Central Perk

luni, 21 ianuarie 2013

The Best Way to Watch Inauguration 2013

Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, January 21, 2013

The Best Way to Watch Inauguration 2013

Visit WhiteHouse.gov/Inauguration today to watch President Obama be sworn in for his second term. While the ceremonies start just after 11:00 a.m. EST, start watching early for behind-the-scenes looks at today's festivities and a look back at the Administration's work over the past four years.

Be part of history -- watch today's ceremonies on WhiteHouse.gov/Inauguration.

Seth's Blog : Exactly the same vs. exactly different

Exactly the same vs. exactly different

You will almost never find a case study or lesson that precisely fits the problem you're aiming to solve. You won't find a book that shows you what someone precisely like you did to solve a problem precisely like this one.

The search for the exact case study or the exact prescription is the work of the resistance, a clever way to stay safe, to protect yourself from your boss or your self-talk. If you wait for the perfect map before departing on your journey, you'll never have to leave.

It's also true, though, that you have never once had to solve a problem that is exactly different from what's gone down before. We'd like to romanticize our problems as unique, as the one and only perfectly difficult situation that is the result of a confluence of unrepeatable, unique causes.

Your problem is your problem, and it is like no other. But it's close enough to those that came before, close enough to the ones you've studied, that it probably pays to stop stalling and take the leap.

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duminică, 20 ianuarie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Crisis in Madrid Update; Plan "A" is Sgt. Schultz Defense, No Plan "B" Yet

Posted: 20 Jan 2013 03:53 PM PST

As noted on Saturday Massive Fraud in Spain Threatens Entire Government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy; Protestors in Madrid Shout "Resignation".

A wave of new articles has appeared, mostly from Spain, but a few this time in English.

Envelopes Stuffed With Cash

El Pais in English reports Former PP treasurer "handed out envelopes with cash" to party officials

Despite strenuous efforts by the ruling Popular Party (PP) to distance itself from Luis Bárcenas, who is in trouble with the law over corruption allegations, the party's former treasurer continues to maintain an office in the PP headquarters in Madrid even after having left the group, party sources said Friday.

Bárcenas is implicated in the Gürtel kickbacks-for-contracts scandal, which first broke in 2008. Under an ongoing investigation into the corruption ring, it emerged earlier this week that Bárcenas had a bank account in Switzerland in which he had deposited as much as 22 million euros. He also took advantage of a tax amnesty in place last year to declare 10 million euros, which had previously been kept hidden from the tax authorities.

The PP sources said that despite stepping down as a senator and leaving the party in April 2010, Bárcenas has continued to appear in its Madrid headquarters, seeking help from PP officials to find a solution to the legal quagmire in which he finds himself. He was last seen in the building – located in Génova Street in the center of Madrid – as recently as Wednesday of this week.

Bárcenas, who was treasurer of the PP for 20 years, faces possible charges of money-laundering and tax evasion.

The sources said he still has a secretary in the building, who is on the payroll of the PP, and who makes telephone calls in his name as if he were still in the employ of the party.

Socialist Party to Lodge Criminal Complaint

El Pais in English reports Socialist Party to lodge criminal complaint over illicit PP bonuses.

Socialist Party leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba announced on Sunday that his opposition group will file a criminal complaint before the High Court asking for an investigation into the alleged payments of bonuses from secret accounts held by the Popular Party (PP) to its officials.

In the wake of the discovery that the PP's former treasurer, Luis Bárcenas, had 22 million euros in a Swiss account, Rubalcaba also said that he will call for a parliamentary investigation into the matter and demanded that both Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro appear before Congress.

For her part, PP secretary general María Dolores de Cospedal on Sunday went on the counterattack against the Socialists, saying that many past politicians in Castilla-La Mancha, when it was governed by the opposition party, made a lot of money then.

The scandal inside the party is expected to come to a head on Monday when Rajoy presides over the PP national executive committee meeting.

Counterattack

Got that?

The counterattack by the PP Secretary General is a claim the opposition party was equally fraudulent.

That's a charge I easily believe. Moreover, here is some supporting evidence.

Corruption allegations Surround Catalan Pujol Clan

From El Pais, also in English, Corruption allegations surround Catalan Pujol clan.

