Li(e)bor: The Cartel Emerges

Huge.  Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

Just when you thought the Li(e)bor scandal had jumped the shark, Germany's Spiegel brings it back front-and-center with a detailed and critical insight into the 'organized fraud' and emergence of the cartel of 'bottom of the food chain' money market traders. "The trick is that you can't do it alone" one of the 'chosen' pointed out, but regulators have now spoken "mechanisms are now taking effect that I only knew of from mafia films." RICO anyone? "This is a real zinger," says an insider. In the past, bank manager lapses resulted from their stupidity for having bought securities without understanding them. "Now that was bad enough. But manipulating a market rate is criminal." A portion of the industry, adds the insider, apparently doesn't realize that the writing is on the wall.



There have been plenty of banking scandals, but none quite like this: Investigators and political leaders believe that the manipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate was the result of organized fraud. Institutions that participated could face billions in fines and penalties.
And:

What the Banks Could Now Face



German banks must have pricked up their ears when BaFin President Elke König recently spoke about the Libor scandal. "Basically, banks must establish suitable reserves for possible losses," König concluded.


Investors, like Vienna hedge fund FTC Capital, have made it clear that they do not intend to let up. They feel obligated to their customers to file claims for damages, explains FTC executive Majcen...


There are already 20 lawsuits in the United States, some of which have been combined into class action suits. The plaintiffs range from the City of Baltimore to police and firefighter's pension funds, the City of Dania Beach, Florida, and Russian oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky.


They feel encouraged by the actions of regulators. "Both the American CFTC and the FSA have done excellent investigative work," says Majcen. Bank analysts expect that other institutions could face fines similar to the one imposed on Barclays. In fact, it ought to be in the banks' best interest to quickly settle their cases. "But they're afraid, because since Barclays, they know that it isn't just about money, but also about making heads roll," says a major shareholder of Deutsche Bank.


German attorneys are also lining up to represent potential clients. "A few institutional investors have already contacted us," says Marc Schiefer of the law firm TILP in the southern German city of Tübingen.


Years could go by before damage suits are ruled on...


Possible Libor-related liabilities would cause serious problems at WestLB, or its successor company Portigon. The once-proud state-owned bank is in the process of being liquidated, at a cost of billions to its former owners, the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and savings banks. The Libor scandal could further increase the burden on taxpayers.
...
The call for stricter regulation is also getting louder in politics once again... "cheap populism."


"This is a real zinger," says an insider. In the past, bank manager lapses resulted from their stupidity for having bought securities without understanding them. "Now that was bad enough. But manipulating a market rate is criminal." A portion of the industry, adds the insider, apparently doesn't realize that the writing is on the wall.


The parties involved, including Deutsche Bank and its new co-CEO Jain, cannot expect leniency when charges are investigated. "We can't make any allowances for high-profile names," say officials in the capital.

The vast inter-connectedness of these institutions presents a huge problem for regulators and investigators(Think thousands of strings of Christmas lights tangled together), but the main players are known, and those players have got to be freaking out.  Who will be branded "The First Example?"

Couple thoughts:  The public will never understand this scandal until the media finds a way to explain it clearly and succinctly.  But the media first must start actually covering this scandal.

What a glorious time to be an honest, independent Auditor!  Welcome to your Golden Age, nerds!

Prominent climate-change denier now admits he was wrong

One down, legions of bozos to go..  McClatchy.  Excerpts:

The verdict is in: Global warming is real and greenhouse-gas emissions from human activity are the main cause.



This, according to Richard A. Muller, professor of physics at the University of California, Berkely, a MacArthur fellow and co-founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project.


The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of other climatologists around the world came to such conclusions years ago, but the difference now is the source: Muller is a long-standing, colorful critic of prevailing climate science, and the Berkeley project was heavily funded by the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which, along with its libertarian petrochemical billionaire founder Charles G. Koch, has a considerable history of backing groups that deny climate change.


In an opinion piece in Saturday's New York Times titled "The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic," Muller writes:


"Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I'm now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause."


The Berkeley project's research has shown, Muller says, "that the average temperature of the earth's land has risen by 21/2 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of 11/2 degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases."


He calls his current stance "a total turnaround."


Tonya Mullins, a spokeswoman for the Koch Foundation, said the support her foundation provided, along with others, has no bearing on results of the research.


