El-Arian: European Elections Complicate Outlook

Sunday’s elections in Europe occurred in three countries with diverse economic circumstances (France, Germany, and Greece); and they were for different parts of government (presidential, regional, and parliamentary respectively). Yet the common message from the electorate is undeniable, reminiscent of a famous line in the 1976 movie Network: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Much will be written about these elections, and rightly so as they could well mark a further evolution in Europe’s regional integration efforts. They unambiguously show that the electorate is angry and has lost confidence in the ability of traditional politicians to solve the region’s crisis. Indeed, many citizens are yearning for alternatives but, as yet, are not coalescing around a common view of what these should be. As a result, political realities will complicate even more what is an already delicate economic and financial outlook for Europe, the world’s largest economic area.

Full Article

“Euro leadership, especially Ms. Merkel, need to understand that austerity policies are over”. “The parties that signed the memorandum of agreement are a minority. Their signatures are not legitimate” .

-Alexis Tsipras (this guy just won the fucking election)

Say hello to the socialist, Hollande.

NOTE: French turnout was over 80%. Can you say referendum?

Full Article

Almost every recent SNL has opened with a skit mocking the GOP. Last’s night opening skit would have changed that, but for some reason, SNL scrapped the skit. Here is the transcript of the scrapped skit. Read the article which broke this story here.

Chris Turner, a guest contributor at Advisorperspectives.com, takes apart one of Paul Krugman’s recent commentaries. When he is finished, Krugman’s claims of “unprecedented austerity” by the Obama administration is shown to be a farce. Turner also includes many great charts showing the state and change of government spending over time.

Read the article here.

More than just owning their wars; when we find out they have lied, omitted information, and committed crimes against humanity they should go to jail.

You can not have a 90% casualty rate that consists of civilians.

Full article

Photographer Stefan Koppelkamm travelled through East Germany just after the Berlin Wall fell. The photos show the stunning changes that have occurred in East Germany since the fall of Communism.

See the photo gallery here.

Mike Hapgood, who studies solar events, says the world isn’t prepared for a truly damaging storm. And one could happen soon.

Read the article here.

Trading volume has fallen off a cliff as the exchange is still troubled by the lingering fallout from the flash crash. Traders are literally sitting around doing nothing all day.

Read the article here.

Good info here to see the trends of the global economy.

I’m going to make a prediction. Based on this weeks documentary we have learned how the major banks have restructured all the worlds debt to be linked to currency swaps; a form of derivative.

Norway gave us a first impression of how nations and states will act going forward. That is they will protect themselves at all costs. Add to that the evidence of central banks buying up gold as an alternative to sovereign debt and you have a situation boiling slowly on the back burner.

It is my assumption that as western nations continue to see recession upon recession, that fear will grow over the purchase of sovereign debt. As fear mounts other states will take Norway’s lead and we will reach a point where nobody wants to be left holding the bag. This will cause dramatic fluctuations in currency evaluations and create another debacle with synthetic derivatives sparking the next credit freeze. Since we mange the opaque market of derivatives we will not escape systemic risk.

Full look at the global economy chart porn

Perhaps a bit early to mention anything here as polls do not close until 7pm Greece time or 12 pm EST. The outcome of this election is also very important for the EU.

Full article

Tracking or exit polls show Sarkozy has not much of a lead. So far he is up 4 percentage points. Stay tuned as this will have a dramatic effect on world markets.

Full article

Source: sharespost

The first general election since Greece’s debt crisis exploded at the end of 2009 will go a long way to dictating whether the country will stick to the terms of EU/IMF bailouts which saved it from bankruptcy but propelled it into a deep recession.
At stake is whether the country that drew the decade-old euro zone into the worst crisis since its creation could push it back into turmoil.

Full article

Tin +13%
Silver +9.4%
Platinum +8.5%
Gasoline +8.1%
Copper +7.8%
Cocoa +7.6%
Lithium +6.9%
Uranium +5.7%
Gold +4.9%
—————–

Natural Gas -36%
Coffee -25%
Corn -10.3%
Livestock -8.9%
Coal -6.3%
Sugar -5.3%
Nickel -5.1%
Cotton -3%
Oil -2.2%

“Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you’re a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939,” the Berkshire vice chairman said, “but I think civilized people don’t buy gold, they invest in productive businesses.”

Full Article

Marx’s theories about society, economics and politics—collectively known as Marxism—hold that all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle: a conflict between an ownership class which controls production and a lower class which produces the labour for such goods. Heavily critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, he called it the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie“, believing it to be run by the wealthy classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, it would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism.^[5] He argued that under socialism society would be governed by the working class in what he called the “dictatorship of the proletariat“, the “workers state” or “workers’ democracy”.^[6][7] He believed that socialism would, in its turn, eventually be replaced by a stateless, classless society called communism. Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, Marx actively fought for the former’s implementation, arguing that both social theorists and underprivileged people should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change.^[8][9]

Revolutionary socialist governments espousing Marxist concepts took power in a variety of countries in the 20th century, leading to the formation of such socialist states as the Soviet Union in 1922 and the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Many labor unions and worker’s parties worldwide were also influenced by Marxist ideas. Various theoretical variants, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism, were developed. Marx is typically cited, with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science.^[10] Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.^[11][12]

Wikipedia Karl Marx entry

Read the accompanying article here.