Happy Zombiversary Euro - The first ten years of the euro banknotes and coins

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Because on the tenth birthday (and with trillions of dollars pledged to keep it alive, we use the term very loosely) of the most loathed currency in the history of the world, we find out that in the heads of the fat, bald, corpulent, and corrupt eurocrats, the zEUR0.pk is somehow represented by a hot woman. Our prediction: the 20th anniversary of the euro will star the Michael Jackson zombie from Thriller...dancing around on centrally planned puppet strings of course. Source

"Martial Law in Greece" and EU “Prolonged Depression” George Soros, DeAnne Julius, Howard Davies

BBC Radio 4 Bottomline podcast link

with George Soros, DeAnne Julius and Howard Davies

"Martial Law in Greece" and EU “Prolonged Depression” 

Reggie Middleton Ruminations on Greece's Sovereign Debt Crisis and Why Wall Street Didn't Foresee it?

Reggie Middleton, in a conversation style discussion, explains how Greece became over indebted through banks making bad loans, and more importantly why practically no one in all of Wall Street warned of the sovereign debt crisis besides BoomBustBlog. This is hard hitting opinion that is too controversial to publish anywhere else. Source

Total Ignorance: Where's Libya, Iraq or Iran? NYC doesn't care!

The men and women hoping to become the next President of the U.S. appear to spend as much time demonstrating their ignorance of the world, as they do their political credentials. But as RT's Anastasia Churkina found out, that could just be a reflection of society. Source

Everyone Is Starting To Realize The Size Of Britain's Debt Crisis

By Steve Keen: As much as I criticize the US of A for its economic management, I can’t fault its statistical agencies on the collection and dissemination of data: data is readily available and almost always in an easily accessible format. That, and the fact that it’s the world’s biggest economy, is why most of my analysis is of the US. Australia’s ABS deserves similar accolades for making data readily accessible and relatively easy to locate.

The UK data source, the Office of National Statistics, is almost impenetrable by comparison—it’s the statistical system that Sir Humphrey Appleby would design. It gives the appearance of accessibility, yet either drowns you in so much data in response to any query that you give up, or which, when you get to what you think you want, returns rubbish. For example, you’d think following the sequence “Economy—UK Sector Accounts—Financial Assets and Liabilities” would actually take you to something resembling the USA’s Flow of Funds, wouldn’t you? Guess again. Figure 1 shows what it returns you: no data, no publications, but links to four methodology papers on Investment Trusts. “Well done, Bernard!”

Given this state of affairs (or these affairs of state?), I haven’t bothered trying to put together a debt profile of the UK as I have for Australia and the USA—which of course shows the success of the Appleby method. But as so often happens, the method backfired when Morgan Stanley, using rather more research resources than I can bring to bear, published a chart of national indebtedness in which the UK was right at the top—with a staggering 950% private debt to GDP ratio, and a financial sector debt ratio alone of over 600%.

Figure 2: Morgan Stanley global debt ratio calculations

I expect that Sir Humphrey’s descendants are now busy putting out this brush fire with claims of double-counting, but even the UK Treasury’s Budget Report admits to a peak private sector debt to GDP ratio of over 450 percent, with the finance sector ratio alone being 250%:

“Over the pre-crisis decade, developments in the UK economy were driven by unsustainable levels of private sector debt and rising public sector debt. Indeed, it has been estimated that the UK became the most indebted country in the world.

Chart 1.1 highlights the rise in private sector debt in the UK. Households took on rising levels of mortgage debt to buy increasingly expensive housing, while by 2008 the debt of nonfinancial companies reached 110 per cent of GDP. Within the financial sector, the accumulation of debt was even greater. By 2007, the UK financial system had become the most highly leveraged of any major economy…” (UK Budget Report, 2011)

Figure 3: UK Treasury private debt to GDP figures

To put this into perspective, the USA’s private debt to GDP ratio peaked at 303% of GDP, and the rapid decline in this debt to its current level is what has caused its “Great Recession”. I never thought that another developed economy could make the USA’s debt bubble look trivial, but clearly I was wrong.

Figure 4: And you thought America had a debt bubble…

As well as aggregate UK private debt exceeding America’s, the UK also has a higher debt to GDP ratio for every sector. However as usual, government debt, about which politicians and neoclassical economists obsess, is the smallest component of total debt, and has only started to grow after the crisis began. To emphasise one point on which I emphatically agree with MMT economists, public debt is not the problem, and attempting to reduce public debt now is the wrong policy—from my perspective, because it would add public sector deleveraging to private sector deleveraging, thus exacerbating the underlying problem of deleveraging. Rather than obsessing about public debt now, politicians and economists should have been concerned about rising private debt in the previous two decades.

