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September 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Speaking in London, Mr Moscovici said that there was light at the end
of the tunnel for the eurozone, and that France remained “firm”
on its commitment to slash its 2013 deficit to 3pc of GDP under new fiskalpakt
rules.
France’s Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici speaks during a news
conference after meeting his British counterpart in London on Monday (Photo:
Reuters).
16.25 Angus Campbell at Capital Spreads, adds:
After the excitement of the market moves last week investors took a more
demure approach to today’s session. The big rallies have proved hard to
sustain and it is inevitable that at some point people would want to just
take a little money off the table after such a strong move higher. With the
lack of any catalyst to keep the bulls interested too there was always going
to be a respite at some point. There’s little direction being offered from
economic data either, leaving the FTSE and its European counterparts to just
drift sideways.
There are still other major risks to financial markets despite the best
efforts by central banks to avert them. They remain the same old issues – a
potential Chinese hard landing and a breakup of the eurozone. With these
problems still very much at the forefront of investors’ minds it will be
very rare to see markets continue higher in a straight line.
15.45 Risk is definitely off the menu today, with Spanish
borrowing costs now trading at 6.0071pc.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com, explains why recent
central bank action may not be enough to propel the risk rally:
For the short term it is likely that the prospect of more QE from the Fed and
loose monetary conditions should be able to sustain EURUSD above 1.30. But
the life above this level is far from certain for this cross. Firstly there
could be some doubt about the benefits of QE3, and secondly Spain could be a
spanner in the works for the ECB’s latest attempt to stabilise this crisis.
The Eurozone finance ministers’ meeting this weekend passed off without
Spain asking for a bailout. It is now unlikely to ask for a bailout before
the regional elections next month. Added to this there is some concern that
a pan-European banking union won’t be in place by January 1st, the original
deadline, which is leaving investors’ worrying whether or not the Eurozone
authorities are really committed to the structural reform necessary to get
the currency bloc out of the sovereign mess.
15.25 The percentage of people falsely claiming blindness benefits on
the Greek island of Zante is a startling 84pc, according to the
country’s largest social security agency.
The Social Insurance Institute re-tested 221 people as part of a probe
by the health ministry when it was discovered that more than 600 people on
the tourist island – or 1.5pc of the population – were in receipt of
benefits.
Of those tested, 182 were deemed healthy. Another 146 people failed to turn
up.
The island has been dubbed the “island of the blind” by the media.
14.53 On the bond markets, Spain’s benchmark 10-year borrowing
rate has climbed 16 basis points today, to 5.886pc, while the Italian
equivalent is up 8.1 basis points at 5.074pc.
14.40 US markets have opened slightly lower this afternoon. The Dow
Jones industrial average is flat at 13,579.51, while the broader SP
500 index is down 0.1pc, at 1,464.37.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 in London has fallen 0.3pc at 5,898.21, while
the CAC 40 in Paris is down 0.6pc at 3,560.90, the DAX 30 in
Frankfurt is down 0.2pc 7,397.88, and Madrid’s IBEX 35 index has
fallen 0.5pc to 8,111.80.
14.09 Esperanza Aguirre, the president of the Spanish region of
Madrid, has resigned, citing personal reasons. Ms Aguirre, 60, said
she had “decided to make way for younger people […] I want to see
more of my loved-ones.”
Vice-President Ignacio Gonzalez will succeed Ms Aguirre.
13.56 Judges and doctors have joined the protests in Greece against the
country’s planned austerity measures. This, from AP:
For the next two weeks, judges are only handling cases considered to be
emergencies, in response to expected salary cuts. The protest is likely to
disrupt everything from divorce settlements to the police’s ability to
control violence at protest rallies. It is also likely to worsen the
country’s huge backlog of court cases, including thousands of pending tax
settlements.
State hospital doctors also started an indefinite protest, treating
emergency cases only, over unpaid overtime pay. They joined private doctors
who earlier this month began refusing to treat state-insured patients
without full payment, while pharmacies have also staged on-and-off protests
refusing to hand over medicines at prescription prices.
13.31 UKIP leader Nigel Farage has lost his appeal against a
fine imposed by the European Parliament after he compared president Herman
Van Rompuy to a “damp rag”.
Mr
Farage was fined €2,980 (£2,400) in 2010 for delivering
a speech in which he said Mr Van Rompuy had “all the charisma of a
damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk.”
A court order published today showed that Mr Farage had lost his
challenge at the EU’s General Court. If you missed the speech in 2010,
here’s some lunchtime viewing to refresh your memory:
13.11 There is quite a heavy police presence at the station:
Spanish police officers guard one of the halls of Atocha railway station
in Madrid (Photo: EPA).
13.09 There have been a few minor scuffles between police and
protestors outside Madrid’s central station this afternoon following a strike
by transport workers (see 09.18).
