The Zinger Not the Song
Today’s European disaster news has been dominated by reports that Catalonia, Spain’s “richest province” has 13 billion Euro in debts it can’t pay. The head of its autonomous government, Catalan President Artur Mas, says “we don’t care how they do it, but we need to make payments at the end of the month. Your economy can’t recover if you can’t pay your bills.” One is tempted to reply ‘who gives a damn?’ No Mas, Artur.
But nothing illustrates the level to which Spain sunk more than news that it’s Eurovision song contestant has been asked to intentionally lose because the country can’t afford to host the next event if she wins.
Bosses of Spanish public television have told Pastora Soler ‘to throw’ her entry as the Government battle to cut national debt and bring public spending under control. The 33-year-old singer said directors of state-run broadcaster TVE called her in to say: ‘Please don’t win. We don’t want to pay for it in 2013.’
Who can say which is sadder? The arrival of the day you can’t afford to win or the fact that winning means you spend more than losing? Well choose your wild. The BBC reports that one of Spain’s biggest banks has had it’s shares suspended from trading — at its own request. That’s because it needs 15 billion Euros, slightly more than Catalonia or it goes bust. The reason? Spain has a housing bubble and many of the bank’s assets are worthless. But then nobody even knows how deep the hole is. The AP reports that they’re still trying to figure it out.
“I don’t know if the figures will be greater or smaller than those being talked about because I am not responsible for the information that is coming out,” said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria at a weekly government press conference.
Hopes that Spain’s travel industry could extract it from the mire took a hit with news that “as many as 30 of Spain’s 47 state-run airports are to be partially shut in an attempt to reduce costs. Some have no scheduled flights yet are fully staffed and operational in what has come to symbolise the reckless public spending projects that have left Spain crippled with debt…”
David Hall at the Wall Street Journal says he is reliably informed that governments and companies are preparing for a “nightmare scenario”. Even keeping the supermarkets open won’t be easy.
Contingency planning is ramping up on the corporate side, too. One European supermarket group has been looking closely at its suppliers’ financing requirements. “The key thing for them is how their working capital cycle is funded and whether they can get access to the banks that they normally would use, which may themselves be in a liquidity squeeze,” a treasury official at the company tells CFO European Briefing. “Our job is to ensure the channels of liquidity are open. If we can keep that going, a lot of the disruption can be minimized relatively quickly.”
Nobody is going to be singing a happy tune on the other side of the Atlantic either. Detroit is literally turning off the lights. With 40% of its street lights already out, the city government “will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.” As it is, they will need to have to borrow money to even scale back. Mayor Bing plans to “create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.”
CNBC is worried that investors are running out of ‘safe havens’ to put their money. “Much has been made recently of how gold no longer offers its traditional buffer against financial turmoil, with the yellow metal in a sharp pullback since early March. But some strategists are beginning to worry that other places where investors are stowing their money — high-grade bonds, Treasurys and defensive stocks in particular — also could be losing their protective shields.” All the more reason, said President Obama, to give him another term in which to clean up all the “wild debts” caused by Republicans. Populations on both sides of the Atlantic can be sure they are now in good hands.
Too bad though about Eurovision. It’s a sad day when our collective ability to celebrate and sing is dampened by the harsh reality of unpaid bills. But it’s only temporary, just you wait and see. True music never complains.
George Michael, aha
Michael Jackson, hi hi
Elton John, yeah yeah
Boris Becker, uh uh
Pavarotti, oh oh
Haiduc non so che fare a diventare cosiWhen will you and I, be a star
Glamour parties, a new car
London, Rome, Paris, there’re calling me
Lights, camera, action now you’re on TVQuesto va fuori a tutti i dj’s
This one goes out to all the dj’s
Tu balla e balla tu balla con noi
Balla qui con me il ritmo veloceDavid Beckham, yeah yeah
Dolly Buster, oh oh
Robbie Williams, aha
Britney Spears, ooops
Elvis Presley, yeah yeah
Haiduc non so che fare a diventare cosiWhen will you and I, be a star
Glamour parties, a new car
London, Rome, Paris, there’re calling me
Lights, camera, action now you’re on TV
How to Publish on Amazon’s Kindle for $2.99
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
Unbelievable. Obama, I mean.