After many years of scrutiny and investigations, the Pujol-Ferrusola family of Catalonia — whose patriarch is a former regional premier and one of the region's biggest political powerbrokers — has always been able to escape when allegations of impropriety and corruption have surfaced.

"For many years they have looked into my affairs and photographed everything but have never been able to pin anything on me," said Jordi Pujol, the former leader of CDC, part of the CiU nationalist bloc, back in 1995.

But now, after a police report surfaced late last year suggesting that Pujol and his family may have secret Swiss bank accounts, along with the current premier and CiU leader, Artur Mas, investigators have taken a wider look at his sons' activities.

On Thursday, the former girlfriend of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola testified before the High Court that she had helped him transport bags of 500 euro notes across the border into Andorra in the trunk of his car.

Bid rigging

Oriol Pujol, one of seven sons and the current secretary general of the CDC, is also being targeted in an ongoing investigation into bid fixing for ITV vehicle inspection stations in Catalonia. Last September, Barcelona Judge Silvia López Mejía wrote in a ruling that there were "rational indications" that Pujol had played a key part in the conspiracy.

The elder Pujol said these allegations against him and his family "are hurting the country."

Jordi Pujol Ferrusola also reportedly received some lucrative contracts from the regional government. The first in 1991, when Natural Stone, a firm that specialized in quarry rock, won a 600,000-euro contract to supply marble for the floors at Barcelona's El Prat airport. Pujol Ferrusola and his then wife Mercè Gironés, were respectively vice president and administrator at an affiliate, Natural Stone Marketing Centre.

Rajoy Implicated

Why stop there? Translated from El Pais in Spanish, please consider Accusations Unleash Gale.

In a particularly sensitive time for the government of Mariano Rajoy, after a year of deep cuts in spending on essential public services and many promises of austerity and transparency to improve the image of politicians, research advances Gürtel case , with discovery of secret accounts extesorero of this training have been a blow to the credibility of the PP.

In a particularly sensitive time for the government of Mariano Rajoy, after a year of deep cuts in spending on essential public services and many promises of austerity and transparency to improve the image of politicians, research advances Gürtel case , with discovery of secret accounts extesorero of this training have been a blow to the credibility of the PP.

The list of recipients of the alleged secret bonuses is opaque.

The treasury of the party, according to the environment and Lapuerta Barcenas, kept a list of the perceiver jealous of those amounts, which had two seats always fixed as beneficiaries of accessories: the president and the secretary general of the party. Sometimes benefited charges unrelated to those posts. Francisco Alvarez-Cascos, Angel Acebes and Javier Arenas, general exsecretarios PP, denied having received the supplement in its early or have known.

In defense of Rajoy, party supplies contributed several data: "Rajoy is a man of law, property registrar, and does not require or accept an envelope of money monthly. Moreover, Rajoy has been secretary of electoral action and never met with Correa. Maybe four party gulfs have maintained such practices or have been money, but not the current president and the current secretary general. "

Rajoy Silent, No Plan B

El Pais in Spanish reports Rajoy Silent, No Plan B.

"We have no plan B," admits a minister for the scandals are ruining his political agenda and his speech, with no reaction. On Friday, the ministers discussed among themselves, before and after the Council, the revelations about Barcenas , some moved to other of its decision to deny they had taken, but the meeting proceeded as if nothing had happened. Rajoy did not say anything.

In a particularly difficult translation to follow, El Pais reports The 'case Barcenas' reopens the war in the PP

Several national leaders of the PP have told this newspaper, on this line, that this should be seen as a move by a desperate former treasurer to blackmail Rajoy at a particularly sensitive time for his legal situation.

Rajoy yesterday launched several clear messages and outright refusal to [discuss] the former treasurer's performance.

PP leaders are considering the option of having this operation is part of a move to the highest level possible to try to defuse bombs that Barcenas has in his possession, a controlled explosion that saves Cospedal splash [Maria Dolores de Cospedal is the PP general secretary], presented both as ignorant of the illegal actions of Barcenas and, of course, as that stopped as soon as they knew.

