iBankCoin
Home / 2013 / March (page 8)

Monthly Archives: March 2013

The Yuan Gains To a Level Above the Dollar not Seen in 19 Years

“The yuan strengthened beyond 6.21 per dollar for the first time in 19 years after the central bank raised the currency’s reference rate and as a bailout deal for Cyprus spurred demand for emerging-market assets.

The People’s Bank of China increased the daily fixing by 0.03 percent to 6.2692 per dollar today, the strongest level since Jan. 15. The currencies of Asia’s developing economies appreciated today as euro-area finance ministers approved a bailout for Cyprus. China will maintain a “reasonable” level of investment as it targets a pickup in domestic demand, the China Securities Journal reported today, citing National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Zhu Zhixin.

“A stronger exchange rate could help China tame inflationary pressures and boost domestic consumption by lowering prices of imports,” said Daniel Chan, a Hong Kong- based executive vice president at Glory Sky Global Markets Ltd. “The yuan is also hailed as a stable currency and hence has attracted some fund flows in times of uncertainty.”

The yuan gained 0.02 percent to close at 6.2107 per dollar inShanghai, prices from China Foreign Exchange Trade System show. It touched 6.2095 earlier, the strongest level since the government unified official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993. The currency traded at a 0.95 percent premium to the reference rate, near the 1 percent limit allowed by the central bank.

BRICS Summit…”

Full article

Comments »

Japan Pops as the Yen Drops on Easing Concerns Over Cyprus

“Japanese shares rose, with the Topix Index climbing from the first weekly drop in five weeks, as the yen weakened after European Union finance ministers approved a bailout agreement for Cyprus today.

Sony Corp. (6758), a consumer-electronics exporter that gets 20 percent of its sales fromEurope, gained 3.1 percent. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. rose 2.5 percent on a Nikkei newspaper report that the Subaru maker’s operating profit may surge. Furukawa (5715) Co. soared 22 percent to lead gains on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average after the industrial-machinery maker raised its dividend forecast. Konica Minolta Holdings Ltd. slumped 2.9 percent after the lensmaker’s investment rating was cut.

The Nikkei 225 gained 1.7 percent to 12,546.46 at the close in Tokyo, with volume 30 percent lower than the 30-day average. The Topix climbed 0.8 percent to 1,047.29. All but three of its 33 industry groups advanced.

“Now that they’ve reached an agreement, there’s relief as it seems the financial system has been saved for now,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a senior strategist in Tokyo at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, which oversees about $74 billion. “Fundamentals here remain strong, with the trend toward a weakening yen, as well as the global economic recovery with the U.S. and Asia boosting Japanese exporters.” ….”

Full article

Comments »

Japan and the EU Enter Into Free Trade Agreement Talks

“TOKYO (AP) — Japan and the European Union agreed Monday to start negotiations for a free-trade pact encompassing nations that account for nearly a third of the world economy.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso spoke by telephone for 30 minutes late Monday, aJapanese government spokesman said. A Japan-EU summit set to begin Monday in Tokyo was shelved because of the financial crisis in Cyprus.

The leaders agreed to launch the negotiations toward a “deep and comprehensive” free-trade deal, with the first meeting set for next month, both sides said in a joint statement. The place for that meeting is not yet decided, Deputy Chief Cabinet SecretaryKatsunobu Kato told reporters.

As global momentum builds for regional trade pacts, Japan has been eager to get started on talks with Europe. Earlier this month, Abe announced Tokyo will join talks on a Pacific trade pact, the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership. The U.S and EU announced free-trade talks earlier this year aimed at creating the world’s largest free-trade zone.

In the phone conversation, the three leaders exchanged views on Cyprus and reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing economic growth and ensuring financial stability. Cyprus secured an agreement early Monday that paves the way for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.

“Today marks a historical juncture,” European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, an official who did not cancel his trip, told reporters after meeting with Japanese government and business officials in Tokyo.

He was delighted the agreement was reached but acknowledged it was hard to predict how long the negotiations might take, adding that autos was one “sensitive” sector for the EU.

“We will do our utmost to come to a critical mass of understanding within one year,” he said.

Although resistance to lower tariffs is high in some Japanese industries, such as long-protected rice farmers, manufacturers and others are concerned about being left behind by the trade agreements that other countries are negotiating…”

 

Full article

Comments »

Cyprus: What Happens Next?