That old saw “Not with a Bang, but with a whimper”–like everything else–must be “updated” to “reflect the times”.
Why can’t it be both?
You can tell this post is at leat an hour old – the Bankia bailout is up to EUR 19B – probably be twice that after everyone withdraws their money.
Obama is an inverse truth machine. He makes finding the truth a bit easier because you can eliminate almost everything he says from the truth category. Shocking for a POTUS.
Catalonia wants to “mutualise” their debts. So does every other region of Spain, and Italy, and Greece…The Yurps can all hate on Germany again because the Germans are the only ones with any real assets. This looks like a replay of the Panic of 1837 but with nobody left standing to be the adult.
The link for David Hall at the Wall Street Journal goes to the Daily Mail article on Spain vs. the Eurovision. Any chance to get the actual link to the WSJ article?
Being, unfortunately, a French in France, I’d like to get as much advance warning as possible on the nightmare scenarii (particularly if they involve a breakdown all the way down to basic commodities, such as supermarkets…) – and the local press keeps everything under the lid (no surprise there).
Yeah. That “green” economy is really THE answer to all our problems!
Effin’ IDIOTS!
Perpetual motion don’t exist.
PERIOD!
I like this version better:
http://youtu.be/fTTP61_9Acc
Now hold on a second.
You mean, if someone wins and their country gets to host, then they get the honor of SPENDING more money and not COLLECTING the ad revenue???????
Gee, I wonder what could be done to fix things, …
to me, the fact that the obama campaign is reduced to such obviously false (and rediculous) claims — i.e. he is fiscally conservative — are a strong sign that obama is getting close to throwing in the towel. it really doesn’t look or feel like obama is serious about getting re-elected.
This is really bad news for China more than it is for America… We are witnessing the beginning spasm of the coming Depression, History does repeat itself and it looks like it will be even worse this time around.
Yurps including from Spain are still coming to NY and buying stuff. Why?
CharlesWhite @ 10 said:
“This is really bad news for China more than it is for America… We are witnessing the beginning spasm of the coming Depression…”
This is bad news for everybody. Bernanke used up all of his bullets after March 2009 trying to prop up a zombie economy. He should have been cutting away all the gangrenous parts of our economy to prepare for a clean restart. The Sucker Rally due to Bernanke’s money printing is almost over and we’ll go into the main dip. After we hit bottom there will be no resources available to the Federal Reserve to restart the economy. To add insult to injury, all those zombie companies that Bernanke kept alive with his money printing will have gone broke anyway.
Blast From the Past @ 11 asked:
“Yurps including from Spain are still coming to NY and buying stuff. Why?”
Alternatives:
1) Leave the money denominated in Euros in European banks: bad idea
2) Leave the money denominated in US$ in European banks: also a bad idea
3) Leave the money denominated in Swiss Francs in a Swiss bank: a good idea if the Swiss will let you do it.
4) Convert your Euros to gold: Maybe a good idea (precious metals might be in a bubble).
5) Buy stuff that you need and make hay while the sun shines: probably a good idea.
6) ….
I thought the green economy was going to save Spain. Wot happened? What is the speed record for Socialism destroying an economy? Spain was doing good a decade ago.
Stoicheion,
It’s my understanding that the Spanish government squandered billions on windmill subsidies. Maybe the Germans made the windmills and sold them to the Spanish on credit? Also, it is my understanding that the Spanish economy imploded mainly due to a real estate bubble and not due to simple socialism. I believe it was a combination of government level theft (stealing from the Northern European banks) and socialism that killed the Greek economy.
I seek better understanding about all of this and gladly accept correction if I’m wrong.
9. cjm
it really doesn’t look or feel like obama is serious about getting re-elected.
But if you have an unserious electorate, you can still count on having a fighting chance of getting re-elected.
America has an unserious electorate. More than half of registered voters are clueless buffoons when they go to the polls. Romney will have to count on garnering at least some of the buffoon vote in addition to getting a majority of the grownup vote. Obama should not be as popular as he is (True, he’s not real popular, but he should be even less so all things considered.) A large chunk of the American demographic has changed for the worst. The primary change is one of attitude, perception, and worldview.
