We'll save the euro...even if we have to kill it in the process!

[Flame Of Liberty]

EU creates $1 trillion package to save euro

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union spearheaded a $1 trillion plan Monday to contain Europe's spreading debt crisis and keep it from tearing the euro currency apart and derailing the global economic recovery.

Central banks around the world joined the coordinated effort to prop up the euro and repel speculative attacks against Europe's weakest countries. The European Central Bank used what analysts called its "nuclear option" -- buying public and private debt to shore up liquidity in "dysfunctional" markets and lower borrowing costs.

Link

It's so simple:

- find a computer in Euro Central Bank/IMF/etc,
- sit down
- type 1 and a bunch of zeros, press enter

and voila you created one bazillion of new euros you can use to buy worthless fancy pieces of paper (also known as bonds in some circles) from Greek/Spanish/Portuguese/etc government at whatever ridiculous interest rate so said gov can keep corrupting its electorate and keep the illusion running.

Pretty clever scheme to save billions of euro that private French/Swiss/German/Dutch banks loaned to Greece. These banks are recovering their losses and the last couple of morons with savings will foot the bill as their savings will be diluted by inflation in the name of "liquidity."

Rinse and repeat every couple of months (weeks?).

EDIT: good read here:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogsp...-of-force.html

[Hack&Lube]

So how do we profit off their misfortune?

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

So how do we profit off their misfortune?

You mean misfortune of greek pensioners?



Years of work to earn a full pension; Greece: 35 Germany: 45
Number of pension payments a year; Greece: 14 Germany: 12

link

• The Greeks have to pay contributions towards pensions, but – unlike in Germany – not towards health care or social costs.

And then there is another strange special Greek provision: Unmarried daughters of soldiers and police officers inherit the pensions of their fathers and receive it for the rest of their lives.

link

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Flame Of Liberty

EU creates $1 trillion package to save euro

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union spearheaded a $1 trillion plan Monday to contain Europe's spreading debt crisis and keep it from tearing the euro currency apart and derailing the global economic recovery.

Central banks around the world joined the coordinated effort to prop up the euro and repel speculative attacks against Europe's weakest countries. The European Central Bank used what analysts called its "nuclear option" -- buying public and private debt to shore up liquidity in "dysfunctional" markets and lower borrowing costs.

Link

It's so simple:

- find a computer in Euro Central Bank/IMF/etc,
- sit down
- type 1 and a bunch of zeros, press enter

and voila you created one bazillion of new euros you can use to buy worthless fancy pieces of paper (also known as bonds in some circles) from Greek/Spanish/Portuguese/etc government at whatever ridiculous interest rate so said gov can keep corrupting its electorate and keep the illusion running.

Pretty clever scheme to save billions of euro that private French/Swiss/German/Dutch banks loaned to Greece. These banks are recovering their losses and the last couple of morons with savings will foot the bill as their savings will be diluted by inflation in the name of "liquidity."

Rinse and repeat every couple of months (weeks?).

EDIT: good read here:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogsp...-of-force.html

If you're right . . . . . . then why is there a short squeeze last night and this morning?

If you're right . . . . . . aren't the shorts also right? Why are they giving up?

I've seen some describe these days as private investors forcing bad debt onto the public, then those same private investors using market mechanisms to attack the governments that saved them.

What you saw over the weekend was governments understanding the importance of "confidence" in our fast-paced world, a lesson learned belatedly in 2008 and belatedly early in 2009 by Obama.

Cowperson

[Pastiche]

It's so simple:

and voila you created one bazillion of new euros you can use to buy worthless fancy pieces of paper (also known as bonds in some circles) from Greek/Spanish/Portuguese/etc government at whatever ridiculous interest rate so said gov can keep corrupting its electorate and keep the illusion running.

I don't really get what you're trying to say here. First off, buying worthless pieces of paper is exactly what the banks don't want to do. Creating demand for these bands will drive up their value. In essence they are pursuing a policy to ensure that these bonds don't become valueless. And it's hardly appropriate to say that governments can keep on their current practices. Have you read a single article about Greece lately and their strict austerity measures to qualify for these loans? Kind of weird selective reasoning.

Pretty clever scheme to save billions of euro that private French/Swiss/German/Dutch banks loaned to Greece. These banks are recovering their losses and the last couple of morons with savings will foot the bill as their savings will be diluted by inflation in the name of "liquidity."

