Capitalism on the brink: Moody's downgrades 16 Spanish banks

NEW YORK | Fri May 18, 2012 4:40am EDT

(Reuters) - Moody's Investor Service carried out a sweeping downgrade of 16 Spanish banks on Thursday, including Banco Santander, the euro zone's largest bank, citing a weak economy and the government's reduced ability to support troubled lenders.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/18/us-moodys-spain-banks-idUSBRE84G1GC20120518

James Cameron: Man, Machine and Beyond

by Salamander Fantômas and Eerie Crevice

It was a hundred years ago today that Muslim extremists steered the Titanic into an iceberg, thus ending the Belle Époque and setting into motion the gears that would drive gear-maker Gavrilo Princip mad and cause him to start shooting at Archdukes, which set into motion the bullet which set into motion The Great War, which set into motion Dada and Surrealism. So it is that André Breton owes a debt to James Cameron, without whose films there would be no war. It's simple Terminator logic.

Today, the world is rapidly approaching an important crossroads. On the one hand, Hollywood prostitution is at an all time high. On the other, politicians are running out of high quality cheese imported from Tobago.

What the world needs now more than ever is James Cameron in space. In recent news, Cameron, after several successful missions to Planet X, hinted at fronting a space mining company to outer space. Imagine Hollywood's mogul importing rocks and other valuables from his home planet, Neptune.. It could very well lead to many new advances in space and medicine, but of course the most important thing to remember is that Hollywood is quickly running out of interesting story lines. In an age of scarcity and over-population, it seems that movie-making is always the first to go and we urgently need to fill that void today.

So in that vein we offer these creative possibilities that might inspire some hope.

• James Cameron starring James Cameron, written and directed by James Cameron
• "James Cameron, You better not leave the door open to that spacecraft dear, says his wife"
• Earth Self-destructs, Mars Explodes, Have a Coke and a Smile (15 minute infomercial)
• James Cameron as Shrek in the new action thriller, Shrek Gets an Electric Poodle (Cameron frees the children but ultimately must kill them in order to save them from themselves.)
• James Cameron and Beyonce - All Up In These Stars, the floppy hip hop musical

Avatar II: First Blood

Avatar: Wallstreet III

James Cameron as Shrek

James Cameron-Lady Gaga clone

(Artist Renderings - click for larger images)

10 Signs The Economy Is Improving

The outlook is somewhat grim for these 10 companies

Anti-BP Protesters Make Cameo Appearance in Pro-BP Ad

Anti-BP Protesters Make Cameo Appearance in Pro-BP Ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hoOfIR4Vk1o

It might be lesson one of putting together any ad spot: scrub away anything that might make your company look bad. Especially if your company already looks bad.

But in its latest ad, which promotes the company’s continuing cleanup efforts after the Gulf Coast oil spill, BP apparently missed the shot that shows a group of anti-BP protesters picketing against the oil company.

(PHOTOS: The Oil Spill Zone, One Year Later)

The BP ad marks the company’s first presence on the airwaves since late 2010. The 60-second spot, airing nationally since December 26th, touts the company’s “ongoing commitment” to cleaning up the spill. But amid the gorgeous sunsets and wildlife images, the ad accidentally draws attention to a group of people expressing a complete opposite opinion. As BP’s External Relations Manager Iris Cross enthusiastically explains that many Gulf towns are having their “best tourism season in years,” the camera pans over the packed 40th Annual National Shrimp Festival, held each year in Gulf Shores, Ala.


COURTESY ALABAMASHRIMPFESTIVAL.COM
Protesters picket on the beach near the Annual National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala. held from Oct. 13-16, 2011.
And in the back of the shot, barely visible on the beach, is a throng of protesters. They make a two-second cameo, hardly visible in the wide-angle shot, but close-up pictures posted after the ad aired prove that the ant-sized figures (seen in the above video from 0:47-0:49) were indeed the Alabama Oil Spill Aftermath Coalition, who set up a tent and brought their banners to the Shrimp Festival to protest that not enough had been done to clean up the spill.

