John Ward March 22, 2012 Uncategorized

Drizzle starting in Spain darkens the mood in Berlin

Further to this morning’s earlier Slogpost….

The spread between Spanish bonds and DeutscheBunds is now broader than it’s been since mid February. The yield on Spain’s 10-year bond rose to 5.36 percent, also the highest since February. Spain’s borrowing rates rose to nearly 7 percent in November.

But Bernanke says it’s ok, because he’s done his stress tests.

You remember stress tests…..

Well, German bankers think Ben’s backside is doing the talking at the moment.

55Comments

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1

Ben Bernanke: All is Well! « Terry Kinder's Random Acts of Thought on March 24, 2012 at 2:35 pm

[…] The Slog: Further to this morning’s earlier […]

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2

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 23, 2012 at 2:46 pm

Maybe. Spanish and Italian yields are edging upwards too. And Portugal is beyond laughing at!

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3

MiGHOW on March 23, 2012 at 2:25 pm

Ruger can’t make em fast enough so speculators think S&W will pick up the slack.
http://www.ruger.com/corporate/news/2012-03-21.html

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4

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 23, 2012 at 2:15 pm

@Geo: I agree …the competition does wind up the ante quite a bit. Nevertheless, we already know that investigations are being carried out in the US, so I can only hope the story is credible. I also have some very serious doubts about whether criminal charges will be brought against any or very many high-ranking perps, despite NI settling damages claims for £millions in the courts which I see as a full acceptance of liability.

Currently the whole story is following the same old same old British MO to brush mess under the carpet: an exessive time to investigate (to get the issue off the news agenda), a long-winded public inquiry which doesn’t deal with this case, all probably followed by a lame ‘No Charges’ excuse issued by the CPS of ‘insufficient evidence’. To cap it all, the govt will not table new legislation to toughen up corporate executive accountability.

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5

Hieronimusb on March 23, 2012 at 1:38 pm

Brilliant, a clear example of male multitasking… expect a dishwasher proof version shortly..

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6

theguvnor on March 23, 2012 at 1:21 pm

Could this be the start of a long weekend!?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/eurosis-back-new-greek-bonds-break-20-slide-14-2-days

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7

Geo on March 23, 2012 at 1:13 pm

Yes, but these reports seem to come from British competitors (my Google search on ‘fbi murdoch’ gave me items from the dailymail and the independent on page 1results) — which makes sense since it is primarily a UK story, but could lead one to suspect the simple motive of doing-in the competition.

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8

tembo11 on March 23, 2012 at 11:51 am

Ear tags have been used for years even before BSE
In the UK of course there is still the Bovine TB and Badgers ongoing discussion, cause & effect scenario

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9

tembo11 on March 23, 2012 at 11:46 am

@BT
I have full Acrobat so I use that but just observing

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10

Carys on March 23, 2012 at 11:26 am

Of course nothing will be done to the properties. That could result in the recognition of the real value of construction loans on the banks’ balance sheets and nobody in the financial or government wants to see that particular horror story. Not until the next boom is really well under way. Maybe 5 years, maybe 10…

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11

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 23, 2012 at 11:23 am

Whoops! Try this link instead: W3Schools

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12

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 23, 2012 at 11:18 am

If anybody wants to know how to imbed simple HTML codes in their posts to enhance their appearance, here’s one of the best sites I know which takes you through how to do it step-by-step: W3Schools

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13

Kit Green on March 23, 2012 at 11:04 am

Is it just because of the debacle in Florida or a more general need for personal firearms in the US when the shtf that has made Smith & Wesson shares rise by over 11% today!

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14

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 23, 2012 at 11:03 am

Brill :-)

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15

mountainman on March 23, 2012 at 10:59 am

That`s why Ipad sales figures are so high …….

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16

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 23, 2012 at 10:24 am

Because *nix is not ready for the masses prime time? despite it’s many fans. Even with Wine, there are still many Windows programs that will not run under *nix.

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17

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 23, 2012 at 10:18 am

Some work, not all.

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18

Kit Green on March 23, 2012 at 10:12 am

Yes

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19

Send in the clowns on March 23, 2012 at 9:43 am

Smile please all you Ipad fans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0FVm_H_D18

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20

Cogent1 on March 23, 2012 at 9:30 am

On that topic, do HTML tags work with WordPress posts?

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21

Dave on March 23, 2012 at 9:28 am

Cameron will play the National Interest card just as Blair did with the Bae/Saudi affair

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22

Dave on March 23, 2012 at 9:22 am

Why would anyone use windows in this day and age?

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23

MarkyMark on March 22, 2012 at 10:43 pm

Brat !