UK household debt grew along similar lines to USA household debt, but continued growing as US household debt started to taper. It is now falling, but still exceeds even Australia’s household debt ratio—though Australia holds the dubious record for the fastest rate of growth of household debt since 1990.

Figure 5

While UK households were relative laggards in the rate of growth of debt, UK businesses showed how it was done by tripling their indebtedness in just over 2 decades, from the post-1987 Stock Market Crash level of 38% of GDP to a whopping 118% at the end of 2009.

Figure 6

But “Cardboard Box? You were lucky!”. The Four Yorkshireman award for digging a hole faster than anybody else goes to the UK finance sector. The USA and UK both began the post-1987 Stock Market era with roughly comparable levels of finance sector debt—roughly 50% for the UK and 40% for the USA. But two decades later, UK finance sector debt peaked at 261% of GDP, more than twice the US level of 123% (I can’t show Australia’s finance sector debt since the RBA doesn’t separately record it, but the Morgan Stanley data in Figure 2 implies that it’s larger than America’s).

Figure 7

The combination makes the UK the Private Debt Capital of the G20 world.

Figure 8

All this implies that when a debt slowdown hits the UK, it could do so with even more impact than it did in the USA. As I’ve argued extensively elsewhere, aggregate demand in a credit-based economy is income plus the change in debt. This perspective puts the UK’s staggering dependence upon private debt into sharp relief; explains why—as yet—it hasn’t suffered as sharp a downturn as has the USA; and also implies that that day of reckoning may be approaching. Take a good look at Figure 9 and Figure 10.

Figure 9: British Aggregate Demand

Figure 10: American Aggregate Demand

Firstly, note that the peak debt contribution to aggregate demand was far higher in the UK than the USA: in 2008, the UK GDP was roughly 1.4 trillion pounds while the increase in debt was 800 billion, yielding total private sector spending (on assets as well as goods and services) of over 2.2 trillion; the US numbers are roughly 14 trillion dollars for GDP and 4 trillion for the increase in debt.

Secondly, the USA went straight from leveraging to deleveraging, with the change in debt going from adding $4 trillion in 2008 to subtracting 2.5 trillion in 2010. In the UK, there have been 4 dips into deleveraging, but 3 of them have subsequently been reversed, and the worst to date (in 2010) reduced aggregate demand by only 100 billion—40% of the impact of the peak decline in the USA.

But thirdly, another period of deleveraging has just begun in the UK, whereas the rate of decline of debt has slowed in the USA. Things aren’t looking rosy for 2012 in the USA, but they could be far worse in the UK.

Figure 11 compares debt-financed demand in the two countries: the UK’s debt binge has been strikingly larger, far more volatile, and is now headed down while the USA—though still deleveraging—is headed up.

Figure 11

The role of debt in driving both employment and asset prices is very apparent. The boom years of the UK economy from 1993 till 2008 were in fact its borrow years.

Figure 12

I prefer to correlate the Credit Accelerator to change in asset prices, but these next two figures are useful in showing the level of UK asset prices, as well as their correlation with the change in private debt.

Figure 13

Figure 14

The UK Credit Accelerator

As explained elsewhere (“A much more nebulous conception“), since the change in private debt is an important component of aggregate demand, and aggregate demand is expended on both commodities and assets, the acceleration of private debt will be correlated to the change in unemployment and the change in asset prices. This is very apparent in the UK data, and all 3 measures—unemployment, the FTSE and real house prices—are now under the influence of negative credit accelerators.

Figure 15

Add to this private sector deleveraging a government committed to a deluded program of “expansionary fiscal consolidation“, and the indications are that the UK will be a leader in the global recession stakes in 2012. Source

Anarchy in the UK - The Birth of Descent Last Year - Rotten politicians betrayed people - Update

England had a scorching August, but it was nothing to do with the summer sun. It was a wave of riots and looting which seemingly sprang from nowhere, but which gripped London for days and spread to other cities nationwide with buildings torched and streets trashed. Police struggled to contain the worst violence in decades. Source

Angelo: You can add fathers of all classes to the above mentioned lists of the UK disenfranchised students etc. and this issue has existed for generations with 50% of children from the ever growing number of the separated now never seeing their fathers again and the legal system police, closed courts and huge majority female staffed Gestapo missandrist social services with policies clearly prescribed to continue this negative curve. That's one that cuts to the heart of society and as shown by the above reports it is very much part of the systemic failure of a defunct system in collapse. 

Capable altruistic independents must stand and be elected (and I offer my support to any such UK campaigns) because if we continue to feed the two or four headed serpent of primary colour groupings, the long bought off by special interests and the wealthy, it's over.

