Greece

In addition to the weak NFP number expected today which should put further pressure on a dollar, already trading at a several week low, Greek Ta Nea reports that the catalytic announcement by the Troika on the Greek economy is expected to come out later today. Unlike previous rumors that Greece was expected to miss every bailout parameter, the rumor this time is that the report will show a "mixed picture" meaning that the market is supposed to believe that there is a risk that the next tranche, worth €12 billon, of Greece's current E110 billion aid package, may not be disbursed. Of course it will be: the last thing Europe's bankers will do, especially after all the recent posturing, is to shoot themselves in the foot, and before the weekend at that. As a result we expect a double whammy of USD hits, which however will mean that the EURUSD will soon be back to levels that are high enough (1.46-1.48) that will make the announcement of QE3 problematic, as the next step lower in the USD would likely lead to a EURUSD of 1.70-1.80.

These seem to be becoming quite popular lately: This particular one was titled: "Let them buy bonds." We are waiting to see how it will be revised following today's wonderful "Bailout #2" news.

Next up: Greece begins criminal proceedings against the rating agency for character defamantion and libel (or is that slander?). Also, Belgium is next. Yet most importantly, there is no mention in the downgrade if the "Vienna plan" currently contemplated, or the latest zany "debt rolling" proposal constitutes an Event Of Default, meaning the market will have even more uncertaintly to grapple with. From Moody's "The main triggers for today's downgrade are as follows: 1. The increased risk that Greece will fail to stabilise its debt position, without a debt restructuring, in light of (1) the ever-increasing scale of the implementation challenges facing the government, (2) the country's highly uncertain growth prospects and (3) a track record of underperformance against budget consolidation targets. 2. The increased likelihood that Greece's supporters (the IMF, ECB and the EU Commission, together known as the "Troika") will, at some point in the future, require the participation of private creditors in a debt restructuring as a precondition for funding support. Taken together, these risks imply at least an even chance of default over the rating horizon. Moody's points out that, over five-year investment horizons, around 50% of Caa1-rated sovereigns, non-financial corporate and financial institutions have consistently met their debt service requirements on a timely basis, while around 50% have defaulted."

If you think this through, there is only one ethical thing for the maiden to do: toss the spiked sugary drink in the face of the predator and deliver a swift, hard kick between his legs "where it counts." Greece should respond to this planned predation with complete and total default: not a "haircut" or "extended terms," a complete and total refusal to pay any of the debt. We are constantly warned that the resulting collapse of the "too big to fail" banks would trigger a global implosion. That is false; life would go on after the predators declared bankruptcy and were liquidated. What the predators fear most is an awareness that any disruption in normal life would be brief and relatively painless compared to the vast suffering imposed to render them their pound of flesh.

The hacker collective Anonymous Operations may not be the most organized but they sure are passionate. Following the latest disinformation campaign of a Greek bailout, the hackers, which had previously expressed their solidarity with the Greek people (see below) have no made it clear that the latest target of their wrath (which a few months ago was the Federal Reserve) is now the IMF. Or at least its website. As of a few minutes ago, "Anonymous" tweeted that the target of its imminent DDOS attack will be www.imf.org. Alas, since the IMF has always been merely a figurehead for global bailout efforts, in this particular case spearheaded by various banking interests, we give Anonymous a few days before they realize that the target of their "anti oppression" move has a website with a .com suffix, not .org. And regardless of how (in)effective this action is, at least it sends the message that someone is willing to do something to at least protests against the rape that will soon occur in Greece, hidden by the very polite word: "privatization."

While Americans are apparently able to pay infinite amounts of money for gas, we still can't find a price they are willing to pay for homes as this morning's Case-Shiller Survey shows home prices in the 20-city index falling ANOTHER 3.6% from March to a brand new 8-year low.

