Donald Trump announced he is running for President and I could not be happier along with anyone else who writes or jokes or does both for a living. His 52 minute speech was filled with bon mots like Mexicans suck, he is super rich, and he will build a great wall and bill Mexico for it. Right. He has only a slightly better chance at becoming President than three others, Jindal, Graham and Fiorina, who have none. For those that saw this hilarity that has become our national shame, and proves that Citizen United has opened the door for this rule by oligarchy, Trump used Neil Young's Rocking in the Free World enter the room by escalator, a first. Young objected, saying he was a Bernie Sanders fan and Trump had no right to use the song. Trump responded by saying he had documentation that said otherwise, refused to show it, and then said he won't play the song again. Young owns all the rights to his own songs, thus the reason why they have never been used for commercial use, and has even written songs about that so the idea that he would sell Trump his song seems farfetched at best. Liar.
Speaking of liars, Hillary came out against the TPP sort of. She also said she was for it. She actually danced around the subject, seemingly to approve of the TPP, which many outlets said, but if you listened to what she actually said, as PBS news did, she didn't really answer the question. She was both for it and against it depending on the double speak she is known for, which is one of the reason people prefer Sanders over her. We remember that Obama was against NAFTA when he ran in 2008. Now he is the champion of the worst trade law in American history. Why would I think Hillary is any different?
NAFTA is an unmitigated disaster, hated in both Mexico and the US as it has made income inequality worse. Mexico has skyrocketed to the front of the line with the worst income inequality on Earth, and the US is third. Yeah, NAFTA worked wonders, for corporations that is. The new TPP law, if it somehow miraculously passes, would send pill prices soaring, as it was written by Big Pharma that way, cost millions of good jobs and increase work visas for foreign workers, something that saves companies an average of $40,000 per worker, and make this country subservient to corporations in a new fascist state. Obama was liar, so is Hillary and all of the GOP. Don't be fooled otherwise.
But all of that may be moot as the whole Greece about to implode thing is coming to pass. This is from Investmentwatch.com:
The Greek financial system is in the process of totally imploding, and the rest of Europe will soon follow. Neither the Greeks nor the Germans are willing to give in, and that means that there is very little chance that a debt deal is going to happen by the end of June. So that means that we will likely see a major Greek debt default and potentially even a Greek exit from the eurozone. At this point, credit default swaps on Greek debt have risen 456 percent in price since the beginning of this year, and the market has priced in a 75 percent chance that a Greek debt default will happen. Over the past month, the yield on two year Greek bonds has skyrocketed from 20 percent to more than 30 percent, and the Greek stock market has fallen by a total of 13 percent during the last three trading days alone. This is what a financial collapse looks like, and if Greece does leave the euro, we are going to see this kind of carnage happen all over Europe.
Officials over in Europe are now openly speaking of the need to prepare for a “state of emergency” now that negotiations have totally collapsed. At one time, it would have been unthinkable for Greece to leave the euro, but now it appears that this is precisely what will happen unless a miracle happens…
The one thing Donald Trump said yesterday that was correct was that our stock market is rigged and the last few days prove that. World stocks have plummeted in the past few days over Greek exit fears. Here the market went up a 113 points yesterday and up 43 so far today. Mind you volume is very low, indicating stock buybacks are the only reason for such a rise.
The thing that must be terrifying to the banks of the world though is this:
The radical wing of Greece’s Syriza party is to table plans over coming days for an Icelandic-style default and a nationalisation of the Greek banking system, deeming it pointless to continue talks with Europe’s creditor powers.
Syriza sources say measures being drafted include capital controls and the establishment of a sovereign central bank able to stand behind a new financial system. While some form of dual currency might be possible in theory, such a structure would be incompatible with euro membership and would imply a rapid return to the drachma.
The confidential plans were circulating over the weekend and have the backing of 30 MPs from the Aristeri Platforma or ‘Left Platform’, as well as other hard-line groupings in Syriza’s spectrum. It is understood that the nationalist ANEL party in the ruling coalition is also willing to force a rupture with creditors, if need be.
If they do go the Icelandic route and have it succeed again, people from around the globe are going to demand the same and if banks put their foot down and say no, especially if the TPP passes, pitchforks and torches will come next. So what is the problem? This:
Of course if there is a Greek debt default and Greece does leave the euro, it won’t just be Greece that pays the price.
As I have written about previously, there are tens of trillions of dollars in derivatives that are directly tied to currency exchange rates and 505 trillion dollarsin derivatives that are directly tied to interest rates. A “Grexit” would cause the euro to drop like a rock and interest rates all over the continent would start to go crazy. The financial chaos that a “Grexit” would cause should not be underestimated.
And there are signs that some of Europe’s biggest banks are already on the verge of collapse. For example, just consider what has been going on at the biggest bank in Germany. Both of the co-CEOs at Deutsche Bank recently resigned, and it is increasingly looking as if it could soon become Europe’s version of Lehman Brothers.
A major financial crisis could be headed our way because we have taken this path for so long there may be no way out. The IMF recently put a report that said trickle down economics don't work and increase wealth inequality. Yet, they continue to follow these same failed policies. That is a recipe for disaster when you do things that are destined to fail and continue to do them anyway. The Greek exit could be Lehman Brothers on steroids. Prepare for an economic tsunami should this go south quick.
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