"Our grants are designed to promote independent research; as such, recipients hold full control over their findings," Mullins said in an email. "In this support, we strive to benefit society by promoting discovery and informing public policy."


Some leading climate scientists said Muller's comments show that the science is so strong that even those inclined to reject it cannot once they examine it carefully.


Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, said Muller's conversion might help shape the thinking of the "reasonable middle" of the population "who are genuinely confused and have been honestly taken in" by attacks on climate science.


On his Facebook page, Mann wrote: "There is a certain ironic satisfaction in seeing a study funded by the Koch Brothers - the greatest funders of climate change denial and disinformation on the planet - demonstrate what scientists have known with some degree of confidence for nearly two decades: that the globe is indeed warming, and that this warming can only be explained by human-caused increases in greenhouse gas concentrations. I applaud Muller and his colleagues for acting as any good scientists would, following where their analyses led them, without regard for the possible political repercussions."


Muller's conclusions, however, did not sway the most ardent climate contrarians, like Marc Morano, a former producer for Rush Limbaugh(!!) and former communications director for the Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.


"Muller will be remembered as a befuddled professor who has yet to figure out how to separate climate science from his media antics. His latest claims provide no new insight into the climate science debate," Morano said in an email.

Global Warming must be a hoax if Rush Limbaugh's former producer says it is!  You know what your problem is, buster?  Too much Oxycontin; that's what!  It rots your brain, ya know..  Some of my batshit friends and relatives still deny Climate Change, too.  How about quoting them?  I guess some people won't leave their seats until they can actually see the theater on fire.  Or until Fox News tells them so..

Oldest Poison Pushes Back Ancient Civilization 20,000 Years

Huh..  This poison tastes old;  Really old!  Yahoo News.  Excerpts:

The late Stone Age may have had an earlier start in Africa than previously thought — by some 20,000 years.
A new analysis of artifacts from a cave in South Africa reveals that the residents were carving bone tools, using pigments, making beads and even using poison 44,000 years ago. These sorts of artifacts had previously been linked to the San culture, which was thought to have emerged around 20,000 years ago.


"Our research proves that the Later Stone Age emerged in South Africa far earlier than has been believed and occurred at about the same time as the arrival of modern humans in Europe," study researcher Paola Villa, a curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, said in a statement.


The Later Stone Age in Africa occurred at the same time as Europe's Upper Paleolithic Period, when modern humans moved into Europe from Africa and met the Neanderthals about 45,000 years ago.


"[T]he differences in technology and culture between the two areas are very strong, showing the people of the two regions chose very different paths to the evolution of technology and society," Villa said.

Like I've said before, if we don't kill ourselves first, the next 50 years promises so many history changing discoveries here on earth..  If we don't kill ourselves first.

Fukushima’s Melted Reactors 500 Days On

The ongoing nuclear emergency continues to surpass Worst Case Scenarios.  Just what we need:  A relentless, overachieving catastrophe.  Veterans Today.  Excerpts:

Dr. Paolo Scampa, PhD, a well-known physicist in the European Union, has prepared a radioactive inventory of Fukushima Daiichi’s destroyed nuclear power plants 500 days after the meltdown of three disemboweled, mangled reactors.



The violent extinction level event occurred Mar 11, 2011. The deadly meltdown and dispersion of radioactive fuel throughout the world is on-going to this day.


Because of the nature of long-lived and short-lived radioactivity, this summation of the radioactive Fukushima inventory is valid for many years. Dr. Scampa’s inventory is current as of Friday, June 29, 2012.


There are 1,946 radioactive products produced by nuclear weapons and atomic reactors according to the Oak Ridge Nuclear Weapons Lab in America.


Fifty-five are considered to be long-lived; 898 are considered to be short-lived but last more than eight days. These nine hundred fifty-three radioactive isotopes are included in this analysis.


Nine hundred ninety-three (993) radioactive isotopes are considered dangerous and undergo radioactive decay within eight days; they are not included in this analysis.

Scampa's analysis is dry, and yet, terrifying.  Here ya go..

The three melted reactors combined in Fukushima Daichi contained 257 tons of nuclear fuel enriched to 3.7% Uranium 235 and divided into 1,496 assemblies, each about 172 kg.



Reactor No. 3 also housed 32 MOX assemblies, reportedly enriched to 6% or 330 kg of Pu239.


