You Want Fries With That?

Another scenario is that Aso is giving India and other South Asian countries reason to partner with Japan economically and perhaps militarily, too.
http://qz.com/50615/welcome-to-ireland-where-house-payments-are-optional-apparently/#81814/japanese-official-reaches-back-through-1500-years-of-china-japan-tension/

Grease

Greek banks needed to be recapitalized. Evangelos Venizelos, the fatman pictured, saddled "investors" with a loss of 74% on Greek debt held by these banks. Members of the two political parties that have ruled Greece for the last forty years owe these same banks over $300 million dollars and are not paying.

A probe into these loans was launched by financial investigators for the country of Greece and they are preparing to share their findings with the Greek parliment controlled by these same two political parties. The Greek parliment also recently passed a law granting immunity to the bankers that provided uncollaterized loans to these political parties meaning no one will be prosecuted.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/04/21/greek-banks-immune-for-political-loans/

 

The existing (and ongoing) massive expansion of base money into the banking systems of the US, England, and Japan is without precedent. As Nomura's Richard Koo notes, at 16x statutory reserves, the liquidity 'should' have led to unprecedented inflation rates of 1,600% in the US, 970% in the UK, and 480% in Japan. However, it has not, yet. In short, Koo explains, businesses and households in these economies have stopped borrowing money even though interest rates have fallen to zero.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-20/japans-inflation-propaganda-and-why-boj-better-hope-its-not-successful

 

 

 

Wage, Wealth Gains, GDP Per Capita and Debt Per Capita

 

 

Note the parabolic rise occuring near when the US went Fiat.

Note how over the same period all the income growth went to the top 10% as the income for the bottom 90% declined. Debt is good for the pigmen who captured all the income gains as public and private debt did a moonshot.

 

The People's Republic of Amerika. Brought to You by the Fine Folks at ExxonMobil and Your Elected Officials

Within a week of the ExxonMobil tar sands oil pipeline burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, ExxonMobil was in charge of the clean-up, the U.S. government had established a no-fly zone over the area, some 40 residents were starting their second week of evacuation, ExxonMobil was threatening to arrest reporters trying to cover the spill, and several homeowners had filed a class action lawsuit seeking damages from the world's second-most-profitable corporation, which had helped keep the pipeline secret from terrorists.
http://www.alternet.org/14-things-you-need-know-about-horrifying-arkansas-oil-spill

Two Thumbs Up From Putin

"That's Not Oil and We Aren't Paying to Clean it Up." Exxon Spokesperson

Images and video of the "Heavy Crude," which is not oil, spill in Arkansas.

 

The central Arkansas spill caused by Exxon's aging Pegasus pipeline has reportedly unleashed 10,000 barrels of Canadian heavy crude - but a technicality says it's not oil, letting the energy giant off the hook from paying into a national cleanup fund. Legally speaking, diluted bitumen like the heavy crude that's overrun Mayflower, Arkansas, is not classified as 'oil'. And it's that very distinction that exempts Exxon from contributing to the government's oil spillage cleanup fund.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/exxon-oil-spill-not-oil-040313

Boycott - The word boycott entered the English language during the Irish "Land War" and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord

Ireland's Miracle Recovery? That is how many have classified the post-crisis, bailed out Irish economy. The tabloid site, "Business Insider," owned by Henry Blodgett who in 2003 was charged with civil securities fraud for lying to his customers regarding valuation of dot com stocks, fined $2 million and banned for life from working in the securities industry, published this on the miracle recovery of Ireland.Evidently you can't teach an old dog new tricks as Mr. Blodgett continues to excel in deception.

"Regardless of reservations raised about the sustainability of this growth — particularly if the global economy continues to go down the tube — Ireland's recovery so far has been little short of extraordinary."
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ireland-is-the-miracle-of-europe-2011-9?op=1

Now for the facts:
Unemployment rate does not appear to be in recovery:

Ireland Unemployment Rate at 15% and Holding at Post-Crisis Levels

And this:
"[B]ut this overlooks a few uncomfortable details. Ireland's homeowners are the European and perhaps the world champions in not repaying mortgages. The country's national debt has increased fourfold in about as many years. Its banking system is being kept afloat by borrowing from Europe. And while a change in the law may soon force the banks to start cleaning up their balance sheets, nobody is quite sure how bad a mess they will find there when they do.
Welcome to Ireland, where the hangover is in fact just beginning.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/welcome-to-ireland-where-mortgage-payments-are-optional-and-the-banks-are-a-mess/274566/

Moral of the story: Don't believe a word spewed by the MSM and tabloid sites owned by those charged with securities fraud by ripping off their customers by selling them at high valuation worthless dot com stocks.