“Cyprus is zeroing in on a solution to avoid getting ejected from the EMU. It’s simple. Since taxing everyone’s account by a few percent didn’t work, it’s time to raid all the larger accounts.

With Cyprus facing a Monday deadline to avoid a banking collapse, the government and its international negotiators devised a plan late Saturday to seize a portion of savers’ deposits above 100,000 euros at all banks in the country, in a bid to raise money for an urgently needed bailout.

one-time levy of 20 percent would be placed on uninsured deposits at one of the nation’s biggest banks, the Bank of Cyprus, to help raise 5.8 billion euros demanded by the lenders to secure a 10 billion euro, or $12.9 billion, lifeline. A separate tax of 4 percent would be assessed on uninsured deposits at all other banks, including the 26 foreign banks that operate in Cyprus.

This action will really upset the Russian mafia, but is not going to save the the nation’s banks. Once the financial system opens for business, the run on banks will ensue – no matter what sort of controls the authorities will try to impose. No sane depositor who is able to open an account in Germany, France, or even Italy would leave cash in Cyprus. As far as the depositors are concerned, if the Cypriot authorities have done it once, they can do it again. Some of those deposits will quickly move back to where they came from – Russian banks.

Given the size of deposits at Cypriot banks, there isn’t enough in eligible collateral for MRO financing (short term secured borrowing from ECB) to replace these lost deposits. The flight of capital will increase the funding needs far beyond the €10bn Cyprus is trying to raise. And it’s unclear if the ECB should continue to provide further emergency loans (ELA). After all, the Eurosystem’s exposure to Cyprus is simply insignificant on a relative basis. The ECB’s balance sheet is still massive. It can generate more than enough interest income in a few months to cover the losses of Cypriot banks’ defaulting on their ECB loans. So why throw good money after bad?…”

Full article and chart

Comments »

The Saddest Story You Ever Heard

“AUSTIN (CN) – An ill, elderly Texas woman claims in court that she’s being thrown out the home she’s lived in for 47 years because of $49 in property taxes — which she paid early.
Aron Ezilla Ridge, 75, sued James B. Nutter & Co. in Travis County Court.
She claims Nutter is foreclosing on her home for allegedly unpaid taxes – taxes she says it paid on her behalf already.
Ridge is partly blind, has diabetes, congestive heart failure and had surgery for colon cancer several years ago.
“She needs a wheelchair to leave her home and is largely housebound at this point in her life,” the complaint states. “She can read but her reading level is approximately at the 6th grade level and her ability to read is, of course, further limited by her failing eyesight.”
Ridge says she paid off the mortgage for her 900-square-foot home about 20 years ago. But in 2007 it needed major roof, kitchen and bathroom repairs. In February that year, she says, she signed up for a reverse mortgage with Nutter, which provided her with $39,000 for the repairs.
Ridge says she was told by the Travis County Tax Assessor’s office in 2000 that she did not need to pay property taxes because the value of her home was below homestead and senior exemption caps.
But she received a property tax bill in 2011 for $20.31. She says she was able to drive to the assessor’s office and pay the taxes in full and on time.
In April 2012, the assessor’s office informed her that her home was valued at $60,743 and that her taxes were estimated at $46.87, according to the complaint.
Ridge says she did not receive a tax bill, but later received a receipt stating that $49 in taxes were paid in late 2012.
“She assumed that the receipt meant she was again exempt from property taxes,” the complaint states. “She did not call the tax office to see why she had received a receipt without having received a bill.”
In January this year, Nutter’s attorneys told Ridge her reverse mortgage had been accelerated, and that she had to pay off the entire loan “or the lender would exercise its right to enforce the lien on her home. Ms. Ridge does not remember receiving this letter,” the complaint states. (Citation to exhibit omitted.)
Ridge says her home was foreclosed on on Jan. 30, and she received notice on Feb. 6….”

Full article

Comments »

Amazing Science

“MADRID—Reaching into a stainless steel tray, Francisco Fernandez-Aviles lifted up a gray, rubbery mass the size of a fat fist.

It was a human cadaver heart that had been bathed in industrial detergents until its original cells had been washed away and all that was left was what scientists call the scaffold.

Next, said Dr. Aviles, “We need to make the heart come alive.”

