One of the more sinister headlines you will read today

Last night at 3am a CNN news alert woke me with a ping on the kitchen iPad:  “Cameron vetoes new Euro Treaty, stocks plummet.”

By this morning at 6am global markets had all turned up. Scanning through the news alerts one particularly sickening headline stood out: “EU leaders drop demands for investor write-offs” to wit:

European Union leaders dropped their demand that investors share the cost of bailouts as Germany abandoned a campaign that helped deepen the two-year-old financial crisis.
…That marks a defeat for German Chancellor Angela Merkel who wanted to expose bondholders to losses in debt restructurings as her electorate resented writing the biggest bailout checks. Her push, which began last year, drew criticism from a European Central Bank concerned it would fan contagion and was blamed for some investors for driving up bond yields and forcing Ireland and Portugal to seek aid packages.

Apparently the banks and their lobbyists have scared the living hell out of the politicians once more with the “we are too important to take our losses” rhetoric. The representatives of the people caved again and agreed that the tax payers would continue to foot the bill to make the bankers whole and keep their executives revered and wealthy.

As shown in this CNN clip, the main reason behind Cameron’s veto was not anything noble like protecting the sovereignty of Britain but rather he is protecting his “City” base in London who insist that they cannot be subject to the more onerous financial regulation and oversight which the new EU treaty is looking to establish.  These are the same rats who fled Wall Street after the tech wreck collapse prompted the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Bill in America which was designed to hold executives accountable for the financial disclosure of their corporations.  Britain did not pass any such reform and so London received an influx of new business and bank offices safe from any meaningful accountability and disclosure requirements.  (Apparently the Sarbanes-Oxley standard was lost on Mr. Corzine judging by his “I am innocent, I didn’t look at the mechanics, I don’t know where the money went” embarassment yesterday.  This clearly is not an acceptable defence for a CEO today in America.  Whether he gets away with this is another question.)

And so the bad guys have won another round.  The people have been sold up the river once more.  Now we will get on with the business of slashing and burning every social program, of cutting off funding for environmental protection, for clean energy, for water management, for health and education for every single aspect that makes a society strong, healthy and sustainable.  All in the name of saving corrupt and sinister institutions. 

There is one semblance of equality in all of this.  The forced austerity on the masses will be the death of the world economy and we will all suffer the consequences of a prolonged global recession–even the rich–and an ongoing depression for the poor.  But make no mistake, this morning is another low point for the cause of civilization.

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6 Responses to One of the more sinister headlines you will read today

  1. So what should the do-it-yourself investor do? Should I load up on Gold?

  2. dazzo says:

    A bit off topic but a very worthwhile read nevertheless……..

    How doctors die
    http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=26113#comment-101381

  3. doug robertson says:

    At 3:00 AM I was sound alseep, having sworn off CoasttoCoastam even though it is damn interesting and insightful but a good, solid nights sleep is worth its weight in good health, and isn’t what this investing is all about?

    Great website the Juggling’D is and the blog too. Thanks Ms Park for taking the time to help us non-fatcats keep some of our hard-earned money. I too ‘Behold the Liquidation’ as I’m 59 and really, really fear the Fourth Turning’s Great Devaluation on the doorstep of retirement. Ever read What if Boomers Can’t Retire? Written in 2000 it spells out why SFR (stocks for retirement) has a systemic flaw in it and that 70%+ of those dealing with stock ownership had better be really careful lest they become “surprised” at the precise wrong time in life. Whenever I call Fidelity Inv and ask ‘whats wrong NOW with the markets’, I always get the same advice: Think Long Term. Danielle, what about those of us who aren’t spring chickens anymore? Just sit it out in cash and wait for 2023? This ZIRP is really hurting the economy.

  4. Doug, yes, best to step out of stocks now. Let the coming recession get priced in and then look to reallocate some capital back to the equity side. You won’t have to wait until 2023, but you may have to wait several months.

  5. Robert says:

    Here’s a link to an interview of Ann Barnhardt on the Financial Sense website explaining the MF collapse and as she said, “In the case of Jon Corzine, this man has stolen in excess of a billion dollars”.

    http://www.financialsense.com/financial-sense-newshour/guest-expert/2011/12/01/ann-barnhardt/entire-futures-options-market-destroyed-by-mf-global-collapse

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