 

Kaesong

Throughout the rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula, observers have been heartened by the fact that North Korea’s Kaesong factory complex, staffed by South Korean managers and the source of $2 billion a year in annual trade, has remained open.
Until today.
http://qz.com/50615/welcome-to-ireland-where-house-payments-are-optional-apparently/#70254/now-it-gets-scary-north-korea-halts-south-korean-access-to-crucial-factory-near-dmz/

Democracy vs. Dollarocracy

War by Any Other Name

Though not one bullet has been fired...yet.

LONDON (AP) — The harsh spending cuts introduced by European governments to tackle their crippling debt problems have not only pitched the region into recession — they are also being partly blamed for outbreaks of diseases not normally seen in Europe and a spike in suicides, according to new research.
/

McKee said Greece in particular was struggling. Based on government data, he and colleagues found suicides rose by 40 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year. Last year, the country also reported an exponential rise in the number of HIV cases among drug users, due in part to addicts sharing contaminated syringes after needle exchange programs were dropped.

In recent years, Greece has also battled outbreaks of malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever.

‘‘These are not diseases we would normally expect to see in Europe,’’ said Willem de Jonge, general director of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Greece.

In 2011, MSF helped Greece tackle a malaria outbreak that broke out after authorities scrapped spraying programs to kill mosquitoes.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2013/03/26/europe-financial-crisis-leads-suicide-surge/ZWYluZP4VWItxXiaxQcziO/story.html

Mr. Bernanke's Neighborhood

Bernanke speaking on his Quantitative easing experiment: “Moreover, because stronger growth in each economy confers beneficial spillovers to trading partners, these policies are not “beggar-thy-neighbor” but rather are positive-sum, “enrich-thy-neighbor”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bernanke-qe-is-an-enhance-thy-neighbor-policy-2013-03-25

During the first two years of Bernanke's Quantitative easing, the top 1% captured 121% of all income gains. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/125269359/Getting-Richer-Edmund-Saez

 

Low Demand Equals Higher Prices

U.S. oil demand in February fell to the lowest level for the month in 20 years as gasoline rose to the highest price for the time of year, the American Petroleum Institute reported.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-21/u-s-oil-demand-declined-in-february-api-says.html

 

Herr Schäuble Sprechen

"Ich werde nicht erpresst werden."

 

"The danger of a European bank runs is latent because the banking world of Southern Europe is tarnished," said Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the Munich-based Ifo Institute, this newspaper. "Einige Länder und viele Banken sind eigentlich schon pleite und werden nur durch die Sonderkredite der EZB am Leben gehalten. Die Katastrophe ist schon längst eingetreten, aber die Öffentlichkeit verschließt die Augen davor." "Some countries and many banks are actually already broke and held only by the special loans to the ECB on life. The disaster has occurred long ago, but the public closes their eyes."

A Not So Good Google Translation of Die Welt

Chop Off Their Hands

[A]nd, without any deception or evil disposition towards those whose silver they accept for purifying, they should cleanse the silver, and without practicing any deception in weighing it, they should change the purified silver into denarii. If it be reported that any one has acted contrary to his oath, he will be tried by the judgment of God; and if it be proved that he acted contrary to his oath he will lose his hand...
/
Modern states gave control of monetary policy and markets to the barons of global finance. The experiment has resulted in the same disasterous outcomes as before. The barons have debased the coinage and corrupted the markets. The state lost control of the currency as central banks allowed the barons in banks and shadow banks to "create" money from securitisation and quantitative easing. The state lost control of markets as the SEC, FSA and others allowed those same barons to set up alternative trading platforms beyond any public scrutiny and to bastardise public exchanges with algorithmic trading and synthetic instruments priced against fraudulent reference rates.

Now that the whole system is falling apart, banks and bondholders - the robber barons and false coiners of our times - want to take more money from depositors and taxpayers to prop it up. The state, the taxpayers and the depositors should not be compelled to protect bank bondholders. Central bankers and market regulators should stop being complicit in debasement of the currency and corruption of the markets - taking the silver of the state and of the poor.