Police detain a protester at Atocha station during a partial national
rail strike on Monday. Hundreds of Spanish train services have been canceled
as rail and subway workers staged strikes to protest wage cuts and reforms
(Photo: AP).
12.58 Ireland may be Europe’s austerity poster child, but as this piece
in the Guardian highlights, Germany’s thrifty Swabian
housewife – or schwäbische Hausfrau – is showing
the rest of Europe what frugal living is really about:
The schwäbische Hausfrau – southern Germany’s thrifty Swabian housewife –
is frequently invoked by Angela Merkel. The German chancellor argues that
Europe has been living beyond its means and can learn from these women’s
frugal housekeeping and balanced budgeting.
Heide Sickinger and Waltraud Maier, two housewives from Gerlingen, near
Stuttgart, agree.
“A housewife keeps the family together and the money,” says
Maier. “I don’t buy on credit. People never used to live beyond their
means here,” she adds, before noting that the younger generation are
more cavalier. She and her friend only use credit cards when they go on
holiday, and make sure they have enough money in their accounts to pay off
the debt immediately. Both believe that “southern Europeans are a
different breed. They are more easy-going.”
The two women say that they only tend to buy what they really need (with
the exception of a flatscreen TV). Even a wardrobe counts as a luxury
purchase – because Swabians don’t buy cheap. They value quality, which means
a wardrobe has to be solid wood, so it lasts a lifetime. The same applies to
clothes.
12.39 Olli Rehn, the EU’s Economic and Monetary Affairs commissioner,
has been outlining the benefits of a banking union to an audience in
Stockholm this afternoon. He said that a union should enable direct
recapitalisation of the region’s banks, and that even smaller banks are
systemically important.
However, as Angela Merkel stressed at her annual press conference (see
11.25), it is unlikely that a pan-European supervisory body will
be created by January 2013. She also insisted that a union must be in place
before the European Stability Mechanism could pump cash into ailing banks.
11.42 Phew! After speaking for almost 100 minutes, Mrs Merkel ends
the press conference.
11.41 Mrs Merkel repeats that she will not delve into the ECB’s
policy-making.
The central bank’s mandate “may well” cover bond buying, she is
quoted by Bloomberg as saying, and she will take the ECB’s word that
its actions are driven by monetary policy considerations. She adds that she
has no reason to doubt the central bank’s declarations.
11.35 Mrs Merkel says she is trying to help Europe, not anger people.
She says that countries must cut debt levels in order to reduce their
dependency on markets.
11.28 Italian PM Mario Monti has not talked to Mrs Merkel
about a rescue package for Italy. “Italy is carrying out its
reforms very courageously and has come a long way,’’ she says.
11.25 Mrs Merkel says it is unlikely that a pan-European supervisory
body for banks will be created by January 2013. However, one must be in
place before the eurozone’s permanent bail-out fund can inject cash into
ailing banks. Supervision must be globally credible. “We cannot
disappoint by moving too fast,” she says.
German chancellor Angela Merkel (L) speaks at a press conference on her
government’s current national and international policy on Monday (Photo:
AFP).
11.21 We are between four and five years into the crisis, and there’s “some
way to go,” says Mrs Merkel.
11.12 The debt crsis can be overcome, says Mrs Merkel, but
overburdening Europe’s strongest economy will not help the euro. Germany’s
strength is not unlimited, she adds.
11.07 Germany can now borrow at negative interest rates on short term
debt (i.e. investors pay Germany to lend to it). Mrs Merkel says this
is a sign of a “systemic problem” in Europe.
10.55 Mrs Merkel says it is not up to politicians to determine the
ceiling for the ECB’s bond buying programme.
10.52 Her heart may be bleeding, but Greeks better get on with
reforms. Mrs Merkel says that it doesn’t help Greece to delay, and
that the government must now focus on collecting taxes.
10.50 It’s important that richer Greeks pay their fair share to
support the country, she says. Mrs Merkel says her “heart bleeds”
for Greeks facing hardship in the crisis.
Bleeding heart? German Chancellor Merkel addresses the media during a
news conference at Bundespressekonferenz in Berlin on Monday (Photo: AFP).
10.48 She says that she has made it very clear to Greek PM Antonis
Samaras that she wants the country to remain in the eurozone.
10.42 Mrs Merkel says that she hopes Europe’s fiskalpakt
will ease investor concerns (Britain and the Czech Republic opted out). She
says countries have “little room” for manoeuvre on budgets. Reform
is the best medicine to address the “massive disparities” in
European competitiveness, she adds.
10.30 Financial markets are worried about whether the debts of Europe
will be repaid, says Mrs Merkel.
10.23 Mrs Merkel says that the debate over the role of the ECB
is “nothing new”. She adds that current ECB president Mario
Draghi’s emphasis on monetary policy is important and that the central
bank must not venture into the realm of fiscal policy.
10.18 Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann took a bit of a bashing
from current and former colleagues this weekend.