Don Rodrigo @ 15,
It’s a given that the typical American is a clueless buffoon. However the MSM remains solidly behind Obama and will do everything they can to shape public opinion to reelect Obama. Romney is a lack-luster candidate. He’ll beat Obama only if the economy fully implodes (which is likely) or some major skeleton is found in Obama’s closest (also likely) and the MSM is unable to suppress the information or invoke counter-propaganda. Obama’s and Romney’s immediate/open actions are almost of secondary importance. It will be outside events that determine who wins the election.
4. Peter Boston
yet the Germans managed to unload their own exposition to the EZ debts onto EZ members
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-23/merkel-should-know-her-country-has-been-bailed-out-too.html
yet the Germans managed to unload their own exposition to the EZ debts onto EZ members — the Germans got bailed out too. See this is what bothers me. Everybody’s getting bailed out. But who’s bailing them out when everyone you cast a glance at is broke?
One feels like Wile E. Coyote, gingerly feeling for the ground, sensing something is wrong yet not daring to look down — and finding nothing beneath your heels.
Who’s bailing out Germany? But whatever you do, don’t look down.
14. Eggplant
The Spanish have their own Wind mills manufactures, they didn’t need the German’s
18. wretchard
funnily my response disappeared !
Anyways, I was saying that Germany also managed to make a €480 billions firewall for her banks, so that they can resist to the euro crash.
see how she could made it:
http://tinyurl.com/ca6tj46
But I don’t think that she will be safe for longer than 2 years, as nobody in Europe will be able to buy the “made in Germany” anymore, so the recepts of austerity that she wanted us to adopt, she’ll have them at the menu too, and… hellow the 1931 replay !
Marie Claude @ 20 said:
“But I don’t think that she will be safe for longer than 2 years, as nobody in Europe will be able to buy the “made in Germany” anymore, so the recepts of austerity that she wanted us to adopt, she’ll have them at the menu too, and… hello the 1931 replay”
I suspect everyone’s master plan was for China to buy “Made in Germany”, “Made in Japan”, “Made in USA”, “Mined from Australia”, etc. Unfortunately, China’s economy is also running out of steam and won’t be buying anything, refer to:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/marc-faber-sees-100-probability-global-recession-2013
The worldwide Ponzi scheme is just about to implode….
p.s. The other day my South African wife bought in a Californian department store a pair of blue jeans that said “Made in Lesotho”. Globalization is truly impressive if it can get Lesotho in on the game. Too bad it’s just about to go “poof”.
Minor ripples (down) in the ebb and flow of economic time.
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Or cracks in a massive dam, holding back a never before experienced or even envisioned flood. A world economy worth 60T/year, over floating a boat of 600T or likely well more. 100B found (but apparently not lost in EU), to seal one hole.
A slowly rising tide of debt, creating artificial prosperity for some score years. Imagine 3% a year of float, magically appear, over actual, funding many public and private projects. Very little actually paid for; borrowed, bonded, leveraged are bridges, buildings, cities, factories, banks, schools, assistance, welfare; all resting on thin-air.
Read somewhere of ghost towns, historic events in many corners of the world; riding temporary wafts of air. Floated locally, maybe county wide, but never entire nations, societies or civilizations…
A town which dies: the people move elsewhere, fortunes are lost. Buildings and roads, infastructure decays and crumbles to ruin.
A nation which dies…
Places and things, over produced, are abondoned, little can be maintained. Life focus moves from getting and fun. toward substenance.
Assume everything turns to llama flatulence. Is there anything that you can do that anyone else wants and is willing to pay for? Mel Tappan (PBUH) had it right. Find a town of about 15-20,000 population now and move there. Convince them that you bring useful skills and can be an active part of the community. If you don’t provide value you’re a leech and deserve to be scraped off and tossed aside. HINT: Deconstructionist pedagogy is NOT a useful skill. Neither is a #&(% on whitey Studies degree. Just sayin’…
Madrid blew their wad on political fashion: cross-subsidies towards solar cell electricity have ruined Spanish power rates.
Their number one supplier during the binge was Germany. (!)
And elsewhere: airports for no one; empty super-highways from not many to too few…
Like 0bama’s stimulus — the Euro advantage was blown far and wide.
Spain now has tip top infrastructure that her citizens can’t possibly afford.
She was counting on mega-tourism — and that’s blown up, too.
