks killed in a raid on an aid flotilla last year.

"Before the end of this year we will see Palestine at the United Nations in a very different situation," he said. "It is time for the flag of Palestine to be hoisted at the United Nations."

His statements, echoing sentiments on the Arab street, may have unnerved Egypt's military leadership which is scrambling to smooth over ties with Israel after its embassy in Cairo was attacked.

The attack on the mission, in which crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag, was the worst since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, in 1979.

It was the latest episode in worsening relations between Egypt and Israel since the killing of five Egyptian policemen last month on their common border as Israel hunted militants after a deadly attack...

Full story:
http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=48055

Jobs? “46 Million Americans are Living Below the Poverty Line... Only Israel, Chile and Mexico Have Higher Poverty Ratios”

IT'S YOUR MONEY, FOLKS! - ”COUNTRIES THAT CARE, OR “CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME” OR, “WHERE DOES THE SIX BILLION AID -TO-ISRAEL GO?
The U.S. poverty rate hit its highest level since 1993 last year with a record 46 million Americans living below the poverty line, according to a government report on Tuesday that depicted the grim effects of stubbornly high unemployment.

I Find receipts in here for six billion dollars every year... !

Underscoring the economic challenges that face President Barack Obama and Congress, the U.S. Census Bureau said the poverty rate rose for a third consecutive year to hit 15.1 percent in 2010. The number in poverty was the largest since the government first began publishing estimates in 1959.
The United States has the highest poverty rate among developed countries, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The poverty line for an American family of four with two children is an income $22,113 a year.
The United States has long had one of the highest poverty rates in the developed world. Among 34 countries tracked by OECD, only Chile, Israel and Mexico have higher rates of poverty. MORE HERE

Kyle Bass With David Faber - 'Greece Will Default And It's Going To Be Ugly For Europe, Germany And The U.S.' (17 Bailouts For 17 Euro Nations)

Watch Video

CNBC Video - Hedge Fund Manager Kyle Bass with David Faber - Sep. 14, 2011
"17 individual TARPs for 17 Euro countries..."
Restructuring is the only one way out of this debt mess, and "restructuring means default." Kyle Bass, managing partner of Hayman Capital, told CNBC Wednesday.
"Greece has to default," said Bass. "It's going to be a hard default, and then it's going to be difficult to contain this contagion."
"The world seems to think they're going to have an orderly default," he added. "I've never seen an orderly default."
A year from now Europe will be going thru the 'dominos of hard restructuring,' explained Bass.  "[The euro zone is] going to have to have 17 different TARPs, we're not going to have one Super-TARP," referring to the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program during the subprime mortgage crisis.
Although, every single European country that does ends up defaulting "will maintain structural stability in their banking system," explained Bass, "that doesn't mean in its current construct today that that equity is worth anything."
"This period we're about to go through, a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money," concluded Bass.

Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Investigates Silvercorp Metals, Inc.


Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Investigates Silvercorp Metals, Inc.
Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is investigating potential claims on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Silvercorp Metals, Inc. (“Silvercorp” or the “Company”) (NYSE: SVM), concerning whether the company and certain of its officers and directors have violated federal securities laws.
On September 1, 2011, the Company was forwarded a copy of an anonymous letter dated August 29, 2011, addressed to the Ontario Securities Commission, the Company’s auditors, and various media outlets alleging a “Potential $1.3 Billion Accounting Fraud at Silvercorp. The letter also alleges that Silvercorp reported a profit in 2010 in a Securities and Exchange Commission Filing, while also reporting a loss to Chinese regulators. The anonymous author also acknowledged he had taken a short position in the Company. On Friday, September 9, 2011, The British Columbia Securities Commission confirmed it was investigating this anonymous allegation against Silvercorp. On this news, shares of Silvercorp plummeted $1.54 or about 20% to close at $6.30 on Tuesday, September 13, 2011.
If you are aware of any facts relating to this investigation, or purchased shares of Silvercorp, you can assist this investigation by contacting either Peretz Bronstein or Eitan Kimelman of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 212-697-6484 or via email eitan@bgandg.com. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address and telephone number.
Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a corporate litigation boutique. Our primary expertise is the aggressive pursuit of litigation claims on behalf of our clients. In addition to representing institutions and other investor plaintiffs in class action security litigation, the firm’s expertise includes general corporate work, private securities offerings, and securities arbitration.


Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
Peretz Bronstein or Eitan Kimelman
212-697-6484
eitan@bgandg.com

* Reuters is not responsible for the content in this press release.

'DEFICIT SINNERS' - Germany’s EU Commissioner Wants Flags Of All Bailed Out Nations Flown At Half-Mast


The Scarlet Bailout moment is upon us.  Sentiment is turning in Germany against the Euro-periphery bailout as evidenced by the following story from Brussels yesterday.  Meanwhile, in a moment of hilarity as the EU approaches collapse, some EU officials are apparently demanding a new and more powerful Lisbon Treaty.  Good luck with that.
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EU Bailout Scarlet Letter
GERMANY’S EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER has lent his voice to demands that the national flags of all bailed-out European Union member states be flown at half-mast at EU buildings.
Günther Oettinger told German media last Friday that the move would “be a big deterrent” to those countries – which he called “deficit sinners” – who cannot keep control of their financial affairs, though he admitted that it would “just be a symbol”.
The suggestion would mean that the flags of Ireland, Greece and Portugal would have to be flown at half-mast outside all of the EU’s buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg and elsewhere.
Among Oettinger’s other controversial ideas are that the EU simply take over the power of collecting tax in Greece.
Continue reading...
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New Lisbon Treaty
EUROPE’S MAJOR ECONOMIES demanded a replacement for the Lisbon Treaty, creating further fiscal and economic ties between Eurozone countries, Britain’s chancellor George Osborne has revealed.
Osborne told reporters that officials from the European Union, France, Germany and Italy want a new treaty superseding Lisbon – which infamously took several years to negotiate and ratify across the EU – at the weekend’s G7 conference in Marseille.
“I think it is on the cards that there may be a treaty change imposed in the next year or two, beyond what has already been proposed,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Osborne as saying, referring to the agreement already reached about upgrading the EU’s permanent bailout fund.
“This would be for the eurozone – this would be to further integrate the eurozone, [and] further strengthen fiscal integration”.
Continue reading...

