Month: July 2014

With “recoveries” like these who needs staged, false flag conflicts and wars covering over 10% of the globe? Well, socialist France for one which moments ago announced that total jobless rose from 3.389 million to 3.398 million, a new record high. Surprisingly, while the year-over-year unemployment change for people under 25 declined by 3.1%, it was workers 25-49 which saw a material 3.3% increase in joblessness, but it was workers aged 50 and older that saw a veritable surge in unemployment, rising by 11.5% from a year ago. Surely, just like in the US, this is due to young people retiring in droves.

Reuters reports:

The number of people without a job in France rose in June to yet another record in the latest blow to President Francois Hollande’s efforts to get unemployment falling.

The Labour Ministry said the jobless total in mainland France rose by 9,400 last month to 3,398,300, up 0.3 percent over one month and 4.0 percent over one year.

Hollande has seen his popularity collapse to record lows for a French president as he failed to live up to promises to get unemployment declining.

The Socialist leader is counting on plans to phase out 30 billion euros ($40.29 billion) in payroll tax on companies to get them investing and hiring.

In one ray of light for the job market, the Labour Ministry said the number of job offers received by the state employment agency had risen 5.4 percent in June from May.

The good news for France, which like Venezuela is on its way to becoming another socialist utopia, is that it sill has headlines like these to look forward to:

• Venezuela Bolivar Devalues 89% in Start of New FX Market
• Venezuela Devalues Bolivar By Another 44% For Some, Still 600% Higher Than Black Market Due To 50% Inflation
• Venezuela’s Maduro Averts Military Coup, Arrests Three Air Force Generals
• Venezuela About To Run Out Of Food Despite Fresh All Time High In Its Stock Market
• Venezuela Sets New “Fair” Prices For Chicken, Sugar, Rice & Coffee
• Socialist Paradise Central Planning In Action: Venezuela Looting Edition
• Venezuela Plunges Into Darkness As President Maduro Lays Out Socialist Vision On National TV
• No Spaghetti For You: Venezuela Noodle Maker Halts Production Due To Lack Of Dollars
• No Drinking Water In Venezuela Until Bankers Get Paid Back
• Venezuela Runs Out Of Toilet Paper
• Breathing The Air In Venezuela? Prepare To Pay
• Venezuela’s Transformation To Socialist Utopia Is Nearly Complete As Its Factories Grind To A Halt

And now, time for France to engage in another meaningless conflict in west Africa.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1nGMorw Tyler Durden

While the state of Liberia is scrambling to locate the missing woman who is “on the loose” in the capital Sierra Leone with a documented case of Ebola, we can at least close the book on the other developing story we reported yesterday involving a person who collapse in the international airport of Nigeria’s megacity, Lagos, and who was being tested for Ebola. The man has died.

From Reuters:

A Liberian man suspected to have Ebola virus has died in quarantine in Lagos, Nigeria, a Nigerian official in Geneva told Reuters on Friday.

 

The man, who collapsed on arrival at the airport in Nigeria’s commercial centre, Lagos, on Thursday, was being kept in isolation by authorities and had not entered the mega-city of 21 million people, he said.

 

“While he was in quarantine he passed away,” the official said.

It is unclear if he passed away from natural causes, such as being beaten to death to avoid any loose ends, or because the Ebola virus he was carrying was in very late stage.

No matter the open questions, we are confident that there is nothing to worry about and that the risk of anyone else encountering the man (who may or may not have died from Ebola 24 hours later) while at the airport, and certainly flying off to non-African destinations, is below zero. In fact, we are confident that no matter what the story is, it is bullish for risk assets and certainly for global healthcare companies.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1lDMgDi Tyler Durden

While the state of Liberia is scrambling to locate the missing woman who is “on the loose” in the capital Sierra Leone with a documented case of Ebola, we can at least close the book on the other developing story we reported yesterday involving a person who collapse in the international airport of Nigeria’s megacity, Lagos, and who was being tested for Ebola. The man has died.

From Reuters:

A Liberian man suspected to have Ebola virus has died in quarantine in Lagos, Nigeria, a Nigerian official in Geneva told Reuters on Friday.

 

The man, who collapsed on arrival at the airport in Nigeria’s commercial centre, Lagos, on Thursday, was being kept in isolation by authorities and had not entered the mega-city of 21 million people, he said.

 

“While he was in quarantine he passed away,” the official said.

It is unclear if he passed away from natural causes, such as being beaten to death to avoid any loose ends, or because the Ebola virus he was carrying was in very late stage.

