GREEK DEFAULT NEARS AS BILD REPORTS STIRRINGS OF A REVOLUTION OVER PENAL EU/ IMF BAILOUT

The likelihood of a default by Greece – a trigger for the insolvency of the ECB – has grown after IMF inspectors are reported to be preparing to say this week that  Greece has failed to meet all its fiscal targets and to withhold the IMF’s share of a fifth tranche of a €110bn EU and IMF bailout.

Without an injection of cash, the Greek government could run out of money as early as June.

A default and a reintroduction of the Drachma could see Greece returning to a rapid economic recovery similar to Iceland and so help avert social unrest but a default will lead to the insolvency of the ECB with a major impact on the euro.

Bild newspaper says that Greece is verging on a “revolution” as tens of thousands of people camp in Athens squares.

ECB INCREASINGLY ISOLATED IN RESISTING GREEK DEFAULT AND ECB INSOLVENCY

European Central Bank (ECB) board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi told the Financial Times that the idea a Greek debt restructuring could be carried out in an orderly way is a “fairytale” as the confrontation between the ECB and the eurozone escalates.

Last week, it emerged that the ECB has abandoned all attempt to run a conventional monetary policy for the eurozone and handed out, instead, hundreds of billions of euros in loans to insolvent Irish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Greek banks in exchange for collateral which was hugely inflated in value, and that the ECB would have to own up to gigantic losses if Greece defaulted.

Bini Smaghi admitted in the interview with the FT on Monday that it is the tax payers who will have to pick up this multi-billion euro losses that the ECB has accumulated because of its illegal activities because tax payers have to fund the eurozone national central banks, the source of ECB funding.

 “But Mr Bini Smaghi points out that the impact would fall largely on eurozone national central banks, rather than the ECB, and ultimately on taxpayers.” 

The insolvent banks used the gift of ECB loans at 0% to buy souvereign bonds of insolvent countries, which were compelled to accept a penal EU and IMF bailout, so enabling those banks to make gigantic profits from the 6% interest paid by tax payers as part of the very same „bailouts“ and hold country’s hostage.

Der Spiegel reports on Titanic battle between ECB and German government over the future of the euro

The Haircut War

Tensions Worsen Between Berlin and European Central Bank

By Christian Reiermann and Michael Sauga, Der Spiegel

What’s best for Greece and Europe – a soft debt restructuring or billions of euros in loans for years to come? Berlin and the ECB are deeply divided over the best way to handle the crisis. A number of influential Germans fear the threat of austerity measures could be greater than a “haircut” of Greek debt.

Irish Minister admits Ireland will need more money from the EU and IMF

Irish Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said in an interview with The Sunday Times that Ireland will need another emergency loan from the European Union and IMF. Varadkar is absolutely right as Tom Molloy points out in The Irish Independent. The penal EU and IMF bailout to pay interest on private bank debt that the government assumed without asking the people or parliament is crushing the Irish economy as it crushed the Greek economy.

“Leaving politics aside, it is difficult to quibble with Varadkar’s analysis. It is almost impossible to imagine a situation where the National Treasury Management Agency could return to the markets next year to borrow money on our behalf.

Euro is running out of time

Roger Bootle, The Telegraph

They can try to ‘delay and pray’ but the euro is running out of time As a doomsayer from the start, who has written several times on the subject, I have recently been reluctant to burden my readers with more jeremiads about the euro.

GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG OVER THE ECB

The debate over a Greek default has put the spotlight on the European Central Bank and specifically on the way the ECB has violated rules to become an enormous “bad bank” with hundreds of billions of bad loans on its books – loans which  tax payers will be obligated to pay for in addition to the sums arising from the staggering EU bailouts.

And it is the ECB’s  systematic violation of rules on collateral and bail outs that could well be the final nail in the coffin and Götterdämmerung of the Frankfurt-based central bank as Greece lurches ever closer to default and the eurozone approaches financial meltdown.

But what rules exactly has the ECB violated?

Germany’s Der Spiegel revealed this week that the ECB violated one set of rules by giving banks in Greece, Ireland and Portugal as well as Spain a stupendous 480 billion euros against collateral of little or no quality.

Alex Jones Endorses New Film Exposing Secret Banking System

Infowars.com
May 24, 2011

The American Dream is a 30 minute animated film by Tad Lumpkin & Harold Uhl that shows you how you’ve been scammed by the most basic elements of our government system. All of us Americans strive for the American Dream, and this film shows you why your dream is getting farther and farther away.

ECB’s Balance Sheet Contains Massive Risks, including 480 billion euros of ABS loans

05/24/2011 12:46 PM

ECB’s Balance Sheet Contains Massive Risks

By Matthias Brendel and Christoph Pauly, DER SPIEGEL

While Europe is preoccupied with a possible restructuring of Greece’s debt, huge risks lurk elsewhere — in the balance sheet of the European Central Bank. The guardian of the single currency has taken on billions of euros worth of risky securities as collateral for loans to shore up the banks of struggling nations.

ECB has accumulated 365 billion euros of liabilities in Target2 system financing Greek current account deficit since 2007 etc

Hans-Werner Sinn] The ECB’s secret bailout strategy

2011-05-06 19:07

MUNICH ― Why did Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have to seek shelter under the European Union’s rescue umbrella, and why is Spain a potential candidate?

For many, the answer is obvious: international markets no longer want to finance the “PIGS.” But that is only half true. In fact, international markets have not financed any of them to a considerable extent for the past three years; the European Central Bank has. The so-called “Target” accounts, hitherto ignored by the media, show that the ECB has been much more involved in rescue operations than is commonly known.

So, whom do I sue over ECB’s rule violations?

So, whom do I sue?

By Andrew Lilico Economics Last updated: May 24th, 2011

 The Telegraph

Article 125 of the EU Treaty states:

The Union shall not be liable for or assume the commitments of central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of any Member State… A Member State shall not be liable for or assume the commitments of central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of another Member State