Cospedal , in several radio interviews, stressed these days clear that she did not consisted payments and illegal financing stage. In that line impacted when on Friday, at a meeting of the PP in Almería, warned that such complaints before, "each must hold your candle stick". These statements have not sit well in the environments of the previous general secretaries, with whom Cospedal not maintain good tune. And no doubt the close confidence remains Cospedal Rajoy, so its performance is understood by its interest in protecting his head and let his image clean.

Sgt. Schultz Defense

Clearly Plan A is "I See Nothing, I hear Nothing, I Know Nothing". I have a couple of tributes in honor of the Sgt. Schultz Defense.

"I See Nothing"

I see nothing, I was not here, I did not even get up this morning"

link if Youtube video does not play: I see Nothing

"I Know Nothing"

I have no idea whether or not this defense will work. However, a massive effort by Rajoy's administration to sweep this all under the rug using the Sgt. Schultz defense is clearly underway.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Greece Law-and-Order Problem Escalates; Bomb Explodes at Athens Mall; AK-47 Shots Hit Ruling Party Headquarters; Worst Not Over

Posted: 20 Jan 2013 01:24 PM PST

Since December, radical groups staged coordinated arson attacks at the homes of five Greek journalists and fire-bombed the brother of a government spokesman.

Six days ago, nine shots hit the New Democracy party office, one of them in an office occasionally used by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

In a disturbing trend of increasing violence, a Bomb exploded at Athens mall earlier today.

A homemade bomb exploded inside a suburban Athens shopping mall on Sunday, slightly injuring two security guards as they checked that the three-story building had been fully evacuated.

The device, placed near a moving staircase and a bank ATM on the first floor, caused only moderate damage, a police official said.

"This homemade bomb did not only target a specific building. It took aim at democratic stability, social peace and prospects for economic recovery," the citizens' protection ministry said in a statement reflecting concerns that the same self-styled anarchist and far-left groups, held responsible for violence at anti-bailout demonstrations, were behind the latest wave of attacks.

A hooded gunman fired nine bullets from an AK47 assault weapon into the New Democracy headquarters in the early hours last Monday. One landed in the office formerly used by the party leader Antonis Samaras, now prime minister. In other incidents, small devices using gas canisters were placed outside building entrances, timed to explode late at night.

Nikos Dendias, the citizens' protection minister, said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that a revival of attacks against business and political targets had been expected since November, when the governing coalition agreed a new austerity package with the EU and International Monetary Fund. "Until now they have been isolated attacks, mainly symbolic," Mr Dendias said.

Shots Hit Ruling Party Headquarters, Journalists Also Targeted

The Wall Street Journal reports Shots Hit Offices of Ruling Party in Athens

Unidentified gunmen fired shots at the offices of Greece's ruling conservative party early Monday, police said. There were no injuries and only minor property damage, but the action follows a series of arson attacks in recent days against journalists and others that police say bear a resemblance to past strikes claimed by radical Greek leftist groups.

One of the shots fired, from a semiautomatic rifle, pierced the window of an office occasionally used by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, head of the center-right New Democracy party.

The attack comes as Greek authorities move to crack down on self-styled anarchists. In the past few weeks, the coalition government, dominated by New Democracy, has been trying to assert its authority on the streets of Athens as it struggles with worsening law-and-order problems in the Greek capital.

In December, police cleared out a building known as the Villa Amalia where anarchist groups had been squatting for 22 years. Police said the building served as a staging ground for the violent demonstrations that have repeatedly rocked Athens since the start of its debt crisis three years ago.

Since then, unknown groups staged coordinated arson attacks at the homes of five Greek journalists last week, while there was another fire-bomb attack on Sunday at the home of the brother of government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou.

Euro Leaders Declare "Worst of Crisis is Over"

A week ago Bloomberg reported Euro Leaders Declaring Worst Is Over Turn to Economy Woes.

European leaders declaring they've gained the upper hand in the three-year-old debt crisis are sharpening efforts to channel a rebound in financial markets to an economic recovery to chip away at soaring unemployment.

Even as euro-area chiefs call for more time to lock in a bailout package for Cyprus and elections loom next month in Italy, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Jan. 11 that the single currency is "over the worst of the crisis."