No matter the open questions, we are confident that there is nothing to worry about and that the risk of anyone else encountering the man (who may or may not have died from Ebola 24 hours later) while at the airport, and certainly flying off to non-African destinations, is below zero. In fact, we are confident that no matter what the story is, it is bullish for risk assets and certainly for global healthcare companies.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1lDMgDi Tyler Durden

Curious why Brent just spiked by over 1% (and the S&P500 took a leg lower)? The reason is headlines from Reuters citing Europe’s unelected dictator, Van Rompuy who has said that sanctions should include Oil technology. However, in a hilarious twist, the unellected muppet of Europe’s insolvent banks, hopes to get his sanctions cake and snort Russia’s gas too, adding that Europe’s sanctions should exclude the gas sector.

• LETTER FROM EU COUNCIL HEAD VAN ROMPUY TO MEMBER STATES SAYS RESTRICTIONS ON SUPPLYING TECHNOLOGY TO RUSSIA SHOULD INCLUDE OIL, BUT EXCLUDE GAS SECTOR-EU SOURCES

More from Reuters:

EU leaders seeking to agree sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine are expected to include oil technology but exclude technology for Russia’s all-important gas sector, EU sources said on Friday.

 

The scaling back of the EU’s ambitions shows the difficulty of agreeing forceful sanctions against Russia without risking damage to the bloc’s fragile economy.

 

Two sources quoted from an official letter sent to EU heads of government outlining “an emerging consensus on some key principles”.

Here it appears that Europe’s unelected leaders are somehow deluding themselves that if faced with escalating sanctions, Russia will not unilaterally cut off the gas to Europe.

It gets better. Reuters also added the following:

• LETTER FROM EU COUNCIL HEAD VAN ROMPUY ASKS EU LEADERS TO DELEGATE AUTHORITY TO AGREE TO RUSSIA SANCTIONS TO AMBASSADORS, AVOIDING NEED FOR SUMMIT-EU DIPLOMAT

Why? So that when things really escalate out of hand, and Russia does half gas deliveries sending Europe into a triple-dip recession or outright depression, the population will demand scalps. At that point the unelected Van Rompuys can say: “hey, don’t blame us. It was all the ambassadors fault.”

Lest anyone thinks that Russia is anywhere close to “blinking”, allow us to disabuse you of such naive thoughts with these Reuters and BBG headlines:

• RUSSIA SAYS UKRAINE SHELLED RUSSIAN TERRITORY WITH THE INTENT TO KILL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS; PROOF FOR `FALSE’ U.S. CLAIMS `SIMPLY DOESN’T EXIST’ – -INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE STATEMENT;

But the biggest telltale is what we have said the latest escalation is all about: the South Stream – the Russian nat gas pipeline which would circumvent Ukraine entirely. “A draft document on possible sanctions on Thursday also laid out a range of technologies that could be restricted, which could have delayed development of Russia’s South Stream gas project to ship gas to Europe via the Black Sea.“

Because just like with Syria, so with Ukraine and all the associated brewhaha, at the heart of the ongoing conflict is nothing more than Europe’s addiction to Russian energy.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1lDMfPV Tyler Durden

It was a little over a year ago when the “Mystery Sponsor Of Weapons And Money To Syrian Mercenary “Rebels” Was Revealed” as none other than the uber-wealthy Qatar (also known as the tiny but filthy rich state in the Persian Gulf that hosts the US Fifth fleet, better known as infinite leverage vis-a-vis the United States), which effectively had been pulling the US interventionist strings in hopes of taking out the Assad government and installing a puppet regime, one which would be helpful in facilitating the passage of a natgas pipeline beneath the country, which would then proceed into Turkey and all the way into Europe, as a means of bypassing Europe’s reliance on Russia (which as recent events have shown has all the leverage when it comes to Europe).  It failed.

As a result it had to redirect its puppetmastery skills elsewhere. That “elsewhere” appears to be none other than Hamas, which is now embroiled in a landwar with Israel in a conflict that has claimed the lives of over 800 people. And while we did find the revelation reported by the Times of Israel as surprising, it is certainly not shocking in a world in which moneyed interests fund militants across nations in what has become an explosion of proxy wars around the globe (see Syria, Ukraine, etc).

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, shakes hands with Hamas leader
Khaled Mashaal, right, as the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, center,
looks on, after signing an agreement in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Feb 6, 2012
(photo credit: AP/Osama Faisal)

According to the TOI, Israel president Shimon Peres “accused Qatar on Wednesday of becoming “the world’s largest funder of terror” due to its financial support for Hamas in Gaza.”

