Jan 232015
 
 January 23, 2015  Posted by at 9:25 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


William Henry Jackson Eureka, Colorado 1900

I was going to start out saying yesterday was the saddest day in Europe in 50 years, or something like that, because of the insane and completely nonsensical largesse the ECB permits itself to launch, aimed at once again saving a banking system, but which will not only not help the European people, it will make things even much worse than they already are. Which is also, lest we overlook that ‘detail’, entirely thanks to the ECB/EU/IMF Troika,

I’ve said many times that the EU in its present form should be dismantled tomorrow morning (even though it’s not the same tomorrow morning anymore), and if Draghi’s $1.1 million x million ‘stimulus’ should make anything clear, it’s that the dismantling gets more urgent by the day.

But calling it the saddest day in Europe in 50 years would show far too little respect for the people who died in former Yugoslavia, and in eastern Ukraine. It’s still a very sad day, though. And I was already thinking about that even before I read Theopi Skarlatos’ article for the BBC; that really made me want to cry.

When you read about female doctors(!) feeling forced to prostitute themselves to feed their children, about the number of miscarriages doubling, and about the overall sense of helplessness and destitution among the Greek population, especially the young, who see no way of even starting to build a family, then I can only say: Brussels is a bunch of criminals. And Draghi’s QE announcement is a criminal act. It’s a good thing the bond-buying doesn’t start until March, and that it’s on a monthly base: that means it can still be stopped.

I’ll get back to Skarlatos’ story in a minute. First the insanity of the ECB QE itself. The problem with Europe’s economy, what drives it into high unemployment and deflation, is that people are not spending. If QE would really be aimed at reviving the economy, or at battling deflation, it would need to assume that people will start borrowing on a massive scale just because Draghi buys bonds – and soon perhaps even stocks – from bankers. There simply is no logic in that. The stated goals, pro-growth and anti-deflation, are not true. It’s a sleight of hand.

In order to achieve the stated goals, money would have to reach the real economy. As it stands, the best Draghi can do is to ‘hope’ it will. That’s not enough by a mile. This is not about doubts over its effectiveness, that’s baloney, we know it’s not effective when it comes to the stated goals. It will still leave Europe with no growth, and deeper deflation, and now €1.1 trillion deeper in debt. While banks can grow their reserves.

And it’s not as if Draghi doesn’t understand. Draghi is Goldman. And neither is it as if this is the only option. Steve Keen’s modern version of a debt jubilee, in which money is given directly to the people, under the condition that they first use it to pay off debt if they have any, would be much more effective. But it would be far less profitable for the banks, and that’s why it’s not considered. China yesterday announced a third option: they will effectively raise salaries of government workers by 60%.

Not that I’m terrible in favor of that kind of plan; I think any stimulus plan in our time should focus on reorganizing economies in such a way that jobs are created. That must mean moving away from centralization, and the return of production of essentials to communities and societies themselves, instead of emphasizing the ‘benefit’ of hauling goods halfway across the world, or an entire continent. It’s incredibly stupid that for instance most of our furniture and clothing is made in China.

We can produce those things at home, and give people jobs doing it. And China can focus on its domestic market too. And we can swap gadgets and other sheer luxuries, but not food or tables or shirts. Because we need to make those ourselves to keep our people employed.

Back to QE, or Draghi’s big swindle. I think Simon Jenkins at the Guardian had as good a go at it this morning as anyone:

QE For The Eurozone Is A Gigantic Confidence Trick. It Should Fool No One

The former BBC economic pundit Stephanie Flanders told the world it was “Santa Claus time”; the ECB has ridden to the rescue. No it has not.

Europe’s great and good, partying on the slopes of Davos, are blinded by snow and celebrities. Santa Claus gives presents to people; the ECB gives presents to its banks. It is merely tipping large sums of money into the vaults of precisely the institutions whose crazy lending caused the crash of 2008, and which have been failing Europe’s economy ever since. There is absolutely no requirement on these banks to release this money into private or commercial bank accounts.

Given the fear of over-lending that regulators have struck into bank bosses since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the money will simply build up reserves. That is exactly what has happened to quantitative easing in Britain since 2010: there has been no surge in bank lending, except into property investment. Quantitative easing is a gigantic confidence trick.