Enough already. Chop off their hands.
http://londonbanker.blogspot.com/2013/03/chop-off-their-hands.html

Cyprus Should Let the Banks Go Bankrupt

Taverne Frau Merkel Sprechen

The Moscow Times depicted the crisis in Cyprus and the Eurozone with the image of a faux Renaissance painting with all the major protagonists, with the focus on German Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed as a tavern woman. The picture has gone viral with thousands of reposts on social media and blogs
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/03/22/madame-merkels-rule-goes-viral/

Letter to the Fed

A letter to the Federal Reserve asking about the wisdom of imposing a tax on bank deposits. And the Fed’s reply. From 1941

http://www.edmundconway.com/2013/03/the-tragedy-of-cyprus/
 

Cyprus Hill Gang

Commodity Fetishism

"In the 19th century, Karl Marx contradicted the artifice of Adam Smith's "naturalisation of the market's behaviour" as a politico-ideologic apology — by and for the capitalists — which allowed human economic choices and decisions to be misrepresented as fixed "facts of life", rather than as the human actions that resulted from the will of the producers, the buyers, and the sellers of the commodities traded at market."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism

 



The AAA notes that the average price for a gallon of regular gas nationwide has rise from $3.30 a month ago, to $3.52 today. That’s four cents more than it was last year, a record high price for the start of February, CNBC notes.
/
That means that U.S. households are paying the highest percentage of income for gas in almost 30 years. This comes even as gasoline consumption has fallen.
http://investorplace.com/2013/02/consumers-paying-record-gas-prices-for-february/

Col. James Steele Spreads U.S. Demokracy in Iraq

Munchkin from Wizard of Oz to Lead Securities and Exchange Commission

 

Drones Over Amerika

Pilots Report Drone Interfering with Flights on Approach to JFK Airport
http://www.nycaviation.com/2013/03/pilots-report-drone-interfereing-with-flights-on-approach-to-jfk-airport/

Mexico

One would think five bodies dangling from a bridge outside of Mexico City, wrapped in sheets as a mummy, would get some news coverage in the U.S.

 

Five men were hung on the bridge of Valle Dorado early today in this city. Allegedly left them with a message that was retired by the Municipal police.

The five bodies were blindfolded and presented as Mummies and all were covered only by bands that were placed them all over your body.

Police from different corporations and the army cordoned off the place where the macabre discovery was made this morning in the capital of Coahuila.

At least two of the three bodies had his face covered with Grey Ribbon and the other two just with bands that put all over your body from head to toe.

Google translate from:

I want my mummy

Chart Porn

Show me the recovery

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvsYEds0KTlayncYIfBD8f6FXs6W_wp2335o7aWclOspmMpCfe7JyRAoFkowtFS8_l2GL3n0JC3aYv49vuGzCTR6ELupzDngh-IWedIPZU4xXr3RChFgjKoYumWfoC8NHXP8nLbDV9gVA/s1600/change-number-employed-since-nov-2007-thru-feb-2013.png

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?chart_type=line&s[1][id]=EMRATIO&s[1][range]=5yrs

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/03/College%20Tuition.jpg

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/HOUSTNSA

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/02/20130227_Bernanke.jpg

http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2013/0211-foodstamp/14997667-1-eng-US/0211-foodstamp_full_600.jpg

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/WOTHAST_Max_630_378.png

http://twitpic.com/c5z9je

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/M12MTVUSM227NFWA

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/M2V?cid=32242

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/02/20130213_1894.jpg

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/GFDEBTN_Max_630_378.png

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s%5B1%5D%5Bid%5D=TCMDO

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MZM

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NILFWJN

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=2Xa

http://www.streettalklive.com/images/stories/1dailyxchange/PCE-Spending-MajCategories-Revisions-113012.PNG

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/HOUSTNSA.txt

The Bernanke Puts

An average of more than 50,000 people slept each night in New York City's homeless shelters for the first time in January, a record that underscores an unsettling national trend: a rising number of families without permanent housing. Families have become a larger share of the nation's homeless population.
/
More than 21,000 children—an unprecedented 1% of the city's youth—slept each night in a city shelter in January, an increase of 22% in the past year.
/
"New York is facing a homeless crisis worse than any time since the Great Depression," said Mary Brosnahan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324539404578340731809639210.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

 

Not Mr. Majestyk's Mexican Melon Farm

A group of gunmen attacked a company melonera workers in the community of San Pablo East Progress Ajuchitlán Township, and left 10 dead and two serious injuries are reported.
Mr. Majestyk es un muerto

A group of gunmen attacked a company melonera workers in the community of San Pablo East Progress Ajuchitlán Township, and left 10 dead and two serious injuries are reported.
The community is the first village in the mountains, with 400 inhabitants and is one hour from the county seat, in a complicated way between hillsides.