Draghi cited "positive contagion" in European markets after the ECB's Governing Council left the central bank's benchmark interest rate at 0.75 percent, holding its fire amid signs that the debt crisis is waning. Monetary policy makers have opted to rely on an unconventional policy arsenal such as the ECB's pledge to buy unlimited amounts of sovereign debt.

Draghi told reporters in Frankfurt last week that "a gradual recovery should start" in late 2013, during which Standard & Poor's has said Ireland and Portugal could return to the markets after their bailout programs expire.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads euro finance ministers, also signaled the improved mood, saying "the worst is probably over, but what we still have to do is difficult."

Heard This "Worst is Over" Nonsense Before

We've heard this nonsense before. I did a search for "worst is over euro" and turned up a stunning number of links, some going all the way back to 2009.

Rather than compile my own list, please consider a chronology of statements compiled by David Lizoain for the Social Euro Journal.

Chronology of Statements

I am quite certain there are dozens of other equally senseless statements to add to the list.

Worst Not Over

Every time there is temporary stabilization of bond rates, a whole slew of nannycrats proclaim "the worst is over".

I see escalating firebombs, arson, and near-anarchy in Greece, coupled with 26% unemployment in Greece and Spain, over 56% youth unemployment in both countries, and major problems in Italy, and France.

Moreover, a constitutional crisis is underway in Spain, and Massive Fraud in Spain Threatens Entire Government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as Protestors in Madrid Shout "Resignation".

With every tick up in unemployment adding powder to the keg, I wonder how much worse things get before the powder keg blows sky high.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

SEO Blog

Top 10 Free Android Apps in Google Play Store for 2013

Posted: 20 Jan 2013 12:25 AM PST

Google Play Store, in the past well-known as the Android Market, is a digital application supply platform for Android Apps developed and managed by Google. Google play let users to browse and download applications free or for a particular cost. The Best 'Free' Android Apps in the Google Play Store...
Read more »

Seth's Blog : Interesting?

Interesting?

Is it interesting because it happened...

or because it happened to you?

If George Clooney sits next to you at a restaurant, that's interesting to you, no doubt, but only interesting to your friends because you're so excited. I mean, he had to sit next to someone!

Should we read your press release or come to your gallery opening or take a sales meeting because it's important, or because it's important to you?

Marketing is the art of seeing (and then creating) what might be interesting to more than our friends.

There's a circle of friends in our lives that care a lot about what we care about. The rest of the world? They mostly don't.

[Feel free to insert "important" and "urgent" as well. ]

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sâmbătă, 19 ianuarie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Yen has Longest Stretch of Weekly Losses Since 1989; Shorts Decrease Bets; Lovin' Deflation
Federal Court of Appeals Upholds Stripping of Collective Bargaining Rights of Public Unions; Union-Busting is a Godsend
Massive Fraud in Spain Threatens Entire Government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy; Protestors in Madrid Shout "Resignation"

Yen has Longest Stretch of Weekly Losses Since 1989; Shorts Decrease Bets; Lovin' Deflation

Posted: 19 Jan 2013 06:42 PM PST

Lovin' Deflation

Once again the spotlight is on the Yen. Please consider Japan Learned to Love Deflation in Wage Malaise Facing BOJ

A decade and a half after Japan slumped into deflation, the central bank is set to signal its strongest effort yet to reverse the trend. The biggest challenge may be that the nation has come to rely on falling prices.

More than 80 percent of respondents in a Bank of Japan survey released this month who noticed rising prices last year said it was bad. More than a third of those who said prices fell were happy about it. Even so, the BOJ next week will adopt the government's desired 2 percent inflation target, according to 21 of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Japan last had 2 percent annual inflation in 1997, when Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled the Prius hybrid and the yen sank as as low as 130 per dollar. Prices have fallen in 10 of 15 years since, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While deflation helps savers, younger generations are hit by stagnant wages and diminished incentives for borrowing.

Increased Debt Not Solution to Global Problems

It's a world gone mad when central banks act as if increased debt is the answer to every problem. Japan has had increased national debt for over two decades and they certainly are not better off because of it.

80% in the survey are against higher prices. Who doesn't like a bargain?

The problem is not falling wage. The problem is falling wages when one is loaded up in debt. The 80% are correct, the bank of Japan and the Japanese government are wrong.

