Germany is at last bowing to pressure as a chorus of countries and key institutions demand debt relief for Greece, a shift that could break the five-month stalemate and avert a potentially disastrous rupture of monetary union at this Sunday’s last-ditch summit.
In a highly significant move, the European Council has called on both sides to make major concessions, insisting that the creditor powers must do their part as the radical Syriza government puts forward a new raft of proposals on economic reforms before a deadline expires tonight.
It don't look like the central banks of the world can always manage to keep thing under control.
For a world so confident that central banks can solve almost all economic ills, the dramas unfolding in Greece and China are sobering.
"Whatever it takes," Mario Draghi's 2012 assertion about what the ECB would do to save the euro, best captures the all-powerful, self-aware central bank activism that's cosseted world markets since the banking and credit collapse hit eight years ago.
The Chines stock market is having a large correction. It fell 10% after it opened today before 1400 stocks was suspended from trading. This correction started in the middle of June and is still trending down.
China’s stock markets had previously been among the top-performing in the world, and had hit a seven-year peak in the middle of June. The Shanghai stock market had surged more than 150% in 12 months, but it has fallen 30% over the past three weeks – including a plunge of 12% last week.
This article is a good back ground as what lead to what is going on in the Euro. It is a very good read. There has been much going on that is not showing on the surface of this crisis. There is also a clear short history as to the rise of the current government.
Greece hit their breaking point a long time ago but now Germany has reached their breaking point.
According to MSM, Europe is in shock following the Greek "No" vote on Sunday. Euro has taken a fall in trading. Summits are being called to discus what is next.
To deal with the liquidly problems in the Greek banks;
“If necessary, we will issue parallel liquidity and California-style IOU’s, in an electronic form. We should have done it a week ago,” was the quote attributed to FinMin Yanis Varoufakis on Sunday, after the victorious “no” vote.
As I post this the Greeks are getting ready to vote. I mentioned in an other thread below that James Galbrath has been an informal adviser to Varoufakis. Here is an other article that came out at the end of the week by him. He politely calls them myths but they are really misinformation. It is a good read even if you disagree with him.
Well, it is official. Jim Webb is running for President. He threw his hat into the ring.
Webb adds a decidedly more conservative option for Democratic voters in a field in which former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton has tacked to the left under criticism from liberal former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
We don't often hear from James Kenneth Galbraith like we do with other economist. I read in the Boston Globe this morning that he has been in Europe as a informal consultant to the Finance Minister and Prime Minister of Greece.
This article is his inside look at what is going on and who to blame.
Tonight in Madison, Wisconsin, 10,000 to 13,000 people turned out to hear Bernie Sanders give his stump speech. So far this is the largest crowd that has turned out for any current presidential candidate. He has been packing them in and his campaign people have been changing venues to largest ones that is available on scheduled stops. They had to broadcast his speech outside of the building to the crowd out side that could not get in.
This little beauty is a Digbyana Orchid. This one dates back the the 17th century and originally came from Central America. It's name is Brassavoa nodosa Lady of the Night after a Italian Doctor, Antonio Musa Brassavoa. This is an original species but there are hybridized variations now. This one is one of the easiest orchids to grow. At night it has a lovely citrus smell almost like lime. That is why it's nick name is Lady of the Night. This plant is around 15 years old.
In her acceptance speech for the Barbara Jordan Gold Medallion For Leadership, given to her at Texas Southern University in Houston, Hillary Clinton doesn't mince words about the systematic suppression of voter rights in this country. She points out in detail the abuses in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and Florida. But she doesn't stop there, she calls out GOP candidates by name that as governors signed laws that made voting more difficult for citizens. As she names them, she makes it know just what they did sign into law that will hurt voters.
Romona and I had a discussion about old cookbooks on face book recently. This recipe was adapted from the cookbook that we were fondly remembering. I still have my worn out copy and one day my kids will get to throw it away. It the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. This edition was first published in 1953 until the late 1950's. I was a very popular cookbooks because it was full of step by step pictures on how to cook. I have owned other copies of this cookbook over the years but gave one each to my 2 oldest grandkids. I have a current copy but still love the one from the 1950's.
Roberts court had decided to take the case about who should be counted in a district for size. It has never been ruled upon whether a district should just count eligible voters equally among districts or should all be counted including immigrants and prisoners. If all is counted then that will move the power to the rural areas that are mostly older and conservative according to the author.
I am sure they will rule what ever keeps the GOP in power at the state and House levels. It is something to watch for.
Until recently, most presidential candidates have pretended that they aren’t beholden to the donors who finance their campaigns. For the 2016 race, however, the GOP’s candidates aren’t even hiding the fact that they want to be sold to the highest bidder. Their primary really is dominated by a handful of billionaires, with the candidates hoping to win all-important “auditions” with big-money funders like the Kochs and the Adelsons, who will collectively spend over $1 billion on the campaign.
I have had this recipe since high school and it came from McCall’s magazine. For a long time I used the clipping from the magazine until I started transferring my recipes to 4″ x 6″ cards and I added that it came from McCall’s. The magazine has been out of publication now for over a decade. But in its hay day it offered great recipes that anyone could make.
Robert Reich writes about our weak anti-trust laws and how it effects us.
Antitrust has been ambushed by the giant companies it was designed to contain.
Congress has squeezed the budgets of the antitrust division of the Justice Department and the bureau of competition of the Federal Trade Commission. Politically-powerful interests have squelched major investigations and lawsuits. Right-wing judges have stopped or shrunk the few cases that get through.
In any case, this really is a milestone. For a long time, one of the rocks of political analysis in America has been the simple fact that conservatives outnumber liberals. That's been true since at least the 60s, and probably for the entire postwar period—and it's been a perpetual millstone around Democratic necks. They couldn't win national elections just by getting the liberal vote and a little bit of the center-right vote. They had to get a lot of the center-right vote.
Let's hope we hear more about utilizing the post office for small savers. This is very doable and should be part of 2016 campaign. This would earn revenue to keep the post office solvent. They do this in other countries.
Romona and I had a discussion about old cookbooks on face book recently. This recipe was adapted from the cookbook that we were fondly remembering. I still have my worn out copy and one day my kids will get to throw it away. It the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. This edition was first published in 1953 until the late 1950's. I was a very popular cookbooks because it was full of step by step pictures on how to cook. I have owned other copies of this cookbook over the years but gave one each to my 2 oldest grandkids. I have a current copy but still love the one from the 1950's.