In addition, the storage pools of these reactors have at least 239 tonnes of fuel residing there for who knows how long (1,390 assemblies) and 31 tonnes of fresh fuel (180 assemblies).
..
The day of the earthquake their fuel was consumed according to the article cited at an average of 23.35 GWd/t at a rate of 24.07 kg/t for a total of 6.186 tonnes of fuel fissioned.

..
Overall, 9 tonnes of fuel was subjected to atomic fission or activation transformation occasioning a prodigious explosion of radioactivity and radiotoxicity which over time, is several times the amount needed to kill by internal contamination the whole human race.

..
The most remarkable of the volatile elements (elements of which the boiling point is inferior to 1,500 degrees Centigrade and escape above all the first coriums). 37,921 PBq; 1 billion Ci; 18 billion potential inhaled lethal doses.



The official report of the Japanese government to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Association] contains a hypothesis that the emanations of nuclear fuel from Fukushima Daiichi are equivalent to the ones observed at Chernobyl.

We can see by comparing the subsets of figures below that the radioactive particle emission through the air from Fukushima is not only 3.7 times higher than Chernobyl; but, more importantly, 28.3 times more radiotoxic with every breath you take.

So we got that goin' for us; which is nice..  I still can't believe no one talks about Fukushima.  The level of global denial is..  Beyond words.

Enceladus: home of alien lifeforms?

Tiny little moon; Enormous possibilities!  The Guardian.  Excerpts:

Enceladus is little bigger than a lump of rock and has appeared, until recently, as a mere pinprick of light in astronomers' telescopes. Yet Saturn's tiny moon has suddenly become a major attraction for scientists. Many now believe it offers the best hope we have of discovering life on another world inside our solar system.



The idea that a moon a mere 310 miles in diameter, orbiting in deep, cold space, 1bn miles from the sun, could provide a home for alien lifeforms may seem extraordinary. Nevertheless, a growing number of researchers consider this is a real prospect and argue that Enceladus should be rated a top priority for future space missions.


This point is endorsed by astrobiologist Professor Charles Cockell of Edinburgh University. "If someone gave me several billion dollars to build whatever space probe I wanted, I would have no hesitation," he says. "I would construct one that could fly to Saturn and collect samples from Enceladus. I would go there rather than Mars or the icy moons of Jupiter, such as Europa, despite encouraging signs that they could support life. Primitive, bacteria-like lifeforms may indeed exist on these worlds but they are probably buried deep below their surfaces and will be difficult to access. On Enceladus, if there are lifeforms, they will be easy to pick up. They will be pouring into space."


The cause of this unexpected interest in Enceladus – first observed by William Herschel in 1789 and named after one of the children of the Earth goddess Gaia – stems from a discovery made by the robot spacecraft Cassini, which has been in orbit of Saturn for the past eight years. The $3bn probe has shown that the little moon not only has an atmosphere, but that geysers of water are erupting from its surface into space. Even more astonishing has been its most recent discovery, which has shown that these geysers contain complex organic compounds, including propane, ethane, and acetylene.


"It just about ticks every box you have when it comes to looking for life on another world," says Nasa astrobiologist Chris McKay. "It has got liquid water, organic material and a source of heat. It is hard to think of anything more enticing short of receiving a radio signal from aliens on Enceladus telling us to come and get them."



Cassini's observations suggest Enceladus possesses a subterranean ocean that is kept liquid by the moon's internal heat. "We are not sure where that energy is coming from," McKay admits. "The source is producing around 16 gigawatts of power and looks very like the geothermal energy sources we have on Earth – like the deep vents we see in our ocean beds and which bubble up hot gases."


At the moon's south pole, Enceladus's underground ocean appears to rise close to the surface. At a few sites, cracks have developed and water is bubbling to the surface before being vented into space, along with complex organic chemicals that also appear to have built up in its sea.


Equally remarkable is the impact of this water on Saturn. The planet is famed for its complex system of rings, made of bands of small particles in orbit round the planet. There are seven main rings: A, B, C, D, E, F and G, and the giant E-ring is linked directly with Enceladus. The water the moon vents into space turns into ice crystals and these feed the planet's E-ring. "If you turned off the geysers of Enceladus, the great E-ring of Saturn would disappear within a few years," says McKay. "For a little moon, Enceladus has quite an impact."