Naturally, when they saw cameras filming, they tried to insert themselves into the shot. “I, like the rest of the protestors, assumed they were media filming the crowds at the festival,” protest organizer Michele Harmon told the Houston Chronicle‘s FuelFix blog. BP has not yet commented nor has it changed or pulled the ad. Considering the hundreds of millions spent by BP on post-spill PR, this tiny slip-up is one rather large oversight.

WATCH: Lingering Worries About Health and Seafood in Louisiana

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/07/anti-bp-protesters-make-cameo-appearance-in-pro-bp-ad/#ixzz1ivWUuQo5

More cracks in the ice

Greece and Italian presidents step down while new governments are organized, the Eurozone looks to separate itself from other European countries, Germany positions itself as financial leader, today bank shutdowns are happening in Latvia and Lithuania. Are we seeing more cracks in an already thinning veneer of ice which separates the global economy from the inevitable: collapse? Meanwhile, as the MF Global scam reveals itself, JP Morgan is slapped with the biggest fine ever.

Hedge fund broker Ann Barnhardt, after shutting down her own firm BCM, says:

“I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not,” And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy."

"...I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses."

The derivatives market is valued at 1.2 quadrillion dollars. Putting that number in perspective, betelgeuse, the red giant star that is unimaginably larger than our sun, is 4 quadrillion miles away and appears in the night sky barely as a speck of starlight. The GDP of the US is 14 trillion dollars, its entire money supply is 15 trillion dollars,, while entire world GDP is 50 trillion. Does that sound over-inflated? Do pigs with dollar signs have wings?

In other news...

Last week Lithuania’s fifth largest bank, Snoras, was nationalised as Lithuanian authorities shut down the bank after it observed irregularities in the bank’s operations. This morning the Latvian authorities suspended the Latvijas Krajbanka (Latvian Savings Bank). Krajbanka is Latvia’s ninth largest bank.

We think the systemic risk from these events should be relatively limited if handled properly by the authorities. That said, the collapse of especially Snoras is not good news for the Lithuanian economy as it creates uncertainty about the economic outlook. In our view it is especially important that the nationalisation of Snoras is handled in such a way as to put minimal pressure on Lithuanian public finances that are in a precarious state as it is. A full nationalisation of Snoras in the sense of taking over all liabilities would be unwarranted.

Yesterday Lithuanian Prime Minister Kubilis said that the problems at Snoras might involve “shady financial transactions” (according to the news agency Reuters) and the case was more “complicated” than initially thought. Lithuanian central bank governor Vasiliauskas at a news conference said that “we thought it was a flu, but now it seems to be a small cancer”. These comments obviously give some reason for concern.
So far the market reaction in the local markets has been limited. Not surprisingly the share price of some of the small locally-owned banks in Lithuania has been under pressure. This morning there is also a bit of pressure on the Latvian lat and local rates and yields are up a bit.

Furthermore, last week when the news of Snoras’ collapse broke we saw an initial minor negative reaction in the Swedish krona, but since then there has not been any visible spillover to the Scandinavian FX and fixed income markets, where the euro debt crisis continues to dominate.http://www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/analysis-reports/flash-comment/2011/11/22/

According to Snoras, the bank is Lithuania’s fourth-largest by capital size and ranks fifth in terms of assets. The exact causes behind Snoras’s financial difficulties have not been made clear. The idea of a bank-run causes shivers in Latvia. In November 2008, it nationalized Parex, the Baltic state’s largest locally-owned bank, after depositors jittery about the country’s deepening economic crisis began withdrawing their cash. A month later, Latvia was forced to turn the EU and International Monetary Fund for a 7.5-billion-euro emergency loan package, which has been paid out in tranches amid one of the most draconian austerity drives in Europe. Latvia’s economy shrank by 18 percent in 2009, the deepest recession in the 27-nation EU, but has been recovering for a year. -Lativa Limits Bank Withdrawals On Lithuania Spillover Fears

Here's mud in your eye

Officer Lt. Pike merely wishes to maintain the status quo

An Internet Meme: Lt. Pike’s Rampage Continues Unabated