Greece Is Now "On.."

Greece passes steep cuts as riots seize capital  AOL News.  Day One of Everything's Different Now.  Excerpts:

The cuts and tax increases passed 155-138, with five voting "present" and backing neither side. During the vote, stun grenades echoed across a square outside Parliament. Acrid clouds of tear gas and orange and green smoke-bomb mist hung in the air.

Several banks and storefronts were smashed, while a Socialist dissenter who backed the government at the last minute, Alexandros Athanassiadis, was briefly assaulted by protesters after leaving Parliament on foot.
Violence continued throughout the afternoon, and smoke billowed from a post office beneath the finance ministry before a fire was put out. Rioters set up burning barricades along Syntagma Square, where demonstrators have staged a sit-in for the past month. Nearby streets were littered with chunks of smashed marble and ripped-up paving stones that had been thrown at police.
A general strike that began Tuesday paralyzed the country, grounding planes, leaving ferries docked and stranding tourists during the busy summer season.

Greece Implodes and War Declared…over 5,000 Police overwhelmed  This was the day before the Austerity Budget was approved.  The Ante is now Upped.

Violent Scenes In Athens As Bloody Greek Riots Keep On Raging  Video from the 29th courtesy of Russia Today, the most trusted name for American News..

And yeah Riot Dog IS Fucking Awesome.  Riot Dog stands with The People.  Riot Dog is coming for ya..

IMF hit by 'very major' cyber security attack

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack.

Officials at the fund gave few details but said the attack earlier this year had been "a very major breach" of its systems, the New York Times reports.

Candid.  Must be BIG.

In related news, Anonymous is back, baby..

If You Live Anywhere Other Than America Or Korea, These Will Be The Two Big News Stories Today..

Asia Session: Awaiting the Irish Budget

The Euro continued to move higher in Asia as markets looked ahead to the hopeful passing of the 2011 Irish budget which is due later in the day. Now loaded with new austerity measures in order to appease the EU and IMF after securing a bailout package the proposed Irish budget for 2011 was to be put in front of the parliament later today. The passing of the budget without any hitches would surely help the Euro currency and that optimism was seen in today’s Asian moves from 1.3280 to 1.3350 in EUR/USD. The ECB’s move to extend its bond purchasing program also proved beneficial to the European currency as investors welcomed the determination of the European Central bank.

At the moment, the proposed budget looks like it will pass. Of course, bankers and politicians are pretty happy with that projected outcome, but the non-ultra rich, non banker, non politicians aren't happy, and will be expressing their displeasure later today, and probably frequently for quite some time..

And then there's the World wide bank run, originating in France, scheduled for today.  Your host?  Eric Cantona.:

Following an idea put forward by Eric Cantona recently the 7th December is planned to be ‘bank run’ day. The general idea is that nowadays protesting in the street doesn’t achieve much – but if we all withdraw our money from the banks at the same time the banks will collapse.

Will this destroy the European banking system?  Probably not, and most likely not in America, but people in other countries are paying attention, and we won't know what the end result will be tomorrow, or in the near term..  And it all starts today.

So much information, so much to disseminate, so little time..

For Europe’s Future, Spain Is All That Matters

Another great analysis from Gonzalo Lira. Excerpts:

If I had to bet on which country will bring about the end of the Euro—and perhaps even the end of the European Union—I’d have to say it’s Spain.

Right now, no one is talking about Spain—Spanish spreads are as quiet as a guilty man in a police line-up—everyone’s too concerned over Ireland, and the upcoming Portuguese Situation.

But Spain is the key—Spain is what you should be paying attention to, if you want to find out what will happen to the European Monetary Union (EMU), and the European Union (EU) itself.
And:
According to IMF numbers for 2009, the gross domestic product of Greece was $331 billion, Ireland was $221 billion, and Portugal was $233 billion—

—but Spain’s GDP in 2009 was $1.468 trillion. Roughly twice Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined. In other words, close to half of Germany’s GDP.
And:
Therefore, to bail out Spain, and plug up its fiscal balance sheet hole over the next three years would cost €450 billion—minimum. That’s about $600 billion.

Look at that number again—look at it closely, and take your time:

€450 billion.(600 billion US)

That’s twice the size of Ireland’s total GDP for 2009.

In order to figure out how much each party would have to shoulder of this €450 billion price tag, Bruce Krasting, in some private e-mail exchanges, thought that the percentages that the EU, the ECB and the IMF were shouldering for the Greek and Irish bailouts could serve as a template.

Fair enough: If we go by Greek and Irish percentages, then roughly a third of that €450 billion price tag to bail out Spain would be shouldered by the IMF—and as everyone knows, the U.S. puts up 20% of IMF money.

So the U.S. would be on the line for €30 billion—$40 billion—to save Spain.

Then Bruce delivered his verdict: “The U.S. is going to say ‘Yes’ to that and ‘No’ to California? No way. Not going to happen with this new Congress."
And:
Therefore, the IMF’s participation in a Spanish bail-out will be severely reduced, if not marginal. Therefore, bailing out Spain will be a strictly European affair.

Does Europe have €450 billion to bail out Spain? That is, does Germany have €450 billion to bail out Spain?

No it does not. It does not have the money for such a bailout—and even if it did, it does not have the political will to push through such a bailout.

Period.
And Finally:
Best case?

Though they remain in the European Union, the weaker economies exit the EMU and go back to local currencies, which they quickly depreciate, while their Euro-denominated sovereign debts are restructured and paid off over time. The Euro becomes the currency of France, Germany, Holland, Finland and Austria.

Worst case?

I can imagine a number of worst cases, all of them different, except for one thing in common: They’ll all be bad.