Inside a warren of rooms buried in the basement of Gregorio Marañón hospital here, Dr. Aviles and his team are at the sharpest edge of the bioengineering revolution that has turned the science-fiction dream of building replacement parts for the human body into a reality.

Since a laboratory in North Carolina made a bladder in 1996, scientists have built increasingly more complex organs. There have been five windpipe replacements so far. A London researcher, Alex Seifalian, has transplanted lab-grown tear ducts and an artery into patients. He has made an artificial nose he expects to transplant later this year in a man who lost his nose to skin cancer.

“The work has been extraordinarily pioneering,” said Sir Roy Calne, an 82-year-old British surgeon who figured out in the 1950s how to use drugs to prevent the body from rejecting transplanted organs.

Now, with the quest to build a heart, researchers are tackling the most complex organ yet. The payoff could be huge, both medically and financially, because so many people around the world are afflicted with heart disease. Researchers see a multi-billion-dollar market developing for heart parts that could repair diseased hearts and clogged arteries.

In additional to the artificial nose, Dr. Seifalian is making cardiovascular body parts. He sees a time when scientists would grow the structures needed for artery bypass procedures instead of taking a vein from another part the body. As part of a clinical trial, Dr. Seifalian plans to transplant a bioengineered coronary artery into a person later this year. His employer, University College London, has designated a person to oversee any future commercialization of it and other man-made organs….”

 

Full article

Comments »

Why the Entire Eurozone Could Break Up in a Blink of an Eye

While i’m not an economist or a financial analyst i think it is painfully obvious that a break up of the entire Eurozone could happen virtually overnight.

The chart below shows how Germany is profiting from current economic conditions and why with their iron fist control would not want to change a thing. The question is how long will the rest of Europe stand pain while upstarts like Beppe Grillo capture attention and even possibly control of sovereign nations.

History has shown time and again how upstart leaders like Hitler can rise to power instantaneously when a society is politically frustrated and  wanting “Change You  Can Believe In “. Just imagine 17 Beppe Grillos across Europe.

Given what just took place in Cyprus it would not be out of the norm for someone to run a campaign based on strengthening the economy, improving unemployment, protecting depositors, and breaking free of an iron fist like Iceland.

Source  

screen shot 2013-03-23 at 3.53.17 pm

Comments »

G20 Rallied Together by South Korea to ‘Tackle’ A Sliding Yen Problem

South Korea’s newly-appointed finance minister, Hyun Oh Seok, urged international cooperation to tackle a “weak-yen problem” and said that the Group of 20 nations should revisit the issue.

“Japan’s expansionary policies are having various ripple effects on many countries,” Hyun told reporters yesterday in Bundang on his second day as finance chief. “The yen is depreciating while the won is gaining and this is flashing a red light for Korea’s exports.”

Japan’s new central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is poised to boost monetary easing as part of a campaign against deflation, which has already driven down the yen by about 11 percent against the dollar in the past three months. Hyun’s comments revive concerns that his nation aired before and after last month’s G-20 meeting in Moscow, where that organization refrained from criticizing Japanese policies.

“While we will do what we can, we need international cooperation to deal with the weak-yen problem,” Hyun told reporters yesterday. “This should be discussed at the G-20.”

South Korean officials are concerned at the yen’s slide because the nation depends on exports for economic growth and competes in overseas markets with Japanese manufacturers of cars and electronics. At the Moscow meeting, G-20 nations pledged not “to target our exchange rates for competitive purposes,” without any censure of Japan for the yen’s decline.

Japan’s government says it is not targeting the yen, with declines in the currency a side-effect of efforts to end deflation and spur a sustained recovery in the world’s third- biggest economy.

Checking Prices…”

Full article

Comments »

$BX & Ichan Offer Up Rival Bids for $DELL

Blackstone Group LP (BX) and activist investor Carl Icahn submitted proposals to buy Dell Inc. (DELL) that would rival a $24.4 billion buyout offer from Silver Lake Management LLC and company founder Michael Dell, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Blackstone, the world’s biggest private-equity firm, outlined an offer valued at $13.65 to $14.50 a share, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. Icahn said he’d pay $15 a share, with a cap on the amount of cash used in the deal, two people said.

