Category: World Economic Meltdown

United States Of Europe??

by atharris, posted in World Economic Meltdown

The recent Greece default has lit the fuse. Will it ignite the bomb?

The President of France has come up with a very creative way of solving the European debt crisis.  On Sunday, a piece authored by French President Francois Hollande suggested that the ultimate solution to the problems currently plaguing Europe would be for every member of the eurozone to transfer all of their sovereignty to a newly created federal government.  In other words, it would essentially be a “United States of Europe”.  This federal government would have a prime minister, a parliament, a federal budget and a federal treasury.  Presumably, the current national governments in Europe would continue to function much like state governments in the U.S. do.  In the end, there may be some benefits to such a union – particularly for the weaker members of the eurozone.  But at what cost would those benefits come?

The President Of France Wants Eurozone Members To Transfer Their Sovereignty To A United States Of Europe

For the moment, the debt crisis in Europe just continues to get even worse.  Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Belgium and France are all drowning in debt……

In particular, keep on eye on the big banks.  Just like in the United States, the “too big to fail” banks in Europe are massively overleveraged and are tremendously exposed to derivatives.

In fact, the bank with the most exposure to derivatives on the entire planet is Deutsche Bank.  It has been reported that Deutsche Bank has a whopping 75 trillion dollars worth of exposure to derivatives, their co-CEOs were recently forced to resign, and there are all sorts of rumblings about troubles going on behind the scenes at the bank.

What do you think would happen if the biggest and most important bank in Germany suddenly became the next Lehman Brothers?

Definition of derivatives according to Investopedia:

A security whose price is dependent upon or derived from one or more underlying assets. The derivative itself is merely a contract between two or more parties. Its value is determined by fluctuations in the underlying asset. The most common underlying assets include stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, interest rates and market indexes. Most derivatives are characterized by high leverage….

Derivatives are generally used as an instrument to hedge risk, but can also be used for speculative purposes.

In other news:

China Dumps Record $143 Billion In US Treasurys In Three Months Via Belgium

Texas Launches Gold-backed Bank, Challenging Federal Reserve

Oklahoma Affirms Gold and Silver as Legal Tender

On June 4, Oklahoma joined Utah, Texas, and Louisiana in affirming that gold and silver coins are (as they always have been under the Constitution) legal tender in the payment of debts in the state. On the surface this seems almost nonsensical: affirming a right that already exists in Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution. But it is much more than that….

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. James 5:1-3

Babylon leads the pack

screen shot 2015-02-25 at 12.20.47 pm

Greece Defaults on IMF Payment

by atharris, posted in World Economic Meltdown

Greece slipped deeper into its financial abyss after the bailout program it has relied on for five years expired at midnight Tuesday and the country failed to repay a loan due to the International Monetary Fund, deepening fears over whether it will be able to remain in the eurozone.

With its failure to repay the roughly 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to the IMF, Greece became the first developed country to fall into arrears on payments to the fund.

Greece’s bailout expires, country defaults on IMF payment

Update on Greece Default

by atharris, posted in Prophecy, World Economic Meltdown

Banks and the stock exchange will remain closed after Greek citizens queued all weekend to withdraw savings.

Banks in Greece and the country’s stock exchange will be shut all week in a sign of the deepening financial crisis.

The drastic move comes after people rushed to withdraw their cash amid panic ahead of the referendum on bailout terms.

Under the controls, there will be a daily €60 limit on withdrawals from cash machines, which will reopen on Tuesday.

http://news.sky.com/story/1509799/greek-banks-and-stock-exchange-in-shutdown

Now Puerto Rico is under the strain of enormous debt. When will the US be there……

Puerto Rico’s Governor Says Island’s Debts Are ‘Not Payable’

Puerto Rico’s governor, saying he needs to pull the island out of a “death spiral,” has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching financial repercussions.