A spokesman for Peres would not comment on the information on which the president was basing his accusation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former security adviser said Qatar was relentlessly financing Hamas terror.

 

Qatar’s recently attempted to transfer funds for the salaries of Hamas civil servants in Gaza, following the formation of a Palestinian unity government, but was blocked by the United States, which pressured the Arab Bank not to process them. But former national security adviser Maj. Gen. (res) Yaakov Amidror told The Times of Israel that the emirate’s funding for the organization’s terror apparatus, including tunnel diggers and rocket launchers, has continued unabated.

 

“Hamas currently has two ‘true friends’ in the world: Qatar and Turkey,” Amidror said. The small Gulf state is currently Hamas’s closest ally in the Arab world, after the movement’s relations with Egypt soured following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi in June 2013. Qatar, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction and infrastructure projects in Gaza, is also home to the movement’s political leader Khaled Mashaal in Doha.

 

“The one supporting this organization financially, almost alone, is Qatar,” Amidror said.

 

Qatar isn’t only being accused of funneling funds to Hamas. Israel and Egypt are also blaming it for blocking Egypt’s efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza. On July 17, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said that Qatar and Turkey were undermining Egypt’s quiet-for-quiet ceasefire initiative, a position echoed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Bloomberg admits as much in its latest sweep of the land:

Qatar and, to a lesser extent, Turkey are providing Hamas with alternative channels. Erdogan “has taken a very vocal and emotional pro-Palestinian line,” said Sabra. “It’s good for him domestically, but it limits his ability to play a regional diplomatic role.” After Qatari-backed rebels in Syria lost ground to the rise of more radical forces, “it’s not a surprise that they’re leaping at an opportunity to try to play this role,” said Sabra.

 

Israel, looking to its traditional partner Egypt, rejects mediation by Qatar and Turkey, particularly after Erdogan said Israel’s “barbarism has surpassed even Hitler’s,” according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic developments.

 

Hamas is looking at the prospect that Qatar would sweeten a cease-fire deal with financial aid for its Gaza government, including the salaries owed to about 30,000 employees, Elmenshawy said.

Israel also has objections against the Qatar-backed news channel Al Jazeera, whom it has accused of spreading “incitement against the state of Israel”:

Another aspect of Qatar’s destructive influence, Israel believes, is state-backed news channel Al-Jazeera. Communications Minister Gilad Erdan requested of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council this week that it stop broadcasting Al-Jazeera due to its “extremely severe incitement against the State of Israel as well as enthusiastic support for Hamas and its terrorist actions.” Liberman said his ministry was examining the possibility of shutting Al-Jazeera’s offices in Israel, Israeli news site Walla reported.

In the meantime, the diplomatic tensions as a result of the US breakdown of influence in the mid-east have managed to drag even largely netural regional superpowers as Saudi Arabia and the UAE into a conflict:

A diplomatic tug of war has been underway in the Arab Gulf between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — both staunch supporters of the new Egyptian regime —  on the one side and Qatar on the other. On Tuesday, Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad arrived in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the Palestinian situation with Saudi King Abdullah. No details of the meeting were immediately available.

And so on. The problem as we showed last week with the following chart, is that international relations in the middle east are so complicated, virtually everyone hates, if not is engaged in outright conflict with everyone else.

 

So while the grand vision that US-backed Qatar (and hence Hamas) has in the middle east is still unclear, what is even more confusing is just what its energy intentions are (because in the middle east it is all about energy trading and/or the Petrodollar until its replacement with some other reserve currency of course) with Hamas, and Gaza are: after all the sliver of land is landlocked on the east by Israel and shares a small border with Egypt on the south: an Egypt whose allegiance so far lies with Israel, and thus will hardly assist Gaza in any capacity.

We hope to find out more clues about what quite confounding chessgame Qatar is playing shortly.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1xbYSam Tyler Durden

It was a little over a year ago when the “Mystery Sponsor Of Weapons And Money To Syrian Mercenary “Rebels” Was Revealed” as none other than the uber-wealthy Qatar (also known as the tiny but filthy rich state in the Persian Gulf that hosts the US Fifth fleet, better known as infinite leverage vis-a-vis the United States), which effectively had been pulling the US interventionist strings in hopes of taking out the Assad government and installing a puppet regime, one which would be helpful in facilitating the passage of a natgas pipeline beneath the country, which would then proceed into Turkey and all the way into Europe, as a means of bypassing Europe’s reliance on Russia (which as recent events have shown has all the leverage when it comes to Europe).  It failed.

