COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, March 09, 2012

Moody’s Calls Europe on the Greek Fraud



Greece and the EU screwed creditors out of 75% plus of their investment...that is a de facto default


Moody's declares Greece in default of debt
AFP


Moody's declared Greece in default on its debt Friday after Athens carved out a deal with private creditors for a bond exchange that will write off 107 billion euros ($140 billion) of its debt.


Moody's pointed out that even as 85.8 percent of the holders of Greek-law bonds had signed onto the deal, the exercise of collective action clauses that Athens is applying to its bonds will force the remaining bondholders to participate.
Overall the cost to bondholders, based on the net present value of the debt, will be at least 70 percent of the investment, Moody's said.


"According to Moody's definitions, this exchange represents a 'distressed exchange,' and therefore a debt default," the US-based rating firm said.


For one, "The exchange amounts to a diminished financial obligation relative to the original obligation.”


Secondly, it "has the effect of allowing Greece to avoid payment default in the future.”


Ahead of the debt deal, Moody's had already slashed Greece's credit grade to its lowest level, "C," and so there was no impact on the rating.


Moody's said it will revisit the rating to see how the debt writedown, and the second eurozone bailout package, would affect its finances.


However, it added, at the beginning of March "Moody's had said that the risk of a default, even after the debt exchange has been completed, remains high."

45 comments:

  1. Say goodbye to investment.

    Say hello to global redistribution.

    If you got any real money?

    hide it in a mattress.

    IF you own real assets?

    good luck keeping them....

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  2. It's Sattidy morning in America.

    The Batshit Crazies want yet another war.

    Ethanol is selling for $1.04/gal Less than gasoline, and

    we're paying farmers over a Billion Dollars NOT to grow the crops to make it.


    America: The home of nitwits, and nincompoops

    (except for Quirk, who's a self-admitted Brainiac.)

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  3. Save it chaps. The EU came up with a package to save Greece, the then Prime Minister put it before the Greek people to vote on and they rejected it. The Greek government changed with immediately afterward and the plan was accepted by the new government without a referendum.
    I think it is crystal clear that the Greek people have NO intention of accepting the austerity measures required by the EU to save this situation as they attempt to prevent the inevitable economic collapse of Greece.

    As goes Greece, so goes Portugal, Italy and Spain. Game over!
    So this is really the EU and the IMF scrambling desperately to save themselves from falling apart. Which day can't come soon enough in my opinion.

    People that can demand other people’s money always do!

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  4. "The narrative emerging from Obama is that this war is not in America's interests," said Daniel Levy, a former political advisor to Israeli cabinet ministers. "The message to the American people is: who do you want to trust, our intelligence or a foreign country's intelligence? Our generals or a foreign country's generals? What's this going to do to our economy. What's this going to do to the prices you pay at the pumps?"

    Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli military intelligence, said the message hit home in the Jewish state…In his speech to Aipac, Obama took aim at Israel for "too much loose talk of war".

    The Jewish state's more ardent supporters in the west, ever ready to play down differences between the White House and the Israeli leadership, tried to deny Obama's comments were aimed at Netanyahu's government. But the president's warning that such talk was driving up oil prices and so helping fund Iran's nuclear programme suggested he wasn't talking about the armchair generals in the Republican party but the real ones in Jerusalem.

    Levy argues that Obama's stand will strengthen the hand of influential voices inside Israel, such as the former heads of Israel's intelligence service, Meir Dagan and Efraim Halevy, who are opposed to an attack on Iran in the near future.

    Dagan this week crossed Netanyahu by saying it is wrong to portray the Iranian government as irrational and that he trusts the US to make the call on whether or not to attack.

    "An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way," he told CBS. "[Obama] said openly that the military option is on the table and he is not going to let Iran become a nuclear state and from my experience, I usually trust the president of the US."

    That view is shared by many Israelis. A poll by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week showed that 58% of the population opposes a strike on Iran without US backing.

    There has also been strong criticism inside Israel of Netanyahu's invoking of the Holocaust. The opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, called it "hysterical" and said that it scared Israelis and cast the Jewish state as weak.

    "We are not in the ghetto and there is no place for Holocaust comparisons," said Livni. "The nation of Israel is strong. The Jewish nation today has the brains and the ability to stop our enemies. We don't need to create an atmosphere of Holocaust threats and annihilation to scare the citizens."

    Two former Israeli military chiefs – Shaul Mofaz and Dan Halutz – also condemned Netanyahu's use of Holocaust imagery as a justification for attack.

    "We are not kings of the world," Halutz said. "We should remember who we are."

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  5. Obviously, the threat of a military strike on Iran is off the table, at least until 2013.

    But, the price of Brent Crude is "sticky" at $126.00/bbl, with signs it wants to go higher.