Let us always remember:

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 1Th 5:9

Greece and the Coming Global Collapse of Economies

by atharris, posted in World Economic Meltdown

We have seen many things on a small scale that will amplify exponentially just before and into the Tribulation. Some examples include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, pestilence, and the evil of men and spiritual wickedness. The incident in Greece today is no exception. One day the world will awake to a collapsed dollar that will reverberate around the world.

The eurozone rejected a Greek request for a one-month extension to its bailout Saturday, plunging the country into a period of high uncertainty and raising concerns about wider fallout from the crisis when financial markets open Monday….

Eurozone Finance Ministers Reject Greek Request for One-Month Bailout Extension

And then:

Greece will keep its banks closed on Monday in a bid to prevent its banking system from collapsing, a bank official said, after the European Central Bank moved to cap the amount of emergency loans it provides for the country’s cash-strapped lenders.

Greek Banks Will Not Open Monday

unnamedAlexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece, is a man of mystery himself.  He is an atheist and a far left winger and was recently elected as PM in January of this year, seemingly coming out of nowhere. One day, “the main” man of mystery will pop up on the scene to take over a broken and chaotic world…..and interestingly, he also will be of partial Greek linage.

…..the paper argues that Tsipras has not only overplayed his hand, but may now be misleading his people on just what is at stake in Greece’s July 5 referendum.

On Friday night, Tsipras made a surprise announcement calling for a vote on the latest proposed terms of a bailout extension from Greece’s creditors. This move led to a breakdown in talks on Saturday and has set Greece on a course to missing its scheduled payment of €1.6 billion to the IMF on Tuesday.

Russian and European unrest continues…

by atharris, posted in World Economic Meltdown

Is this the beginning of worldwide financial chaos that will ultimately lead to one world currency? No matter how one looks at it, it is big news.

Europe plunged into energy crisis as Russia cuts off gas supply via Ukraine

Russia cut gas exports to Europe by 60 per cent today, plunging the continent into an energy crisis ‘within hours’ as a dispute with Ukraine escalated.

This morning, gas companies in Ukraine said that Russia had completely cut off their supply.

Six countries reported a complete shut-off of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine today, in a sharp escalation of a struggle over energy that threatens Europe as winter sets in.

Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments from Russia through Ukraine.

Croatia said it was temporarily reducing supplies to industrial customers while Bulgaria said it had enough gas for only ‘for a few days’ and was in a ‘crisis situation’.

Around 80 per cent of the gas European Union countries receive from Russia comes through Ukraine.

Russia Just Pulled Itself Out Of The Petrodollar

Back in November, before most grasped just how serious the collapse in crude was (and would become, as well as its massive implications), we wrote “How The Petrodollar Quietly Died, And Nobody Noticed“, because for the first time in almost two decades, energy-exporting countries would pull their “petrodollars” out of world markets in 2015.

This empirical death of Petrodollar followed years of windfalls for oil exporters such as Russia, Angola, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Much of that money found its way into financial markets, helping to boost asset prices and keep the cost of borrowing down, through so-called petrodollar recycling.

As Bloomberg reports Russia “may unseal its $88 billion Reserve Fund and convert some of its foreign-currency holdings into rubles, the latest government effort to prop up an economy veering into its worst slump since 2009.”

These are dollars which Russia would have otherwise recycled into US denominated assets. Instead, Russia will purchase even more Rubles and use the proceeds for FX and economic stabilization purposes.

Switzerland stuns markets by giving up on currency peg

Bowing to the inevitable, Switzerland has ditched an increasingly expensive policy to limit the export-sapping rise of the Swiss franc — a decision that propelled the currency a whopping 30 percent higher against the euro within minutes.

Thursday’s decision by the Swiss National Bank, or SNB, to end its efforts to keep the euro from trading below 1.20 francs came amid mounting speculation that the European Central Bank will next week back a big stimulus program that will put more euros in circulation, which would further dilute their value.

That expectation has seen the euro face intense selling pressure in currency markets, particularly against the dollar. The euro has fallen to nine-year lows against the dollar and below its launch rate in 1999.

Take a look at the US debt clock for some perspective.

US Debt Clock