It was promised that it would yield new investment. It has not. It was promised that it would “pump money into the economy”. It has not. It was also feared that printing money would lead to hyper-inflation. It has not, for the simple reason that no one gets to spend the money. It is a bookkeeping transaction between a central bank and a commercial bank. It means nothing as long as banks are told to build up their reserves. Money in circulation matters. The whole of Europe, including Britain, is chronically short of demand, which is why deflation is such a menace.

If no one can afford to buy anything, no one will sell anything or invest money in making anything. The chronic imbalance between northern and southern states of the eurozone, previously ameliorated by selective devaluation, has bound poor and rich countries alike in a rictus of cash starvation. Collapsing demand drives down prices and profits; there is nothing for banks to invest in. The Chinese are laughing. Greece and some other Mediterranean economies are facing poverty not seen in half a century.

A return to normal growth means they must declare themselves bankrupt, restructure past debts, leave the eurozone and devalue. Don’t bury money in their banks. Bury it in their wallet. The eurozone may still look great from the top of a Swiss mountain; it looks terrible from the foot of the Acropolis.

I also liked ADMISI’s Marc Ostwald’s take right after Draghi did the announcement, courtesy of Tyler Durden:

Risk sharing is very limited, with national central banks taking 80% of the risk on sovereign bond purchases, and rather un-reassuring was Draghi’s comment that “most national central banks have adequate buffers to absorb a negative event” – most being how many.

Not good news for Greece, while it and Cyprus will be eligible for purchases of govt under a ‘waiver’ for (bail-out) ‘programme countries’, the ECB already has a very high volume of Greek bonds on it balance sheet from the SMP programme, and given a limit on total holdings for each sovereign issuer, it will not be eligible for purchases until it redeems debt in July and August.

It should be added that Italy and Spain and other bail-out countries will implicitly also have a lower available volume of total purchases, until SMP holdings are redeemed.

Draghi is going the save German banks, not weaker eurozone nations. Their banks maybe.

BUT perhaps the key aspect relates to the limits on the 25% limit on purchases of a single issue, which ensures that the ECB adheres to the ECJ’s ruling about the ECB ensuring that is does not interfere with “price formation”. So here’s the key aspect, there are some $12.0 trillion of FX reserves in the world, of which roughly a quarter are held in Euros.

Operating on the traditional metric that roughly half of those will be invested in Govt Bills and Bonds, this means that FX reserve managers will have to be involved in the process of establishing prices for whatever is purchased under the Govt bond QE programme. Eminently anything that is sold by central banks will not find its way into the private financial sector, therefore that €60 billion figure may often overstate what is being injected into the market.

Last but not least, the expanded programme does not start until March 15, so “Mr Market” now has a very long waiting period to sit on holdings of EUR debt before selling to the ECB, and with plenty of event risk in the world, starting with the Greek election, and an imminent Ukrainian default. Sort this under an uncomfortably long period before the QE ‘party’ gets started.

And in case you’re still wondering whether QE works and/or how effective it is, this graph also comes from Durden:



And that doesn’t even yet include stock markets and bank reserves at the Fed. What is obvious is that the Fed’s QE3 has been a mind-boggling failure for the American people, and a smashing success for the Davos crowd.

What’s wrong in Europe is not just Draghi, it’s the entire EU. If you join into a union with other nations, you can’t let some of them sink into despair, and worse, while others sit pretty. And I know the answer from Brussels will be that what is needed is a stronger and closer union, fiscal, political, but I think that if you already let your fellow union members plunge this deep into misery in the early stages of a union, a country like Greece would be out of its mind if not outright suicidal to sign on to a closer union. Northern Europe survives by sucking the lifeblood out of the South. It’s a really simple story that nobody will tell you.

Let’s return to Theopi Skarlatos for the BBC. This is heart rendering. How can the people of Germany, Holland, France, ever have let it get this far? What could possibly be their excuse? That their media never informed them? You have the most pervasive media in history, and you didn’t know? What are you going to do? Blame the lazy Greeks? Who need to ‘reform’ their societies?