That company operates a melon that this Sunday was attacked by armed men who arrived just after 10 am and shot who found. Among the victims is Enrique Hernandez Rivas, melon field manager.
Neighbors gave the report to the police forces and the army, who came to town with prosecutors to conduct investigations. In total, we saw about 80 police officers of the state, ministerial and army soldiers.
The bodies were scattered in the melon field. Local people would not give information on why people came armed with several units and attacked. A group of army stayed to investigate the facts and find those responsible.
The same agency reported that investigates the facts based on the preliminary CUAU/SC/02/0052/2013.
Reforma news agency reported that the victims were executed by three individuals, police sources said yesterday between 10:00 and 10:30 in the morning.
Indicates that criminals armed with AK-47 rifles arrived melon field located between the communities of East St. Paul, The Hidden and Remance, and one by one were running farm workers and wounded two others shot and laborers.
A worker who is dedicated to take the water to the field realized the action from afar and to be discovered by the gunmen ran to safety of the shots that made ​​him, adds Reform.
According to police reports, the laborers have shot grace and the authorities ignore the reasons that this group has had to kill them.
When authorities arrived at the scene found ministerial pulled seven bodies, the other three family members were taken away.
One of the deceased was handed over to his family and the other six were transferred to the Attorney General of Arcelia and be taken to the Forensic Medical Service of the city of Iguala.
The same source says that the dead are Luis Fernando Ramirez, 16, a native of Mitlalcingo, Ahuacuotzingo; Zacarias Ramirez Abarca, 25, of Chilapa, Heriberto Ramirez Jimenez, Alfonso Huerta Cyril, Fidel Garcia Ramirez, 15, 22 and 25 years, the three neighbors of Ahuacuotzingo Amitlazingo.
Also killed Hermelindo “N” of Huetamo, Michoacán, Maria Luisa Ortuño, 54 of Las Juntas, Ajuchitlán; Elvis Ray Fields, St. Paul East and Alfonso Estrada, 15, of El Aguaje of Ajuchitlán.
Simón Díaz and Domingo Ramirez Abarca, Ajuchitlán and Chilapa, were shot.
The state attorney general’s office said in a bulletin that 40 Infantry Battalion of the Army gave the report of the ten executed.
Process news agency released the 10 people killed and the two injured are employees of the company Legumbrera San Luis, a native of Michoacan, and activities in other municipalities in the Tierra Caliente which is dedicated to producing melon, sources of the Attorney General of Guerrero.
He added that preliminary reports indicate that victims are laborers, and that it was a direct attack, and that no confrontation.
Indicates that according to some people, to place an armed group arrived in several trucks and opened fire on workers who were in a melon field and then fled to the mountainous part of the municipality.
The website of the newspaper Milenio spread that the victims were related to organized crime activities, and in the hills around the melon field poppy crops there. This publication discusses that there was a shootout between suspected criminal groups.
The community of St. Paul East is the gate of the mountain to reach the region of Tierra Caliente, their paths unite the municipalities of San Miguel Totolapan, Tlacotepec and the Costa Grande region.
Ajuchitlán is where more clashes have claimed the military and in which at the beginning of the year there were several executions and kidnappings.
Recently, the town located halfway between the municipal and Paul East, which is La Laja, reported the kidnapping of a primary school teacher, who took her from her classroom.

Mexico

The bodies of three beheaded men were found this morning inside a unit of route 83 abandoned in the middle of Chicoloapan, while another was found 200 metres away.

Around 7:30 hours, neighbors reported to the municipal police who at the junction of the Lerdo Street and Manzano River, in the March 2, Cologne, was parked a Urvan van with a blanket on one side and three corpses wrapped inside.

"Square" is read in the blanket placed on the left side of the vehicle, while another was left on the floor with two heads.

A third head was found in the driver's cab and the fourth was found in a bag inside.

