Wishing Greece Had Never Joined the Euro

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clipped from www.nytimes.com Now, as Greece’s E.U. partners prepare to bail out the debt-ridden country — the first time that the 16-nation euro zone has needed to rescue one of its members — many critics, inside and outside the country, are wishing that Mr. Papantoniou had lost his bet. Amid growing concern that the contagion could spread to countries along Europe’s southern tier and even infect the Continent’s banking system, Greece’s turbulent recent history suggests that the crisis is, in many ways, a peculiarly Greek tragedy. It is rooted in an ancient country’s epic profligacy and abetted by the hubris of European leaders whose desire for integration at any cost compelled them to allow political considerations to trump economic realities. But those in favor of expansion carried the day, arguing that linking countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal to European structures was the best means to modernize their fragile democracies.

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Weak sea walls blamed for France storm disaster

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Blame is being laid on weak and aged sea defences after violent storms left at least 50 dead and thousands homeless along France's Atlantic coast. Many died after the sea wall off the coastal town of L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer was breached, allowing 8m-high (26ft) waves to crash through the streets. A local governor said the walls dated back to the time of Napoleon and needed to be replaced with taller barriers. "It is a national disaster, a human drama with a terrible death toll," he said. "The urgent thing is to support the families who have members missing or dead." The Atlantic storm, named Xynthia, smashed into the western coasts of France, Portugal and Spain on Sunday, with torrential rain driven by winds of up to 140km/h (87mph). The storm has since swept north-eastwards into Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. and deaths have been reported in Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Germany.

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World's Central Banks Meet in Secret in Australia - Feb 09, 2010

clipped from www.gold-speculator.com Central banks meeting in secret it Australia... it sounds like The Creature From Jekyll Island all over again. Greece, Portugal and Spain et al on the brink. A stock market [the Dow] that wants to die. It appears that the central banks are watching their control of world financial and monetary events slip away... and are in a full panic mode. Then, and only then, will we find out which countries and their respective central banks have gold reserves of any kind... and how much they really have left. In the interim, things are going to get incredibly ugly. And, without doubt, the world's central banks will resort to anything to prevent 'all of the above' from happening. But it's way too late for that now. And, as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard said in his story from The Telegraph above... the crisis in Greece is now escalating into a "global margin call as confidence ebbs."

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