Signature Coins & Bullion

Tens of thousands of savers are at risk of losing a huge portion of their savings through little, even no fault, of their own. The mechanisms of how and where are patently clear when you know what to look for.

As previously noted, again, and again, there are two sides to every trade, and the owners of bonds (debt) issued by Greece et al, are not held by the "big bad" banks:

They are mostly held by private investors, whether they know it or not.

Here, according to Pimco, the world largest bond fund manager, owned by the 'rock solid' German financial conglomerate, and largest insurer in Europe; Allianz. (My Anti- Hero, Chilli Palmer, calls it; The Vig, or more simply "The –GoverMint -Cut".)

Pimco: $25 Billion Foreclosure Deal to Hit Pensions Harder Than Banks

............ investigations is cheap for the loan servicers while costly for bond investors including pension funds, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Scott Simon.

In what the U.S. called the largest federal-state civil settlement in the nation's history, five banks including Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. yesterday committed $20 billion in various forms of mortgage relief plus payments of $5 billion to state and federal governments.

"This was a relatively cheap resolution for the banks," said Simon, the mortgage head at Pimco, which runs the world's largest bond fund. "A lot of the principal reductions would have happened on their loans anyway, and they're using other people's money to pay for a ton of this. Pension funds, 401(k)s and mutual funds are going to pick up a lot of the load."

 

Most of our friends will already be aware of the problems and solutions however unpalatable they may be. Yet this short video is excellent and explains some very complicated issues.

As we have said before, it is easy to say: "write off the debt", the problem with that is who actually owns that debt. (Clue; it is not the banks)

UPDATE: this shows how bad the property crisis is in Ireland. I wonder what will happen when Spain starts to recognize similar issues.

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

According to Bloomberg:

"Finance ministers from the four euro- area countries with AAA ratings -- Germany, Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands -- will meet in Berlin tomorrow afternoon, a German Finance Ministry spokesman said." And as is well known, FrAAnce no longer a member of this, however meaningless, club.

In 2011 German government spending had a budget of E307 Billion (US$ 385 Billion) to cover a population of 82 million.

In 2011 the UK government spending was budgeted at £683 Billion ($1,024 Billion) for a population of 62 million.

Any ideas why?