The victims, aged between 25 and 30 years old, have not been identified.

The bodies were raised by the service medical forensic of the Attorney's State of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Nezahualcoyotl police reported the discovery of the body of a man identified as José García Godínez.

The corpse had three wounds produced by caliber 9 mm firearm and was lying on the street Petroleos Mexicanos, the colony large Vicente villada

 

Google translate from:

http://www.blogdelnarco.com/2013/03/decapitan-a-cuatro-en-chicoloapan-edomex/

From an earlier post:
Much of the nearly $2 billion in US aid and training provided to Mexico under the Merida Initiative has flowed to the quasi-military federal police force.
/
The report focuses on “enforced disappearances” of civilians at the hands of both Mexico's naval infantry and the militarized federal police — forces that have won favor and hefty funds from Washington during the six-year campaign against the gangsters.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/130222/mexico-drug-war-disappearances-human-rights-watch-report

The Bernanke Put

http://twitpic.com/c5z9je

Austerity Causes Greece to be Reclassified as Third World Nation

A major fund manager has reclassified Greece from a developed to an emerging market, in an unprecedented move reflecting the "unfortunate economic tailspin" of the Greek economy, which has threatened the future of the euro.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9904969/Greece-reclassified-to-emerging-market-from-developed.html

Bernanke. The Lying Thief Coward

Bernanke: "You called me a dove, well maybe in some respects I am, but on the other hand my inflation record is the best of any Federal Reserve chairman in the postwar period."

Bernanke's term circled in red:

 

Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday declared that Israel and Islamophobia both are a “crime against humanity.”
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sat non-responsively behind Erdogan as he spoke in Vienna.

 

Erdogan two weeks ago:
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls Francis Joseph Ricciardone, the US’s new ambassador to Turkey, a ‘rookie’ regarding his remarks on press freedom in Turkey. ‘He does not know Turkey, he does not have any idea which laws there are, and then he walks into a trap and makes a statement,’ Erdoğan says
U.S. Ambassador is a rookie that walked into a trap

Drug War Mexico, NAFTA and Why People Leave

Jolly Banker

Obama's Press Secretary Admits to Lying About Drone Attacks on Innocent Civilians

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Systemic Risk

Watch Bernanke squirm:

 

Spain

A survey showed more than three quarters disapproved of Mr Rajoy as head of the government, while 85 per cent had "little or no faith in him".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9845625/Spanish-Prime-Minister-Mariano-Rajoy-under-pressure-to-quit.html

MADRID, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A former treasurer of Spain's ruling party, at the heart of a corruption scandal that has hurt Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, was ordered to surrender his passport on Monday while judges investigate millions of euros he deposited in Swiss banks.
Luis Barcenas is accused of using his position to take bribes, evade taxes by hiding the proceeds in Switzerland and launder money through shell companies, charges that carry prison sentences of up to six years and fines
/
Ruz banned Barcenas from leaving Spain, seized his passport and ordered him to report to a court twice a month.
/
Public interest in the case had largely evaporated until January, when Ruz's investigation revealed Barcenas had Swiss bank accounts once worth as much as 22 million euros ($30 million).
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/spain-corruption-idUSL6N0BPBUH20130225

Meanwhile, monthly jobs data out later is unlikely to calm nervous markets. Unemployment in Spain now stands at a staggering 26% with no signs of falling.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21319639

Beppe

Beppe Grillo is the symbolic winner in the election. His MoVimento 5 Stelle (MS5 - Five Star Movement) is on the verge of becoming the largest party in Italy by popular vote
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/beppe-grillos-five-star-movement-on.html
 

Not Part of the Solution but Part of the Problem

Much of the nearly $2 billion in US aid and training provided to Mexico under the Merida Initiative has flowed to the quasi-military federal police force.
/
The report focuses on “enforced disappearances” of civilians at the hands of both Mexico's naval infantry and the militarized federal police — forces that have won favor and hefty funds from Washington during the six-year campaign against the gangsters.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/130222/mexico-drug-war-disappearances-human-rights-watch-report

KABUL — Afghan President Ha­mid Karzai on Sunday ordered all U.S. Special Operations forces to leave a strategically important province in two weeks, alleging that they had been involved in the torture and murder of “innocent people.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/taliban-target-afghan-intelligence-agency-in-three-suicide-attacks/2013/02/24/559313fa-7e65-11e2-9073-e9dda4ac6a66_story.html

Sequestration

In fact, the final deal reached between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2011 included an agreement that there would be no tax increases in the sequester in exchange for what the president was insisting on: an agreement that the nation’s debt ceiling would be increased for 18 months, so Obama would not have to go through another such negotiation in 2012, when he was running for reelection.
So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts. His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-obamas-sequester-deal-changer/2013/02/22/c0b65b5e-7ce1-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html

- http://www.youtube.com/user/MinuteMBA/

Stay Schemin

Las Vegas (CNN) -- A shooting and a fiery crash left three people dead in the neon heart of the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday, and police scrambled to find out who triggered the carnage.