    Now what?

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  6. From Bob’s link..

    So, John says, Jesus twice warns his followers in Asia Minor to beware of ‘blasphemers’ among them, ‘who say they are Jews, and are not.’ They are, he says, a ‘synagogue of Satan.’ ” Balaam and Jezebel, named as satanic prophets in Revelation, are, in this view, caricatures of “Pauline” Christians, who blithely violated Jewish food and sexual laws while still claiming to be followers of the good rabbi Yeshua. Jezebel, in particular—the name that John assigns her is that of an infamous Canaanite queen, but she’s seen preaching in the nearby town of Thyatira—suggests the women evangelists who were central to Paul’s version of the movement and anathema to a pious Jew like John. She is the original shiksa goddess. (“When John accuses ‘Balaam’ and ‘Jezebel’ of inducing people to ‘eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication,’ he might have in mind anything from tolerating people who engage in incest to Jews who become sexually involved with Gentiles or, worse, who marry them,” Pagels notes.) The scarlet whores and mad beasts in Revelation are the Gentile followers of Paul—and so, in a neat irony, the spiritual ancestors of today’s Protestant evangelicals.

    Why is it the religions of the Middle East all have a woman problem? If a future asteroid has no particular landing place in mind, a few less prophets with dick and mommy problems would be my recommendation.

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  7. You don't suppose it was about "Supply" after all, do you?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Why does pussy strike terror into the hearts of the boys in the ME and their followers?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Too little oil, too little pussy.

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  10. Harsh Geography. Requires a tight-knit organization to survive.

    Gotta keep the troops whipped in line. Can't have'em gallivanting around, having fun, and getting nooky.

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  11. Rush Limbaugh is justifiably boycotted for calling a woman a “slut” and a “prostitute,” but the man who used the c-word, twat and boobs to refer to Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann is getting a visit from a top Democratic strategist. Liberals have demanded that GOP leaders denounce Limbaugh, but President Obama, who has opined repeatedly on the Limbaugh controversy, refuses to denounce Maher. This despite the fact that Maher has made a high-profile $1 million donation to Obama’s super PAC, which is run by longtime Obama aide Bill Burton.

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  12. The Jews will be okay, but the Arabs will be in a world of trouble when the oil dries up.

    Just look at the list of former Oil "Exporters" that are now "Importers(or, in the case of Egypt, nearly so:"

    Egypt

    Syria

    Yemen

    Notice anything in common?

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  13. I'm not excusing Maher, but Rush sells himself as a "Serious Political Commentator." He should have known better.

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  14. If the dumb-ass Pubs would just think about it for a minute; probably the most effective budget-cutting measure they could implement would be "free birth control for all."

    The savings on Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc for each averted pregnancy of a poor, unwed mother would be huge.

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  15. .

    America: The home of nitwits, and nincompoops

    (except for Quirk, who's a self-admitted Brainiac.)



    Thanks, Ruf. I've always considered myself exceptional.

    :)

    .

    ReplyDelete
  16. .

    There are degrees of culpability among the talking heads. Of the three, Limbaugh, Maher, and Imus, Rush's comments are the most aggregious IMO.

    He wallows in his noteriety as a spokesperson for conservatism whenever he can, but then, when people are offended, he falls back on the fact that he is an entertainer. His original comments (if you saw the entire rant) and his 'apology' (self-serving and ludicrous) were both disgusting.

    However, Maher may call himself an entertainer but his show is formatted along the lines of a news panel show. Pretty much all he talks about is politics. The whole show is centered on politics. The guy is unabashedly liberal plus the guy is a hypocrite. He would never call Anne Coultier a cunt because he is friends with her. The guy is a dick and it's not really pushing it to say that Obama is a self-serving hypocrite for not calling him out if he is going to call Rush out.

    Imus is a little goofy and given his public persona an idiot for making stupid comments he did on the air. That being said, his show is for the most part entertainment, some satire, good music, some oddball guests and regulars, interviews, and usually a segment on politics.

    .

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  17. There are degrees of culpability among the talking heads. Of the three, Limbaugh, Maher, and Imus, Rush's comments are the most aggregious IMO.

    Yes, indeed, yes, yes, I say, humm, the most aggregious, yes quite, quite aggressively aggregious indeed, quite so, don't you think? Quite.

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  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  20. The double posting was getting on my nerves. Triple posts will be shot on sight.

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  21. The Swedish farmer should copy and paste a copy of his post to a text file on his desktop. That way, if blogger eats his post like he says it does, he can post it again, instead of defaulting to double posts every time. But that's just my opinion.

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  22. Deuce: Why does pussy strike terror into the hearts of the boys in the ME and their followers?

    I think Ted Nugent sang about this once.