The proposals present unexpectedly serious challenges to Michael Dell’s effort to take private the Round Rock, Texas- based company he founded in 1984 as it struggles with competition from smart phones and tablets. The transaction’s strengths include the founder’s participation and his decision to roll over his 15.6 percent stake to help finance the purchase. It’s also rare for one private-equity firm to seek to break up another’s deal.

Now, Dell’s board probably will conclude in the next few days that both proposals are reasonably likely to be superior, said one of the people. Under terms of the original Feb. 5 merger agreement with Silver Lake, the board would then take time to determine whether the counteroffers are superior. At that point Silver Lake and Michael Dell, which offered $13.65 a share, would have three days to top them.

Too Cheap…”

Full article

Comments »

Will America Become a Nation of Locusts?

“The developed world has now become a fully operational Something-for-Nothing society. Once a Something-for-Nothing psychology has been fully implemented the majority of its citizens have become the functional equivalent of LOCUSTS!

Unable and unwilling ( they no longer have the skills to make the wages they believe they are entitled to ) to produce more than they consume and support themselves they set off the consume those that do to FEED on and SUPPORT themselves. The TAKERS or WEALTH EAT the MAKERS of WEALTH, Cannibalism of the worst sort.

Once they have achieved voting majorities the economies they inhabit are much like a farmer’s field. They eat everything down to the roots and next years seed corn. Nothing is left to create future wealth and total destruction of production of wealth is the result. “Something for Nothing” societies are a PRODUCT of a number of factors which combine to destroy the lives and future prospects of the majority of its citizens. Creating desperate mobs of citizens easily manipulated by FEAR. It DRIVES the final descent into economic and societal COLLAPSE.

The developed world elites, public servants and banksters have converted the capitalist economies which created the greatest, wealthiest and most productive economies in history to SERFDOMS.

Something-for-nothing societies are man-made products of socialists/progressives repeating history. As Ben Franklin once said: “Those that forget the lessons of history are DOOMED to repeat it”. We are repeating it, think Rome, the British empire, etc. Socialists ALWAYS believe they are smarter than anyone, (that this time it will work contrary to histories lessons), including former socialists who destroyed their nations in the past.

There are five elements to creating a SOMETHING-for-NOTHING society:

  • The first and most important element is UNSOUND money and the destruction of private property rights.
  • The second element is a CENTRALLY controlled public school system to destroy the wealth of the nation by crippling the ability of citizens to solve problems, be economically productive and self-reliant, think for themselves, and understand history as to learn its lessons.
  • A mainstream media that reports misinformation as fact to manipulate the masses (useful idiots created by the public school monopoly’s) for the benefit of socialists and elites who control things.
  • The third element is to make the middle class in SERFS and slaves to government and Banks in one form or another.
  • The last element is to embrace the very leaders who have preyed upon them and support them in ROBBING the very parts of their economies which are the only hope of a prosperous future aka KILLING the GOLDEN Goose.

Let’s begin with number one, and this is actually the key/master thread to most of today’s chaos and it originally began when the Federal Reserve in 1913, at Bretton Woods I in 1945 the dollar remained convertible in gold but only for central banks and in August 1971 the final denouement when the dollar became redeemable in NOTHING but the private property of the citizens of the United States.

On that fateful day the greatest theft of wealth in history took place and big government progressives substituted IOU’s for the semi sound money its citizens had held up to this point. The functions of money were altered and not one man in a million recognized what had just transpired. Here is an illustration:

Real Money vs Fake Fiat Money

“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens… There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose”

– John Maynard Keynes

Capitalism in its REAL form has been destroyed (crony capitalism has been substituted) and the society has been DEBAUCHED as he correctly observed. The ability of the public to hold and store wealth ended on that day. And NO ONE REALIZED IT AT THE TIME. What money is and has to do to work properly (create the incentives to save, work hard and invest) have not been taught in decades to ease the OUTRAGE that would be expected to emerge if the citizens understood what was done to them….”

Full article

Comments »

Fitch Warns of Downgrading the U.K.’s Triple A Rating

“Britain looked poised to lose its AAA rating from a second ratings agency after Fitch Ratings warned on Friday it was likely to downgrade the country in the coming weeks, citing high government debt levels and weak growth.

A month since Britain was downgraded by Moody’s, Fitch put the country on review and said a downgrade was a heightened possibility. A decision is due by the end of April, Fitch said in a statement.

Sterling fell sharply, dropping half a cent against the dollar.