Among my resolutions for 2011 is to keep up the info war, support any stance for liberty and anti military war/foreign military bases of any nation and anti patent laws and to continue to push open direct government, whilst avoiding finding myself dead in a police cell if possible! 

Hold on to your seats for a hot 2012."Happy New Year all".

Ron Paul was right about CIA drug deal

Texas Congressman Ron Paul has long lobbied against government restrictions on the drug use of American citizens, but in the past the outspoken presidential hopeful has linked the US with narcotics closer than one might imagine.

As early as 1988, Paul was preaching of a relationship between the Central Intelligence Agency and Contras in Nicaragua amid the Iran-Contra scandal that plagued the Reagan administration. That relationship, said Paul, was one built with an intricate drug trade.

According to the GOP frontrunner in the race to the White House, the CIA imported cocaine from the Contras into America and then supplied domestic drug dealers with their loot, a transaction that allowed the Agency to operate its illegal trade with its Latin American neighbors that would have been otherwise impossible to fund with legitimate money.

Instead, said Paul, the CIA used dirty money made by the Agency’s drug deals to help afford the cost of arming the Contras against Sandinistas.

Speaking at a gathering of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a NORML, Paul told an audience along the campaign trail back during his bid for the presidency in 1988 that the CIA was involved in dealing coke.

Drug trafficking is "a gold mine for people who want to raise money in the underground government in order to finance projects that they can't get legitimately. It is very clear that the CIA has been very much involved with drug dealings,"Paul said in the address. "The CIA was very much involved in the Iran-Contra scandals. I'm not making up the stories; we saw it on television. They were hauling down weapons and drugs back. And the CIA and government officials were closing their eyes, fighting a war that was technically illegal."

Danilo Blandón, a former cocaine trafficker pegged by the US government, testified in 1981 that in regards to his own operation, "whatever we were running in LA the profit was going to the Contra revolution." Blandón, from Nicaragua, added that he was outfitted with supplies by the CIA and sold cocaine cheaply to California dealers in order to turn a profit around for the government.

Rumors of the connection have circulated since the Iran-Contra affair though and have gone largely unreported. Paul, however, is no stranger to calling out corrupt government whenever he can. In televised debates of would-be Republican contenders for the GOP nomination this year, Paul has repeatedly gone after Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama for involving America in foreign wars for interests not vested in the American public .In the case of the War on Terror, Paul recently remarked that the Bush administration was full of glee after the September 11 terrorist attacks as it had finally allowed the government a reason to invade.

Outrageous Predictions for 2012 - Keiser Report

New Year's special featuring outrageous predictions, bloopers and Berlusconi's 2012 Bunga Bunga Guide to finance. They look back to some 2010 predictions that came true in 2011 and look at the future of European bank runs, rising US treasury yields and the Jim Rogers - Marc Faber Chinese showdown. Source

Obama Signs Martial Law Bill: NDAA Now Law + The Secret of 2012

President Obama who pledged to veto the National Defense Authorization Act has sighed it. Of course his promise was only for public consumption. After all lying to your enemy is what invading corporate takeover army's do. It was the Obama administration all along that demanded the indefinite detention provisions be added while at the same time telling the America people he was fighting to protect their rights. This is treason on parade,in your face all out despotism!

(AP Story)
Obama signs defense bill despite 'reservations'

HONOLULU (AP) -- President Barack Obama signed a wide-ranging defense bill into law Saturday despite having "serious reservations" about provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.

The bill also applies penalties against Iran's central bank in an effort to hamper Tehran's ability to fund its nuclear enrichment program. The Obama administration is looking to soften the impact of those penalties because of concerns that they could lead to a spike in global oil prices or cause economic hardship on U.S. allies that import petroleum from Iran.

In a statement accompanying his signature, the president chastised some lawmakers for what he contended was their attempts to use the bill to restrict the ability of counterterrorism officials to protect the country.

Administration officials said Obama was only signing the measure because Congress made minimally acceptable changes that no longer challenged the president's terrorism-fighting ability.

"Moving forward, my administration will interpret and implement the provisions described below in a manner that best preserves the flexibility on which our safety depends and upholds the values on which this country was founded," Obama said in the signing statement. Source
Additional: The Secret of 2012

Globalist social engineers want you to feel helpless so you won't get involved in society. They con Christians with "it's the end of the world so don't worry about evil taking over" bull and for the rest of society they have crafted the 2012 hoax. Source

The Casino Gulag Model with Max Keiser

Former trader Max Keiser on the imploding economy

FKN Newz "2012 PREVIEW" - Peak Life?