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24

Gemz =Ö= on March 22, 2012 at 9:25 pm

@Foucalt

it seems to be an intellectual passion. Just look at the EU. Regulations for the size of goose-pimples-on-gherkins-that-are-not-straight and regulations for goose-pimples-on-gherkins-that-are-straight both of which run to three closely packed pages. Must read for any grower. (Nonsense stuff. but you get my drift?)

It is everywhere – name something and the intellectual leagal beagles will sniff out any possibility of an exclusion. “Is this bovine carcass from an animal that is certified less than three years of age?” (that is a real one by the way!). Note the “certified” you can’t just have an animal, it needs papers, documents and certificates to be a cow. Not to mention ear tags, movement documents, valuations and goodness knows what else.

Now don’t get me wrong, but I doubt if a cow worries much about these things in the green pastures of the Hollandse weide.

Why less than 3 yrs? Because cows can exhibit BSE when they are older than 3 yrs. Slaughtering them at an age less than 3 yrs does not mean that the infectious agent is not present, after all testing for mutant proteins is expensive. All you need is half a dozen nasties … try finding them in amongst several trillion others.

Then you have the absurd situation where it is legal to add 10% water to meat. Why? is there a reason beyond water being both cheap and heavy? Reckon on this and your organic/bio beef is immediately 10% cheaper. That is if the supermarkets actually do what they are told.

Which is the other side of the problem of these regulations: can you check them effectively? Or do you use self-regulation?

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25

CEDRIC WARD on March 22, 2012 at 9:03 pm

foucalt…

It has a SPELL checker, not a GRAMMAR or CONTEXT checker.

‘mow’ is a word, as in ‘mow the lawn’.

There are programs that will check for context, but I’ve only seen them as a separate product for you buy to check your own works done on a word processor or similar writing app.

All you can do is PROOFREAD BEFORE you hit ‘submit’.

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26

Mudplugger on March 22, 2012 at 8:53 pm

That was just a translation error – Mario had just finished a hot-dog and his actual words were, “The wurst is over”. Sorry to disappoint…..

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27

Hieronimusb on March 22, 2012 at 8:52 pm

restoring ‘confidence in victims’…yes, well you can’t do that if you’ve swapped your balls for bollocks..

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28

Mudplugger on March 22, 2012 at 8:51 pm

Actually it’s a good time to invest in companies making small microwave ovens.
With Osborne’s crazy fiddling with VAT on any takeaway food ‘above the ambient temperature at the time it is handed to the customer’, there will be a huge uptake for customer-operated microwaves to re-apply the heat into the sausage roll or pork pie which the retailer had just sold them cold to avoid the 20% VAT. Every cloud, as they say…….

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Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 22, 2012 at 8:34 pm

For the FBI to have issued a warning to Scotland Yard strongly suggests to me that it already has serious doubts over why the investigations are taking so long, why the scope has been limited, why nobody’s yet been charged with any criminal offence and where it’s all heading.

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foucalt tudoux wimay on March 22, 2012 at 8:31 pm

now, not mow.
(surprised it doesn’t correct my spelling)

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31

foucalt tudoux wimay on March 22, 2012 at 8:31 pm

Why is WordPress interfering in everything mow?

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32

johnnyrvf on March 22, 2012 at 8:27 pm

Now THAT is good news, watch those bent coppers squirm……..

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33

andrew on March 22, 2012 at 7:37 pm

John, the FBI is onto Murdock,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232429.html

The FBI has warned Scotland Yard that it is “prepared to step in” if the British police fails to carry out a full-scale investigation into phone hacking, reported the Independent on Sunday.

“The FBI made it perfectly clear that if the British police drop the ball on this they will pick it up and run with it,” a legal source told the newspaper.

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34

Send in the clowns on March 22, 2012 at 6:49 pm

What Is President Obama So Afraid Of? asks a guest post at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-what-president-obama-so-afraid
Surely not those mad, bad Euro rascals! As it turns out, though, our great faceless enemy is not some mythical boogeyman living in a cave, nor some angry brown person who hates us for our freedoms… but the very people within the system who’ve taken an oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.’ Could it be Goldman Sachs and the Wall Street brothers? “It’s clear that the Obama administration is expecting trouble from within,”

And with good reason. By every possible calculation (except flat-out fraud), the US government is completely insolvent, and its balance sheet is growing worse by the day. The dollar is beginning to be seriously challenged as the global reserve standard, and every effort politicians make to ‘fix’ the economy only makes things worse. Oh dear!

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35

Animal Farm (@Boxer_AF) on March 22, 2012 at 6:48 pm

BT
‘Is it time to invest in Spanish demolition company shares?’
Good idea, and then invest back into construction firms because of an acute lack of housing!

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36

steviefinn on March 22, 2012 at 6:14 pm

Terp

You are more than welcome.