Panic grips Uganda, as Ebola outbreak kills 14

Here's hoping this is as big as it gets.  Reuters, via The Extinction Protocol:

An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has killed 13 people in Uganda and efforts are under way to contain the hemorrhagic fever, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday. There is no treatment and no vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted by close personal contact and, depending on the strain, kills up to 90 percent of those who contract the virus. Joaquim Saweka, WHO’s representative in Uganda, said that although suspected Ebola infections emerged in early July in Kibale district, about 170 km (100 miles) west of the capital Kampala, the outbreak was not confirmed until Friday. “There are a total of 20 people suspected to have contracted Ebola and 13 of them have died,” Saweka said. “A team of experts from the government, WHO and CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control) are in the field and following up on all suspected cases and those who got into contact with patients.” Saweka said the origin of the outbreak had not yet been confirmed, but 18 of the 20 cases are understood to be linked to one family. Kibale is near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the virus emerged in 1976, taking its name from the Ebola River. The symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, impaired kidney and liver function and both internal and external bleeding. Ebola was last reported in Uganda in May last year when it killed a 12-year-old girl. The country’s most devastating outbreak was in 2000 when 425 people were infected, more than half of whom died.

Every once in awhile, Ebola rears its ugly head, reminding us it is A Monster, then retreats back into dormancy.  I'm hoping for a repeat scenario this time, also.  Maybe this will be it.

Dick Cheney Says What We’re All Thinking: Picking Sarah Palin Was a Mistake

Heh..  Yeah..  Gawker:

Vice presidential expert Dick Cheney has offered his perspective on selecting a running mate to Mitt Romney and Beth Myers, who is heading Romney's search. While Cheney wouldn't divulge what he told the Republican candidate, he did offer one clear message: don't pick another Sarah Palin.



When asked by ABC News about John McCain's decision to pick Palin in 2008, Cheney was direct — "That one, I don't think was well handled."
To many, this seems like common sense, but few Republicans have been willing to publicly speak ill of Palin. McCain even said Sarah Palin was a better choice than Mitt Romney.


As Cheney explained, "The test to get on that small list has to be, 'Is this person capable of being president of the United States?'" Palin's lack of foreign policy knowledge and her limited experience were two major strikes against her during the 2008 election.


It's not personal, Cheney insisted.

I like Governor Palin. I've met her. I know her. She [is an] attractive candidate. But based on her background, she'd only been governor for, what, two years. I don't think she passed that test … of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake.

The interview will air tomorrow on ABC.

The Establishment and Neocons have spoken:  Much more real political experience, or no national Palin.  By running around the country jabbering without the benefit of political office only insures that she won't be ready for any higher office until her "I'd hit that" looks have faded and people actually have to listen to her!  So..  Probably no more national Palin.  Don't worry, though;  There's always Tina Fey!

Activist: Calif. plant could be next Fukushima

Video from CNN, via You Tube.

Lest we forget this is a real possibility, as the plant is already hobbled, and the area is more earthquake prone than first believed.  And yeah, just because San Onofre is offline, doesn't mean a Reactor 4 situation isn't still possible, what with all that spent fuel just laying around..  All to boil water.. Enjoy your Sunday!

Ex-Fukushima Daiichi Worker: “There are leaks everywhere” — Tepco portraying situation in best possible light

Tepco's motto:  We may be small, but we're slow!  And overly optimistic.  ENENEWS:


Title: In Japan, a nuclear ghost town stirs to life

Source: NBC News
Author: Kyle Drubek
Date: July 26, 2012


[...]

Takahashi Kei, a former cooling system worker at the plant now working as a radiation survey volunteer, said [Tepco's] executives are portraying the situation in the best possible light.


“There are leaks everywhere, wreckage too. It’s not as simple as they portray,” he said.
[...]
TEPCO acknowledges that three reactors at the plant remain full of melted and re-solidified fuel that must be removed and that spent fuel pools elsewhere on the grounds must be kept cool to prevent them from releasing radiation again. It estimates it will take about 40 years to completely decommission the site.
[...]
40 years?  Again with the optimism..

An Aside..

Regarding this whole Chik Fil A distraction..  A "friend" of mine has been rather stridently supportive of Chik Fil A.  "Stridently" might actually be too weak a word..  Quite surprising, as "friend" has never shown much in the way of homophobia. 

Anyhoo..  I find it a more than a little karmic that "friend's" child, while still young, is obviously gay.  Obviously.  I'm wondering if "friend" might be in active denial.