    Well I don't know where they come from but they sure do come

    I hope they comin' for me

    . . .

    Well I make the pussy purr with the stroke of my hand

    They know they gettin' it from me

    . . .

    Cat scratch fever

    ReplyDelete
  23. .

    It's Sattidy morning in America.

    The Batshit Crazies want yet another war.



    We've been spending a trillion per year on defense. We all know the costs associated with Iraq and Afghanistan. And once you launch a rocket or shoot a bullet, it's gone. You can't mold or fabricate a part from it, it provides no value added going forward. Worse, you lose the opportunity cost associated with it.

    The US had plans on purchasing 2443 F-35 jets at a cost of $133-$150 million dollars each. Right now we hear that we don't have enough people trained in math and science for the technical jobs available so we end up sending them overseas. If we cut the number of F-35's down to 2436, 7 less than proposed, we could purchase tablet computers for every 1st Grader in the US.

    If we are going to be spending money we don't have, we ought to at least get something of value for it.

    .

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  24. probably the most effective budget-cutting measure they could implement would be "free birth control for all."

    Then the Gaia Goddess Earth-Mothers would have nothing to tut tut about. No more 'when does life begin' fretting. No more 'how do we know what is the right thing to do' hand-wringing. No more 'self-righteous heathens destroying western civilization.' Gaia Goddesses without their corner soapboxes. I grieve.

    For Quirk and his 'visceral reaction' to a certain politician whose name begins with "P": the commentariat at BC has your number old boy - a teenage nerd goof-ball dissed by the pretty blond who's never forgotten it!!!! Oh The Trauma. Somebody get me a Reality Show.

    (Trish was right about the Pubs. Except I think she said wander in the wilderness for 40 years - I think it's going to be longer.)

    The Wanderer

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  25. As a German Citizen living in the US I resent any Suggestiones that German taxpayers are obligated to,pick up the bill caused by Greece because the country lived for many years beyond its means and constantly had to borrow more money to keep going.what happens now is way past solidarity, while many greeks send their money out of the country, Germans have to pay for failure of the Greek government to govern properly. Greece cooked the books in order to qualify for the euro and things never changed. Meanwhile many Germans had to accept less pay,less benefits and work longer hours before they are able to retire. Germans must work til 65 while Greeks retired with 52 just to make the differences clear.
    the Problem many Greeks friend themselves in are mostly homemade.
    Even now the cost to rescue Greece are high for all German taxpayer,still, they are being called Nazis etc., but oddly enough no Greek refuses the german money.....
    I daubt that many Germans will continue to travel for vacations simply because of the on going anti-German sentiments...
    I am sorry that many Greeks friend themselves in difficult times but they must look to their own government for the cause not to Germany.

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  26. Greece keeps receiving money, but without the constant supply of funds, the whole thing collapses. Bernard Madoff (and soon Allen Standford), is doing serious time for running such a scheme.this whole exercise is ludicrous - greece will default.

    we all know that

    the debate is dumb and thick to the point of being a fraud.

    soverign governments should not be allowed to issue bonds - its all to easy for incumbent governments to try buy the electorate with 'investments' funded by loan sharks.

    a nation's money supply can be created perfectly well by an independent public body acting in the national interest. There should never be a need to borrow money from outside of the country.

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  27. More than 90 Iraqi students have been stoned to death for their Emo haircuts by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after Iraq's interior ministry dubbed it 'devil worshipping’.

    Iraq's Moral Police released a statement on the interior ministry's website condemning the 'emo phenomenon' among Iraqi youth, declaring its intent to 'eliminate' the trend.
    The move is part of a wider clampdown on young people taking on what government officials call 'Western appearances' in Iraq.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112960/90-students-Iraq-stoned-death-having-Emo-hair-tight-clothes.html#ixzz1ok1I9EvS

    Now aren’t we just pleased that we brought moral police to Iraq?

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  28. .

    For Quirk and his 'visceral reaction' to a certain politician whose name begins with "P": the commentariat at BC has your number old boy - a teenage nerd goof-ball dissed by the pretty blond who's never forgotten it!!!! Oh The Trauma. Somebody get me a Reality Show.


    :)

    The commentariat at BC?

    First, Al-Anon, since the "commentariat at BC" doesn't know me, I doubt they are commenting on me at all. Second, since it's you making the point, I assume the "commentariat at the BC" consists of those there who agree with you on at least one thing. Third, like many of your posts, this one lacks clarity. If what you are trying to say in your usual blundering way is that the "commentariat at the BC" consists of those who think "P" has some substance other than as a genius at self-promotion, I would have to include this appeal to authority on your part with WiO's revised history of the ME or Bob's American Thinker fixation.