Greece was not nearly this poor before it joined the EU. And we’ve seen above that Draghi’s QE won’t do anything to relieve their misery, nothing at all. If you’re going to spend 1.1 million times a million euros, shouldn’t that go towards doing something for Greece, instead of a group of banks and their shareholders?

Love In A Time Of Crisis In Greece

As Greeks prepare to vote in Sunday’s general election, anti-austerity party Syriza is ahead in the polls and campaigning under the slogan, “Hope is on its way”. The average wage has fallen to €600 (£450: $690) a month; half of all young people are unemployed and the economy is barely emerging from six years of recession. But Greeks remain determined to maintain their hold on normality. “We don’t have much else,” they say, “we may as well enjoy our freddo cappuccinos.”

But despite the drinking, flirting and dating, since the onset of financial disaster, a fundamental change has taken place in Greek society. Deejay Tommy paints a sad picture of young Greeks waking up every day without a job. “Things have lost a little bit of their romanticism,” he says. “The crisis has forced love to become a secondary priority. There are other things to worry about. I see many women looking for someone who will have money to take them out, who’ll take them on holidays. I see this quite a lot and it saddens me.”

Down the road along the shoreline, the Bouzoukia clubs ring with live renditions of popular Greek love songs. Crowds sipping on vodka throw the singers red carnations and sing along to lyrics of heartbreak and pain. “We save up to come once every few months and we look forward to it,” says Katerina Fotopoulou, 30, at a table with her friends. “We don’t have the money to do much any more. We’re always talking about future plans, going on holiday, but no-one ever does anything.” Living at home, Katerina describes herself as an adult forced to live as a teenager, her life put on hold.

Compared with other Europeans, Greeks are still fairly traditional. For many young women, it is awkward bringing a boyfriend through the front door to meet the parents. And that poses a problem, considering the high numbers unable to afford a place of their own. “Relationships are complicated these days,” says Katerina. “No-one is even thinking about getting married or having children.”

Indeed, Greece’s population is shrinking at an increasing pace according to data released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (Elstat). Since Greece first signed its EU-IMF bailout agreement the number of births has declined rapidly. In 2010 there were 114,766 live births, and by 2013 that number had declined by almost 20,000 (94,134). Obstetrician Leonidas Papadopoulos says miscarriages at the Leto maternity hospital have doubled over the past year. “Maybe it’s down to stress,” he says. “There is no proof, but you can see it in the eyes of the people, there is stress and fear for the future.”

He describes how a woman he had been treating with IVF came to him one day crying because she was pregnant. She had lost her job and demanded an abortion. But he felt he could not perform the procedure. “Soon,” says Dr Papadopoulos, “the population will be halved and there won’t be any young people to work and pay for the pensions of the elderly. All the social problems will rise up in front of us.”

Some who have children and are struggling to support them have turned to sex work, to put food on the table. Further north, in Larissa, Soula Alevridou, who owns a legal brothel, says the number of married women coming to her looking for work has doubled in the last five years. “They plead and plead but as a legal brothel we cannot employ married women,” she says. “It’s illegal. So eventually they end up as prostitutes on the streets.”

A doctor, Georgia, explains how she also works as an escort in the sex industry to support her family. Her private clinic currently treats three patients a week, but the peak summer season in the sex industry enables her to keep up with the rental payments on her family’s home and the healthcare bills for her elderly parents. “I live a double life and only I can know about it,” she says. “I have applied for jobs in medicine abroad and wait every day in hope of a reply.”

For journalist Elini Lazarou, having a baby was not something she was prepared to put on hold while waiting for a change in the political or economic climate. “Love in the time of crisis can function as a painkiller, with which someone can forget the problems they’re facing, or as a source from which someone can draw strength, energy and optimism,” she says.

On a wall in downtown Athens, a simple message is daubed that reads “Love or nothing”. It strikes a defiant tone amid the blighted lives hidden behind pure economics.

And against that backdrop Brussels and Frankfurt ‘heroically’ decide to prop up the banks with another €1.1 trillion. They should be dragged before judges, but what they do is presently legal (guess who makes the laws). So it’s up to the people of not just Greece in this weekend’s election, but to everyone who lives in the European Union. It’s up to the Dutch and the Germans and the Finns to end this monstrosity.