The population of Ireland and Great Britain is descendent from the Basques. It did seem that, one by one, they all wanted to have a piece of the old, old, old, old homestead. ( As in 24,000 years ago. )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgqjLMESS78&feature=fvwrel
“The population of Ireland and Great Britain is descendent from the Basques. It did seem that, one by one, they all wanted to have a piece of the old, old, old, old homestead. ( As in 24,000 years ago. )”
“Basques, along with Irish, show the highest frequency of the Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1b in Western Europe; some 95% of native Basque men have this haplogroup. The rest is mainly I and a minimal presence of E3b. The Y-chromosome and MtDNA relationship between Basques and people of Ireland and Wales is of equal ratios as to neighboring areas of Spain, where similar ethnically “Spanish” people now live in close proximity to the Basques, although this genetic relationship is also very strong among Basques and other Spaniards.
On average only 30% of gene types in England derive from north-west Europe. Even without dating the earlier waves of north-west European immigration, this invalidates the Anglo-Saxon wipeout theory… …75-95% of British and Irish (genetic) matches derive from Iberia… Ireland, coastal Wales, and central and west-coast Scotland are almost entirely made up from Iberian founders, while the rest of the non-English parts of the Britain and Ireland have similarly high rates. England has rather lower rates of Iberian types with marked heterogeneity, but no English sample has less than 58% of Iberian samples…”
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_basques03.htm
idem for the French
http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2010/03/04/les-basques-ne-sont-pas-ce-qu-ils-croient-etre
It seems that the Cromagnons are their ancestors
“empty super-highways from not many to too few…”
there are still lots of people on the motorways that go down on the mediterranean side, it’s also the road for Algeria, until Alicante and to Marocco until Marbella
though I have seen deserted motorways in Portugal
no eurobonds but a “Banking Union”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/governments-must-restore-faith-debt-075414927.html
no Grexit from EZ but a Grexit with IOU as Geuro
http://www.euromoney.com/Article/3036269/How-Greece-can-leave-the-euro-without-leaving-the-euro.html?LS=Twitter
MC…
Your #2 link is a tale of denial. The contraction, now underway, within the tourist trade is horrific.
Your #1 link is in denial of the Greek culture. They don’t believe in paying taxes to any central authority. THAT’S the crux of the matter.
Going off the smack is always unpopular with junkies.
So poling in Athens is naturally showing a bias against reality.
BTW, link #2 is a dead give away that the Euro-Drachma is destined to lose its 1:1 linkage to the Euro-X.
For those wanting a complete list of all of the currencies within the EuroZone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes
Euro-Franc = U
Euro-Mark = X
Euro-Lira = S
Euro-Drachma = Y
Etc.
They, of course, are STILL being issued by their central banks — and the ECB.
Progress is creative destruction. Centralized government is centralized failure. There is a lot of failing to be done now, and all at once. It will be a great pity were the wrong things to be learned from it, but we already jumpoed that shark in the 1930′s. Returning to the priciples of Adam Smith and James Madison is a large step twice removed from the public conciousness.
(fyi, gremlins or more likely user error ate this post yesterday and today, reposting)
re: to Euro or not, Greek threats – if not extortion.
What happens when Germany does the unexpected, but totally within their power without negotiation? i.e. What if Germany brings back the DM as its preferred currency – likely without abandoning the Euro – and lets it float? I suspect it’s a win-win. Everyone else that has a less productive economy takes a big quality of life hit (making everyone more equal which the socialists believe wins them votes) – but they can now meet their entitlement and pension obligations with a much cheaper Euro, and Germany takes a small hit as it has to compete even harder (applying even more automation with its above average skill STEM-educated work-force – esp. relative to the U.S.) to move most of the last third of its exports outside of Europe. And the hit is a fraction of the costs of the current path – and German’s are known for being able to tighten their belts and do the unpleasant to get to a better place.
Sweden wins too. Rather than forcing austerity on the private sector, it shrunk government and encouraged those government employees to move from being burden (below the line costs) to the private sector where at least some fraction created new wealth (and new government revenues). The U.S. government tells us that public employees are compensated well above average because they are, well, well above average (shades of Lake Wobegon). Imagine how the U.S. economy would boom if these very able people found themselves creating companies and employing people rather than say, delivering mail for the USPS – or (per Jerry Pournelle) writing and enforcing regulations for owners of rabbits and puppies.
Well, yes, I do dream.
so we’re all in for the big blow up