    On a personal note, I see you still don't have the balls to sign in using your own screen name. Likewise, you still don't have the balls to state your own views but merely pass along the views of the "commentariat at the BC." You're a joke.

    The Wanderer?

    Nice selection. Does it refer to the GOP or to you? What happened? Did they get tired of you over at BC already and ask you to move along?

    .

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  29. I was trying to figure out what Politician's initial was "P."

    Is she still around?



    How soon some of us forget. :)

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  30. .

    The circle of life.

    The rat's philosophy and prepositional dysfunction is reborn in the person of ijack.

    .

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  31. It was a joke Quirk. I was surprised and disappointed at the inch-deep psychology heartily applauded as useful insight to the behavior of "leftoid malcontents" or some such blather. The Left-Right battle is the sole driver of the site. It used to be more. Much more. But it's the Silly Season so the thoughtful posters have probably gone into hibernation.

    It's spooky how much Julianne Moore looks like Palin. I mean really spooky.

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  32. .

    You know my opinion of the Anonymi, Anonymous.


    .

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  33. I've started thinking of it as The Pat Buchanan Syndrome (PBS not to be confused with PMS or BDS.)

    Because Buchanan was the first who demonstrated the symptoms - or the first I noticed - someone who communicates with all the signs of a "rational actor" but in the blink of an eye slips into alien 'whoa there Nellie' territory. The Republican slate of presidential candidates is on life support with a fatal level of PBS. I'm not sure if it's latent genomes finding happy habitat for expression in the modern world or something else. But the cognitive disconnects are tiring and difficult to process *all the damn time.*

    Which is something I like about Obama. He's pretty consistent - or as I like to say - STABLE. That's not a Bad Thing. I am unconvinced that he is a Fellow Traveler in the Service. I'm open to the argument but I'm not seeing it. My current view is that his staff has problems and the uncompromising Tea Party element in Congress is leveraging that specific dysfunction to the max. Since 2010 Washington has moved abruptly from a legislative body to an active war zone. The stability and discretion of someone like Obama, relative to say, oh who comes to mind, oh yes, Rush Limbaugh and the near entirety of the Republican Party, is a huge plus for the Dems right now. It isn't enough to make them good at governing again but it gives them a head start.

    (And I have it on reliable sources that the world ends tomorrow so forget the clock thing.)

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  34. It's not fair to be shoot on cite, that's usualy a fellowny, it's like Qoirk sez, and eggressive aggrecian.

    xxxxx

    Natanyahu's request for bunker busters which he knows will be denied is a move to clear the way for the use of nukes, is the way your Far Darting Seer reads the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  35. .

    ...Far Darting Seer...



    Say that fast five times.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  36. It's not fair to be shoot on cite, that's usualy a fellowny, it's like Qoirk sez, and eggressive aggrecian.

    xxxxx

    Natanyahu's request for bunker busters which he knows will be denied is a move to clear the way for the use of nukes, is the way your Far Darting Seer reads the situation.


    Quirk said...

    .

    ...Far Darting Seer...



    Say that fast five times.



    Jeez, just cause you didn't think of it.

    ReplyDelete
  37. ...Far Darting Seer...

    Fart Sarting Deer
    Dart Farting Seer
    Smart Arting Fear

    ah hell

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  38. I wonder sometimes if wretchard's site isn't a honey trap for the ideologically wicked. The baiting and the mockery seem out of proportion to the reality; hence the appeal to those out of touch with said ground.

    Beats me. I don't live Inside the Beltway, metaphorically or otherwise. I once wanted to but it wasn't meant to be.

    Spring Forward. The Apocalypse is nigh. You don't want to miss it.

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  39. I'm thinking that "Tee" poster at BC is Trish. It's a hard voice to disguise.

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  40. Which leaves one wondering who else GS has been chumming.

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  41. From the Nicholas Dunbar link:

    <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

    Goldman Sachs declined to comment about how much it made on the swaps. Fiona Laffan, a spokeswoman for the firm in London, said the agreements were executed in accordance with guidelines provided by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency.

    “Greece actually executed the swap transactions to reduce its debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio because all member states were required by the Maastricht Treaty to show an improvement in their public finances,” Laffan said in an e- mail. “The swaps were one of several techniques that many European governments used to meet the terms of the treaty.”

    ...

    “You can’t have prudent debt management if you change all the assumptions all the time,” he said.

    Gustavo Piga, a professor of economics at University of Rome Tor Vergata and author of “Derivatives and Public Debt Management,” sees a different lesson.

    “In secret deals, intermediaries have the upper hand and use it to squeeze taxpayers,” Piga said in an interview. “The bargaining power is in investment banks’ hands.”

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    But we all know socialism is what killed Greece - and a lazy work force.

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