Longest Stretch of Weekly Losses Since 1989; Shorts Decrease Bets

Bloomberg reports Yen Slides to Lowest Since 2010 Amid Bets on BOJ; Euro Advances

The yen weakened beyond 90 to the dollar for the first time in 31 months amid speculation the currency will slide further as the Bank of Japan and the government work aggressively to spur economic growth.

The Japanese currency continued its longest stretch of weekly losses since 1989 amid bets the BOJ will decide to conduct open-ended asset buying to stoke inflation. The central bank meets Jan. 21-22.

"The open-ended thing is a little bit of a new twist to the policy easing we're expecting from Japan, and it's started to gain traction," Omer Esiner, chief market analyst in Washington at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange Inc., a currency brokerage, said in a telephone interview. "That's what I'm attributing the latest leg lower in the yen to. The market is starting to fine-tune its expectations as to what we'll see from policy makers over there."

Currency Bets

Futures traders trimmed for a fifth straight week their bets that the yen will decline against the U.S. dollar, figures from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. The difference in the number of wagers by hedge funds and other large speculators on a decline in the yen compared with those on a gain -- so-called net shorts -- was 65,727 on Jan. 15, versus net shorts of 74,096 a week earlier.

Speculators reversed their euro bets for a third week, wagering the shared currency will rise against the U.S. dollar. Net longs totaled 7,315 on Jan. 15, versus net shorts of 8,035 a week earlier and net longs of 5,126 the week before that.

Complacency in Face of Falling Values

It is certainly interesting to note that shorts have decreased bets on the falling Yen for a fifth week.

Frequently (and wrongly) traders increase bets and leverage when trades are going their direction.

If anti-yen sentiment is unwinding in the face of this continued drop, that can easily be a sign the Yen is still not ready for a bounce.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Federal Court of Appeals Upholds Stripping of Collective Bargaining Rights of Public Unions; Union-Busting is a Godsend

Posted: 19 Jan 2013 08:26 AM PST

Those looking for excellent news in the midst of a clearly-souring global economy can find it in Wisconsin.

I am pleased to report Federal appeals court upholds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's restrictions on public unions

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's contentious law stripping most public workers of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights in a decision hailed by Republicans but not undoing a state court ruling keeping much of the law from being in effect.

The decision marks the latest twist in a two-year battle over the law that Walker proposed in February 2011 and passed a month later despite massive protests and Senate Democrats leaving for Illinois in a failed attempt to block a vote on the measure.

The law forced public union members to pay more for health insurance and pension benefits, which Walker said was needed to address a budget shortfall. It also took away nearly all their bargaining rights.

Walker and Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who fought for passage of the bill, called the ruling a win for Wisconsin taxpayers.

"As we've said all along, Act 10 is constitutional," Walker said in a statement, referring to the law's official designation.

While Friday's 2-1 ruling by a panel of the 7th Circuit could influence the state appeals court and others hearing the cases, it's not binding, said Paul Secunda, a Marquette University law professor. It certainly doesn't signal the end of the legal fights, he said, and it could be appealed to the full federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The public unions will fight until every one of their arguments are considered in full," Secunda predicted.

The law in question prohibits most public employees from collectively bargaining on anything except wages. It also requires public unions to hold an annual election to see whether members want the organization to continue to exist, and it bars unions from automatically withdrawing dues from members' paychecks.

Walker specifically exempted public safety unions from the law's effects, however. He said he didn't want to risk police and firefighters going on strike in protest of the law's provisions.

The appeals court upheld the law in its entirety Friday. The judges said the state was free to draw a line between public safety and other unions. The state had a rational basis to protect the public safety unions and the law didn't explicitly discriminate against other public worker unions based on their political leanings, the court said.

"Distinguishing between public safety unions and general employee unions may have been a poor choice, but it is not unconstitutional," the opinion said.

Poor Choice Indeed

Let's review that last sentence above "Distinguishing between public safety unions and general employee unions may have been a poor choice, but it is not unconstitutional," the opinion said.

I agree. It was a poor choice to exclude public workers.

The way to rectify that poor choice is to pass another law, including public safety workers as well.

