Dumb and Dumber Tax Hikes in Italy; Grand Coalition Splintering; Another Italy Convulsion Coming Up

Average Swede to Repay Mortgage in 140 Years; Swedish Central Bank Ponders New Rules

by Mike Shedlock, Global Economic Analysis:

One of the dumbest things a country can do in a recession is raise taxes. Yet, after pronouncing the end of austerity, Italy’s “grand coalition” government, led by Enrico Letta, is going to hike the VAT.

Why? It seems they need to hike the VAT to pay for a decrease in property taxes.

Recall that [...]

EUROPE: Austerity Comes To Germany, Gov’t Plans To Increase 2014 Borrowing, And Austerity Forces Suspend State Media In Greece! Employees Seize TV & Radio Stations – Riot Police Deployed!

Austerity comes to Germany: GERMAN GOVT PLANS TO INCREASE 2014 BORROWING: RHEINISCHE POST

Is The Eurozone Crisis Set To Flare Up?

I have written in the past that all is not solved in the Euro-zone.   In fact, despite the ongoing jawboning from the ECB that they stand ready to “do anything,” in reality they have done little to this point other than just talk.   While that has worked to a large degree to suppress [...]

Stephanie Seguino: By weakening the social safety net austerity policies actually increases the cost of production

Blockupy Battle: Cops teargas anti-austerity activists in Frankfurt

Scuffles have broken out in the Eurozone’s financial capital, on the second day of anti-austerity protests. Frankfurt is home to the European Central Bank – an institution that, protesters say, is responsible for much of Europe’s current economic predicament.
READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/nor636

Italy: The Bread Price Has Increased In About 4 Euros/KG

I’m in Milan City @ 3.94 Euros/Kg

Thats the price:

http://s20.postimg.org/a2kav73b1/bread_price_italy.jpg

In Italy, Austerity Is Served on Homemade Bread

Money is tight, so Italians are upending decades of food culture by frequenting bakeries less and baking more loaves at home.

In the land that invented La Cucina Povera – literally, the poor man’s kitchen — it’s no surprise to witness an increase in home baking. Figures recently releasedby Coldiretti, the association of Italian farmers, are staggering. Italians are buying record amounts of [...]

We Are Our Own Worst Enemy In The Biggest Economic War In World History. And Asia Loves It!

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

America is a quitter. We’re giving up, surrendering, forfeiting. Yes, throwing the game. Throwing away our future as the world’s superpower. We’re forced to walk off the economic playing field. Not by outside enemies, by our own Congress refusing to play a job-creating economic game.

We are our own worst enemy in the biggest economic war in world history. And Asia loves it!

Our do-nothing [...]

Day Two – Hundreds of police battles “tens of thousands” of commies in Frankfurt.

(Day 2) “Activists of the anti-globalist Blockupy movement scuffled with dozens of riot police who charged into a marching crowd to disperse protesters, reports RT’s Peter Oliver. The march has been reportedly stopped.

What was supposed to be a march through the middle of German’s financial capital by anti-austerity demonstrators really lasted only about 500 meters, when several hundred riot police in full kit came among the crowd.

The protesters started throwing [...]

AUSTERITY: French auction off presidential wine collection

French President Francois Hollande, who unlike his predecessor enjoys good wine, is selling off a 10th of the Elysee Palace’s cellar to raise funds.

The 1,200 bottles, which range in estimated price from 15 euros to 2,200 euros ($2,900) for a Petrus 1990, will be put up for sale tonight and tomorrow at Hotel de Drouot by auction house Kapandji-Morhange. The estimates of the lots add up to 250,000 euros, or [...]

The fiscal pact is dead: The end of the EU has begun

“The failure of the EU Commission with the saving program for Europe marks the end of the EU as we know it. In addition, however, the euro-opponents can not rejoice. For now it goes to the numbers: debt, derivatives, overburdened pension funds will take their toll.”

http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2013/05/30/der-fiskalpakt-ist-tot-das-ende-der-eu-hat-begonnen/

http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2013/05/30/der-fiskalpakt-ist-tot-das-ende-der-eu-hat-begonnen/

EU Sets Deficit Targets as Brussels Softens Austerity Message

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130529-705146.html

Austerity About-Face: German Government to Gamble on Stimulus

“With the euro crisis refusing to relent, the German government [...]