"Friend" is enjoying today's distractions.  "Friend" feels like a winner by supporting what "friend's" friends like.  "Friend" is unaware of all the chances to learn shortly upcoming.. 

The child IS the lesson, "friend."

Libor Manipulation Well Known in London by 1991

Of course it was..  Again, any of this "we had no idea" crap is just that.  How much bigger can the scale of corruption get?  Naked Capitalism:


A comment in today’s Financial Times is by a former Morgan Stanley trader, Douglas Keenan, confirms a passing comment in the Economist, that Libor manipulation goes back for more than 15 years. In fact, this piece makes it clear that is the time frame exceeds 20 years. From the Financial Times:

In 1991, I had live trading screens that showed the Libor rates. In September of that year, on the third Wednesday, at 11 o’clock, I watched those screens to see where the futures contract [on three month Libor] should settle. Shortly afterwards, Liffe announced the contract settlement rate. Its rate was different from what had been shown on my screens, by a few hundredths of a per cent.


As a result, I lost money. The amount was insignificant for me, but I believed that I had been defrauded and I complained to Liffe [ London International Financial Futures Exchange, which is where the contract traded]. Liffe explained that the settlement rate was not determined by what rates were actually in the market. Instead, the British Banker’s Association polled banks, asking them what the rates were. The highest and lowest quoted rates were discarded and the rest were averaged, giving the settlement rate. Liffe explained that, in doing this, they were adhering to the terms of the contract.


I talked with some of my more experienced colleagues about this. They told me banks misreported the Libor rates in a way that would generally bring them profits. I had been unaware of that, as I was relatively new to financial trading. My naivety seemed to be humorous to my colleagues.

So consider what this tells us:

1. Libor manipulation was already recognized by market participants in 1991 as a common phenomenon. That implies it had been going on at least a few years before that


2. The manipulation appears to have more than occasionally been more than a single basis point (Keenan says here the effect was “several” basis points, which I take to be three or more)

Oh, an an additional tidbit: Bob Diamond was in Morgan Stanley London as of then, in charge of interest rate trading, which means his claim that he had found out about Libor manipulation at Barclays mere weeks before his Treasury Select testimony was bollocks.

Visualizing the daily, business-as-usual LIBOR corruption of all things financial is like standing on the beach of a small island, turning 360 degrees, and seeing nothing but water.  It.  Is.  Everywhere.

Assad Grants Autonomy to Kurdish Region, Prompting Threats From Turkey

Big implications, so of course you'll find this in the Friday afternoon/Olympics news dump..  BIG doin's, people..  AntiWar:

Syrian President Bashar Assad, amid growing unrest, has granted control of parts of northern Syria over to militant Kurds, long branded as terrorists by Turkey, in a provocation that could lead the conflict to break out internationally.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier said that Turkey would not accept an autonomous Kurdish area in Syria, fearing separatist Kurds in Turkey would use it as a safe-haven to launch cross-border attacks.



Late on Thursday Turkey mobilized and deployed tanks and missile batteries on the Syrian border near the Kurdish region, with Erdogan commenting if the Kurds control these areas, “then intervening would be our most natural right.”


Kurdish control of these border areas are an apparent consequence of the chaos of Syria’s internal conflict, in which the US and its allies are sending aid, intelligence, and weapons to the Syrian rebels, despite numerous crimes and ties to terrorist groups.
Turkish military intervention against the Assad regime came close to being a reality back a few months ago when Syria downed a Turkish fighter jet that went into Syrian airspace. Turkey has shown little hesitation to attack its neighbors if they feel their Kurdish threat demands it, as cross-border attacks into Iraq’s Kurdish region in recent months has shown.

If Turkey, a NATO member, involves itself in the Syrian conflict in a direct and belligerent way, it could have far reaching consequences, with possible implications of a US intervention.

This is an interesting turn of events.  Will Turkey show restraint to an obvious provocation?  I wonder how Turkish Kurds will feel about their government's reaction to Assad's latest move?  Erdogan should probably do a little bit of yoga or deep breathing before initiating any response..  This could be the weekend that the situation in Syria becomes international.  Stay tuned!