I strongly endorse ending all collective bargaining "rights" of public unions.

No "Right" to Collective Bargaining

For starters there is no "right" to collective bargaining. I made the case at the height of the Wisconsin battle on March 21, 2011 in Collective Bargaining neither a Privilege nor a Right

The battle cry from Wisconsin is a union complaint that their "right" to collective bargaining has been taken away. Nothing could be further from the truth. You cannot take away something that does not exist and never did.

Please consider this simple sentence straight from the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Public unions take away those "unalienable rights" via collective bargaining arrangements.

Five Ways Collective Bargaining Tramples Various Unalienable Rights

Collective bargaining agreements take away the right of individuals to pursue a career of their dreams void of union affiliation

Collective bargaining agreements force individuals into organizations against the free will of those members

Collective bargaining agreements force union dues out of members who do not even want to belong

Collective bargaining agreements dictate what members can and cannot do with their free time.

Collective bargaining agreements even dictate what non-members can and cannot do with their free time!

I list examples for those five points in my article. Collective bargaining is no bargain for anyone. It is a curse on taxpayers. FDR agrees.

Inquiring minds are reading snips from a Letter from FDR Regarding Collective Bargaining of Public Unions written August 16, 1937.

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.

The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations.

Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees.

A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.

The biggest socialist president in the history of the US even agrees there is no place for collective bargaining of public unions, and he states the case very well.

Anyone who reads that logical explanation by FDR and disagrees, is a member of a union, has a family member in a union, or simply has a non-functioning mind.

I call on governor Scott Walker to rectify the law as passed. Excluding public safety workers was a bad idea, and he knows it.

So why did he do it?

He barely won the first election (winning the recall by much more) and probably would not have won if he took on all the unions at once.

For more on public union slavery, coercion, bribery, and scapegoating please see ...

Union-Busting is a Godsend

Actual Wisconsin results prove Union-Busting is a "Godsend"; Elimination of Collective Bargaining is the Single Best Thing one Can do for School Kids

It's time to implement national right-to-work laws and put an end to public union collective bargaining nationally.

I salute governor Scott Walker for leading the way. Now he needs to follow through.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Massive Fraud in Spain Threatens Entire Government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy; Protestors in Madrid Shout "Resignation"

Posted: 19 Jan 2013 12:26 AM PST

I am piecing together a story of fraud and corruption involving the highest levels of Spanish government. My unnamed sources think it could bring down Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

However, the news articles I have (primarily in Spanish) are particularly choppy.

The brief background story is "black money" (under the table fraud or bribes) was paid monthly to top Partido Popular (PP) party leaders.

PP is the party of prime minister Rajoy. Amounts ranged from 5,000 to 15,000 euros per month, between executive secretaries, public officials and other members of the PP. Top party officials were aware of, approved, or were part of the scheme.

Ex-Treasurer Hides €22 million in Swiss Account

Starting with an article in English, the Irish Times reports Ex-treasurer of Spain's PP had €22m in Swiss bank

The beleaguered government of Mariano Rajoy has been embarrassed by revelations that its party's former treasurer had a bank account in Switzerland containing up to €22 million.

Luis Bárcenas held the treasury post in the conservative Partido Popular (PP) from 2008 until 2009, when he resigned because of an investigation into his part in a massive fraud network. He stepped down from the party in 2010. The inquiry into that case continues and information a Spanish judge has requested from Swiss authorities shows details of an account held under the politician's name which coincides with the time he was managing the PP's finances.

The PP's deputy leader, María Dolores de Cospedal, hinted yesterday at the concern within the party's leadership. "Of course this will cause outrage, how can it not? I'm outraged by it," she said. However, she sought to distant the government from Mr Bárcenas by highlighting that he was no longer in the PP.

Tax evasion

In a further revelation about Mr Bárcenas's finances, his lawyer, Alfonso Trallero, yesterday said he had declared €10 million last year as part of a controversial tax amnesty introduced by the Rajoy government. The amnesty meant tax evaders could declare hidden assets and pay only a 10 per cent fine. PP spokesman Carlos Floriano said more details need to emerge to ensure justice is done.