Dearth of Good Money Assets Signal End Is Near

from Wealth Cycles:

 

The European Commission, a group self-tasked with herding cats, has proclaimed the end of “austerity” in the Eurozone for governments, granted citizens will surely continue to feel quite austere. But what does this mean for Europeans and their economy moving forward?

Before we dive into it, we would add that absolutely no austerity was obtained in any EZ national budget, except perhaps where it was forced by plummeting tax receipts [...]

Discussion in Spain on Leaving the Euro; Euro Exit Manifest

By Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Some common sense discussion is taking place in Spain regarding the necessity of Spain exiting the eurozone.

For example, please consider Opposition to the euro breaks: first manifesto to leave the single currency as translated from El Economista.

The political opposition that Spain remains part of the euro begins to crystallize. And the tool to achieve that end-Spain output of the single currency is again signing a manifest public that, for the moment, [...]

Spiegel: Europe’s leaders want to overturn the Treaty of Lisbon

Spiegel: Europe’s leaders want to overturn the Treaty of Lisbon

In silence the governments of EU members have agreed not to reduce the Brussels Commission – although that is provided in the Lisbon Treaty that. In the future, each member country should be able to appoint a commissioner to SPIEGEL ONLINE information. It costs the taxpayers millions.

Externally, the governments of the EU Member States currently celebrating their disagreement. The North insists on fiscal discipline, [...]

10 Scenes From The Economic Collapse That Is Sweeping Across The Planet

By Michael

When is the economic collapse going to happen?  Just open up your eyes and take a look around the globe.  The next wave of the economic collapse may not have reached Wall Street yet, but it is already deeply affecting billions of lives all over the planet.  Much of Europe has already descended into a deep economic depression, very disturbing economic data is coming out of the second and [...]

It’s Now “Harder For Teens to Find a Job in Developed Economies Than in Sub-Saharan Africa”

just, wow.

We’re not seeing much about Greece in the news lately, but that doesn’t mean things are going well there:.

Greek youth unemployment rose above 60 percent for the first time in February, reflecting the pain caused by the country’s crippling recession after years of austerity under its international bailout.

Greece’s jobless rate has almost tripled since the country’s debt crisis emerged in 2009 and was more than twice the euro zone’s average [...]

CREDIT SUISSE: Portugal Will Soon Need More Money And A Bailout Isn’t The Best Solution

Portugal, which is entering the last year of a three-year European Union aid program, will likely need further help from Europe at a time when core countries in the region, such as Germany, are fast losing enthusiasm about providing financing to ailing peripheral nations.

 

The most likely solution to this problem, according to analysts at Credit Suisse, isn’t a second bail-out but instead that European institutions offer Portugal a credit line until [...]

Depositors Beware – Bank Deposits Of Over €100,000 Are At Risk

by GoldCore

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,463.00, EUR 1,118.67 and GBP 941.74 per ounce.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,476.50, EUR 1,124.95 and GBP 949.34 per ounce.

Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)

Gold rose $0.70 or 0.05% yesterday to $1,469.90/oz and silver finished down 0.37%.

A bank holiday was observed in the U.K. and Ireland yesterday.

Ireland’s Finance Minister, and current European Council President, Michael Noonan, is introducing a proposal to European finance ministers that [...]

Italy should use its gold reserves to force a change in EMU policy

by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph:

The World Gold Council has advised Italy to deploy its 2,000 tonnes of gold to break free of EMU austerity dictates.

By using the reserves – the world’s fourth largest – to collateralise the first chunk of any losses for bondholders, Italy could raise €400bn or so on the capital markets and determine its own future for a while.

Italy did this in 1974 when it borrowed $2bn from [...]

Worldiwde Worker Woes: May Day clashes in Germany, Spain, Colombia, Chile

Millions took to the streets to take part in May 1 demonstrations around the globe. From union rallies to protests and clashes with police, the International Labor Day events drew attention to the issues of austerity, unemployment and workers rights.

France, Italy join hands over eurozone crisis

AFP - France and Italy presented a united front Wednesday on the eurozone debt crisis amid deepening divisions over belt-tightening policies in the European Union as some countries reach breaking point.