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Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 22, 2012 at 4:27 pm

From a purely financial pov, I’d wait till they look like they’ve bottomed out or close to it. But other factors come into play in these decisions…

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Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 22, 2012 at 4:23 pm

@tembo11: are you referring to one of the plug-ins?

( fyi: I use a small free virtual print driver “doPDF” to print any filetype to PDF. Works well: http://www.dopdf.com/?vst=app-dopdf )

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39

tembo11 on March 22, 2012 at 4:17 pm

JW could be our french “local” estage agent

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tembo11 on March 22, 2012 at 4:15 pm

Under the coming soon I found the “convert to PDF” which seems almost better than the provision that acrobat allows

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raw on March 22, 2012 at 2:43 pm

Looked at a Spanish cave house sometime back, fantastic thing. Anyway, decided to consider it for a bit, glad I did, price drops of 100k can now pick one up for 25k (yes of course needs refurbishing!)
In France not unusual to find a house with 50 – 100k off, in fact going looking at some in a couple of weeks, but not too sure if to invest or wait even longer, in some areas prices are virtually in free fall.
At this rate will be able to buy property all over Europe!

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Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 22, 2012 at 2:28 pm

@raw: “Back on subject, interesting articles on house price crash forum about property market in Spain, it really looks dreadful and is likely to get significantly worse, which almost appears unthinkable.”

Indeed. I recall a coupla posts a while back from @Carys who was working down there. A good point he raised is that there are so many unsold properties in Spain that at some point there’ll need refurbishing before people will buy them. As we know, properties deteriorate when left empty for longish periods. But I can’t see the developers footing the bill for that. Is it time to invest in Spanish demolition company shares? lol.

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Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 22, 2012 at 2:17 pm

Thanks, I knw about that one. I was using Scroogle HTTPS for several years but Google have now blocked it. I’m now using: https://ixquick.com/do/mypage.pl?prf=79a97fccd192ab153197486fa7183c11
…which also is HTTPS secure. I’ll basically use any search engine as long as it’s not Google directly :-)

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44

Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 22, 2012 at 2:13 pm

You’re welcome. Don’t forget that ‘parental controls’ are disabled in Palemoon ;-) lol. For info, several of my must have plug-ins:

– Ghostery (blocks those wretched tracking bugs, scripts and ads)
– Locationbar (helps protect you against hi-jacked websites)
– BetterPrivacy (controls/deletes those wretched super-cookies
– Screengrab (various options to take snapshots of webpages)
– Flagfox (shows geographical location of website servers)

‘Noscript’ is also a very popular add-on although I don’t use it myself.

Enjoy :-)

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raw on March 22, 2012 at 1:46 pm

@BT one other snippet, I also use https://startpage.com/, uses google search but does not pass on your ip address to google. Duck duck go is also good, both https

Back on subject, interesting articles on house price crash forum about property market in Spain, it really looks dreadful and is likely to get significantly worse, which almost appears unthinkable.

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Terp on March 22, 2012 at 1:33 pm

thx for the link, good stuff…

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raw on March 22, 2012 at 1:22 pm

@BT just a note to thank you for the link to Pale Moon, installed it and like it, so now running, Pale Moon, backup ups, Firefox, Comodo Dragon.

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Gemz =Ö= on March 22, 2012 at 1:20 pm

@Stevie

it is the “off balance sheet” details that are worrying.

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Xen on March 22, 2012 at 1:20 pm

Well according to Mario, speaking in Bild, “The worst is over.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17471617

Phew, thank goodness for that! For a moment there I thought things were going to get worse, much much worse.

Mario’s brain has left the cranium.

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Gemz =Ö= on March 22, 2012 at 1:18 pm

@SITC

whilst off topic, it is certainly interesting news. Thankyou.

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Bankrupt Taxpayer on March 22, 2012 at 1:12 pm

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/21/inside-the-ring-436080940/

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steviefinn on March 22, 2012 at 12:42 pm

This kind of thing will not help the mood.

http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2012/03/more-evidence-of-german-banking-worries/

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Send in the clowns on March 22, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Zero hedge is not so sure: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/andy-lees-china-coup-rumors

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Send in the clowns on March 22, 2012 at 11:55 am

I have long held the view that the final collapse would be triggered from left of field, thus avoiding any parochial Euro blame. March 22, 2012, 10:59 am
Beijing coup rumors

U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring China’s Internet say that from March 14 to Wednesday bloggers circulated alarming reports of tanks entering Beijing and shots being fired in the city as part of what is said to have been a high-level political battle among party leaders – and even a possible military coup.

The Internet discussions included photos posted online of tanks and other military vehicles moving around Beijing.

more [link to http://www.washingtontimes.com]

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tembo11 on March 22, 2012 at 11:49 am

more regular ~ less stress

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