GE Dumps Offshore Wind-Power Plans AFTER Collecting $125 Million In Stimulus From Taxpayers For Wind Projects


Best friends Obama and Immelt applaud as GE screws taxpayers once again.
Source - Gateway Pundit
GE was awarded 44 contracts totaling over $46,000,000 and 44 grants totaling more than$79,000,000 from the Obama-Pelosi $757 billion dollar stimulus package. Millions of dollars in stimulus funds were used by GE in green energy projects.
Today GE announced that it was going to gut its offshore wind-power plans.
Forbes reported:
General Electric, the U.S.-based industrial giant and leading manufacturer of wind-power turbines, is scaling back efforts to expand its presence in the offshore wind power market.
The rationale: there is no meaningful offshore wind market to speak of – at least not yet.  Given slower-than-expected industry growth, the offshore market may not mature as rapidly as many wind boosters once believed.  In 2009, GE moved into the offshore market by acquiring Norway’s ScanWind, a developer of direct-drive turbines, based in the city of Trondheim.
GE is considering laying off about 40 employees in Norway as it scales-back its offshore operations there, according to reports in Recharge. The company has also suspended plans to construct a manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom indefinitely.
Immelt also said the stimulus would work way back in April 2009.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, the head of Barack Obama’s Economic Advisory Panel, was invited to sit with the First Lady during the president’s speech to Congress this past week. He’s been a strong supporter of the president since he took over the White House and his companies have received plenty of government funds as well.

First lady Michelle Obama (4th L) and Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, (2nd R) clap from the front row of the First Lady’s Box before the start of President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington September 8, 2011. Others in the box are: (top row 3rd L- 2nd R) General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, AOL co-founder Steve Case, Permac Industries CEO Darlene Miller and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and (front row L-R) Philip Maung, Gracey Ibarra, Kelcie Fisher,Obama, Joseph Kidd, Biden and Marlena Clark. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg)

Obama's Stimulus Plan Will Cost $250,000 Per Job

I'd say $250k per job is a bargain compared with Obama's last stimulus:
The report was written by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama, and it chronicles the alleged success of the “stimulus” in adding or saving jobs. The council reports that, using “mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus” (which it describes as a “natural way to estimate the effects of” the legislation), the “stimulus” has added or saved just under 2.4 million jobs — whether private or public — at a cost (to date) of $666 billion. That’s a cost to taxpayers of $278,000 per job.
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John Carney
Barack Obama's jobs plan may be one of the worst policy proposals I've ever seen.
As I pointed out last week, the plan to "pay for" the jobs proposal with tax hikes is just lunacy. It eliminates every bit of stimulus effect that could possibly come from additional government spending.
John Poehling has run the numbers on the American Jobs Act (AJA).
Even if you take very optimistic figures, the jobs bill turns out to be unbelievably costly.
For those eager to put some math to the rhetoric coming from the White House over the president's jobs creation plan, and that should be everyone, here is a quick and dirty estimate based on the numbers being thrown around of a 2 percent GDP increase in year 1 and 1.9 million jobs created or saved...most saved, as in those you can't really quantify. Said otherwise, roughly a $300 billion increase in GDP yields 1.9 million jobs. So far so good.
Now since the president is proposing to pay for the program over 10 years, let's assume the $475 billion in direct expenses is financed for 10 years at 2.5 percent which adds roughly $120 billion to the total cost of the program. In other words, as the calculations detailed and show below elaborate, the overall AJA plan will cost $250,000 per job created (excluding the interest expense) and $312,500 per union job created (including interest). And that's how much it costs for Obama to purchase one vote...created or saved. Keynesian efficiency strikes like a Swiss watch yet again.
So that's $250,000 per job, before interest expense.  Wouldn't it be better just to have a free national lottery and mail $200,000 checks to a lucky 1.9 million people?

Highly Ranked BofA Strategist Says S&P May Fall 20% More In 2011, 2-Year Treasury Hit 0%


CNBC
Rising risk aversion, a surging U.S. dollar, historical seasonal weakness and a climb in bonds could send the S&P 500 down as much as 21 percent from Friday’s close, according to Mary Ann Bartels, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s technical research analyst.
The 2-year Treasury yield could drop to zero, Bartels added.
“Unfortunately, nothing in our work suggests that the market is improving,” Bartels wrote in a report today. “More importantly, we are more concerned now that the downside risk could be more than we originally forecast.”
“September historically is the worst performing month in the year, while October traditionally marks important market bottoms.”
The S&P 500 is already down 15 percent from its bull market high hit at the start of May.  Bartels believes that the benchmark will retest the 1100-1020 area and if it fails there, then look out below. She gets her target in the 900s using a combination of commonly-used factors, most notably a 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of the March 2009 to May 2011 rally.
Bartels ranked third among technical analysts in Institutional Investor’s 2010 survey.

Is Greece the catalyst to global default?