Romney Bundler a Registered Foreign Agent for Hong Kong

Dual loyalties?  Not a problem-Gimme some money!  Truthout.  Excerpts:

Newly released lobbyist bundler disclosure records filed by the Mitt Romney campaign show that Tom Loeffler raised at least $17,500 in bundled contributions for the campaign over the first six months of 2012. Loeffler, a former Republican U.S. Representative from Texas and a lobbyist at Akin Gump represents a wide array domestic clients including USAA, NextgenID, and the Texas Association for Home Care & Hospice. But a ThinkProgress review of Foreign Agent Registration Act reveals that Loeffler registered in February as a registered agent for a foreign government: the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).



The agreement — signed by Loeffler — stipulated that, from February 13 through June 30, 2012, he would “protect, promote, assist and develop Hong King’s economic and trade interests in the United States of America” by working with Congress and the executive branch. In exchange, the HKTDC agreed to pay Akin Gum $35,775 per month. The Romney bundling all took place during the time Loeffler was under this initial contract, though it is unclear whether the contract was renewed at the end of June.
Loeffler has a long history of raising money for Republican presidential candidates. In 2008, Loeffler stepped down from his position as a national finance co-chair for John McCain’s campaign when Newsweek discovered that he had lobbied on behalf of Saudi Arabia. But Romney’s campaign has welcomed him back into the campaign fundraising fold.


Romney’s campaign, while being highly critical of China and the Obama administration’s approach to it, has organized campaign fundraising events in Hong Kong for U.S. citizens living there. He has also come under fire for apparently profiting from Bain investments in a company that provides surveillance cameras for the Chinese government to spy on its own citizens.


Loeffler is the second lobbyist bundler for the Romney campaign identified by ThinkProgress as a registered foreign agent: in January, the Romney campaign disclosed bundler Ignacio E. Sanchez — a registered foreign agent for both the United Arab Emirates and a birther presidential candidate in the Dominican Republic. Romney has not voluntarily disclosed the names of his campaign bundlers, but a 2007 law requires that federal candidates disclose the names of any registered lobbyists who bundle large amounts for their campaign.


By contrast, President Obama does not accept campaign contributions donated or bundled by federal lobbyists or foreign agents and has called for a ban on bundlers lobbying. His campaign voluntarily discloses all of its major bundlers, as did Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and President George W. Bush (R) in their 2000, 2004, and 2008 races.

I'm sure everything is "legal to the letter of the law," but again, does that preclude it from also being "Sketchy as hell?"  No.  No it does not.

Greek Deposit Plunge Continues As Tax Inspection Finds Every Business On Zakynthos Broke The Law

Greece is boned, but Mario Draghi says "Everything's gonna be allllll right.."  Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

On one hand we have Mario Draghi promising he has a magic wand (not a printer - remember the keys to that are now held by Angela Merkel who is on vacation) and to "believe him" that the EUR will survive. On the other we have Greece which is a poster child of everything that is wrong in Europe. And that we summarize as follows: i) an epic and now relentless deposit outflow from Greek banks which continues as all trust in the local banking system is now gone, as €7 billion in deposits or the second biggest amount ever, is pulled and 20% of the entire corporate and household deposit base has vaporized in the past year, and ii) an economy in which it is every man for himself and where nobody pays any taxes any more, period. Best of luck in preserving that EUR Super Mario.


And a quick story on which Greece will never be fixed no matter what magic Draghi and Potter concoct between them:

The Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) on Thursday reported that six in 10 businesses inspected at popular tourist resorts were not issuing sales receipts, and that of the 1,410 checks conducted in July, 57.1 percent found business owners to be in breach of the law.

..
In Zakynthos in the Ionian and Rethymno on Crete, every business inspected was breaking the law, while on the islands of Paros and Myconos, 70 percent were avoiding taxes.

No deposits, and no tax revenues: thank you Germany for continuing to fund this slow motion trainwreck thus providing everyone with hours of taxpayer-subsidized entertainment.



I think he's being sarcastic.  I don't think he thinks it's really entertainment.

When contagion strikes, it's Honolulu you should avoid

The Guardian.  Excerpts:

When the next outbreak of Sars or Swine flu hits, New York's John F Kennedy airport and Los Angeles's airports will likely be the key spreaders of disease, according to a new study. But while the influence of these super-hubs may not come as much of a surprise, the third most outbreak-friendly airport in the states is far smaller, and far less obvious – Honolulu International.



In a paper published Monday in the journal PLoS One, a team of researchers from MIT outlined a new computer model that predicts how the 40 largest American airports may contribute to the diffusion of contagious disease within the first few days of a potential epidemic.