Another weekend, another secret, and failed, meeting between the EU and Greece to find a bailout solution that simply does not exist. Reuters reports that while America was out camping, barbecuing and all around vacationing, the European Union was feverishly working on a second bailout package, holding another round of emergency talks with the Greek government, to prevent a June 29 default by Greece when money runs out. Alas, it is now too late: with austerity protests now a daily event, the political opposition has the upper hand and it seems that Greece's conservative opposition has demanded lower taxes as a condition for reaching a political consensus with the Socialist government on further austerity measures, a move which Brussels would not agree to, since unlike in America, cutting revenues does not lead to an reduction in the deficit, and anyone with a 2nd grader's education is aware of it. Punctuating that Europe's idealist unitary vision is about to be torn to shreds, even as the US and UK are out for the day, is the Greek 10-year Bund spread which rose by 20 basis points to 1,387 while two-year yields were up 58 bps to 26.23%.

Gold and silver are flat in US dollars but higher in euros this morning. Trade is thin with the UK and US markets closed for spring holidays. Gold and silver were 1.75% and 8% higher last week and the precious metals and especially gold appear to be on solid footing due to the continuing debt crisis in Europe and concerns about a slowdown in the US and global economy. Despite gold being only some 2% away from the record nominal highs seen at the end of April ($1,563.70/oz), sentiment remains lackluster at best with little or no coverage of gold in the international financial press and media over the weekend. In the last two weeks we have experienced a lot of sell orders and the ratio of sell to buy orders has been the highest since our foundation in 2003. Value buyers emerged last week but much of the buying was by existing clients adding to their holdings. The threat of sovereign default and contagion increases by the day.

Greece hasn't even filed for bankruptcy yet and the "unexpected" consequences are already coming. In comments to The Sunday Times newspaper, Irish Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said the country will likely need another "unexpected" loan from the troica, after he became the first cabinet member to cast doubt in public on Ireland's ability to raise cash. In other words once on the temporary bailout wagon, always on the temporary bailout gain. Reuters reports: "I think it's very unlikely we'll be able to go back next year. I think it might take a bit longer ... 2013 might be possible but who knows?" Varadkar was quoted as saying. "It would mean a second program (of loans from the EU/IMF)," he said. "Either an extension of the existing program or a second program. I think that would generally be most people's view." We wonder how German taxpayers will fell now that they realize they have not one, not two, but three (and soon 5 or more) heroin addicts they need to clean, wash, scrub, and feed on a monthly basis (with their, and US money, but Americans continue to not care that the biggest source of capital for the IMF is them). And speaking of ground zero, Greece is now scrambling after the Independent said that even Sarkozy is now prepared to let the Greek chips falls where they may. Following earlier news that the troika believes that the privatization plan it itself set up is not ambitious enough, Greece which now realizes that Germany, the EU, IMF, and Franch all are prepared to let it go, the country is now coming up with last ditch ideas faster than a speeding bullet: according to Reuters: "A Greek paper reported on Sunday that the government was considering setting up a Spanish-style "bad bank" to clean up its lenders' accounts from "toxic" Greek bonds and make them more attractive to potential buyers." Of course since it is toxic Greek sovereign bonds we are talking about, this implies that the country will somehow be split into a "good" and "bad" version of itself. And who thought financial innovation only comes out of the US.

Germany's Der Spiegel seems hell bent on getting sued to hell and back by Greece. After a few weeks ago it "broke" the news of a secret meeting that would consider the expulsion of the country from the Eurozone, it is once again stirring passions with an article claiming that Greece has missed all fiscal targets agreed under its bailout plan, according to a mission from an international inspection team, putting further funding for Athens at risk, Reuters summarizes. "The troika (aka the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank) asserts in its report to be presented next week that Greece had missed all its agreed fiscal targets," weekly Spiegel magazine reported in a prerelease. In other words, this could be the political game over for Greece, whose fate as has been disclosed recently, is intimately tied with the perception that it is following the troika's demands for fiscal change. If the three key bailout institutions are already leaking that Greece is done, next week could well be the beginning of the end for the €. In about 48 hours, even as America is enjoying a Monday off (or precisely because to that, to avoid a market panic), the European market could be digesting a very bitter pill of testing just how well pre-provisioned all those German, French and Dutch banks really are.