Moody's Downgrades Top French Banks On Fears Of Greek Crisis

PARIS -- Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of French banks Societe Generale and Credit Agricole on Wednesday following a period of huge volatility in the markets as investors fretted about their exposure to Greece's debts.
Some sort of move by Moody's had been widely expected this week since the agency had put them and rival BNP Paribas on review for downgrade in mid-June.
While cutting its rating on Societe Generale's long-term debt rating by one notch to Aa3 and Credit Agricole's by the same amount to Aa1, Moody's warned that both could have their ratings downgraded by a further notch as it assesses "the implications of the persistent fragility in the bank financing markets." BNP's rating also remains under review.
The downgrades come as Europe scrambles to deal with the Greek debt crisis amid mounting fears that the debt-laden nation may have to default. That would leave some banks holding a lot of debt that might never be repaid, and investors are wondering if the banks have enough of a cushion to absorb those losses.
Because of those fears, some European banks have been having trouble securing the loans they need to fund their day-to-day operations; U.S. money-market funds have seemingly been particularly reluctant, and one European bank was forced to pay higher than market rates recently to get dollar funding from the European Central Bank.
Moody's assessment on Wednesday explored how the banks would weather a significant loss on their Greek debt, and the new review will now look at how much they've been affected by the difficulty to raise money on capital markets.
"Our concern now is more the financing markets of banks. Funding conditions have become more difficult and the risk is that persists and that becomes progressively more negative the longer it persists," said Nicholas Hill, an analyst at Moody's.
The banks, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas, in particular, have denied that the funding difficulties have put them in any real danger, saying that they still have plenty of access to loans.
Moody's maintained its Aa2 rating on BNP Paribas because its profits and capital base "provide an adequate cushion to support its Greek, Portuguese and Irish exposure."
Following the downgrade, Societe Generale said Moody's analysis shows that the bank's exposure to Greece "to be modest and manageable."
Earlier this week, Societe Generale's chief executive Frederic Oudea said that the bank was prepared for a downgrade and that it would not change its outlook.
Christian Noyer, the governor of the Banque de France, also shrugged off the news.
"For me, it's relatively good news," Noyer told French radio RTL. "First, because it's a very limited downgrade, only on two out of three banks, and especially since Moody's rates them better than the other two agencies (Standard & Poor's and Fitch), so, in reality, it put them at the same level or even slightly higher than the other agencies."
Government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse, who is also the budget minister, reiterated her "confidence in the position of the French banks."
But analyst Louise Cooper of BGC Partners said that there are real concerns about the banks' access to funding.
"Why are share prices then so low and volatile? Because investors are highly skeptical of what they are told. Why are they so skeptical? Because clearly anyone who works in these markets ... will tell you that lending between banks and other financial groups in the short term wholesale markets is anything but normal," she said.
Credit Agricole did not comment on the downgrade specifically but said in a statement that its retail bank will put in place a general guarantee of the investment banking subsidiary. The retail bank, Credit Agricole SA, is generally considered to be in a stronger position than the investment banking arm.
The statement seemed aimed at reassuring investors of the level of support available to the investment bank.
It may have worked: Credit Agricole was the only one of the three banks whose shares were trading higher on Wednesday afternoon. They were up 3.2 percent.
Societe Generale was down 2.8 percent, while BNP Paribas was also pressured even though it wasn't downgraded. Its share price fell 2.2 percent.
___
Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/moodys-french-banks_n_961689.html

Fight brewing over U.S. offshore profit taxation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Large U.S. corporations are pressuring Congress and the White House to exempt overseas corporate profits from taxes, a policy shift that critics say would hurt the economy and increase the federal deficit.
A fight is shaping up between supporters of territorial taxation, as this policy proposal is known, and opponents who favor a different reform -- repealing a tax law that allows corporations to defer paying taxes on their overseas income.
The two sides are facing off over an old and worsening problem -- how to fix the system for taxing companies' foreign income. Both sides agree the system is not working and a new approach is needed, but their solutions are direct opposites.
"A tax system that raises little revenue, but imposes high compliance and administrative burdens on taxpayers and the IRS is the very definition of a bad tax system. Unfortunately, that is the system we have," said Philip West, a former U.S. Treasury Department tax official, at a Senate hearing.
Case in point: business software and hardware giant Oracle Corp. Based in California, Oracle generates 60 percent of its nearly $36 billion in annual sales overseas.
Much of its overseas profit never comes home to the United States, however. Oracle has at least $20 billion in profits parked abroad avoiding taxation, and that is perfectly legal under the overseas income deferral law.
Oracle is a strong supporter of territorial taxation, along with many other Silicon Valley high technology companies, drug makers and other businesses with large foreign operations.