The troika is creating third world nations within the EU, and you guys are just sitting there watching them do it, and hoping that more money for your banks will mean your own petty little lives will be secure and safe, while Greek doctors are forced to prostitute themselves.

Please Syriza, please Tsipras, win the elections and fight this bunch of criminals. And please all of Europe, get up from your couches and refuse for this to be committed in your name. If not, you’re accomplices, whether anyone calls you on it or not. Shame on you, you’re a disgrace to mankind.

Home Forums Bunch of Criminals!

Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
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  • #18596

    William Henry Jackson Eureka, Colorado 1900 I was going to start out saying yesterday was the saddest day in Europe in 50 years, or something like tha
    [See the full post at: Bunch of Criminals!]

    #18599
    johnhem
    Participant

    It’s insane that anyone has to prostitute themselves to pay their rent or put food on the table for their families but that M.D.s have to do this is absolutely surreal.

    #18604
    rapier
    Participant

    Greece is a weak country so this is what happens. Just wait until after the election. Tsipras and Syriza are now being called radical leftists and even communists here in the US media the last few days. Which means we will crush them as they are now the enemy. Lessons must be taught and examples made.

    #18605
    discovergold
    Participant

    I wish I could agree agree but, I don’t. Things are not as simple as they appear, Greeks lived the high life for over 30 years abusing everything in their path, they thought they had found the goose that lays the golden eggs, they wasted 400 BILLION euros, each family owns at least 2+ homes, until it was time 35 years later to payback the money they borrowed and only then they realized what had happen, and only then the government tries ti implement a taxation system to collect. In the mean time 2 generations are raised wrong, most of these youngsters are worthless individuals for their society, they traded strong society and family values for security, or so they thought only to loose both. Today they are supported by their parents and grandparents for a minimum wage. Their ignorance is still vivid in today’s everyday life and the future government, Syriza, they are no better than anyone before, because they are a product of their own environment. How do I know all of this? I seen it every year , since 1982, going back what I had called home…

    #18606
    Chris M
    Participant

    Ilargi,

    I agree that economies must be reorganized, but such that “stimulus” plans are made obsolete–a thing of the past. Properly structured economies function on their own and are not subject to the booms and busts we have today, which many believe are intentionally engineered by the powers that be, to concentrate more and more of the wealth (property).

    Jobs are created when the price of raw materials (and then the incomes and profits of businesses downstream) are in balance with wages and interest, or at parity, as some call it. The populace then has the means (earnings) to consume their own production.

    In terms of currency, production needs to be monetized, not debt. This is the basis of sound, honest money.

    Again, as Keen suggests, debt forgiveness is a good idea to reset an economy. But the structural reforms must be put into place so things don’t go right back to where they started from. As said, with an economy based on debt, you eventually get a small percentage of people owning everything, which is a condition ripe for misery, and revolution. Just ask the Greeks.

    #18607
    Chris M
    Participant

    Rapier,

    Makes me wonder what’s going on with the US and Cuba. If you can’t beat them, exploit them, huh?

    #18608
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Leaders = Liars; every man jack one of them, with few (very few) exceptions.
    The latest outrage comes from the just appointed head of US Broadcasting Board of Governors, Andrew Lack. He named RT one of the agency’s main challenges, alongside extremist groups like the Islamic State and Boko Haram. WTF???
    IME, RT is one of the last places/news organizations where genuine reporting is still happening.
    Everything has been turned upside down, most especially the truth.
    Link;
    https://rt.com/news/225543-rt-isis-us-broadcaster/

    And then this;
    https://rt.com/news/225751-psaki-rt-isis-bbg/

    The evil WH spokesperson disagrees, sort of kind of…

    Didn’t somebody say bread and circuses…

    #18614
    Chriss
    Participant

    Rapier, your information is so far off its borderline criminal itself. And deflects blame from the real culprits. Every major economy in the world has over borrowed, a lot of them just to buy essentials and get by, some because of outright ignorance such as in the UK where levering up and speculating on housing is a religious ritual.

