MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“RIGA, Latvia – Latvia’s largest bank scrambled Monday to head off a run among depositors who were gripped by rumours of the bank’s imminent ruin.

Weekend rumours that Swedbank was facing legal and liquidity problems in Estonia and Sweden sent thousands of Latvians to bank machines on Sunday, with some lines reaching as many as 50 people.

Latvians are particularly sensitive to speculation about banks’ health. Latvijas Krajbanka, the country’s 10th largest bank, was nationalized last month after regulators discovered evidence of massive fraud allegedly carried out by the bank’s former owner, Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov. Depositors were deprived of access to their funds for days.

And three years ago the country’s second largest bank, Parex Bank, entered technical default and had to be taken over by the government, which in turn forced Latvia to appeal to international creditors and the European Union for a €7.5 billion ($10.5 billion) bailout.

Prime Minister Vladis Dombrovskis told journalists that the rumours were spread maliciously with the intent to harm Latvia’s banking system, the Baltic News Service reported. Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said that police have opened a criminal investigation.

The rumours were contained to Latvia and did not spread to neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania, which also have affiliates of the Swedish-controlled Swedbank.” Read more.

By Harry Wilson – “Senior analysts and traders warned of impending bank failures as a summit intended to solve the European crisis failed to deliver a solution that eased concerns over bank funding.

The European Central Bank admitted it had held meetings about providing emergency funding to the region’s struggling banks, however City figures said a ‘collateral crunch’ was looming.

‘If anyone thinks things are getting better then they simply don’t understand how severe the problems are. I think a major bank could fail within weeks,’ said one London-based executive at a major global bank.

Many banks, including some French, Italian and Spanish lenders, have already run out of many of the acceptable forms of collateral such as US Treasuries and other liquid securities used to finance short-term loans and have been forced to resort to lending out their gold reserves to maintain access to dollar funding.

‘The system is creaking. There is a large amount of stress,’ said Anthony Peters, a strategist at Swissinvest, pointing to soaring interbank lending rates.” Read more.

French banks downgraded by Moody’s – “The agency cut its ratings on the long-term debt of BNP and Credit Agicole by one notch to Aa3, concluding reviews that began in June and were continued in September. Societe Generale’s long-term debt was cut by one notch to A1. The downgrades were driven by the increasing difficulties the banks were having in raising funding and the worsening economic outlook, Moody’s said. The news comes a day after the European Banking Authority (EBA), warned the region’s banks must find €114.7bn of extra capital in order to withstand the euro zone debt crisis and restore investor confidence.” Read more.

By John Morrissy – “OTTAWA — Such is the severity of post-recession malaise engulfing the world that CIBC’s chief economist invokes Biblical comparisons to warn the end of the ‘famine’ is years away.

‘Akin to Pharaoh’s dream for Egypt, the global economy could well be in the midst of seven lean years, as the debt-financed bounty of the prior expansion left a growth famine in its wake,’ Avery Shenfeld said in his year-end economic outlook.

The Pharoah’s dream, contained in Genesis, portends seven years of prosperity followed by seven lean years. Now halfway though those leans years, which began with the recession in 2008, Canada, and the world around it, will be mired until mid-decade in a prolonged slump, Shenfeld said.

For Canada, that means unemployment will remain elevated, the dollar will drop, wage gains will be meagre and growth will be scant, Shenfeld and other CIBC economists say.

‘As an open economy, Canada can’t help but feel the disappointment of a barely half-speed world. Excepting Europe, we’re not destined for recession, but global growth will barely top three per cent next year, and 2013 won’t be a whole lot better, well below the bounteous five per cent pre-recession pace.'” Read more.

The Worldwide Depression/Recession Of 2012 – “In case you haven’t noticed, the rest of the world continues to slow down and the negative data is accelerating. The big powerhouses of the world, the eurozone including Germany, Japan, and China are leading this trend and there is no reason to believe that the U.S. will not follow. I’ve been writing about this theme frequently lately because, while we are seeing some positive numbers here in the U.S., we are also seeing signs of weakness starting to show up, and since we live in a world of international trade, the world’s woes will hit us.” Read more.

Britain vetoes new Euro treaty – “David Cameron returned home this afternoon after one of the most dramatic 24 hours in the European Union’s history. At a dramatic 5am press conference this morning after all-night talks, Mr Cameron used the veto for the first time and said Britain would not be signing any new treaty… The move sparked the fury of France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and other eurozone members trying to hammer out a deal to save the euro. Boris Johnson said the Prime Minister had played a ‘blinder’.” Read more.

By Ike Teuling – “While walking through the highly contaminated outskirts of Fukushima City last week, I suddenly realized that this capital of the prefecture is as far from the Fukushima nuclear disaster site as my hometown is from Borssele where the only Dutch nuclear power plant in the Netherlands is located —about 60 km. While people in the 20 km exclusion zone around the Fukushima disaster site have been evacuated, the residents of this densely populated city have already waited nine months for decontamination of their houses, gardens and parks without getting any official government support for relocation, not even for children and pregnant women.