Under territorial taxation, in its strictest form, overseas profits of U.S. companies would be taxed only by the country where they are earned, no longer by the United States.
That would allow companies such as Oracle to bring home their active foreign business income tax-free or nearly so.
This would be a big change because, under present law, foreign profits are supposed to be taxed when they come home at the same 35-percent rate applicable to U.S. domestic profits.
The trouble is that many large multinationals -- like Oracle and others -- do not pay the full tax, or often any U.S. tax at all, on their foreign income.
That is because of the overseas income deferral law, which lets them put off indefinitely the payment of tax on active foreign earnings as long as the earnings remain abroad.
The solution to this problem is not to exempt those earnings permanently from U.S. taxation, say opponents of territorial taxation. Instead, they say, the solution is to repeal the overseas income deferral law.
That would make overseas profits immediately taxable, like domestic profits. And, proponents say, it would lift government revenues, perhaps making room for a corporate tax rate cut.
POSSIBLE SHIFT
The Obama administration is considering a limited version of territorial taxation, although details of its plan are still unclear, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Multinational corporations have an estimated $1.5 trillion in profits parked overseas right now, avoiding taxes. They want to be able to bring those profits home tax-free, or with only a small tax hit, and they would like that arrangement to be permanent, as territorial taxation would accomplish.
Such far-reaching reform is unlikely to happen without broad tax reform. That is unlikely to come soon. Congress' "super committee" on deficit reduction, which had its first hearing on Monday, does not have enough time for tax reform and November 2012 elections will make it difficult, analysts said.
The White House's bipartisan Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction panel last year endorsed territorial taxation. Major corporate lobbying groups are banging the drum for it.
The business community is not solidly in favor, however. Multinationals tend to back it. Small and mid-sized companies with less to gain generally are not as enthusiastic.
"I'm a proponent of a territorial system," said Harvard Business School Professor Fritz Foley, citing his concern about other nations, including Japan and Britain, embracing it.
"Having said that, any move to territorial needs to be ... thought through quite carefully," he said.
As for the inevitable political firestorm that would accompany a major push for tax reform, Foley remarked:
"Anything is going to be a tough sell politically, but ... some adults need to stand up and say, here are the trade-offs, here is our fiscal reality, let's think about the best way forward ... My reading of the situation in Washington now is that we're not exactly close to that."
SOME COUNTRIES GO TERRITORIAL
The main argument made in territorial taxation's favor is that everyone is doing it, so the United States should too.
Territorial taxation has been adopted, in one form or another by Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, Japan and Britain. Not adopting it puts the United States at a competitive disadvantage, say its supporters.
"We are so out of step with the rest of the world right now. It is important for us to adopt a territorial system," said University of Michigan Law School Professor James Hines.
Others take a different view.
"I do not agree that we should go to a territorial system," said University of Michigan Law School Professor Reuven Avi-Yonah. "The United States has traditionally been a leader, not a follower, in international tax matters."
Nations that still have a worldwide system of taxation for foreign corporate profits, resembling the U.S. system, include Korea, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Israel and Mexico.
China, Brazil and India, growing economies with thriving manufacturing sectors, also tax the foreign income of their companies much the same way the United States does. "Those are our real competitors," not tax-haven nations, said Avi-Yonah.
A territorial system would prompt U.S. companies to shift offshore even more income than they already do and jobs would follow, worsening unemployment and the economy, critics say.
"Giving corporations a permanent tax exemption for their purported offshore profits will make things much worse. The only real solution is for Congress to do the opposite" and repeal foreign income deferral, said Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a left-leaning tax watchdog group.
(Editing by Howard Goller)
Fight brewing over U.S. offshore profit taxation
Kevin Drawbaugh
Reuters US Online Report Business News
Sep 14, 2011 07:05 EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Large U.S. corporations are pressuring Congress and the White House to exempt overseas corporate profits from taxes, a policy shift that critics say would hurt the economy and increase the federal deficit.
<br/>
A fight is shaping up between supporters of territorial taxation, as this policy proposal is known, and opponents who favor a different reform -- repealing a tax law that allows corporations to defer paying taxes on their overseas income.
The two sides are facing off over an old and worsening problem -- how to fix the system for taxing companies' foreign income. Both sides agree the system is not working and a new approach is needed, but their solutions are direct opposites.
"A tax system that raises little revenue, but imposes high compliance and administrative burdens on taxpayers and the IRS is the very definition of a bad tax system. Unfortunately, that is the system we have," said Philip West, a former U.S. Treasury Department tax official, at a Senate hearing.
Case in point: business software and hardware giant Oracle Corp. Based in California, Oracle generates 60 percent of its nearly $36 billion in annual sales overseas.
Much of its overseas profit never comes home to the United States, however. Oracle has at least $20 billion in profits parked abroad avoiding taxation, and that is perfectly legal under the overseas income deferral law.
Oracle is a strong supporter of territorial taxation, along with many other Silicon Valley high technology companies, drug makers and other businesses with large foreign operations.
Under territorial taxation, in its strictest form, overseas profits of U.S. companies would be taxed only by the country where they are earned, no longer by the United States.
That would allow companies such as Oracle to bring home their active foreign business income tax-free or nearly so.
This would be a big change because, under present law, foreign profits are supposed to be taxed when they come home at the same 35-percent rate applicable to U.S. domestic profits.
The trouble is that many large multinationals -- like Oracle and others -- do not pay the full tax, or often any U.S. tax at all, on their foreign income.
That is because of the overseas income deferral law, which lets them put off indefinitely the payment of tax on active foreign earnings as long as the earnings remain abroad.
The solution to this problem is not to exempt those earnings permanently from U.S. taxation, say opponents of territorial taxation. Instead, they say, the solution is to repeal the overseas income deferral law.
That would make overseas profits immediately taxable, like domestic profits. And, proponents say, it would lift government revenues, perhaps making room for a corporate tax rate cut.
POSSIBLE SHIFT
The Obama administration is considering a limited version of territorial taxation, although details of its plan are still unclear, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Multinational corporations have an estimated $1.5 trillion in profits parked overseas right now, avoiding taxes. They want to be able to bring those profits home tax-free, or with only a small tax hit, and they would like that arrangement to be permanent, as territorial taxation would accomplish.
Such far-reaching reform is unlikely to happen without broad tax reform. That is unlikely to come soon. Congress' "super committee" on deficit reduction, which had its first hearing on Monday, does not have enough time for tax reform and November 2012 elections will make it difficult, analysts said.
The White House's bipartisan Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction panel last year endorsed territorial taxation. Major corporate lobbying groups are banging the drum for it.
The business community is not solidly in favor, however. Multinationals tend to back it. Small and mid-sized companies with less to gain generally are not as enthusiastic.
"I'm a proponent of a territorial system," said Harvard Business School Professor Fritz Foley, citing his concern about other nations, including Japan and Britain, embracing it.
"Having said that, any move to territorial needs to be ... thought through quite carefully," he said.
As for the inevitable political firestorm that would accompany a major push for tax reform, Foley remarked:
"Anything is going to be a tough sell politically, but ... some adults need to stand up and say, here are the trade-offs, here is our fiscal reality, let's think about the best way forward ... My reading of the situation in Washington now is that we're not exactly close to that."
SOME COUNTRIES GO TERRITORIAL
The main argument made in territorial taxation's favor is that everyone is doing it, so the United States should too.
Territorial taxation has been adopted, in one form or another by Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, Japan and Britain. Not adopting it puts the United States at a competitive disadvantage, say its supporters.
"We are so out of step with the rest of the world right now. It is important for us to adopt a territorial system," said University of Michigan Law School Professor James Hines.
Others take a different view.
"I do not agree that we should go to a territorial system," said University of Michigan Law School Professor Reuven Avi-Yonah. "The United States has traditionally been a leader, not a follower, in international tax matters."
Nations that still have a worldwide system of taxation for foreign corporate profits, resembling the U.S. system, include Korea, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Israel and Mexico.
China, Brazil and India, growing economies with thriving manufacturing sectors, also tax the foreign income of their companies much the same way the United States does. "Those are our real competitors," not tax-haven nations, said Avi-Yonah.
A territorial system would prompt U.S. companies to shift offshore even more income than they already do and jobs would follow, worsening unemployment and the economy, critics say.
"Giving corporations a permanent tax exemption for their purported offshore profits will make things much worse. The only real solution is for Congress to do the opposite" and repeal foreign income deferral, said Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a left-leaning tax watchdog group.
(Editing by Howard Goller)
Source: Reuters US Online Report Business News