Tip of the Iceberg

That story is just the tip of the iceberg

El Economista reports "Black money bonuses paid to the dome of the PP during the last twenty years". I presume "dome" means top.

Luis Barcenas [former treasurer] would have paid bonuses to black money from the dome of the Partido Popular (PP) for years, as published by the daily El Mundo quoted "five reliable sources" of successive addresses match. The extesorero, that information is distributed on every month with amounts ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 euros between executive secretaries, public officials and other members of the PP unit.

The newspaper [El Mundo] cited information notes that Rajoy took the supplements and never from 2009 Cospedal told I should put an end to a practice that had been common for 20 years. Would mean that the highest levels of PP and all officials who have passed through the address in the last two déccadas were aware of what was happening. therefore the action of the president of Castilla-La Mancha have been a turning point in the case of double pay within party.

Protestors in Madrid Shout "Resignation"

El Pais reports A thousand people are concentrated along the PP headquarters in Madrid

About 1,000 people, divided into two groups, are concentrated from seven in the evening in the vicinity of the PP headquarters in Madrid Genoa Street, protesting political corruption, with a heavy police presence.

The congregation can not approach the PP headquarters as police installed a double security fence two hundred yards, at the confluence of Genoa Street Alonso Martinez Square and the Plaza de Colón.

From there, protesters shout slogans as "Resignation, resignation", "There's the cave of Ali Baba" or "In the envelopes you pay extra"

The concentration has been summoned through social networks emerged yesterday and motivated by news accounts in Switzerland the PP extesorero, Luis Barcenas. "Where is the money, ask the treasurer" and "Where are the sausages PP" are some of the slogans the protesters throwing both the group gathers in the Plaza de Alonso Martinez, as it is formed in the Plaza de Colón. There have been no incidents.

The demonstrators were watched by large numbers of riot police have been deployed in the area at least 35 police vans. The concentration has not been officially communicated to the Government Delegation in Madrid, which considers "illegal" the call and has stated that participants can be identified and punished.

Among the protesters were people of disparate ages for almost three hours in protest showed his anger with shouts like "Government resign" and "shame." Three high school teachers, who wore badges with the slogan 'in defense of public education', say Friday at this time go to the movies but when he learned of the announcement by Facebook, decided to change the plan. "We can not more. Require sacrificing basic rights while spread corruption money in envelopes. It's the last straw, "said one of them irritated.

Powder-Keg Potential

As protests go, 1,000 is not much of a protest. However, one never knows when the tipping point is reached.

Arguably, the most likely outcome is this will all be swept under the rug with everyone turning their heads the other way, perhaps with prosecution of a few token officials.

Then again, perhaps this turns into something far more significant. It should.

Regardless, if not now, it's bound to happen. Spanish unemployment is 26.6%. Youth unemployment in Spain is an amazing 56.6%

It will not take much of a spark to set things off.

There is also a powder-keg and constitutional crisis in Spain's Catalonia region to consider (see Catalonia Drafts Declaration of Sovereignty, Announces Vote of Independence, Seeks Self-Determination in 2014)

Eventually the lid off the pressure cooker in Spain is going to blow sky-high. Whether or not this story is the spark remains to be seen.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Damn Cool Pics

The Production Line of Sight [Infographic]

Posted: 19 Jan 2013 05:25 PM PST

Blue, brown, or hazel, our eyes are amazing mechanisms. They work much like a very complex production line converting "light" into "sight". And it all happens faster than the blink of an eye.

Click The Graphic For A Close Up.

Via: eyeglasses online

Tourists at Chinese Ice Festival Shoot Arrows at Live Chickens [Video]

Posted: 18 Jan 2013 08:34 PM PST

Festival organisers have caused controversy in northern China by offering visitors the chance to shoot live chickens with bows and arrows.

Bystanders watched as the helpless birds were strung up by their feet in front of an ice wall at the Jilin Ice Festival in Yanji, while tourists took pot shots at them.

Some were left wounded and in agony when the amateur archers failed to kill them. But organisers have defended the event saying: "The game was very popular and people enjoyed it."

"We plan to do it again next year and the birds were not wasted, they were all eaten afterwards. The birds were all farm animals and would have died anyway. Why does it matter if it was an arrow or an axe?"

Via arbroath

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