Well this is also somewhat disingenuous. These private banks have been pressured by public office to buy euro debt. Many banks would not be nearly as exposed if it weren't for public policy to support inter-government lending to prop up the Euro. Say what you will of that policy but this isn't really a bailout of private banks. Private banks will suffer alot of pain but you know who will suffer more? Regular European people like you and me if contagion caught. That's the reason for this loan program. And you know what, in the U.S. this policy has so-far worked!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...a_fact_cassidy

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

I don't really get what you're trying to say here. First off, buying worthless pieces of paper is exactly what the banks don't want to do. Creating demand for these bands will drive up their value. In essence they are pursuing a policy to ensure that these bonds don't become valueless. And it's hardly appropriate to say that governments can keep on their current practices. Have you read a single article about Greece lately and their strict austerity measures to qualify for these loans? Kind of weird selective reasoning.

Well this is also somewhat disingenuous. These private banks have been pressured by public office to buy euro debt. Many banks would not be nearly as exposed if it weren't for public policy to support inter-government lending to prop up the Euro. Say what you will of that policy but this isn't really a bailout of private banks. Private banks will suffer alot of pain but you know who will suffer more? Regular European people like you and me if contagion caught. That's the reason for this loan program. And you know what, in the U.S. this policy has so-far worked!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...a_fact_cassidy

Well there you go bringing facts and actual analysis into the conversation

[mikey_the_redneck]

The globalist bankers must save the Euro...

If it fails, their plan for the North American Union with one north american currency (Amero) will be in jeopardy.

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

I don't really get what you're trying to say here. First off, buying worthless pieces of paper is exactly what the banks don't want to do. Creating demand for these bands will drive up their value. In essence they are pursuing a policy to ensure that these bonds don't become valueless. And it's hardly appropriate to say that governments can keep on their current practices. Have you read a single article about Greece lately and their strict austerity measures to qualify for these loans? Kind of weird selective reasoning.

Yes they are worthless. If central banks have to step up and create demands for these bonds that's exactly what it is - artificial demand is driving up artificial price. In other words they're creating another bubble that's bound to burst. Sub-prime mortgages sub-prime bonds. Same pig, more lipstick.

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet denied that the bank had acted under pressure from euro zone leaders, whom he met at a summit on Friday as interbank lending showed signs of freezing in an ominous throwback to the 2008 Lehman crisis. Only the day before, Trichet had denied the bank had even discussed buying government bonds.

Even bankers know that it's a stupid idea, but of course they fold when pressured by "public officials."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6400PJ20100510

Strict measures? Please. Have a look at Greece, they're up in arms scorching the ground at the slightest "measure" discussed. PIGS are ballooning more and more debt and if going from ~12% deficit to ~8% deficit (dreamland) is a strict measure then I have nothing to say.

Originally Posted by Pastiche

Well this is also somewhat disingenuous. These private banks have been pressured by public office to buy euro debt. Many banks would not be nearly as exposed if it weren't for public policy to support inter-government lending to prop up the Euro. Say what you will of that policy but this isn't really a bailout of private banks. Private banks will suffer alot of pain but you know who will suffer more? Regular European people like you and me if contagion caught. That's the reason for this loan program. And you know what, in the U.S. this policy has so-far worked!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...a_fact_cassidy

Oh if Kerry&Obama fan boys over at new yorker say so it must be true...

...meanwhile, fannie may lost $13.1 billion in the first quarter:

Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. residential mortgage funds provider, on Monday asked the government for an additional $8.4 billion after the company lost $13.1 billion in the first quarter.

The announcement comes less than a week after smaller mortgage finance company Freddie Mac, said it would need $10.6 billion in government funds after losing $8 billion in the first quarter.

The U.S. Treasury took control of the two entities at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 as mortgage losses mounted. The two firms have now tapped about $140 billion in assistance from Uncle Sam's unlimited credit line.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64935O20100510

$140 billion and counting. At that's just fannie and freddie. But yeah it's working and all is swell...

I don't really care what was behind the decision of private banks to finance debt. Greed, political pressure, I couldn't care less. They pocketed profits, they should "pocket" losses too.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Flame Of Liberty

I don't really care what was behind the decision of private banks to finance debt. Greed, political pressure, I couldn't care less. They pocketed profits, they should "pocket" losses too.

Theoretically that's all well and good, but then the market will take a dive like it did last week, except it won't stop at 1000. Liquidity disappears and we're all screwed. That sounds like a workable outcome now doesn't it?

I should add that I want to see increased regulation and oversight to prevent banks from winding up ina situation where they can't possibly cover their own losses, but that doesn't help us get out of the current mess.