The Banking-War Crisis Solved Or The Modern Revolutionary’s Manifesto

In the first essay in this two part series I said:
The Fundamental Fact of Your Existence as a modern man or woman is that the bankers of New York and London want to reduce you to debt slavery.
Accept that fact and move on to the solution.
To solve the problems of inflation, Depressions, mass bankruptcies, unemployment, debt slavery, infinite taxation and Banker Bailouts and unending wars we first need to undo the stranglehold the banks have over our government, the press, the Foundations, the schools and Hollywood.
So many radical changes are required that I feel the need to give this a second title:
The Modern Revolutionary’s Manifesto
It has been often noted that we will never recover from our current 23% unemployment and 11% inflation rates until the bankers are arrested, tried, convicted and ordered to make restitution for their crimes against humanity and not just America. The US has a Rico (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act which will allow us to seize all the assets of the criminals who conspired against America and the world to steal tens of trillions of dollars.
Listen: I think I hear chants of “Jail To The Thief” breaking out at rallies all across America.
The bankers and their allies in the government, the Foundations, the media, Hollywood and major corporations have conspired together to kill Americans and citizens of foreign nations to benefit themselves and their principal allies like Israel.
A case in point is 911. It was taken down by a controlled demolition through an alliance of the banks, the Neocons and Israel. 440,000 cubic yards (336,404 cubic meters) of reinforced concrete were not turned into dust by jet fuel in two seconds. Nanothermite which burns at 5,300 degrees and is available only from above top secret US and Israeli military labs was found in the dust of the World Trade Center.
The Department of Justice has done nothing. The House and Senate have many committees with oversight but they have done nothing. After USAF General Ben Partin who was in charge of Air Force bomb ordnance gave every member of the House and Senate conclusive proof that the bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City on 19 April 1995, the House and Senate did nothing. Under RICO, we can indict the administration and the House and the Senate and seize them as criminal run enterprises. We can seize all of their personal assets and cancel their pensions. We will do so as soon as the economic implosion the New York and London banks created gives us enough momentum.
We do need to arrest and try and convict the bankers and their allies. But we will also need their corporate and personal assets to be seized so we can make restitution for the money they have stolen from pensions and savings. There are tens of millions of people around the world who think the 31 trillion dollars in pensions funds are there and were not invested in toxic assets from the New York banks. They will be retiring with a private pension that in reality is no longer all there. The US is also moving to follow the lead of the European criminal governments which are literally taking private pension money and giving the plans worthless IOUs denominated in currencies that will soon be devalued leaving retiring workers out in the cold.
We will cancel all government debts. In cases where we find the buyers of Treasury bonds were innocent of any criminality, we will have the corporate and personal assets of the bankers and their known criminal associates to use as a compensation fund.
We will also cancel all government debts everywhere in the world. Henceforth, money will be issued debt free as Presidents Kennedy and Lincoln had done before they were assassinated by the bankers and their allies. In America that would mean the Treasury should seize control of the Federal Reserve bank.
Since prices are a ratio of the money supply to the total amount of goods and services for sale (i.e. GNP), we can safely increase both the supply of money and the GNP at the same ratio. In America this means we could easily spend 450 billion dollars a year into circulation on badly needed infrastructure repairs. America and Europe both have a whole generation of young people who have never had a real job. If we allow this to continue, our civilization will soon collapse.
We will forever end fractional reserve banking. There is a New York bank with no assets and 92 trillion dollars in liabilities. Banks will only be allowed to loan out depositor’s money. If there is a need for for liquidity, the US Treasury will create it without interest. In 1348 the gold banks of Venice crashed because of fractional reserve banking. They loaned out their customers’ money several times over. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the COMEX in New York today are engaging in the same fractional reserve gold banking as did their banking forbears did in Venice. They will in months face the same end.
Jeff Christian, a former Goldman Sachs VP, testified before the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) that there are 50 to 100 ounces of paper gold and silver issued for every ounce of physical silver and gold. The Chinese have opened a Pan Asian Metals Exchange and a Pan Asian Gold Exchange. Their futures contracts are required to be redeemable in gold if the buyer so chooses. No such luck in New York and London. I wrote previously that the Chinese declared war on the banks and will take down the COMEX, the LBMA and major banks as soon as their new exchanges are fully operational.
I was the one who originated the saying that SEC now stands for Shredding in Exchange for Cash. The SEC has been shredding all of the prosecutor’s evidence in thousands of court cases. The CFTC has done nothing to stop the wild abuses of the COMEX. And bank regulators have done nothing to stop abuses by the banks. All of these agencies need to be included in RICO indictments with their corporate and personal assets together with pensions to be seized. We also must not forget the credit rating agencies like S&P, Moodys and Fitch that gave fraudulent AAA ratings to mortgage backed securities so they could illegally be sold. They all participated in multi-trillion dollar frauds.
There are varying estimates of the total number of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) in existence. A CDS is a hybrid between insurance and a derivative which is a bet on the future value of a bond or a commodity. The problem is that CDS are neither regulated nor are they real insurance with actual reserves set aside to pay for the losses. You as a taxpayer are supposed to pay for their losses.
Some say there are 1.5 quadrillion dollars in CDS of which 600 billion American banks and financial institutions have guaranteed. That means taxpayers in America are theoretically liable for the 600 billion or 40 times total GDP. I do not know what individual countries in Europe and elsewhere are exposed to. I do know of a law case brought in a regional French court by a New York bank attempting to collect an astronomical sum from a small local town. The court said the French people owe you nothing. The New York bankers went home empty handed. Nothing was said in the American press lest voters and potential jury members learn the truth. We owe them nothing. The bankers engaged in fraud. They bankrupted Birmingham Alabama’s Jefferson county.
CDS should all be terminated. Nor should anyone be allowed to sell a futures contract they cannot make delivery on. If you do not own a wheat farm or a silver mine, you have no business selling wheat or silver.
There is another source of assets to be seized. Walter Burien of www.CAFR1.com has documented the tens of trillions of dollars held by tens of thousands of government agencies in the US and their current income which is far greater than enough to balance the budget, pay off all state and local government bonds, fund their pensions and to serve as a source of money for restitution.
We also need to create an entirely new manufacturing base for America and the world. We must release the scientific advances our Secret Government has made. They are at least 20 to 30 years in advance of us in medicine, computers, materials sciences, communications, superconductors and free energy. I find it reasonable to believe that they have some measure of anti-gravity and also have been making regular interplanetary trips to Mars. If all of these advances were patented and stock companies were organized to hold those patents, we could fund a large part of Social Security by giving those shares to Americans in trust accounts. This will create more than ten million high paying jobs.
There is more than enough cash floating around the various governmental agencies and in the personal possession of known banking to solve all of our problems. David DeGraw told us that the wealthy in America have net assets of 46 trillion dollars if you count the money they have in tax havens like the Cayman Islands. A lot of those trillions are held by the criminals we have been speaking of. Now is not the time to despair.
