Juggling Dynamite

Oh, oh, the new Greek Finance Minister is admitting the ECB Emperor is stark naked and making perfectly logical sense in the process!! This will never do!

In this 4 minute interview, the new Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, explains why Greece won’t be borrowing more (as advised by the bankers) but instead looks to “end the vicious cycle” of bailout and borrowing that has persisted through years of financial crisis. He dares to point out the madness of the ECB QE plan to issue debt to buy back more debt. It’s like a ‘who’s on first’ skit…awesome television.

Here is a direct video link.

“If you look at the existing agreement it recognizes that we can’t pay, and it imposes on us the very strange notion that as a bankrupt state we must borrow more money from our partners, even more money than they have already given us, to repay a central bank that is in the process of printing 1 trillion Euros.

Now you only have to state this to realize…how can I look the German, the Slavic, the Finnish taxpayer in the eye and say, ‘you know that I can’t really repay you the money I already borrowed from you, but’ they are asking me to borrow more to give to a central bank, for what, not for money that we borrowed from the central bank, but for monetary operations of Mr Trichet, the previous head of the ECB, carried out that failed, and from which Greece never benefited, not by 1 Euro.'”

Well gee, when you put it like that Yanis, the ECB plan clearly is preposterous. Now what happens? This is getting interesting.

No one person, family or company should ever be allowed to contribute this kind of money to a ‘democratic’ contest no matter what their views or political affiliation. No fair minded person should want to buy this much personal influence.

“Top officials in the Koch brothers’ political organization Monday released a staggering $889 million budget to fund the activities of the billionaires’ sprawling network ahead of the 2016 presidential contest.

The budget, which pays for everything from advertising and data-gathering technology to grass-roots activism, was released to donors attending the annual winter meeting of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, according to an attendee.

Freedom Partners sits at the center of the vast operation, and in 2012 alone, spent nearly $240 million as it funded nearly three dozen organizations, ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to smaller Tea Party groups.

The fundraising target is the latest indication that the industrialists at the center of the network, Charles and David Koch, intend to continue building an operation that could exceed the national political parties in size and scope to help advance their libertarian principles. The spending, unrivaled for an outside organization, represents more than double the nearly $400 million the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised and spent during the 2012 presidential election cycle.”

See: Koch brothers set $889 million budget for 2016

See also: The Story of Citizens United v. FEC (2011). Here is a direct video link.

As we have been discussing for months, a soaring US dollar and weak global demand are hammering the earnings of US multinationals.  Much to the consensus ‘surprise’ of course…

Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Officer Doug Oberhelman told CNBC on Tuesday that he’s looking for a soft year in 2015. The construction and mining equipment giant—before the opening bell on Wall street—reported a lower profit that came in well below expectations, due primarily to the recent drop in the price of oil and lower prices for copper, coal and iron ore.

The strong dollar didn’t help either, Oberhelman said on “Squawk Box” moments after the earnings release. “It seems like when it rains it pours,” he said, “and this is one of those days.” Here is a direct video link.

Meanwhile December durable goods orders also ‘shocked’ this morning with a drop of 3.4% in December (consensus was expecting +.5% increase) and a revised -2.1% for November (previously reported as -.7%).