They looked at which hubs may be key "early spreaders" because knowing where epidemics may begin is key to stemming an outbreak, Marta Gonzalez, professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, and one of the contributors to the new model, told the Guardian.
..
Honolulu airport "combines three important features that catalyze contagion spreading", the study reports. Its geographical positioning in the middle of the Pacific Ocean makes it a prime layover between the US west coast and large Asian hubs; it's also "well connected" to other powerful spreader airports, such as LAX; and it sees a high volume of long-range travel; all of which would help to spread a disease outbreak.

 
First rule of thumb:  In an Outbreak Scenario; Never fly.  If you do have to fly, don't lick anything.  If you must lick something, kill the bacteria with any available alcohol.  If there's no alcohol, Panic Sex will suffice.  Remember:  Safety first, babies..

New Wujo, New Goro

Stuck inside staying out of summer blast furnace?  Download Clif's latest audio wujo for free!  Goro Adachi has a mini-report on the multi-contextual aspects of last week's mass shooting.  Clif's report is about 40 minutes, and Goro's report takes about 10 to 15 minutes to read, but both have some thoughts you can chew on all day long..  Enjoy!

Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt

Good news from NASA!  No, not really..

Extent of surface melt over Greenland’s ice sheet on July 8 (left) and July 12 (right). Measurements from three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. In the image, the areas classified as “probable melt” (light pink) correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas classified as “melt” (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface melting. The satellites are measuring different physical properties at different scales and are passing over Greenland at different times. As a whole, they provide a picture of an extreme melt event about which scientists are very confident. Credit: Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory
For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.


On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt water quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt water is retained by the ice sheet and the rest is lost to the ocean. But this year the extent of ice melting at or near the surface jumped dramatically. According to satellite data, an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July.


Researchers have not yet determined whether this extensive melt event will affect the overall volume of ice loss this summer and contribute to sea level rise.
..
Nghiem consulted with Dorothy Hall at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Hall studies the surface temperature of Greenland using the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. She confirmed that MODIS showed unusually high temperatures and that melt was extensive over the ice sheet surface.



Thomas Mote, a climatologist at the University of Georgia, Athens, Ga; and Marco Tedesco of City University of New York also confirmed the melt seen by Oceansat-2 and MODIS with passive-microwave satellite data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder on a U.S. Air Force meteorological satellite.


The melting spread quickly. Melt maps derived from the three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet's surface had melted. By July 12, 97 percent had melted.


This extreme melt event coincided with an unusually strong ridge of warm air, or a heat dome, over Greenland. The ridge was one of a series that has dominated Greenland's weather since the end of May. "Each successive ridge has been stronger than the previous one," said Mote. This latest heat dome started to move over Greenland on July 8, and then parked itself over the ice sheet about three days later. By July 16, it had begun to dissipate.

Even the area around Summit Station in central Greenland, which at 2 miles above sea level is near the highest point of the ice sheet, showed signs of melting. Such pronounced melting at Summit and across the ice sheet has not occurred since 1889, according to ice cores analyzed by Kaitlin Keegan at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather station at Summit confirmed air temperatures hovered above or within a degree of freezing for several hours July 11-12.

Whatever this is, it is arriving.  Two more months of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere.  Two more months of relentless, ongoing events that you are most likely already experiencing. 

Here, near/in the "Breadbasket of America," almost exactly under the High Pressure System-that-will-never-end, we wait.  The temperatures consistently hover around 100.  The wind feels oven-heated.  Wild trees and vegetation are browning and dying.  Everything looks and feels baked or beat down.  I'm not sure the region can take much more of this punishment.

Locally, there is a chance of showers both Thursday and Friday.  The long-term heat and absence of rain, though, is not forecast to subside.  There is no relief in sight.  Dire ticks toward Critical.  We need respite, but the heat continues to punish, furious at our gleeful ignorance and obstinate lack of forethought.