Hackers plan space satellites to combat censorship

Computer hackers plan to take the internet beyond the reach of censors by putting their own communication satellites into orbit.

The scheme was outlined at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.

The project's organisers said the Hackerspace Global Grid will also involve developing a grid of ground stations to track and communicate with the satellites.

Longer term they hope to help put an amateur astronaut on the moon.

Hobbyists have already put a few small satellites into orbit - usually only for brief periods of time - but tracking the devices has proved difficult for low-budget projects.

The hacker activist Nick Farr first put out calls for people to contribute to the project in August. He said that the increasing threat of internet censorship had motivated the project.

"The first goal is an uncensorable internet in space. Let's take the internet out of the control of terrestrial entities," Mr Farr said.

Beyond balloons

He cited the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the United States as an example of the kind of threat facing online freedom. If passed, the act would allow for some sites to be blocked on copyright grounds.

Whereas past space missions have almost all been the preserve of national agencies and large companies, amateur enthusiasts have in recent years sent a few payloads into orbit.

These devices have mostly been sent up using balloons and are tricky to pinpoint precisely from the ground.

According to Armin Bauer, a 26-year-old enthusiast from Stuttgart who is working on the Hackerspace Global Grid, this is largely due to lack of funding.

"Professionals can track satellites from ground stations, but usually they don't have to because, if you pay a large sum [to send the satellite up on a rocket], they put it in an exact place," Mr Bauer said.

In the long run, a wider hacker aerospace project aims to put an amateur astronaut onto the moon within the next 23 years.

"It is very ambitious so we said let's try something smaller first," Mr Bauer added.

Ground network

The Berlin conference was the latest meeting held by the Chaos Computer Club, a decades-old German hacker group that has proven influential not only for those interested in exploiting or improving computer security, but also for people who enjoy tinkering with hardware and software.

When Mr Farr called for contributions to Hackerspace, Mr Bauer and others decided to concentrate on the communications infrastructure aspect of the scheme.

He and his teammates are working on their part of the project together withConstellation, an existing German aerospace research initiative that mostly consists of interlinked student projects.

In the open-source spirit of Hackerspace, Mr Bauer and some friends came up with the idea of a distributed network of low-cost ground stations that can be bought or built by individuals.

Used together in a global network, these stations would be able to pinpoint satellites at any given time, while also making it easier and more reliable for fast-moving satellites to send data back to earth.

"It's kind of a reverse GPS," Mr Bauer said.

"GPS uses satellites to calculate where we are, and this tells us where the satellites are. We would use GPS co-ordinates but also improve on them by using fixed sites in precisely-known locations."

Mr Bauer said the team would have three prototype ground stations in place in the first half of 2012, and hoped to give away some working models at the next Chaos Communication Congress in a year's time.

They would also sell the devices on a non-profit basis.

"We're aiming for 100 euros (£84) per ground station. That is the amount people tell us they would be willing to spend," Mr Bauer added.

Complications

Experts say the satellite project is feasible, but could be restricted by technical limitations.

"Low earth orbit satellites such as have been launched by amateurs so far, do not stay in a single place but rather orbit, typically every 90 minutes," said Prof Alan Woodward from the computing department at the University of Surrey.

"That's not to say they can't be used for communications but obviously only for the relatively brief periods that they are in your view. It's difficult to see how such satellites could be used as a viable communications grid other than in bursts, even if there were a significant number in your constellation."

This problem could be avoided if the hackers managed to put their satellites into geostationary orbits above the equator. This would allow them to match the earth's movement and appear to be motionless when viewed from the ground. However, this would pose a different problem.

"It means that they are so far from earth that there is an appreciable delay on any signal, which can interfere with certain Internet applications," Prof Woodward said.

"There is also an interesting legal dimension in that outer space is not governed by the countries over which it floats. So, theoretically it could be a place for illegal communication to thrive. However, the corollary is that any country could take the law into their own hands and disable the satellites."

Need for knowledge

Apart from the ground station scheme, other aspects of the Hackerspace project that are being worked on include the development of new electronics that can survive in space, and the launch vehicles that can get them there in the first place.

According to Mr Farr, the "only motive" of the Hackerspace Global Grid is knowledge.

He said many participants are frustrated that no person has been sent past low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

"This [hacker] community can put humanity back in space in a meaningful way," Farr said.

"The goal is to get back to where we were in the 1970s. Hackers find it offensive that we've had the technology since before many of us were born and we haven't gone back."

Asked whether some might see negative security implications in the idea of establishing a hacker presence in space, Farr said the only downside would be that "people might not be able to censor your internet".

"Hackers are about open information," Farr added. "We believe communication is a human right." Source

By David Meyer