Help Us Spread The News By Sharing These Articles With Others:
|
 Would you pool your debt with a bunch of debt addicts that have no intention of reducing their wild spending habits? Of course you wouldn't. But that is exactly what Germany is being asked to do. Increasingly, "eurobonds" are being touted as the best long-term solution to the financial crisis in Europe. These eurobonds would represent jointly issued debt by all 17 members of the eurozone. This debt would also be guaranteed by all 17 members of the eurozone. This would allow all countries in the eurozone to enjoy the same credit rating that Germany does, and borrowing costs for nations such as Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain would plummet. But borrowing costs for Germany would rise substantially. In fact, it is being estimated that Germany could be facing an extra 50 billion euros a year in interest expenses. So over ten years that would come to about 500 billion euros. Needless to say, Germany is not thrilled about this idea. But new French President Francois Hollande is pushing eurobonds very hard, and he has the support of the OECD, the IMF and many top Italian politicians. In the end, this could be the key to the future of the eurozone. If the Germans give in and decide that they are willing to deeply subsidize their profligate neighbors indefinitely, then the euro could potentially be saved. If not, then this issue could end up shattering Europe. (Read More....)
[...]
 The recent elections in France and in Greece have thrown the global financial system into an uproar. Fear and worry are everywhere and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next. All of the financial deals that Greece has made over the past few years may be null and void. Nobody is going to know for sure until a new government is formed, and at this point it looks like that is not going to happen and that there will need to be new elections in June. All of the financial deals that France has made over the past few years may be null and void as well. New French President Francois Hollande seems determined to take France on a path away from austerity. But can France really afford to keep spending money that it does not have? France has already lost its AAA credit rating and French bond yields have started to move up toward dangerous territory. And Greek politicians are delusional if they think they have any other choice other than austerity. Without European bailout money (which they won't get if they don't honor their current agreements), nobody is going to want to lend Greece a dime. (Read More....)
[...]
 A new era has arrived for North Korea and nobody in the western world really knows exactly what is going to happen next. Kim Jong-Il is dead, and now control over the most bizarre country on earth has been handed over to 29-year-old Kim Jong-Un. Many believe that he is even younger than that. North Korea was already quite unstable while Kim Jong-Il was leading it, and now we have a young man that is going to be eager to "prove himself" to the North Korean hierarchy. Unfortunately, a lot of young men under the age of 30 don't handle fame and fortune too well, and a lot of them tend to be hot-headed. Hopefully Kim Jong-Un will turn out to be a reformer that will open up the doors of North Korea, but he could also end up being worse than his father. We just do not know at this point. We know that Kim Jong-Un was educated in Switzerland as a boy, we know that he speaks French, English and German, and we know that he is reportedly a fan of the NBA. Other than that, we just don't know a whole lot about him. What we do know is that Kim Jong-Un is a product of a totalitarian society that is absolutely obsessed with destroying the United States, and that is a very frightening thing. (Read More....)
[...]
 And so it begins. The first major European bank bailout of 2011 has now happened. French/Belgian banking giant Dexia has failed and both governments have pledged to participate in a rescue plan. But Dexia will not be the last major European bank to fail. Even now, governments all over Europe are feverishly developing plans to bail out major national banks in the event that the current financial crisis goes from bad to worse. Instead of learning the lessons of 2008, most major European banks have continued to pile up huge mountains of debt, leverage and risk. Now the bill for that stupidity is about to be passed on to the taxpayers of those nations. But with most nations in Europe already drowning in debt, are bank bailouts really the right course of action? What is it going to happen to Europe if dozens of major banks start failing and trillions of euros are needed to bail them all out? (Read More....)
[...]
|
|
|
North Korea: The Most Bizarre Country On Earth Is Now Even More Unstable
[...]