The review announcement comes hard on the heels of the government’s annual budget this week, which halved Britain’s growth forecast for this year and raised borrowing projections.

The move by Fitch was not unexpected but will be another setback for finance minister George Osborne. He has staked his reputation on repairing Britain’s public finances and had promised to protect its triple-A rating.

Britain’s finance ministry, which is three years into an austerity plan, said Fitch’s announcement showed “there are no easy answers to problems built up over many years”.

“But we are, slowly but surely, fixing our country’s economic problems,” a Treasury spokesman said, citing a reduction by one third of the budget deficit and the creation of 1.25 million jobs since the government took office in 2010.

‘WASTED CHANCE’ …”

Full article

Comments »

Wilbur Ross Advises Against a Position in Long Term Debt

“Investors would do well to steer clear of long-term bonds while the Federal Reserve continues to execute its quantitative easing, says private-equity titan Wilbur Ross.

His thinking is that yields can’t stay near historic lows forever.

“Where I’d be very wary is bonds,” Ross tells CNBC. “If the 10-year Treasury reverts back just to its average yield from 2000-2010, you know how much the price will go down?” The answer: 23 percent. “That’s a huge risk,” says Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross and Co.

The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 1.92 percent late Friday afternoon.

“We’ve been advising friends it’s not worth getting a few extra basis points to take that kind of downside risk for a year or two while [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke keeps this quantitative easing going,” Ross says.

“We’re recommending people not be in long-term debt of any kind. Instead, we’re urging our companies to borrow as much long-term fixed money as they can.”

Ross isn’t the only noteworthy investor to have a dismal view of U.S. Treasury bonds.

Warren Buffett, the third-richest person in the world, agrees that long-term U.S. government bonds aren’t the place to be. “The dumbest investment you know, in my view, is a long-term government bond,” he told CNBC earlier this month….”

Full article

Comments »

$JPM Comments on Eurozone Wide Capital Controls

“With the Cypriot government still ‘undecided’ about what to ‘take’ and the European leaders very much ‘decided’ about what to ‘give’, the fact of the matter is, as JPMorgan explains in this excellent summary of the state of affairs in Europe, that because ELA funding facility is limited by the availability of collateral (and the haircuts applied to those by the central bank), and cutting the Cypriot banking system completely from ELA access is equivalent to cutting it from the Eurosystem making an exit from the euro a matter of time. This makes it inevitable that capital controls and a capital freeze will be imposed, in their view, but it is not only bank deposits that are at risk. A broader retrenchment in funding markets is possible given the confusion and inconsistency last weekend’s decision created for investors relative to previous policy decisions. Add to this the move by Spain, which announced this week a tax or bank levy (probably 0.2%) to be imposed on bank deposits, without details on which deposits will be affected or timing, and the chance of sparking much broader deposit outflows across the union are rising quickly.

 

Via JPMorgan,

Capital Control Risks

What was widely viewed as an ill-conceived Cyprus deal last weekend renewed fears of a re-escalation of the euro debt crisis. The original proposal to hit insured depositors below €100k caused a bank run and set a new precedent in the course of the Euro area debt crisis, with potential negative consequences for bank deposits not only in Cyprus but also in other peripheral countries. Once again, as it happened with the Greek crisis last May, the Cyprus crisis exposes the fragmentation of the deposit guarantee schemes in the Euro area and its inconsistency with a monetary union….”

Full article

Comments »

El-Erian: Central Banks Are Buying Time

“This mix of excitement and anxiety is, in fact, a sign of the looming crossroads that faces investors. One road, involving a relatively orderly handoff from policy-assisted recovery to self-sustaining growth, offers the possibility of even greater financial rewards, as rapidly improving economic and political conditions validate current artificial pricing and drive it higher.

The other road is a lot less attractive. With insufficient endogenous healing and no economic escape velocity, the effectiveness of central banks’ policies wanes and political dysfunction increases, leading to financial losses, volatility spikes, and huge risk-management challenges.

Given current policy and political uncertainties – and the multiple equilibria that they entail – it is difficult to predict with a high degree of confidence which road eventually will be taken and when. Those who claim otherwise may well fail to appreciate fully the exceptional nature of the current situation.

