Could Spain Be Next?

[Malcolm Robinson]

Either of these two would get my vote.......

Yulia Timoshenko (Ukraine)

and

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (Argentina)

[threegee]

You're in the wrong countries for bimbo-politico malc!

[Malcolm Robinson]

GGG,

I used to think I had a healthy distrust for the political elite, now after being lied to, bled dry and hung out I don't think we can believe a word that comes out of their mouths!

If we have to put up with that might as well have someone easy on the eye………….

http://urbantitan.com/10-most-beautiful-women-in-todays-politics/

I'm with Mr B, number 2 for me!

The most beautiful female politicians are (as identified by the Mail):

1 - Luciana Leon, 30, Peru

2 - Mercedes Aráoz 47, Peru

3 - Sara Latife Ruiz Chavez, 32, Mexico

4 - Mara Carfagna, 32, Italy

5 - Yuri Fujikawa, 27, Japan

6 - Anna-Maria Galojan, 26, Estonia

7 - Toireasa Ferris, 29, Ireland

8 - Yuliya Tymoshenko, 48, Ukraine

9 - Eunice Olsen, 31, Singapore

10 - Cayetana Álvarez, 34, Spain

11 - Vera Lischka, 31, Austria

12 - Alina Kabaev, 26, Russia

13 - Gabriela Cueva, 29, Mexico

14 - Orly Levy, 35, Israel

15 - Cristina Dia, 50, Mexico

16 - Tsepeli Nikolet, 28, Greece

17 - Marianne Thiem, 36, The Netherlands

18 - Carme Chacó, 37, Spain

19 - Pnina Rosenblum, 53, Israel

20 - Bibiana Aíd, 31, Spain

21 - Tanja Karpel, 38, Finland

22 - Julia Anastasia Bon, 23, Germany

23 - Ruhama Avraha, 44, Israel

24 - Sarah Palin, 44, United States

25 - Stefania Prestigiacom, 43, Italy

26 - Sofia Larse, 36, Sweden

27 - Angelina Sondak, 32, Indonesia

28 - Cristina Fernández de Kirchne, 56, Argentina

29 - Katrín Gunnarsdótti, 43, Iceland

30 - Soraya Sáen, 37, Spain

31 - Anastasia Michael, 33, Israel

32 - Stephanie Herseth, 38, United States

33 - Mónica Lorente Ramó, 38, Spain

34 - Hillary Clinton, 61, United States

35 - Melissa Park, 42, Australia

36 - Ségolène Roya, 55, France

37 - Jiang Y, 44, China

38 - Freya Van den Bossch, 34, Belgium

39 - Nebahat Albayra, 40, The Netherlands

40 - Kirsten Gillibran, 43, United States

41 - Eva Glawischni, 39, Austria

42 - Sabine Herol, 27, France

43 - Hillevi Larsso, 34, Sweden

44 - Hillevi Larsso, 46, Iceland

45 - Piia-Noora Kaupp, 33, Finland

46 - Sabine Bätzin, 34, German

47 - Isabel dos Santo, Angola

48 - Penny Won, 40, Australia

49 - Kate Elli, 32, Australia

50 - Melissa Lee, New Zealand

51 - Marcela Guerra Castill, Mexico

52 - Delsa Solórzano, Venezuela

53 - Natalie Rickl, 33, Sweden

54 - Malalai Joy, 31, Afghanistan

[Malcolm Robinson]

At last someone talking sense.............if only to identify the real problem.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23953724-chancellor-warned-over-pace-of-drastic-cuts.do

[Malcolm Robinson]

Vince is at it again..........just can't help liking a lot of the stuff the guy says, bit like Clarke!

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=534840&in_page_id=2

[Malcolm Robinson]

For a government which has committed itself to reducing the budget deficit this is not a good start to the year. In fact without 'real' economic growth the only way it can react is to cut even more aggressively to have any chance of fulfilling it promises and that means less services and more job cuts!

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=534589&in_page_id=2

[threegee]

So too slow, too late then? Better tell Red Ed!