America is currently engaged in six active wars we know of. The latest news is that Walter Fauntroy who used to be the Washington D.C. Delegate to the US House, was in Libya. He was in fear for his life for good reason as he is black. The Al Qaeda rebels have been routinely killing black Libyans including women and children. He saw NATO Special Forces enter a town and kill both rebels and Loyalists. The NATO soldiers even beheaded civilians to show they were the new colonial power in charge of Libya. NATO has been bombing civilians to force the old regime to withdraw so they could steal their oil, gold and money. We need to stop the war against the Libyan people, all five of the other wars America admits it is currently waging plus any others we have not been told of. We also need to withdraw US troops from at least 100 nations.
We need to immediately stop the usage of all Depleted Uranium ammunition. It is killing our troops. It is also killing our allies overseas. And DU is killing Americans at home from firing practice sites not just in Puerto Rico but also inside the continental US. We need to use those seized assets from the bankers to clean up the battle fields overseas and the training ranges in the US. We have had enough cancer induced by DU.
We can clearly see the influence of the major tax exempt Foundations in implementing the Globalist banker agenda. We need to include where applicable the Foundations in those RICO lawsuits. Their assets need to be seized. We could allow them to continue under new management but a new purpose which should be to restore our culture. We also need to take a look at most members of the Bilderberg Society, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission for RICO investigation arresting and seizing assets.
We also must investigate all members of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the ADL and AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) as illegal agents of a foreign power. These charges are serious as it is patently obvious that Israel did 911 with the help of Zionist criminals inside the US. A man whose name was redacted went from the SPLC to Elohim City where two Jewish men were running an operation to entrap Americans who resisted the criminal Zionist banker conspiracy. Elohim City was thought to be involved in the Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people including 19 children in the daycare center.
The police and the courts have been co-operating with the ADL and the SPLC to arrest and convict innocent people. All these charges need to be dismissed. All prosecutors, judges, police officials and people from outside pressure groups like the SPLC and the ADL need to be arrested, tried and convicted for the applicable crimes they committed. All of their assets need to be seized to pay for the court costs and damages done to innocent men and women.
Major banks, corporations and crime families traffick 250,000 human slaves every year. Many of these young children are killed for sexual sport. DynCorp and Blackwater have been caught engaging in human trafficking. Yet DynCorp amazingly is allowed to contract their employees to US states to run state Children’s Protective Services (CPS) agencies. These children are often sexually abused. They are often killed. And some are even sent overseas to become sex slaves. Children in state care are also abused by the administration of unwarranted medications with many states giving them an average of 6 to 7 dangerous drugs.
This will stop immediately. All DynCorp contracts with CPS will be abrogated. DynCorp and Blackwater will have their corporate charters removed. We will begin investigations into the abuse of tens of thousands of children. We will seek criminals from foreign countries. That includes Israel which is the center of human slavery trafficking. We will also co-operate with foreign nations that want to investigate illegal organ harvesting.
Many privately owned companies and state and local governments have participated in the war against humanity. It is illegal to poison drinking water with fluoride in Japan, France and many other nations. This practice has to stop in America. Stalin discovered he need fewer guards to control the millions of inmates in his Gulags if he fluoridated them. Hitler copied him. And the Allies loved fluoridating prisoners so much that they did it to the general public here.
Vaccine makers have included aborted human fetuses in their vaccines which generate autoimmune responses. They also included peanut oil in many vaccines which gave rise to widespread peanut allergies.
Our food has been poisoned with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) from Monsanto. GMO crops grow pesticides inside them which poison us. Mexico has recently banned GMO crops. Canada has banned BisPhenol-A, a plastic that produces estrogen mimickers and causes cancer. America needs to outlaw both and to stop exporting these poisons. We also need to stop the release of unrestricted gene splicing experiments into nature. We have allowed some insane people to genetically engineer a new hybrid fish by splicing together genes from a salmon and a spider.
What is the point of all this mindless destruction of humanity?
This Manifesto is firmly grounded in reality. I can see what others must deny, because they are gripped by fear. The banks are collapsing. Bank of America absorbed Countrywide and is choking on their toxic assets. Now Americans are to believe that JP Morgan which has 92 trillion dollars in derivative liabilities and zero assets can absorb Bank of America? Europeans are supposed to believe that because Soc Gen (Societe General) is bankrupt that BNP Paribas can absorb them and continue in business? Wait a second. Isn’t BNP Paribas the bank that just announced American money markets refuse to lend them money? Paribas is owned by the Rothschilds so you know things are getting bad in Europe.
There is about zero chance for Obama to get another Bailout through the divided Congress. The Democrats just lost a special election in a district in New York where Republican voters are an endangered species. Obama has zero political capital. In fact any banker Bailout bill he introduces will give Democrats in the House and the Senate a golden opportunity to separate themselves from the Teleprompter Reader occupying the White House. There has been talk of Obama declaring martial law and issuing an Executive Order to create a new Bailout for the banking criminals. There is an explanation for the martial law exercises. The bankers know the dollar will not last long.
I have previously said that I would expect Ben Bernanke to create trillions of dollars in new money so he can swap it with Jean Claude Trichet, his counterpart at the ECB (European Central Bank). All this new money will be inflationary. It will be used to bail out banks.
The vote later this month in the Bundestag on Merkel’s disastrous Bailouts should cause her government either to collapse or at least change their policies. Germans will not be bailing out Europe much longer. Merkel should lose her 7th straight local election this weekend.
I have written of the 2 trillion dollars in M0 or Monetary base money in deposit at the Federal Reserve. Bernanke created 2 trillion dollars in new money which he gave to the banks so they could buy US Treasury bonds. This is called sanitizing debt and is not too inflationary. But there are indications that the FED is allowing the big banks to deposit this money in their banks so under fractional reserve banking rules 500 billion dollars can become 5 trillion dollars, a trillion dollars can become ten trillion dollars and 2 trillion can become 20 trillion dollars. They might loan all or part of that money to themselves so the bankers can buy all remaining real assets not under their control.
We are in the end stages of this illegal occupation of America by the New York banks and their co-conspirators. The banks, the COMEX, the LBMA, the dollar, the pound, the euro and the stock markets will all soon crash. When they do, a worldwide network of people who received their news from the Internet and not the mainstream news will be able to diagnose the problems facing us and have the ability to solve them.
I need to emphasize this point: The US military in my opinion will not allow Israel to launch WW III by attacking Iran. I would also hope the US military will tell the bankers that they will not be allowed to kill a few billion people with a series of plagues.
The future belongs to us. The bankers at best can expect to live the rest of their lives in jail sharing cells with war criminals.
Author’s Note: This is the second in this series. The first article was:
The Mathematics Of Austerity: Proving Austerity Never Was Even Intended To Work
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/the-mathematics-of-austerity-proving-austerity-never-was-even-intended-to-work/
I made a reference to the works of David DeGraw. He has some important information to share. I have a quick guide to his latest book here:
David DeGraw In 2 Minutes
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/david-degraw-in-2-minutes/

