Uncategorized

Loading the player …

WOW – A Politician Utters A Difficult Truth – Even Counterfeiters Give Up On The Euro

Posted by Wolf Richter via Business Insider

on Friday, 27 July 2012 5:33

Jean-Claude Juncker was desperate. The Prime Minister of Luxemburg and newly re-installed President of the Eurogroup—which brings together the Eurozone’s finance ministers to exercise political control over the euro—is the ultimate Eurozone infighter and insider. “We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected afterwards,” he’d once said, now referred to as “Juncker’s curse.” But he knows how to get reelected, being the longest serving head of state in the EU—Prime Minister since 1995. So when he is desperate, even the eight justices at the German Constitutional Court listen.
 
After a fairly steady period through 2006, euro counterfeiting jumped 70% to its peak in the second quarter of 2009. Alas, following on the heels of the financial crisis, the Eurozone debt crisis began to gnaw on periphery countries, and counterfeiters lost confidence along with the rest of the financial markets. By the first half of 2012, counterfeiting had crashed 44%. And not much but thin Alpine air appears to be underneath it.

ECB-counterfeit-euro-notes-pulled

The fact that counterfeiters are throwing in the towel—worried perhaps that they’ll get stuck with high-risk but unsalable merchandise—is bad enough for Europhiles. But now we see an increasingly clear demarcation of the Eurozone into two separate parts, though not entirely along the lines of North and South often envisioned.

On one side of the line are countries whose governments can borrow at negative yields, that is, where investors agree to lend money to them at a guaranteed loss, however absurd that might have seemed not long ago. That club includes Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium (!); in the secondary markets, Finnish and Austrian government debt has seen negative yields. Eurozone neighbors Denmark and Switzerland also dipped into negative yields. Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) at work.

On the other side are countries whose governments have lost access to the financial markets or are in the process of losing access. The largest two in that group are Spain and Italy.

The fact that counterfeiters are throwing in the towel—worried perhaps that they’ll get stuck with high-risk but unsalable merchandise—is bad enough for Europhiles. But now we see an increasingly clear demarcation of the Eurozone into two separate parts, though not entirely along the lines of North and South often envisioned.

One side is where governments investors invest in Government Bonds that have a negative yield, or in short lend money to there Government knowing fully that they’ll  get less back, but they will get the money back.

The other side is populated by people who lent money to their Governments and simply didn’t most, if not all of it back. The first Group is  Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, the other side is Spain, Greece, soon to be Italy etc.

….read more HERE

Because most Western governments are insolvent, fiscal policy is dead. They maxed out their taxing power a long time ago and have been borrowing ever since. When it comes to the economy, governments are a spent force.

This has put central banks in charge, and they basically do one thing only: they print money. If all you have is hammer, everything looks like a nail, so central banks naturally think the world’s problem is a lack of money, which they are busily solving.

The problem is, a lack of money is not the problem, it’s solvency, and part of the reason for that is too much money, or rather, too much credit.

….read the whole article HERE 


(hat tip to Kate McMillan of  Canada’s very popular blog Small Dead Animals for both the Great article and title)

Six ways to turn back your body’s clock

Posted by Dr. Oz via the Vancouver Province

on Tuesday, 24 July 2012 0:47

Who knew drinking coffee was good for you? Not me that’s for sure. Nope, the information I’ve absorbed over the last 50 years, has as a rule triggered a twinge of guilt every time my lips hit the rim of a re-fill. Drink it I did though as rough calculations and the presence of a few other sinful little habits convinced me that  it was highly unlikely coffee would be listed on the coroners report as the primary cause of death .
 
Now much to my shock and surprise, drinking coffee is apparently really good for those of us advancing in age! 
 
From Dr. Oz’s article if the Vancouver Province – (the highlighting and underlining is mine)

“Go for Joe. You’ll delay or help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s with two cups of caffeinated coffee a day. You’ll get even bigger benefits with up to six small cups daily. (Skip this longevity booster if caffeine triggers migraines, anxiety, gastric upset, insomnia or abnormal heart beats.) your body’s real age gets about 0.8 years younger from enjoying Joe”. 

coffee

Want to open a business in America? It isn’t easy. 

In Midway, Ga., a 14-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister sold lemonade from their front yard. Two police officers bought some. But the next day, different officers ordered them to close their stand. 

Their father went to city hall to try to find out why. The clerk laughed and said she didn’t know. Eventually, Police Chief Kelly Morningstar explained, “We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade and of what the lemonade was made with.” 

Give me a break. If she doesn’t know, so what? But kids trying their first experiment with entrepreneurship are being shut down all over America. Officials in Hazelwood, Ill., ordered little girls to stop selling Girl Scout cookies. 

It made me want to try to jump through the legal hoops required to open a simple lemonade stand in New York City. Here’s some of what one has to do: 

  •  Register as sole proprietor with the County Clerk’s Office (must be done in person) 
  •  Apply to the IRS for an Employer Identification Number. 
  • Complete 15-hr Food Protection Course! 
  •  After the course, register for an exam that takes 1 hour. You must score 70 percent to pass. (Sample question: “What toxins are associated with the puffer fish?”) If you pass, allow three to five weeks for delivery of Food Protection Certificate. 
  •  Register for sales tax Certificate of Authority 
  • Apply for a Temporary Food Service Establishment Permit. Must bring copies of the previous documents and completed forms to the Consumer Affairs Licensing Center. 

Then, at least 21 days before opening your establishment, you must 
arrange for an inspection with the Health Department’s Bureau of Food Safety and Community Sanitation. It takes about three weeks to get your appointment. If you pass, you can set up a business once you: 

  •  Buy a portable fire extinguisher from a company certified by the New York Fire Department and set up a contract for waste disposal. 
  •  We couldn’t finish the process. Had we been able to schedule our health inspection and open my stand legally, it would have taken us 65 days. 

I sold lemonade anyway. I looked dumb hawking it with my giant fire extinguisher on the table. 

Tourists told me they couldn’t believe that I had to get “all those permits.” A Pakistani man said: “That’s crazy! You should move to Pakistan!” 

But I don’t want to move to Pakistan. 

Politicians say, “We support entrepreneurs,” but the bureaucrats make it hard. The Feds alone add 80,000 pages of new rules every year. Local governments add more. There are so many incomprehensible rules that even the bureaucrats can’t tell you what’s legal. In the name of public safety, politicians strangle opportunity.

Author is John Stossell of Real Clear Politics

test-php-789