Former ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet and German
finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble both implied that they wished Mr
Weidmann would not publicly voice his concerns about the central bank’s
bond buying programme because the rule that ECB
council members should speak with one voice “is not being respected”.
Mrs Merkel is backing her man. She says there is nothing wrong with the
Bundesbank chief expressing his opinions in public:
I know him and I know that he’s concerned that we have to solve the crisis in
a truly sustainable way.
Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann (Photo: Reuters).
10.12 The German reforms of the past are paying off, she says.
But European GDP growth is too low.
10.10 The euro crisis will be solved “through politics,” she
says. She wants Europe to agree to closer political co-ordination by the end
of the year.
10.08 No eurobonds, says Mrs Merkel – again. She stresses that
there can be no shared burdens without shared control. The crisis will be
solved one step at a time rather than via a “big bang,” she says
(translation courtesy of Bloomberg).
German chancellor Angela Merkel is surrounded by photographers and
cameramen as she arrives to give a press conference on her government’s
current national and international policy at the ” Haus der
Bundespressekonferenz ” on Monday in Berlin (Photo: AFP).
10.05 Angela Merkel’s annual press conference in Berlin has started.
She begins by criticising the Sudanese protesters who stormed the German embassy
in Khartoum, tearing down the flag and replacing it with an Islamic banner.
09.59 Silvio Berlusconi is back in the headlines this week – and not
just for publishing *those* Kate photos.
The former Italian prime minister told
Il Giornale – another Berlusconi publication – that EU
debt-reduction targets were “absolutely impossible” for Italy
to achieve. He said:
Italy has been told to reduce its debt by €40bn to €50bn each year, which is
absolutely impossible.
Mr Berlusconi also called for tax cuts to boost economic growth.
09.34 Remember Sexy Alexi? The leader of Greece’s SYRIZA
party had some stern words for the government this weekend. Speaking at an
International Fair in Northern Greece, Alexis Tsipras said that
giving the country more time to implement austerity measures would only give
it “more rope to hang ourselves with”. He added:
We are being led into a drawn-out ordeal […] The climate is changing, but
for the worse and if the government does eventually succeed in passing the
measures for €11.5bn it will have little chance of longevity.
Mr Tsipras, who urged mass public protests against the planned cuts,
added: “What is important to us is that we do not continue down the
slippery slope of disaster.”
09.25 German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be quizzed on a range
of topics – including the euro crisis – at her annual press conference in
Berlin this morning (10am UK time). Ms Merkel took time out of her
busy schedule this weekend to enjoy a football match between Borussia
Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen:
Angela Merkel poses with under 17 football players from Dortmund and
Leverkusen prior to the German first division Bundesliga football match
(Photo: AFP).
09.18 Spanish transport workers have called a strike today to protest
against a restructuring of the sector that unions say will cost jobs.
State rail company RENFE has cancelled around 300 high-speed and intercity
train services.
09.08 Meanwhile, ordinary Spaniards have been protesting in
their thousands this weekend against sweeping government cuts.
Demonstrators fill up Madrid’s Colon Square on Saturday during a protest
against government’s cutting measures (Photo: Reuters).
Demonstrators carry banners as they march to Madrid’s Colon Square during
a protest over the weekend against government cuts (Photo: Reuters).
08.55 Spain’s economy minister, Luis de Guindos, is in
favour of asking for a Brussels rescue as soon as possible,
according to Spanish daily El Pais. However, the paper reports that
PM Mariano Rajoy prefers a wait-and-see approach because a bail-out
would create “political stigma”.
El Pais, which cites unnamed sources, also said that Mr Rajoy
has handed his economy minister a clear mandate: negotiate the finers of a
bail-out deal – just in case.
Spain’s finance minister Luis de Guindos (Photo: AP).
08.47 More developments in Spain this weekend, where the country
has been digging
in its heels against further austerity measures. Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard reports:
Finance minister Luis de Guindos ruled out further fiscal cuts needed to
qualify for a eurozone rescue, leaving it unclear whether the European
Central Bank can activate Europe’s grand plan to stabilise markets.
Mr de Guindos said over the weekend that Madrid’s €100bn (£81bn) austerity
measures are “sufficient” to meet a deficit ceiling of 6.3pc of GDP this
year, although it is an open secret that Spain will miss its target.
Germany’s parliament is unlikely to approve any rescue without deeper cuts,
but further austerity risks pushing Spain into civil conflict. Tens of
thousands marched in Madrid at the weekend to protest against drastic cuts,
including a 7pc cut in public wages. A man set fire to himself in Portugal,
where clashes turned violent.
The protests followed a traumatic week in Catalonia, where 1.5m took to the
streets amid a wave of secessionist demands. Catalan leader Artur Mas has
been swept by events into open confrontation with Madrid. Mr de Guindos
pleaded for time, insisting that the reforms would lay the foundations for
recovery. “These sacrifices are absolutely unavoidable.”
08.45 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the
eurozone debt crisis.
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