Gold jumps again, could it lead to a unified European bond or a BRICS takeover?

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The climb in gold prices doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon. For the second day straight the price of gold has risen after a brief two day drop as the Eurozone crisis has no end in sight.

Gold for immediate delivery rose 0.6% to $1,844.98 per ounce while December delivery gained up to 1% to leave prices at $1,848.20 an ounce.[1]

The rise doesn’t seem to be reaching a ceiling any time soon, either.

The global head of currency strategies at RBS Securities Incorporated, Robert Sinche, told Bloomberg that since, “liquidity [is still] abundant in the global environment we do think gold probably still has some good risk-reward characteristics even at these levels.”

Governments from around the world seem to be reinforcing Sinche’s assessment, with some leaders like Chavez of Venezuela demanding physical delivery of a large portion of their foreign gold holdings.[2]

With Moody’s recent downgrade of the credit ratings of French Credit Agricole SA and Societe Generale, and BNP Paribas currently on review for a downgrade as well, the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis seems to be heading into even more dangerous territory.

It has now become so potentially dangerous that the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and American President Barack Obama have both come out and voiced concern.

Obama said that “more effective coordinated fiscal policy” was required by European nations. What exactly this was, of course, he wouldn’t say.

I seriously doubt that any of the flawed economic solutions promoted in the past, such as the Keynesian stimulus so loved by Obama, would help this dire situation.

Wen said that China is “willing to help its biggest training partner,” while still emphasizing that the European countries “must stop the crisis from growing.”[3]

According to Reuters, credit markets are now estimating that there is a 90% chance of Greece defaulting on their debt. We’ve seen the chaos in the streets in the wake of Greek governmental attempts to stave off default through austerity so this seemingly high figure might be quite accurate.[4]

To make matters worse for the highly unstable Eurozone, Italy’s debt crisis is likely going to be too significant for any outside rescue packages to save them from default seeing as their public debt is a whopping $1.9 trillion Euros and the public debt burden is roughly 120% of Italy’s GDP.

However, Reuters has reported that a source in the Italian ministry told them that Italy has been in talks discussing possible Chinese investments in the Italian industrial sector, but not their bonds.

This might be because credit markets are reportedly now demanding the highest risk premium since 1999 on five year Italian bonds.

Much pressure is now being put on Italy, as if they are the fulcrum in the Eurozone that could cause the total free-fall collapse of the European economy.

In response, the Italian government is pushing highly unpopular austerity measures, including a package that could cut up to $73 billion in deficits.

The Italian public is not having any of it as they quickly realized that the austerity plan, which was foisted on the nation by the European Central Bank, involved massive cuts to local government and other important sectors.[5]

It appears that China and other BRICS nations very well might be using this sovereign debt crisis to seize control of Eurozone debts.

In a speech at a Chinese meeting of the World Economic Forum, Wen said, “We’ve said countless times that China is willing to give a helping hand and we’ll continue to invest there.”

Wen would not provide any specifics on their plans.

Even Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, has tacitly showed his alarm over the Eurozone debt crisis by planning to attend a European Union finance minister meeting this Friday in Poland.

However, another possible solution aside from austerity measures and foreign involvement seems to be on the table as well.

Just minutes ago, European shares moved from their recent continual negative fall, to positive upon news that the Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission (the non-democratic body that dominates the EU), would be presenting options for a common European bond.[6]

If this plan works, it could provide a significant talking point to those seeking to create a unified world currency to supposedly avoid further debt crises.


Notes:

[6] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/14/us-markets-europe-stocks-idUSTRE78B12U20110914

Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com

One in six Americans now officially poor as poverty rate climbs to 27-YEAR high

  • More than 46 million Americans in poverty last year
  • Median household income falls two per cent to $49,445
  • Census Bureau data will trouble Obama and Congress
By Mark Duell

Last updated at 6:36 PM on 13th September 2011

The number of Americans in poverty has jumped to an incredible 27-year high, with almost one in six people now falling into the bracket.
More than 46 million people, or 15 per cent, are in poverty - which is up from 44 million, or 14 per cent, in 2009, the Census Bureau said.
The report highlights the huge economic challenges facing President Barack Obama and Congress as they battle to save the U.S. economy.
Poverty: Jalinh Vasquez holds her sister Jayshel Barthelemy in Louisiana. The number of Americans in poverty has jumped to an incredible 27-year high
Poverty: Jalinh Vasquez holds her sister Jayshel Barthelemy in Louisiana. The number of Americans in poverty has jumped to an incredible 27-year high
Enlarge   Rising: More than 46 million people, or 15 per cent, are in poverty - which is up from 44 million, or 14 per cent, in 2009, the Census Bureau said
Rising: More than 46 million people, or 15 per cent, are in poverty - which is up from 44 million, or 14 per cent, in 2009, the Census Bureau said
The number of people lacking health insurance increased to 50 million, which is a new high after revisions were made to 2009 figures.
Losses were due mostly to working-age Americans who lost employer-provided insurance in the weak economy.
Main provisions of the health overhaul do not take effect until 2014.

