The European Shift PUBLIC to PRIVATE
Investment inside Europe has been shifting in very interesting ways. The pension funds have shifted their sovereign debt holdings to predominantly Germany, which now makes up about 71% of government debt holdings. We are also seeing a shift to private assets and as we illustrated at the Berlin conference, private assets in Greece looked like they would rise. Interestingly, banks NEVERget the economy right and ALWAYS lend wildly right into the highs and refuse to lend right into the lows.
Banks in Greece, have remained cautious and they have failed to support Greek businesses pretty much at all. American capital is just starting to arrive after years on the sidelines beginning the bottom picking process. The same is true in Spain, where there is good infrastructure in place and the last five years into this crisis has sent massive collapses in real estate values in particular again because of the mismanagement of banks.
The risk of the Eurozone breaking up on the horizon has most likely increased rather than diminished. What is emerging is a real economic divide between the North v South. The Eurozone remains crisis-plagued and there is no hope in sight of any recovery without structural reform. Economic growth remains anemic at best to outright NEGATIVE, and there is no hope of reversing the trend until the politicians are thrown out with their antiquated Marxist ideas which are simply as dead as Communism. The once mighty recession-proof Germany is now faltering because they too are stupid and cannot grasp that their austerity policies are creating a European Great Depression that will only reduce their productivity by reducing exports to the rest of Europe.
The huge problem Europe faces is an uprising of untold proportion that could be on the scales of the French Revolution. Youth unemployment is over 30%, 50%, and 55% in Italy, Greece, and Spain, respectively. Whatever future Europeans once had is gone. The youth are not buying the “socialism” and fail to see where raising taxes on the “rich” benefits them in any way when it simply destroys economic growth and jobs.
The shift in assets within Europe from PUBLIC to PRIVATE is underway. This is capital abandoning government as being simply brain-dead.
Justice Department Spies on Associated Press
This latest scandal that the Justice Department in fact secretly collected two months of telephone records for reporters and editors at the Associated Press, illustrates that there is just no rule of law. Attorney General Eric Holder has to recuse himself because he is part of the act.
People forget, but Holder was in charge of WACO under Janet Reno. They could have simply waited and arrested the leader who went to town all the time. No, Holder wanted to arrest everyone associated with him and that resulted in the death of all those children. Now, he is demonstrating again that whatever he wants to do, they just do. The Constitution is worthless. It restrains nobody and to enforce any pretended right you have, well it will cost a fortune since lawyers suck every penny out of people who are desperate. So between the Justice Department ignoring all rights and lawyers demanding a kidney to bring a suit they know they will lose against the Feds anyway, there is nothing really left worth cherishing.
There is no “free press” anymore. In my own case, on April 24, 2000, the court illegally threw the press out. ONLY the Associated Press entered despite the sign on the door that said the courtroom was closed. When I got there, the judge ordered the Marshals to interrogate every person in the room and see if any were from the press. Upon discovering the Associated Press reporter, she was told to “get out”. She walked right past everyone right up to the bench and looked at the judge square in his eye. She said “We are the associated press. You cannot through us out.” Judge Richard Owen raised his arm and yelled – this was “my courtroom” and he could do as he pleased despite the fact the constitution said everyone was entitled to a “PUBLIC TRIAL” which was obviously not going to take place when the court was protecting the NY Bankers. God help us if anyone ever reported the truth!
The AP reported that the hearing was closed and questioned if there would ever be a “fair trial” in NYC. The transcript was altered to remove anything that took place in this regard so the “official” record was changed to cover the whole thing up. The word quickly spread among the press. But the New York Times and Bloomberg News yielded to the requests of government. Neither one would report what took place or that the government alters the court documents to cover up its illegal activity in New York City. The AP wrote on 4/27/2000 reporting what took place despite the court transcript omits the events. It was not that I was “allowed” to represent myself, Judge Owen ruled civilly I was not entitled to lawyers nor the corporations and he was freezing all funds so no lawyers could be hired.
The latest targeting of the Associated Press seems to be largely because they do not yield or shut up as most of the other mainstream press seems to do. This is why real news is taking place on the internet and newspapers are in a slow death. This does not even take into consideration the Bloomberg Scandal where they are acting like the Department of Justice invading the privacy of their readers. The “mainstream” press will never be real again until (1) there is no income tax to be able to threaten reporters, and (2) they are free from corporate and government bias.