Greek 'Aid' Is Really Enhanced Vendor Financing and Foreign Bank Bailouts

“They don’t want to kill us [the Greek people] but keep us down on our knees so we can keep paying them indefinitely.”

Eva Kyriadou

The similarity to the Icelandic situation is striking.  Greece must deal with the problem of decoupling from the Euro, but other than that the scenario seems fairly straightforward.

Greece needs to assert their independence, and have the will to make it 'stick.'

In the manner of 'mailing in their keys' on an underwater home and the burden of an outsized dodgy loan, the Greek people should consider mailing their eurozone membership back to the ECB and their friends in the Banks and Wall Street hedge funds c/o Berlin, and suggest that the conquest of their country might have to proceed by more conventional and overt means if they want to take the country's sovereign assets and income.

An investigation of all the debt deals would be a first rate idea, with plenty of public disclosure of the corruption and cronysim that was involved between public officials and the banks.

NYT
Athens No Longer Sees Most of Its Bailout Aid
By LIZ ALDERMAN and JACK EWING
May 29, 2012

PARIS — As Greek membership in the euro currency union hangs in the balance, it continues to receive billions of euros in emergency assistance from the so-called troika of lenders overseeing its bailout.

But almost none of the money is going to the Greek government to pay for vital public services. Instead, it is flowing directly back into the troika’s pockets.

And so, the €130 billion, or $162.2 billion, European bailout that was supposed to buy time for Greece is mainly only servicing the interest on the country’s debt — while the Greek economy continues to plummet.

If that seems to make little sense economically, it has a certain logic in the politics of euro-finance. After all, the money dispensed by the troika — the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union’s member governments — comes from European taxpayers, many of whom are increasingly wary of the political disarray that has beset Athens and clouded the future of the euro zone.

As they pay themselves, though, the troika is also withholding other funds earmarked for keeping the Greek government in operation...

Read the rest here.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Gold Chart Shows About 10,000 Contracts Dumped in Quiet Market

I felt this bear raid coming on the tape, from the action I was seeing. I cannot express it better than that.

So I had sold my silver bullion trading position and trimmed back gold, adding a hedge in the first hour of trade.

The hit came around mid-day after the European close as you can see on the 5 minute June futures chart.

One does not drop 11,000 contracts in a ten minute period in what might be called a reasonable trade.

The Dr. Evil Strategy and Some Targets

Will the CFTC investigate, asking the seller why perchance they did this? No, and that in itself speaks volumes.

But the solution is not to try and trade these scandalously under-regulated markets, but instead to hold long term investment positions, preferably as far away from Wall Street as is possible.

I had suggested last week that calls that the 'bottom was in' might be premature. It is in the established playbook to hit the futures hard at least once after an options expiration which we had last week.

The shorts are trapped, especially in silver, and they have powerful friends in the government and the media. There are some very worried people out there. Big things may be coming.

Swiss National Bank Considers Capital Controls

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - The Well Tempered Clavier

Geithner and Bernanke are playing a tune for us on the US equity futures markets, with the lead vocals coming from the SP 500 June contract.

Can you name that tune?

I do not think they can hit the high note without a serious bump of QE to sustain them. And Benny may provide it, if somewhat stealthily, mid month around the time of the Greek elections.

 

Barry Ritholtz Interview On the Financial Crisis from Capitalism Without Failure

Excellent interview as always by Barry, and an interesting list of suggested readings. His blog, The Big Picture, is among the best.

I would respectfully include ECONned by Yves Smith on the reading list. It adds a dimension of scholarship and detailed analysis found nowhere else.

Barry Ritholtz on the Crisis: Causes, Cures, Corptocracy, and Suggested Reading

When you get bit by a dog, you don’t just look at the dog, you have to look at the owner who is holding the leash.To me, a lot of the regulatory changes, and a lot of what the Federal Reserve did, stand on their own as a major factor. But if you’ve read David Hume, if you’ve studied the philosophy of causation, you have to look at what motivated those changes.

I have these debates with friends. One group blames everything on big government; the other group blames everything on big corporations. The sad news is that there’s really no difference between the two: Big government and big corporations work hand-in-hand. If you want to know who is the puppet and who is the puppet master, it sure looks like Wall Street has been pulling the strings of Congress for many, many, many years.

I remember the Dick Durbin quote, right in the middle of the crisis. He was astonished at all the bankers and bank lobbyists running around the halls of Congress, and said, “I can’t believe these guys – they act as if they own the place.” The fact is, it’s not an act – they do own the place...

Read the rest here.