Myriam van der Stichele: "A short edition of the EU financial reform Newsletter provides the background of the latest financial and political crises in different EU countries, with focus on the Cyprus crisis. This newsletter was finalized just before the Cypriot parliament rejected the deal and since the quick events have been changing every day, about we will provide an update later."
Global Financial Integrity - Raymond Baker "As European and Russian officials currently weigh the merits of bailing out the Cypriot economy, GFI's study raises serious concerns about the legitimacy of Cyprus' financial sector. The report notes that Cyprus, a tiny island nation with a GDP of just $23 billion, is the largest source and destination of Russian foreign direct investment (FDI) from 2009-2011. According to the IMF, Cyprus sent $128.8 billion in FDI into Russia in 2011, more than 5 times the size of Cyprus' GDP. "The recorded FDI positions merely reflect the round-tripping of prior illicit deposits from Russia into Cyprus," write Dr. Kar and Ms. Freitas in the report."
Hans M Kristensen: "In addition to modernizing the warheads and the production complex, the Obama administration has also pledged to spend “well over 100 billion dollars” on modernizing some of the missiles, submarines and bombers designed to deliver the warheads."
Osasyy juuri pankkiosakkeiden suosioon ja hirmuiseen kurssinousuun lienee yksinkertaisesti se, että juuri pankkien hallussa on suuri määrä kriisivaltioiden velkakirjoja. Pankit ovat toisin sanoen hyötyneet kyseisten velkakirjojen arvonnoususta. Samoin ne ovat hyötyneet kriisin hellittämisestä eli Draghin lupauksen suotuisista tunnelmavaikutuksista.
by Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife Originally published at naiforum.org on February 14, 2012 IMF and Tunisia "In 2010, the IMF celebrated Ben Ali’s commitment ”to reduce tax rates on businesses and to offset those reductions by increasing the standard Value Added Tax (VAT) rate,” which hurts poor people most. The IMF advised the tyrant to ”contain subsidies of food and fuel products”.While squeezing the poor, the IMF diplomatically turned a blind eye to widespread corruption by Ben Ali and his wife’s notorious Trabelsi family, the two families’ extreme level of business concentration, the regime’s reliance upon murderous security forces to defend Tunisian crony capitalism, and the hedonistic lifestyle for which Ben Ali’s clan had become famous."
Reuters, Japan approved on Monday incentives for renewable energy that could unleash billions of dollars in clean-energy investment and help the world's third-biggest economy shift away from a reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster.
Pedro Paez Perez, member of the Stiglitz Commission on the global financial and economic crisis, highlights recommendations for a new reserve currency, regional macroeconomic coordination, and reorientation of trade goals toward stimulating employment and international cooperation. July/August 2009. Pedro Paez Pérez was the Ecuadorian Minister of Economic Co-ordination in President Correa’s government between October 2007 and December 2008
Pimco Gross Investment Outlook January "2012 Paranormal This process of delevering has consistently been a part of PIMCO’s secular thesis but “implosion” and “bimodal fat tailed” outcomes are New Age and very “2012ish.” Perhaps the first observation to be made is that most developed economies have not, in fact, delevered since 2008. Certain portions of them – yes: U.S. and Euroland households; southern peripheral Euroland countries. But credit as a whole remains resilient or at least static because of a multitude of quantitative easings (QEs) in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. Now it seems a gigantic tidal wave of QE is being generated in Euroland, thinly disguised as an LTRO (three-year long term refinancing operation) which in effect can and will be used by banks to support sovereign bond issuance. Amazingly, Italian banks are now issuing state guaranteed paper to obtain funds from the European Central Bank (ECB) and then reinvesting the proceeds into Italian bonds, which is QE by any definition and near Ponzi by another."