French President Francois Hollande met Italy’s brand new Prime Minister Enrico Letta, in Paris only days after he took office, and warned that austerity alone was “no longer enough”, stressing the need for a focus on growth.

“If one doesn’t notice that [...]

May Day Rallies & Strikes: Bedlam in Bangladesh, Tear Gas in Turkey, Grounded in Greece, Eurozone Unemployment Hits New High…

MayDay 2013: Everything you need to know about May Day history, Law Day and maypoles on May 1

Believe it or not, May 1 has more significance than a cute “it’s gonna be May” meme featuring Justin Timberlake.

Perhaps you’ve always wondered about references to May Day. A Huffington Post contributorexplains May Day celebrations “were born more than a century ago out of a struggle by American workers for the eight-hour day.”

In the late 1800s, [...]

Spain DOOM: 2M out of 17M Households Jobless – Youth Unemployment almost 56% – Total Unemployed – Worse than The Great Depression – Immigrants Going Back to South America

This is a massive tragedy – just think of all that waste in human potential. It’s not just in Spain – youth unemployment is skyrocketing all over Europe and beyond. High youth unemployment is very dangerous for society – it can have a hugely destabilising effect. Watch for widespread, violent protests this summer…

 

These figures are unfathomable. Is there no entrepreneurship spirit left in Spaniards? Maybe they can all go back [...]

Everything Is Rigged in Favor of the Rich!!! The Stock Market Doesn’t Need The Economy To Surge, The Distribution Of Income And Wealth Looms Larger, Fed Holds $2 Trillion (And Rising) Of US GDP Hostage. Americans Past Point Of No Return?

The Stock Market Doesn’t Need The Economy To Surge

The S&P 500 gained a notable 1.7% last week, and it sits just points from its all-time high.

This comes as U.S. economic data continues to signal a spring slowdown.  Q1 GDP grew at a slower pace than expected, durable goods orders disappointed in April, and the housing market is showing signs of slowing.

Meanwhile, the current earnings season continues to be less than stellar….

 

The Latest Data Is Flashing Some Big Red Flags For The [...]

Political Assassination Prevented In Rome As Unemployed Man Tries To “Shoot Politicians”

zerohedge.com
April 28, 2013

While suicides out of desperation had long been a tragic, if recurring, staple in depressionary Europe, so far popular anger had been directed at within, with few if any murderous outbursts targeted at other people, and certainly not at politicians (or financiers). This obviously has been a critical aspect of the current economic collapse in Europe – one needs but recall that it was a political assassination that [...]

As It Gets Its Latest European Lifeline, Life In Greece Is About To Get Even Harder

from Zero Hedge:

A few hours ago, Greek lawmakers approved a reform law to unlock about €8.8 billion of rescue loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The law, which was a condition for further aid installments, passed easily with the solid backing of the three parties comprising Greece’s ruling coalition, by 168 to 123 votes. Next, euro zone officials will meet on Monday to approve overdue payment of [...]

Greece starts firing civil servants for first time in a century

Pushed by its European creditors amid its crippling economic crisis, Greece began this week to do something it hasn’t done in more than 100 years: fire public-sector workers en masse.

Following weeks of tough negotiations with its lenders – the “troika” of the International Monetary Fund, theEuropean Union, and the European Central Bank – the Greek government started laying off public-sector workers in an effort to implement the austerity that the troika has demanded. The first [...]

“Europe’s bankers refuse to admit bankruptcy, and there is no political accountability to make them. Their objective is solely to maintain the face value of their credit book, and thus protect their balance sheets, derivatives, bonuses and status. It is a disaster.”

If Abenomics works, Britain’s leaders will look like monkeys

George Osborne should abandon the tribal morality of austerity and, like Japan, print money not for banks but for people

If you thought Germany was a model modern economy, forget it. Look east. After two decades of self-imposed austerity, Japan has had enough. Its new leaders are systematically, deliberately, massively inflating their economy. Named after the [...]

Why the Market Moved Today and What’s Next

by Phoenix Capital Research

 

Europe is leading the world higher today on two items:

1)   EU President Barroso stating that there are limits to austerity.