In these circumstances, timing may not be everything, but it may prove to be a key determinant of the probabilities. If the journey to the crossroads is accelerated by a large geopolitical shock (originating in, say, the Middle East or North Korea) and/or a serious political breakdown in Europe (for example, a meltdown in Cyprus or prolonged political paralysis in Italy), the probability of taking the adverse path rises to an uncomfortably high level. If, however, central banks can contain domestic and global inconsistencies long enough, the combination of endogenous healing and eventual political progress would significantly improve the probability distribution.

Have no doubt: today’s markets rely heavily on the old adage that “time heals all wounds.” The timekeepers are central banks….”

Full article

Comments »

Is Luxemburg the Next Cyprus ?

“……………………….Now to the point of this article; consider the ratio for this European money center:

Luxemburg – External Debt = $2.2T. External debt to GDP = 3,700%

Yes, yes, I know. Luxemburg is different than Cyprus. Luxemburg is just a booking center, there are assets behind all of this debt. But at the same time, this looks like a very unstable situation.

I end with where I started, only an idiot would leave more than E100k in a Luxemburg bank (any EU bank for the foreseeable future). I believe that the deposits that are behind Luxemburg’s external debt are measured in the trillions, the vast majority of those deposits exceed E100k. It would not take much for this situation to slide out of control.”

Full article

Comments »

Nelson Peltz Takes a Position in $PEP & $MDLZ, Investors Expect a Merger

“(Reuters) – Shares in top U.S. packaged food companies Mondelez International Inc and PepsiCo Incjumped on Friday on speculation that they could merge, after a report that activist investor Nelson Peltz has taken stakes in each.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that Peltz had spent $2 billion on shares of the companies through his investment vehicle, Trian Fund Management. The paper speculated that Peltz could then push for a merger of the two companies.

The often speculated-upon marriage between PepsiCo and Mondelez would bring together salty snacks like Doritos and Tostitos with sweets like Cadbury chocolate and Oreo cookies. The resulting behemoth would have more than $100 billion in revenue and $20 billion of operating earnings per year.

A deal would also reunite Mondelez Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld with Frito-Lay, which she ran for two years before taking the reins at Kraft in 2006.

A spokeswoman for Trian declined to comment on the report. Spokesmen for PepsiCo and Mondelez declined to comment on “rumor or speculation” regarding any Trian stake, though both indicated the companies were happy with where they were now.

“We’re satisfied with the portfolio where it stands today,” said a Mondelez spokesman.

“We are making strong progress in our strategy to deliver long-term growth and create shareholder value,” said a PepsiCo spokesman. “We do not see the need for any large scale M&A.” …”

Full article

Comments »

Cyprus Passes Bills to Wind Down Insolvent Banks

“Cypriot lawmakers approved capital controls and legislation to wind down banks as they scrambled to secure a European bailout and avert a financial collapse of the Mediterranean island.

The parliament passed nine bills late yesterday after a day locked in talks between Cypriot and international officials in Nicosia. Lawmakers may vote later today on what sort of levy to impose on bank deposits above 100,000 euros ($130,000), four days after rejecting an initial proposal to tax all accounts. Banks have been shut all week and are due to reopen on March 26.

President Nicos Anastasiades is trying to end a week-long impasse that is starting to threaten the country’s membership in the euro. The European Central Bank has imposed a March 25 deadline on Cyprus to come up with proposals that will satisfy international creditors or face the risk of losing access to all emergency funds.

“We cannot fund banks that are bankrupt,” ECB council member Erkki Liikanen told Finland’s YLE TV1 today. “There is now a chance of drawing up a program in which the banks are recapitalized or reorganized to reach solvency. The ball is in Cyprus’s court.” …”

Full article

Comments »

Documentary: The Uncovered War On Iraq

It is now the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war; and what we have learned thus far is nothing more than plain sad.

Not sure why we hire liars.

Not sure why we move on after being duped.

Let’s us pray that a super power never becomes strong enough to do what we do to others.

Cheers on your weekend!

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofocNRUWOQk 450 300]

Comments »

Where Da Paper At ?

“Local government workers in the central Missouri town of Windsor (population: 3,000) have been forced to bring their own toilet paper to work, due to budget constraints.

City administrator Sandra Underwood was accused of instructing male public works employees to bring their own TP, claiming the workers were using far more paper than female employees. Underwood denied the charge.

 

Full article

103

 

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPgA4ZQf0U 450 300]

Comments »