The bloodshed closed the Strip for about a block and a half around some of its biggest draws, leaving tourists gaping at a wrecked Maserati, a burned-out taxi and four other vehicles.

One of those killed was Kenneth Cherry Jr. -- a rapper also known as Kenny Clutch
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/21/us/nevada-las-vegas-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Markets Govern

There is a strong perception that countries that introduced austerity programs in the Eurozone were somehow forced to do so by the financial markets.
/
Note the two extremes. Greece was confronted with extremely high spreads in 2011 and applied the most severe austerity measures amounting to more than 10% of GDP per capita. Germany did not face any pressure from spreads and did not do any austerity
/
There can be little doubt. Financial markets exerted different degrees of pressure on countries. By raising the spreads they forced some countries to engage in severe austerity programs.
/
We observe two interesting phenomena in Figure 3. First, while the spreads declined, the debt-to-GDP ratio continued to increase in all countries after the ECB announcement. Second, the change in the debt-to-GDP ratio is a poor predictor of the declines in the spreads. Thus the decline in the spreads observed since the ECB announcement appears to be unrelated to the changes of the debt-to-GDP ratios. If anything, the fundamentalist school of thinking would have predicted that as the debt-to-GDP ratios increased in all countries, spreads should have increased rather than decline.
/
How well did this panic-induced austerity work?
http://www.voxeu.org/article/panic-driven-austerity-eurozone-and-its-implications

Enraged by more coming pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions, an estimated 60,000 people converged on the center of Athens on Feb. 21 during a 24-hour general strike that shut down services.
/
Beating drums and chanting “Robbers, robbers!” demonstrators marched to Parliament
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/02/20/strikes-to-shut-down-greece/#!lightbox/0/

Herr Schäuble Sprechen

...[w]arned Italians against voting for Silvio Berlusconi in general elections scheduled for Feb. 24 and 25. "Silvio Berlusconi may be an effective campaign strategist," the magazine quotes Schäuble as saying. "But my advice to the Italians is not to make the same mistake again by re-electing him."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/top-german-politicians-warn-italians-against-voting-for-berlusconi-a-884265.html

The German government has warned Silvio Berlusconi not to target Berlin in the run-up to elections early next year after the former Italian prime minister attacked the "German-centric" economic policies of his successor Mario Monti.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100303559/Berlusconi_Warned_Not_to_Target_Germany

It is unclear whether 76-year-old Berlusconi, a scandal-ridden media tycoon and four times prime minister, will win enough support to wield influence, but even the possibility of a comeback is a nightmare for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-italy-vote-germany-idUSBRE91I0UD20130219

The comments are not surprising. In almost every campaign speech, Berlusconi rails against Germany. "Should we continue to allow Germany to dictate policies that ruin Italy?" he calls out. "Nooooo!" scream his followers. On Monday he told industrial leaders in Monza, a city north of Milan, that Chancellor Angela Merkel is "an East German bureaucrat, who grew up with its centralized economy." It would, however, be crazy to impose the rules of austerity on a country that isn't growing, he added.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/silvio-berlusconi-followers-loyal-as-ever-ahead-of-italian-elections-a-884532.html

Silvio responds:

Merkel is an unfuckable lard-arse

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/italy/110915/berlusconi-calls-merkel-unfuckable-lard-arse

BEIRUT

“[A]t one point he turned and said ‘This is my face, can you remember my face? We don’t care; you can’t do anything.’ That’s when I thought they were going to kill me.”
/
“Then they said they were going to give me a gift to help me relax,” and they pressed a piece of hashish into his hand and dropped him off
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2013/Feb-18/206855-spate-of-robberies-in-fake-taxis-unnerves-commuters.ashx#axzz2LDYANyka