2)   Spain’s Prime Minister Rajoy agreeing with Angela Merkel that nations must cede sovereignty if Europe is to last.

The first of these issues is just political grandstanding. Europe’s problems are not related to whether or not EU politicians pursue austerity or growth policies; they are related to EU [...]

A Few Quick Thoughts On Why Markets Around The World Are Surging

Dave Lutz of Stifel, Nicolaus passes along some thoughts.

We summarize:

Everything started earlier with Germany. There’s a belief that Germany will “capitulate” and let the ECB pump more.
Japanese investors are selling the yen and buying European assets.
Homebuilders are strong.
Hedge funders are heavy buyers. The “most short” basket is a big outperformer.
More chatter about austerity abating.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/april-23-why-markets-are-rallying-2013-4#ixzz2RIWOcYp4

After Gold’s Tumble, Are JPY And Stock Market About To Get The ‘Gold’ Treatment? Nouriel Roubini “I’m Quite Concerned about the U.S. Economy”

Is JPY About To Get The ‘Gold’ Treatment?

Overnight a number of media types discussed the inevitability of the 100JPY Maginot Line being crossed (the same way they predicted the inevitable breach of USDJPY 100 two weeks ago). It appears a combination of over-size positioning, options barriers, and economic reality has reduced demand for the JPY cross as a carry trade this morning and after testing 99.98 overnight, JPY is crashing higher [...]

It’s way too soon to see austerity as a failure. Similarly, it is too soon to see stimulus as a success.

“Where are those folks going to come up with money to spend?”

This is the crucial point that stimulus proponents ignore or fail to see. Many Southern European countries are broke and they do not have the means to start a stimulus programme. For them, it is only possible if other countries pick the bill for that stimulus programme up and there’s just zero political support for that. At most, these [...]

Is This Serious? Switzerland to Allow Bail-in Deposit Confiscations, Cyprus Ordering A Vote In Its Parliament On The Terms of The EU-IMF Troika Bailout, And The Latest Eurozone’s ‘Growth’ Agenda Focused On Austerity, Having Banks Lending Money Less, Depressing Wages, Laying Off Public Employees, And Privatizing State Businesses…

Switzerland Revises 1934 Banking Act to Allow Bail-in Deposit Confiscations!

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has quietly joined the growing parade of western nations who have quietly re-written banking laws to allow depositor bail-ins upon the next banking crisis.

If Switzerland, the once ultimate safe haven for banking deposits across the world is preparing to confiscate depositors funds, there truly is no protection anywhere other than physical gold and silver [...]

Fitch cuts UK credit rating on ‘weaker economic and fiscal outlook’

Britain has been stripped of its AAA credit rating by a second rating agency as a result of poor growth.

by Philip Aldrick, The Telegraph:

Fitch joined Moody’s in downgrading the UK to AA+ “to reflect a weaker economic and fiscal outlook” that has caused both the budget deficit and national debt to soar above earlier forecasts.

It means that only Standard & Poor’s has the UK on the top rating, albeit on “negative outlook”.

The downgrade was [...]

Global Systemic Crisis: The War Has Been Declared Between The Economic-Political World And Financial Banking Interests

by leap2020.eu

Last minute comments

After the deadline for this GEAB number last Saturday evening, our team has closely watched the unusual coincidence of all the market indicators’ collapsing: European, American and Asian stock exchanges, raw materials… and even and especially gold. Unfortunately we don’t have time to expand on this event but, anyway, we interpret it in line with everything we have written in this number. But where this number describes things [...]

Why Europe’s Debt Crisis is Barely Getting Started

By Nick Hubble 

If you’re sick of hearing about Europe’s economic crisis, you’ve got a long hard slog ahead of you in coming years. The steady stream of good and bad news is ‘hiding the decline’, as climate scientists would say. But the decline continues nonetheless.

Countries implementing so-called austerity are still running deficits. Politicians say the crisis has passed while their economies shrink. Debt to GDP ratios are rising as debt grows [...]

Somehow the Greek unemployment nightmare is getting even worse

The deterioration of economies in Europe — especially those on the European periphery that are trying to adjust via austerity — is just terrible.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/greek-unemployment-hits-272-percent-2013-4#ixzz2Q9bI9x2u