Meanwhile, in the previous country which staged an Olympic Games it couldn't possibly afford: http://coveringdelta...eek-parliament/

Just goes to show how dumb Gordo really is; all that UK gold he blew, and not an ounce of it bounced back to him!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I think it's too blunt an instrument GGG; we can't possibly flip from a diet of uncontrollable debt into a nation of saving (earning) to spend. We could if we accepted the huge bust but now we have indebted our grandchildren so we didn't have that to suffer.

Interesting link btw………..

[Malcolm Robinson]

You're in the wrong countries for bimbo-politico malc!

Closer to home..............

http://sexymp.co.uk./index.php

[Malcolm Robinson]

Back on track.......interesting theory but while a corrupt private banking sector is in charge probably unworkable.......

http://www.eudebtwriteoff.com/

[Malcolm Robinson]

Given the topic title looks like Spain is certainly one of the dominoes lined up.........

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_30806.shtml

[Malcolm Robinson]

If there was an American on that list I might start to believe the rumours that the whole affair was a CIA set-up. But it's the pretty French lady for me!

Looks like Christine has it in the bag with USA, Japan, UK and EU backing. She is in China rustling up support there too.

There just might be a fly in the ointment though, the Bernard Tapie scandal which should break if the French judiciary get their act together and make a decision. Her involvement in that warrants closer scrutiny.

[Merlin]

Looks like Christine has it in the bag with USA, Japan, UK and EU backing. She is in China rustling up support there too.

There just might be a fly in the ointment though, the Bernard Tapie scandal which should break if the French judiciary get their act together and make a decision. Her involvement in that warrants closer scrutiny.

Don't worry Christine has a super injunction :dribble:

[Malcolm Robinson]

Don't worry Christine has a super injunction :dribble:

So I have heard Merlin and it seems she has been quite free with it!!!

[Malcolm Robinson]

The USS Eurocrat going in to rescue Greece!

[threegee]

It's a bit like the period before WWII: most realistic people know it's going to happen, the politicos scramble around pretending that all is well and that it's simply a matter of right nuances in the negotiations. But the reality is that the only unknowns are, what will trigger the big one, and exactly when.

This one is more historically accurate than the original (it seems).

...and that dog is the only one smart enough to be thinking ahead to where the next meal is coming from.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Looks like Italy has finally hit the buffers.............

[Malcolm Robinson]

Global derivatives outstanding $600-1200 TRILLION

Global GDP $60 trillion

Global stock market cap approx $80 trillion

Global bank capitalisation $ 16 trillion (max)

Bank capital approx $600 Billion or $0.6 trillion

Losses if one percent of derivatives go bad $6 trillion or TEN TIMES bank capital.

[threegee]

And today's Mole to Whack is.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk...siness-14038529

The more you hand out the more you may. Moral hazard (or rather the lack of same) is the term used by economists. But when - not if - the music stops...

There, but for the demise of Gordon - Prudence - Brown, treads the UK! And, the nation doesn't even realise what a "damn close-run thing" it was!

[Malcolm Robinson]

On the face of it quite a divergence between the BoE and the ECB as to how best to tackle current financial problems. The BoE are carrying on with ZIRP and talking about more QE, the ECB have put interest rates up which will penalise all the club Med countries already in so much difficulty. Taking Portugal something like 99% of mortgages are trackers so they have just seen their monthly repayments go up at a time of economic hardship. (Could be worse many in Eastern Europe took advantage of Swiss Franc mortgages and commercial lending, now with exchange rate movements they have seen their repayments double just as asset prices half!)

It would seem to me that the ECB action is about taking some heat out of the German economy, to protect the paymaster of the Euro, at the expense of any other country. Yet another divisive action and not one suited to an organisation which has monetary responsibility for several sovereign economies.

Looks like Italy is coming more and more into the fray now with their 10yr bonds topping the magic 5% mark. With a lot of debt to be restructured very soon it would be cheaper for Italy to use the 'special arrangements' the ECB has in place at 5% but that would mean a vast loss of face if not reputation. So the merry-go-round continues and another country's population has to pay over the odds to keep it afloat.

