Tag Archives: Europe

Greek addicts turn to deadly shisha drug as economic crisis deepens | World news | guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 17, 2013 Comments Off

Nobody knows which came first: the economic crisis tearing Greece apart or shisha, the drug now known as the “cocaine of the poor”. What everyone does accept is that shisha is a killer. And at €2 or less a hit, it is one that has come to stalk Greece, the country long on the frontline of Europe‘s financial meltdown.

“As drugs go, it is the worst. It burns your insides, it makes you aggressive and ensures that you go totally mad,” said Maria, a former heroin addict. “But it is cheap and it is easy to get, and it is what everyone is doing.”

The drug crisis, brought to light in a new film by Vice.com, has put Athens’s health authorities, already overwhelmed by draconian cuts, under further strain.

Greek addicts turn to deadly shisha drug as economic crisis deepens | World news | guardian.co.uk

Watch this video about the effect of shisha on Greece. The video mentions that it can kill in months.

10 Scenes From The Economic Collapse That Is Sweeping Across The Planet

Posted by on May 14, 2013 Comments Off

When is the economic collapse going to happen?  Just open up your eyes and take a look around the globe.  The next wave of the economic collapse may not have reached Wall Street yet, but it is already deeply affecting billions of lives all over the planet.  Much of Europe has already descended into a deep economic depression, very disturbing economic data is coming out of the second and third largest economies on the globe (China and Japan), and in most of the world economic inequality is growing even though 80 percent of the global population already lives on less than $10 a day.  Just because the Dow has been setting brand new all-time records lately does not mean that everything is okay.  Remember, a bubble is always the biggest right before it bursts.  The next major wave of the economic collapse is already sweeping across Europe and Asia and it is going to devastate the United States as well.  I hope that you are ready.

The following are 10 scenes from the economic collapse that is sweeping across the planet…

10 Scenes From The Economic Collapse That Is Sweeping Across The Planet

What could cause the next financial crisis – CNN Money

Posted by on May 2, 2013 Comments Off

Too big to fail. Interest rates. Borrowing. Fire-sales. The Flash Crash. Risky loan deals. Libor. Cyber attacks. Europe. Japan. China.

Cattle plague was not on the list.

On Thursday, the super council of bank regulators created after the financial crisis put out a list of their best guesses as to what could cause the next financial crisis. The most surprising thing about the list: It’s length.

That alone should be enough to rattle your faith in Dodd-Frank, the set of banking regulations that were passed in 2010. Nearly three years later, the number of things that could blow up the financial system still seems way too high.

What could cause the next financial crisis – The Term Sheet: Fortune’s deals blogTerm Sheet

Europeans Are Thinking the Unthinkable: That Debt Defaults Might Make Sense | TIME.com

Posted by on April 24, 2013 Comments Off

The euro-zone crisis has slipped off the radar screen during the past couple of weeks as gun control and the Boston bombers have dominated U.S. news. But none of the euro zone’s problems have gone away. Political crises beset France, Italy and Spain. Smaller countries, from Portugal to Cyprus, face even more pressing financial troubles. Germany grows less and less willing to foot the bill for bailouts. And for the first time, serious public figures in Europe have begun openly discussing the pros and cons of allowing countries to default on their national debt.

There is, in fact, a historical case for tolerating default. …

Europeans Are Thinking the Unthinkable: That Debt Defaults Might Make Sense | TIME.com

China and the chaos theory of finance

Posted by on April 8, 2013 Comments Off

Will China have a financial crisis? And if so, would Chinese people be any worse off? The answers are not found in the country’s rapidly rising levels of debt, but in the potential for chaos when things go wrong. China is sliding further along the scale of chaotic financial systems, but is not yet in the danger zone.

Financial chaos might be described as the potential for one event to cause other unforeseeable ones. That might happen because of unexpected linkages. Or it might be because people respond to developments in unpredictable or irrational ways. It’s close to what investor George Soros has called ‘reflexivity’. In Soros’ eyes, thinking actors are fallible, and that makes them prone to inappropriate and destructive actions.

Analysis & Opinion | Reuters

China is more or less at an internal tipping point where a small event could push the country into a crisis. It is in a pre-collapse state just like Russia. Japan, Europe and the US are in a halted collapse state which effectively is the same as a pre-collapse state. It won’t take a lot to push them over the edge and into a financial crisis.