But one aspect taking effect in late 2010 allowed young adults 26 and younger to be covered under their parents' health insurance.
The poverty level is now at its highest level since 1983 and the rise was the third poverty rate increase in a row.
The statistics released on Tuesday cover 2010, when U.S. unemployment averaged 9.6 per cent - up from 9.3 per cent the previous year.
Big issue: Condita Duplessis sits with granddaughter Kimora Barthelemy in their trailer in Louisiana. President Obama has a huge jobs problem to solve
Big issue: Condita Duplessis sits with granddaughter Kimora Barthelemy in their trailer in Louisiana. President Obama has a huge jobs problem to solve
Enlarge   Going up: The number of people lacking health insurance increased to 50 million, which is a new high after revisions were made to 2009 figures
Going up: The number of people lacking health insurance increased to 50 million, which is a new high after revisions were made to 2009 figures
The median household income was $49,445, a 2.3 per cent fall from 2009.
The 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010 represents the largest number in 52 years since estimates began, reported MNSBC.
Reflecting the recession's lingering impact, the poverty rate from 2007 to 2010 has risen faster than any three-year period since the early 1980s.

The U.S. poverty files

  • Poverty rate and totals
    2010: 46.2 million (15.1%)
    2009: 43.6 million (14.3%)
  • People without healthcare
    2010: 49.9 million (16.3%)
    2009: 49.0 million (16.1%)
  • Average household income
    2010: $49,445
    2009: $50,599
  • U.S. unemployment levels2010: 9.6 per cent
    2009: 9.3 per cent
At that time a crippling energy crisis amid government cutbacks were contributing to inflation, spiraling interest rates and unemployment.
Bruce Meyer, of the University of Chicago, cautioned that the worst may yet to come in poverty levels.
He cited rising demand for food stamps as well as 'staggeringly high' numbers in those unemployed for more than 26 weeks.
Meawhile, it was revealed poverty rose among all race and ethnic groups except Asians - and child poverty went up from 21 per cent to 22 per cent.
Poverty among people aged 65 and older was statistically unchanged at nine per cent, after hitting a record low of 8.9 per cent in 2009.
The U.S. poverty rate is only lower than three countries in 34 tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in France.
The Census Bureau report coincides with President Obama's push for a $450billion job creation package as he faces flagging job approval ratings.

'Eurozone will unquestionably split'

Max Keiser, a prominent financial journalist, says in an exclusive interview that the eurozone is definitely going to split due to the financial crisis in Europe, Press TV reports.

“The eurozone is going to split, there's no question about that. It's just a matter of how it will split, whether there'll be a Southern Euro or a Northern Euro, whether Germany will split itself off or remain in the Euro,” Keiser, an American analyst based in Paris, told Press TV reporter on Tuesday.

He added that the only powerful member of the eurozone is right now Germany and it is planning to turn into the sole superpower in the European continent.

“Spain looks very weak. Italy looks very, very weak. And Portugal is weak. Ireland is weak. France itself is weak. This is a game that is being orchestrated, to a large degree, by Germany because they stand to result as a big winner in all of this,” he said.

The analyst also mentioned that Greece is certainly headed for a default and there are rumors in Paris that Société Générale -- a large European Bank and a major Financial Services company -- and BNP Paribas -- France's largest bank -- are going to be nationalized “to deal with their exposure to the Greek debt.”

In the foreseeable future, “all balance sheets and administration of the eurozone will be administered by Germany,” which, Keiser said, is a great step ahead toward the federation of the eurozone...

Full article:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/199000.html

Hedge Fund Manager Kyle Bass Tells David Faber: "EU Bailout Will Cost France And Maybe Even Germany Their AAA Ratings"

Watch Video

With Europe's crisis making all the financial headlines, it's worth another look at the bailout truth from Kyle Bass.
The European Central Bank's bailout, estimated to be about 2 billion euros in Italian and Spanish debt, "will cost France and maybe even Germany their triple-A ratings," Kyle Bass, managing partner of Hayman Capital, told CNBC Monday.
"Supposedly this is the sixth save for the euro zone," Bass said. "When you understand the mechanisms of this European financial stability facility, today it has 440 billion euros in lending capacity. They have to raise 780 billion euros in debt to fund this," said Bass.
"There are several countries [in Europe] that have sailed into the zone of insolvency," he added. The zone of insolvency is "just like at home when you can't pay your bills."
Bass went on to say the European banking system is "about three times as leveraged as the U.S. banking system, and they haven't recapitalized their system because they don't have a lender of last resort like the [Federal Reserve] in the United States."
U.S. banks are in better shape than European banks, he added. Europe doesn't "have the money to recap their banks because they don't have a mechanism to print the money like we do."  But Bass acknowledge that "it doesn't take a genius to see that in the U.S., when you bring in $2.3 trillion of revenue and you spend $3.7 trillion, that maybe we're not a triple-A."
---
CNBC
PARIS/LONDON - France and Britain are most vulnerable within Europe to a rating review following the U.S. downgrade, with anemic growth and hefty borrowing placing them among the shakiest of the world's triple-A rated lenders.
Both countries have stable rating outlooks, making a sudden downgrade unlikely and markets have been so impressed by Britain's debt-cutting strategy that they have pushed its bond yields to record lows.
But a surge in the cost of insuring French debt against default on Monday highlighted alarm sparked by Friday's U.S. rating cut as banks and brokerages warned that rating agencies could now have top-rated European lenders in their sights.
"France has slipped into borderline AA+/Aa1/AA+ (one notch below AAA) territory, so risks to its AAA are rising as stresses spread," financial services firm BBH said in a note to clients.
In another indication of mounting concern over France, spreads between French and German 10-year bond yields hit all-time highs last week and remained wide on Monday.
The most likely trigger for France to be put on negative watch would be a failure by the government to get parliamentary backing for a constitutional limit on future public deficits, with opposition left-wing lawmakers vowing to reject it.

Fabled Enemies

Let's stick together! In Euro-room with no exit