Traveling through Vietnam provided a few valuable lessons for life. You arrive, armed only with a copy of the Lonely Planet. Any map turns out to be pretty useless, as street names are frequently changed or the street layout completely altered (this is mid-1990?s). You are being inundated with offers from “cyclo-” (bicycle rickshaw) drivers. Rule number one: negotiate the fare before hopping on the seat. The Vietnamese being excellent sales people expect further price negotiations while you are riding (“Okay, price was per person” “Sir, luggage is extra”). One particular cyclo driver left me with a memorable experience. Once given his destination he claimed the hotel was closed (“I know much better hotel”). Over the entire ride he insisted my hotel was said to be either under construction, on fire or simply full. And I insisted, too, so we actually ended up at the hotel. The pure existence of the hotel should have refuted most of his statements, but did not lead to any signs of embarrassment or repentance on his part. To my surprise he followed me into my room, still trying to lure me into changing hotels (“This room not good”). Later, I found him haggling with the hotel owner over a “finder’s fee” (which was customary for cyclo drivers bringing in hotel guests). Lessons learned: (A) When you are standing inside a hotel it does exist, no matter what someone else might say. Accordingly, when a country is burdened with a debt level approaching 160% of GDP it does need a restructuring.

Every day there is at least one headline about how catastrophic a Greek default would be. These headlines aren’t coming from the doom and gloom crowd, they are coming from senior government officials throughout Europe. There is great concern that a Greek default would hurt European banks. The potential domino effect to other countries scares these senior officials. If these fears are valid, then some senior bankers should be fired immediately because they have wasted the opportunity to reduce their exposures with reasonable losses. Banks have had ample opportunity to cut their exposure to Greece. The original bailout and the announcement of EFSF gave these banks an incredible chance to get out of their Greek debt with manageable losses...If banks didn’t massively reduce exposure when they had these windows of opportunity, and the EU is busy negotiating to save these same banks, someone needs to be fired. It is mind boggling that banks were either so afraid of taking a reasonable loss or so greedy that they thought they could do better that they kept these exposures. It had to have been clear to everyone at the banks how bad it could get, the only prudent, not even smart, just prudent, action was to cut exposures. Even if you missed the May rally which was the best opportunity to get out, how could you sit through the summer fear and not sell heavily into the October rally? Any explanation involves either stupidity, negligence, or complete faith in the government to bail you out.

The loudest warning to date. From Reuters:

• EU Commissioner Damanaki says Greece's Eurozone membership is at risk
• EU Commissioner Damanaki says Greece must agree on tough measures or return to Drachma, according to state news agency

Incidentally, Greece would like nothing more than to return to the Drachma. And here are the next steps...

A few days ago we presented a realistic, if somewhat somber, outlook of what would happen when (not if) Greece finally pulls the plug on its vegetative existence, and its paralyzed body will no longer serve as a breeding ground for maggots of the financial innovation variety. Today, we present a far more comedic one, courtesy of the ECB's Christian Noyer, who makes it all too clear: Europe is not in it to bail out itself and its banks which would topple like a house of undercapitalized, under-MTMed, and uber mismarked cards, but only to protect those poor sad souls of Greece from the "Horror" that would be unleashed when a Greek free fall bankruptcy finally arrives. Truly, the humanist ECB is doing god's work on earth. Try not to laugh while reading this.

Greece says it will not default because it has made a perfectly circular argument against default, and we all know that Circular Reasoning Works Because Circular Reasoning Works Because...
Greece is Guaranteed to Default. It's shouldn't even be up for debate since it is simple math: 2+2=4, not 3. I've laid it all out for you below, complete with the requisite advanced mathematical formulae (2+2...)