"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates." - Matt Taibbi.

Goldman is reported to have assisted Greece mask its public debt using complex debt swaps inorder stay within the E.U.'s requirements. These over the counter derivatives were the crux of the global financial crisis.

"And so the tragicomic becomes surreal. Yesterday's news about the departure of the head of the debt management agency, Spyros Papanicolaou, was somewhat of a yawner, until we realized that his replacement would be none other than Petros Christodoulou, who until today was head of Private Banking and Group Treasury at the National Bank of Greece (reporting directly to the CEO of the NBG Tamvakakis), as can be seen on the org chart below. Yet was is oddest, is that Mr. Christodoulou worked not only as head of derivatives at JP Morgan but also held comparable posts at Credit Suisse, and... wait for it, Goldman Sachs... Uh, say what?....."

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com...ldman-investment-banker

islamic financing is not that different... See the problems with sukuk bonds in Dubai...

Watching international news feeds on the Greek riots, one cannot help but wonder what the situation will degenerate to if the following story is true. Those that assisted European nations to hide their debt will certainly seek to profit from the decline in the Euro and sovereign debt.

When nations begin blaming each other for their woes, a vicious cycle is set in motion. A citizenry baying for the blood of politicians may result in the institution of draconian (first legislator of Ancient Greece) measures to protect the state as in the case of Iran. Further civil unrest due to deteriorating economic conditions increases the probability of contagion to other nations and war.

Refer to the currency crisis of 1931 whereby most of Europe defaulted on its debt, by 1939 the continent was engulfed in a fog of war.

"LONDON (Reuters) - Italy did more than Greece to mask the state of its finances to secure euro zone entry, Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos said, adding that Germany's history made it ill-placed to criticise his country.

The European Union has asked Greece to explain reports that it engaged in derivatives trades with U.S. investment banks that may have allowed it to mask the size of its debt and deficit from EU authorities ahead of its entry into the euro zone.

"You simply put some amounts of money in the next year ... it is what everybody did and Greece did it to a lesser extent than Italy for example," Pangalos said in an interview with BBC World Service radio broadcast on Wednesday...."

Read more:

http://www.nytimes.com/r...galos.html?_r=2&dbk

In the wake of declining house property prices and rising unemployment, the coffers of former high flying U.S. states are facing exhaustion. Austerity measures, bitter medicine for political concerns in this election year are an absolute must. Greece is a litmus test of the backlash that may be forthcoming from the citizenry.

"In Arizona, a cash-pinched legislature put the Capitol building up for sale, proposing to lease it back for state use. In the small Colorado town of Colorado Springs, officials shut off half the street lamps and one-third of the traffic lights, told residents who wanted short grass in public parks to bring their own lawnmowers, and auctioned off a police helicopter on eBay. Around the country, libraries have been shuttered, after-school programmes have been curtailed, mental health services have been decimated.

In Los Angeles, the nation's second largest metropolis, the Democratic mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, addressed a full session of the city council on 9 February to detail just how grim the city's finances had become. Miguel Santana, the city administrative officer (the CAO is the mayor and council's chief financial adviser) had recently informed the mayor's office that LA was facing a $200m shortfall through the end of this financial year and another half billion dollar-plus shortfall in the years to come if it didn't radically, and rapidly, restructure its budget. Santana didn't mince words. His nearly 300-page report (pdf) opened with this stark warning...."

Read more:

http://www.guardian.co.u...ancial-crisis-useconomy

I hope we find something shiny and valuable so that we can show off to Uganda with all their oil talk.

kk check out this article on China.

http://www.commodityonli...ay-go-up-26034-3-1.html

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