Spain and Italy ban short-selling to calm volatile markets as debt crisis spawns global sell-off

Too little, too late, but God love 'em for tryin', right?  CNN, via The Extinction Protocol:

July 23, 2012 – ROME – Securities regulators in Spain and Italy both instituted short-selling bans Monday as financial markets tumbled. The move is designed to limit the downward pressure on markets by preventing investors from betting against shares of certain companies. The ban in Italy applies only to short positions in shares of banks and insurance companies, according to the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e le Borse, or CONSOB. Spain’s Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) banned short positions in shares of all companies under its purview. Both bans are temporary. In a statement, CNMV said European shares have been hit with “extreme volatility” that might cause the “disorderly functioning” of financial markets.(Artfully worded, no?) Regulators in Italy and Spain, as well as France and Belgium, imposed a temporary short-selling ban in August 2011, at the height of the last major flare-up in the eurozone debt crisis. Back in 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission banned short selling for 799 companies in the wake of Lehman Brothers’ collapse. The move was aimed at restoring confidence and stemming a steep stock sell-off. The bans could limit the selling in the short-term, but longer-term, investors want concrete evidence that the global economy is turning around. Investors are currently concerned that Spain might be forced to seek a bailout similar to those taken by other troubled euro area economies, although Madrid reiterated Monday that it will not need additional aid.

At this stage of the endgame, today's actions are pointless.  Pointless.

Trickles Down? No, Streams Offshore!

Found this on Xymphora.  He's right:  This is an important article.  Short, but sweet, from Bad Attitudes:

Trickles Down? No, Streams Offshore!



The Guardian has a series of articles on the flight of wealth from countries that are producing it to a tiny number of bank accounts in countries that are tax havens. It’s not news that a small number of people are extraordinarily rich. But it might be news that 0.001% of the world’s population — that’s right, one one-thousandth of one percent — or about 92,000 people have $10 trillion in assets stashed in these tax havens. In total, 10 million people worldwide hold offshore assests; considering them all, claims a study commissioned by the group Tax Justice Network, you find upwards of $21 trillion, possibly $32 trillion. For comparison, estimated US GDP in 2011 was a bit over $15 trillion, while Japan’s was slightly below $6 trillion.


Where did this money come from? Well, that depends on what you think about capital. Does profit come work or financial manipulation? Americans used to favor the former answer, but that got your hands dirty rather than getting you rich quick. So, like empires before us, we farmed out the actual work to our colonies and kept the hugely enriching stuff at home, namely finance and the military might needed to enforce its extraction. Concentration of wealth is the goal of empire once it becomes established, and ours is no different. We concentrate wealth gathered, from the locals’ viewpoint often stolen, from around the world into our hands. And we concentrate wealth from all Americans into the hands of a tiny proportion of the population.
The study was performed by James Henry, formerly chief economist at McKinsey and an expert on tax havens.

The detailed analysis in the report, compiled using data from a range of sources, including the Bank of International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund, suggests that for many developing countries the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since the 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world.

This is particularly true of states with oil riches. A person with a sense of history might be tempted to bring up how the people who control those vast sums of money in the oil-rich states came to be in charge and to be capable of defending their wealth and privilege. Certainly one must look beyond those states, and toward North America and Europe, for some of the most powerful sources of influence.


Tax Justice Network calculates that if the $21 trillion in tax havens earned 3% interest per year and governments could tax that income at 30% it would generate $189 billion each year, which is more than the rich countries spend on aid to the developing world annually.


Billions of people around the world are suffering from malnutrition, disease, endemic warfare, and environmental degradation. These problems cannot be separated from the concentration of enormous amounts of wealth in small numbers of hands. Indeed these two issues are two sides of the same coin: with one comes the other. There is nothing positive for society or the individual in the accumulation of such private fortunes, and we are all paying a price for letting it happen.

Yes.  This.

She Might Be A Hooker Enabler, But She's Not Wrong..

If my 16-year-old daughter wants to be a prostitute, then that’s fine... it’s more honest than banking.  Shocking mum gives her teenage girl the green light to enter vice trade.  You gotta love The Sun; now with 100 percent less Rupert!  Excerpts:

A FORMER brothel madam has given her 16-year-old daughter the all-clear to go out to work — as a PROSTITUTE.

Becky Adams, 45, has guided scores of call girls during 20 years in the world’s oldest profession.



The mum of two has now quit, but insists she would be happy if Emilia chose to be a “high class escort” — and says she would even help to get the teenager started.


Becky told The Sun: “Society may judge her but I wouldn’t. At least prostitution is an honest profession.


“I’d much rather she work as an escort than a banker.


“I couldn’t understand her wanting to do something morally wrong, something that could jeopardise someone else.”

What does it say about your occupation if hookers and madams think you're a scumbag, and everyone agrees?