We spent four days in Fukushima City doing a radiation survey in the neighbourhoods of Watari and Onami. People there have been left to cope alone in a highly contaminated environment by both the local and national governments. Our radiation experts found hot spots of up to 37 microSieverts per hour in a garden only a few meters away from a house and an accumulation of radioactivity in drainage systems, puddles and ditches. Overall, the radiation levels in these neighbourhoods are so high that people receive an exposure to radiation just from external sources that is ten times the annual allowed dose. How high their internal exposure is from eating contaminated food and inhaling or ingesting radioactive particles remains unknown, since no government program is keeping track of this…

In short, it is clear that the situation in Fukushima is rapidly spinning out of control, and if the national government does not take full responsibility for the protection of its population, the people affected by the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi will continue to suffer for a long time to come.” Read more.

Radioactive groundwater may be leaking into ocean – “The data show peak ocean discharges in early April, one month after the earthquake and a factor of 1000 decrease in the month following. Interestingly, the concentrations through the end of July remain higher than expected implying continued releases from the reactors or other contaminated sources, such as groundwater or coastal sediments. By July, levels of 137Cs are still more than 10 000 times higher than levels measured in 2010 in the coastal waters off Japan. Although some radionuclides are significantly elevated, dose calculations suggest minimal impact on marine biota or humans due to direct exposure in surrounding ocean waters, though considerations for biological uptake and consumption of seafood are discussed and further study is warranted.” Read more.

Eastern Japanese are starting to have bruise on their bodies – “This kind of posts will be “unconfirmed” forever. A Japanese citizen talked about his own symptoms on a Japanese forum. In his case, a bruise appeared on his stomach and it does not hurt even if he touches it.This is only one of the many cases posted on the internet. I expect someone who got through Chernobyl or has radioactive medical knowledge to see this picture… Recently he suffers from constant pain around belly, bowel, and bladder. He analyzes it’s from internal exposure.” Read more.

By Becket Adams – “‘Jim, economic collapse with the euro: will that lead to a recession?’ asks Glenn Beck.

‘That will lead to the end of the world as we know it,’ answers Jim Rogers, founder of Rogers International Commodities Index. ‘That will certainly lead to the end of the world as Washington D.C. knows it. There’s no question about that.’

But who is Jim Rogers and what does he know about the global financial situation?

For those unfamiliar with Beck’s guest, Jim Rogers is a famous American investor who, along with George Soros, founded the Quantum Fund, one of the world’s first international funds. Also, as mentioned above, he is the creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index.

He is a well-known proponent of free market capitalism, a successful author, a regular lecturer of finance at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and he has been a regular guest on Fox News’ ‘Cavuto on Business.’

Needless to say, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to finances and he has repeatedly proven his keen market sense.

‘We do live in very perilous times and I hope you’re very careful and I hope you’re prepared,’ Rogers said in regards to the growing financial meltdown.

The conversation then turned to the topic of gold and the importance the precious metal may play in the near future.

‘Everybody knows what that [gold] is. You’ll be able to sell it, barter it you have to, if it gets this bad,’ said Rogers.

But what could create conditions bad enough to force someone to have to barter gold?

A total financial collapse.” Read more.

By Michael Mainville – “Economic powerhouse Germany played down hopes Wednesday that a crucial debt summit will save the euro as French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned the risk of a eurozone ‘explosion’ was very real.

Piling the pressure on EU leaders due to meet in Brussels from Thursday, Standard and Poor’s put a number of large European banks on review and placed the European Union on watch for a downgrade of its AAA credit rating.

German officials said reaching a deal would be ‘difficult’ as US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed Europe for decisive action to tackle the crisis and US President Barack Obama spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

‘Europe is not out of the crisis. The risk of an explosion abounds as long as the decisions taken with Angela Merkel are not implemented,’ Sarkozy told lawmakers from his ruling UMP party, according to a participant in the meeting.

US stocks erased losses in the last hour of trade Wednesday to end mostly higher, but European stocks and the euro slid as pessimism set in.” Read more.

Downgrade threat could prove final blow to euro rescue fund – “The threat of a credit downgrade to the euro zone’s top economies leaves the bloc’s EFSF bailout fund dangerously exposed, piling yet more pressure on the European Central Bank to step in as lender of last resort. The fund has struggled to attract investors even with the backing of six AAA-rated governments, and on Tuesday S&P followed up a warning of possible downgrades for 15 euro economies by saying it is also reviewing the EFSF.” Read more.

Greeks rush to pull savings out of banks, worsening the crisis – “A Greek bank run looks to be in full swing. In an article from German magazine Der Spiegel on Tuesday, the scope of Greek bank withdrawals is shown in alarming clarity. According to Georgios Provopoulos, the governor of the central bank of Greece, savings and time deposits fell by 13 to 14 billion euros in September and October of this year. And it’s only getting worse. ‘In the first 10 days of November the decline continued on a large scale,’ Mr. Provopoulos told the economic affairs committee of the Greek parliament last month. All that money spilling out of Greek banks is creating a credit crunch that’s making lending nearly impossible.” Read more.