The only thing keeping UK PLC debt at AAA rated and in low single figures is the impending Euro bust, Chinese inflation and possible American default! We are getting through on the blindside!

[Merlin]

Look I'm in a right fettle, who gives a damn about Spain, France, Sudan or !*!@# Outer Mongolia it's this country we should be bothered about,sort us out ,then worry about everybody else out FFS

[threegee]

Look I'm in a right fettle, who gives a damn about Spain, France, Sudan or !*!@# Outer Mongolia it's this country we should be bothered about,sort us out ,then worry about everybody else out FFS

Unfortunately the World isn't that simple, and your favourite people - politicians - have made it even more complicated than it needs to be.

Who cared about some archduke no one had ever heard of getting shot in some place people had to refer to a map to find? The result of that insignificant event was that just about every family in our country had to bear a tragedy, and the entire World changed over the course of a very few years.

We are teetering on the brink of another major event, this time an economic one. You will feel the results, and all around you. You'd be very wise to care!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Look I'm in a right fettle, who gives a damn about Spain, France, Sudan or !*!@# Outer Mongolia it's this country we should be bothered about,sort us out ,then worry about everybody else out FFS

That's the problem with globalism Merlin, like GGG says what seems like an insignificant event in some other part of the world impacts directly onto us now.

Take the financial crisis, which is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better, if it does. It is generally accepted that 'toxic' loans in the USA precipitated the collapse and even leaving aside the way the financial sector behaved what really caused the crash was down to human behaviour. Some American citizens on welfare listened to some snake oil salesmen who told them that for half of their welfare checks they could get mortgages and buy into the American Dream. With a low start introductory offer for a year or two that was feasible and even after a couple of years they could sell up again and trouser $40K. What they didn't realise was that after a couple of years the repayments would treble or quadruple and you can't get a quart out of a pint. So they were forced sellers and the market tumbled which not only wiped out the potential gain but left them in negative territory. The banks had rolled all these loans into financial instruments which our banks and others bought but once the repayments stopped the loans became at first a drag on balance sheets then because there was no hope of ever getting repaid and the assets had fallen so far in value these loans threated to bankrupt the banks and financial institutions who had bought them. Step in our BoE with £200 billion QE, zero interest rates, forced part nationalisations etc. to save the UK financial sector. As we were already running a national deficit this pushed our debt figures into outer space and means austerity cuts would be needed to rebalance our economy, an economy which was trading on debt anyway.

The problem now is that with an interconnected global financial sector there is a rush to the bottom with currency wars and government using inflation to inflate away a lot of debt. So in a way we can directly link the hundreds of jobs being lost at NCC to an American who thought he could buy a house on a welfare check or the butterfly fluttering its wings in the Amazonian rainforest really did produce the Tsunami which destroyed those Japanese nuclear reactors!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Look I'm in a right fettle, who gives a damn about Spain, France, Sudan or !*!@# Outer Mongolia it's this country we should be bothered about,sort us out ,then worry about everybody else out FFS

Looks like the UK is being lined up to take part in the Great Euro Default Swap Game 2011. Although we are not in the Euro, Frau Merkel is insisting all 27 European Union nations take part in the Greek default. The American position will be interesting as they hold about $125B of default credit swaps!

So Merlin your taxes are going to be used to 'support' the Greek position………..which is basically throwing money away! Pity they couldn't throw it in our direction!

Italy is coming up hard on the rails now…….10yrs bonds 5.5% and a closure of her stock market to stop sellers dumping Italian banking shares!

Time to stock up on tinned goods and gold!

[threegee]

...

Time to stock up on tinned goods and gold!

Even hoarding gold isn't too sensible financial advice. It's already way way above any sustainable historic level; production is leaping as the price encourages more exploration/mining and bringing back into production formerly uneconomic mines. Plus there aren't too many real industrial uses for the stuff these days. Classic signs of a bubble market set to catch the financially naive. Far better to hoard something they don't make any more - like prime agricultural land.