As a result it had to redirect its puppetmastery skills elsewhere. That “elsewhere” appears to be none other than Hamas, which is now embroiled in a landwar with Israel in a conflict that has claimed the lives of over 800 people. And while we did find the revelation reported by the Times of Israel as surprising, it is certainly not shocking in a world in which moneyed interests fund militants across nations in what has become an explosion of proxy wars around the globe (see Syria, Ukraine, etc).

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, shakes hands with Hamas leader
Khaled Mashaal, right, as the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, center,
looks on, after signing an agreement in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Feb 6, 2012
(photo credit: AP/Osama Faisal)

According to the TOI, Israel president Shimon Peres “accused Qatar on Wednesday of becoming “the world’s largest funder of terror” due to its financial support for Hamas in Gaza.”

A spokesman for Peres would not comment on the information on which the president was basing his accusation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former security adviser said Qatar was relentlessly financing Hamas terror.

 

Qatar’s recently attempted to transfer funds for the salaries of Hamas civil servants in Gaza, following the formation of a Palestinian unity government, but was blocked by the United States, which pressured the Arab Bank not to process them. But former national security adviser Maj. Gen. (res) Yaakov Amidror told The Times of Israel that the emirate’s funding for the organization’s terror apparatus, including tunnel diggers and rocket launchers, has continued unabated.

 

“Hamas currently has two ‘true friends’ in the world: Qatar and Turkey,” Amidror said. The small Gulf state is currently Hamas’s closest ally in the Arab world, after the movement’s relations with Egypt soured following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi in June 2013. Qatar, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction and infrastructure projects in Gaza, is also home to the movement’s political leader Khaled Mashaal in Doha.

 

“The one supporting this organization financially, almost alone, is Qatar,” Amidror said.

 

Qatar isn’t only being accused of funneling funds to Hamas. Israel and Egypt are also blaming it for blocking Egypt’s efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza. On July 17, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said that Qatar and Turkey were undermining Egypt’s quiet-for-quiet ceasefire initiative, a position echoed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Bloomberg admits as much in its latest sweep of the land:

Qatar and, to a lesser extent, Turkey are providing Hamas with alternative channels. Erdogan “has taken a very vocal and emotional pro-Palestinian line,” said Sabra. “It’s good for him domestically, but it limits his ability to play a regional diplomatic role.” After Qatari-backed rebels in Syria lost ground to the rise of more radical forces, “it’s not a surprise that they’re leaping at an opportunity to try to play this role,” said Sabra.

 

Israel, looking to its traditional partner Egypt, rejects mediation by Qatar and Turkey, particularly after Erdogan said Israel’s “barbarism has surpassed even Hitler’s,” according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic developments.

 

Hamas is looking at the prospect that Qatar would sweeten a cease-fire deal with financial aid for its Gaza government, including the salaries owed to about 30,000 employees, Elmenshawy said.

Israel also has objections against the Qatar-backed news channel Al Jazeera, whom it has accused of spreading “incitement against the state of Israel”:

Another aspect of Qatar’s destructive influence, Israel believes, is state-backed news channel Al-Jazeera. Communications Minister Gilad Erdan requested of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council this week that it stop broadcasting Al-Jazeera due to its “extremely severe incitement against the State of Israel as well as enthusiastic support for Hamas and its terrorist actions.” Liberman said his ministry was examining the possibility of shutting Al-Jazeera’s offices in Israel, Israeli news site Walla reported.

In the meantime, the diplomatic tensions as a result of the US breakdown of influence in the mid-east have managed to drag even largely netural regional superpowers as Saudi Arabia and the UAE into a conflict:

A diplomatic tug of war has been underway in the Arab Gulf between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — both staunch supporters of the new Egyptian regime —  on the one side and Qatar on the other. On Tuesday, Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad arrived in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the Palestinian situation with Saudi King Abdullah. No details of the meeting were immediately available.

And so on. The problem as we showed last week with the following chart, is that international relations in the middle east are so complicated, virtually everyone hates, if not is engaged in outright conflict with everyone else.

 

So while the grand vision that US-backed Qatar (and hence Hamas) has in the middle east is still unclear, what is even more confusing is just what its energy intentions are (because in the middle east it is all about energy trading and/or the Petrodollar until its replacement with some other reserve currency of course) with Hamas, and Gaza are: after all the sliver of land is landlocked on the east by Israel and shares a small border with Egypt on the south: an Egypt whose allegiance so far lies with Israel, and thus will hardly assist Gaza in any capacity.

We hope to find out more clues about what quite confounding chessgame Qatar is playing shortly.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1xbYSam Tyler Durden