    Blaming each other is dividing and weakening us. The EU et al are just tools of a layer of criminal parasites who see themselves as gods, and as a literal separate species that has the duty to control the population for the sake of mother earth. Keeping wealth and therefore consumption away from the masses is their duty as gods of this earth. It’s perverse. And criminal. The sooner we stop blaming each other and recognising the situation the sooner we can refresh this one way system and devise one that doesn’t rely on destruction of people to save the planet

    #18617
    jal
    Participant

    “… just sitting there”
    The structure of our economic and social system (capitalism), requires that the majority of the population live on the edge of poverty. Taking action against the existing structures to try to make changes will make you into a brainwashed terrorist.

    Yes, cry for the Greeks, and at the same time cry for all the poor of the world that you have ignored.

    #18628
    GeertsP
    Participant

    Raul,

    since I live in the Netherlands I qualify for “all of europe” from your closing statements.
    However the appeal is naive since 99% of the establishment (political parties, government , corporate sector, banks) is pro-Europe. The only dissident is our local Geert Wilders party who affiliates with le Pen France and others and most people therefore rather avoid.
    The only change we had a few years back was being able to vote for the new EU constitution (in practical terms even far more Europe). It was voted against by 2/3 of the population but then they changed some wording, called it something else and went forward just the same.
    The good thing about our “democracy” is that we can say what we like but it is totally ignored.
    Some parties in parliament have now voiced their concerns regarding Draghi’s next move but it is completely out of their hands since local government has no saying in what the EU central bank does. Things will only change when a complete euro implosion has taken place and there is nothing the average citizen can do before that happens

    Peter

    #18629
    John Day
    Participant

    Hey Ilargi,

    You posted that Eureka Colorado picture before, and some others from that series, maybe back in 2008-2009.
    Good pics, though…
    🙂

    John

    #18630
    Ken Barrows
    Participant

    All this central bank nonsense is shuffling around claims on wealth; it’s not about creating wealth. The particularly sad thing about the proponents of business as usual is none of them knows how to create societal wealth. Creating more debt is a useful proxy for them.

    #18635
    ChristophWeise2
    Participant

    ECB QE is a consequence of FED policy and the announcement to increase rates. Increased rates shall push sovereign debt deeper and force the holders to write-off. Such write-offs shall trigger bank defaults which would lead to a reset. The cause of the problem is the FED which needs to be abolished which will also lead to a reset. Eventually there is not other choice but to abolish the central banks in their present form. From my EU-perspective the US citizens should overcome the corrupt system of Democrats and Republicans, establish a new political power party that campaigns without huge cost using the internet and rid themselves of the FED which is only serving the interest of very few and drives the US population into poverty.

    #18663
    TheTrivium4TW
    Participant

    Debt Money Tyranny – a private international banking cartel literally renting money to society so our economies can temporarily function for the interest costs – is the root cause of the problem.
    Everything else is secondary.
    If you don’t eliminate debt based money, YOU’VE DONE NOTHING LONG TERM.
    Except that term might not be so long anymore.
    Greece is the symbol of where Debt Money Tyranny was ENGINEERED to take “little people” so that the sociopathic oligarchs can benefit according to their sick desires.
    By all appearances, they don’t just want your stuff, either. They want your soul and spirit, too.

    #18692
    kgardner
    Participant

    funny how rent-seekers and usurers like “discovergold” tend to blame the generation rather than blame the policies which created the actions of a generation. as if they would just listen to him and speculate on gold rather than actually produce anything that the world’s problems would be solved.

    #18693
    kgardner
    Participant

    it is really a basic money supply problem of credit-based monetary and banking systems made worse by little league teams like greece being forced to play in the big leagues with teams like germany. no money (no private or public loans). no jobs. it is made worse because greece is being parasitically drained of their existing money supply to the benefit of big foreign banks. greece needs their own currency and own banks if they can even hope of seeing the money supply to pay interest on public debts.

    #18784
    discovergold
    Participant

    As I said, you probably know nothing about the culture nor you have lived there. I blamed the new generations because they abused everything in their path for over 30 years. I lived under the same conditions but I made my life a success, what do you suppose contributed to my success? ” The policies which created the actions”?
    Listen and learn, don’t ever think that the modern Greeks will be model for the rest of the world to follow…
    As far as “speculate on gold” it’s funny you mention it because I am not a speculator, I own physical Gold and Silver and continue to buy,do you?
    And in case you are wondering I am GREEK and always will be!

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