EUROZONE PREPARES FOR MASSIVE JOLT: INSOLVENT BANKS SET TO TUMBLE

Janet Daley writing in the Telegraph expresses well the sense of apocalypse currently gripping the eurozone as insolvent banks and insolvent states come tumbling down.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/8770696/The-European-dream-lies-in-ruins.html

The stark figures of the bank balance sheets show why a bank crash is now inevitable and underline the urgent need to set up a new financial system by the end of the year or the beginning of next year at the latest.

If nothing is done to reset Europe’s financial button, the result could be an economic depression far worse than the 1930s as banks go bust and jobs are lost.

The 91 largest eurozone banks in the eurozone need about €4000 billion or four trillion euros to roll over their debt or funding in the next year alone , according to the FT.

The total GDP of the eurozone is about 12 trillion euros. That means, the largest banks need one third of the total GDP of the eurozone to remain solvent for just one more year.

Incredulity sweeps Germany on eve of financial meltdown

Ludwig Poullain, the former head of Westlb bank, said that only a satirist could call what the eurozone central bank is doing monetary policy, voicing the incredulity of many people in Germany as they watch the meltdown of their financial system and the destruction of their economy by the banks.

http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/banken/das-endet-mit-dem-grossen-knall/4590890.html

German government economics advisor Beatrice Weder di Mauro admitted yesterday on the Günther Jauch show that the government had no plan to deal with the crisis.

Financial crisis is the economic equivalent of war, says Cable

UK government minister Vince Cable says the financial crisis is the economic equivalent of war and tells the Guardian’s fringe event: “The whole existence of Europe is in jeopardy.”

Read more at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/8768046/Liberal-Democrats-Party-Conference-2011-live.html

Angela Merkel coalition suffers Berlin poll rout

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition suffered a painful blow in a regional election in Berlin on Sunday, early results showed, amid voter anger over the German leader’s handling of the eurozone debt crisis.

6:50AM BST 19 Sep 2011, The Telegraph

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) were beaten into second place in the poll, albeit with a slight rise in support compared to previous elections in 2006.

Read more at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/8772705/Angela-Merkel-coalition-suffers-Berlin-poll-rout.html

No EU economic government without a referendum in Germay, says judge

A constitutional court judge in Germany has said that any moves to install an EU economic government and fiscal union would need a referendum.

Read more in German: http://www.mmnews.de/index.php/politik/8538-richter-eu-wirtschaftsregierung-gegen-verfassung#13164309427502&if_height=9112

UK MPs call for referendum on “occupying force” EU

David Cameron must call a referendum on Europe or face a rebellion from his own party and a backlash from voters, a leading back-bench Tory warns today.

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor, The Telegraph

10:00PM BST 18 Sep 2011

Mark Pritchard, the secretary of the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, is the most senior Tory yet to demand a vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union following the eurozone crisis.

Read more at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8772588/Tory-MPs-demand-referendum-on-Europe.html

Greece slashes university funding by 90%

 University funding reduced by 90 percent

State funding for universities and technical colleges (TEIs) will be 90 percent lower than originally planned, the Education Ministry admitted Friday.

The institutions were due to receive a combined total of 144 million euros by the end of the year but this figure has been whittled down over the last few months as a result of constant adjustments to the national budget.

Read more at: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_16/09/2011_406796

IRELAND PROBES SWINE FLU JAB LINK TO NARCOLEPSY

A direct link between GSK’s Pandemrix swine flu vaccine — which contained an adjuvant banned in the UK and USA – and an increase in cases of narcolepsy in children has been confirmed in Finnland and in Sweden.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Report+confirms+link+between+swine+flu+vaccine+and+narcolepsy/1135269021444

 Now, the Irish health authorities are being forced to examine the link between the vaccine and narcolepsy following pressure from the parents of children who have been damaged by the jab, reports The Irish Times. 

SCANDAL: GREECE INFLATED DEBT IN 2009 TO GET BANKER BAILOUTS, SAYS PROFESSOR

The former head of Greece’s statistics authority has said an accounting trick was used to inflate Greek debt in 2009.

Greece’s excessive debt triggered the souvereign debt crisis and hundreds in billions of euros of banker bailouts in the form EU and IMF loans.

http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.politikh&id=310053

Professor  Zoe Georganta said that Eurostat, the European Commission body responsible for eurozone finance statistics led by Walter Radermacher, forced Greece to artificially inflate its public debt figures in 2009.

EFSF could make Germany liable for 465 billion euros: Ifo

 

BERLIN | Sat Sep 17, 2011 7:41am EDT

BERLIN (Reuters) – Amendments to the EFSF rescue fund, which the German parliament will vote on later this month, could push up Germany’s liability to 465 billion euros ($640 billion), according to a study by the country’s Ifo economics institute.

Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/17/us-germany-efsf-ifo-idUSTRE78G14M20110917