Art Cashin: It’s During Times Like These I Think About How World War I Started

Posted by on April 8, 2013 Comments Off

Here’s Cashin’s response to a question about what concerns him most:

“I’m still concerned about geopolitics.  Here in this business I have learned that the story which seems to be buried on page 13 can sometimes almost instantly rocket its way on to page 1, and rocket its way to everyone’s attention.  But perhaps the greatest concern I have, Eric, is that there is a kind of complacency.

There seems to be an almost palpable belief around the world that cooler heads will prevail.  Someone will step in and stop this from happening.  And while it happened even before I began my 50 year career, I’ve long been a student of history, both financial and geopolitical, and I think back to World War I when everyone on both sides knew that such a war would be unwinnable, would be distasteful, but managed to walk into it believing that logic would prevent the guy on the other side from making a fatal mistake.

So whether it is exercises in Korea or economic changes in Europe, the idea that rational men will prevent irrational crises doesn’t live up to world history.”    

ART CASHIN: I Think Back To World War I – Business Insider

Europe: Mosque Building Shifts into High Gear :: Gatestone Institute

Posted by on April 5, 2013 Comments Off

“In Spain there are signs that Islam will dominate once again.” — Hizrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Spiritual Leader, Ahmadiyya Community, Spain

From Belgium to Greece and Spain to Germany, 2013 is shaping up to be another banner year for the construction of mosques in Europe.

In Belgium, work is about to begin on the construction of a mega-mosque in Liège, the third-largest city in the country. The largest mosque in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of Belgium) will be built on an 11,000 m² (118,000 ft²) plot and will consist of a main building with a capacity for 1,000 worshippers, a library, a cafeteria and several shops.

Plans to build two 30 m (98 ft) minarets were scrapped after opposition from local residents. The new plan involves one 18 m (60 ft) minaret which will be automatically illuminated during calls to prayer.

Europe: Mosque Building Shifts into High Gear :: Gatestone Institute

Isn’t this another bad sign about the decline of Christianity? Europeans don’t even know enough to keep out Islam. Very sad. Too bad the US is following the same path.

China in danger of financial crisis – Business – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Posted by on April 1, 2013 Comments Off

A leading Asian investment bank has warned that a new financial crisis is emerging in China, as debt levels rise to unsustainable levels.

Debt in China is believed to be between 150 and 200 per cent of GDP, pushed up by easy monetary policy the government has used to foster economic growth.

Nomura’s chief economist Rob Subburaman says there is a real danger of China being engulfed in a financial crisis similar to what has happened in the United States and Europe.

“If it’s not dealt with this year and policies remain easy, I think it’s a significant risk,” he said.

China in danger of financial crisis – Business – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Forget Cyprus, Japan Is The Real Crisis – Forbes

Posted by on March 24, 2013 Comments Off

Forget Cyprus. A much bigger story in the coming weeks and months will be in Japan, where one of the greatest economic experiments in the modern era is about to begin. A country where government debt even dwarfs those of Europe’s crisis-ridden nations, Japan will attempt to inflate its way out of a 23-year deflationary spiral.

The overwhelming consensus among the world’s economists is that quantitative easing (QE) has saved the day in the U.S. and that Japan needs to follow suit, on a larger scale. I beg to differ and suggest this policy will almost certainly lead to a hyperinflationary disaster in Japan. If that’s right, it will have serious ramifications for other countries, dragged down by an acceleration of the so-called currency wars. More broadly though, it is likely to destroy the myth pushed by today’s economists that QE is a cure-all for downtrodden economies. It isn’t and Japan will become the template to prove it.

Forget Cyprus, Japan Is The Real Crisis – Forbes

U.S. Cancels Part of Missile Defense That Russia Opposed – NYTimes.com

Posted by on March 17, 2013 Comments Off

The United States has effectively canceled the final phase of a Europe-based missile defense system that was fiercely opposed by Russia and cited repeatedly by the Kremlin as a major obstacle to cooperation on nuclear arms reductions and other issues.

Russian officials here have so far declined to comment on the announcement, which was made in Washington on Friday by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel as part of a plan to deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors to counter North Korea. The cancellation of some European-based defenses will allow resources to be shifted to protect against North Korea.

U.S. Cancels Part of Missile Defense That Russia Opposed – NYTimes.com