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Scandal: Greece To Receive "Negative" Cash From "Second Bailout" As It Funds Insolvent European Banks Durden 2-22-12 Earlier today, we learned the first stunner of the Greek "bailout package", which courtesy of some convoluted transmission mechanisms would result in some, potentially quite many, Greek workers actually paying to retain their jobs: i.e., negative salaries. Now, having looked at the Eurogroup's statement on the Greek bailout, we find another very creative use of "negative" numbers. And by creative we mean absolutely shocking and scandalous. First, as a reminder, even before the current bailout mechanism was in place, Greece barely saw 20% of any actual funding, with the bulk of the money going to European and Greek banks (of which the former ultimately also ended up funding the ECB and thus European banks). Furthermore, we already know that as part of the latest set of conditions of the second Greek bailout, an 'Escrow Account" would be established: this is simply a means for Greek creditors to have a senior claims over any "bailout" cash that is actually disbursed for things such as, you know, a Greek bailout, where the money actually trickles down where it is most needed - the Greek citizens. Here is where it just got surreal. It turns out that not only will Greece not see a single penny from the Second Greek bailout, whose entire Use of Proceeds will be limited to funding debt interest and maturity payments, but the country will actually have to fund said escrow! You read that right: the Greek bailout #2 is nothing but a Greek-funded bailout of Europe's insolvent banks... and the Greek constitution is about to be changed to reflect this! , Would You Support an Iran War If … : George Washington : 2/22/12 http://albertpeia.com/16reasonswhyonlyfoolssupportswaragainstIran.htm , Europe's Nash Equilibrium - A Tightly Stretched Rubber Band? Durden 2-22-12 , Guest Post: Dangerous Ideas Durden 2-22-12 There is a very clear relationship between economic growth and sufficient quantities of high quality energy. A crude measure of energy quality is its price. The lower the price for a unit of energy, the higher its quality (or net energy), but this is a very crude measure that can and often is heavily distorted by subsidies, market pressures, and other factors. As we squint at the world price for oil and note that Brent today is trading at $120 per barrel, it is clear that this high price is signaling that energy is now more expensive than it used to be. By adopting the belief that Peak Oil has been debunked, one runs the risk of missing the larger story that our current economic model is unsustainable. And that stocks and bonds and other traditional investments that derive a large portion of their current value from expectations of future growth simply may not perform anything like they have in the past. And worse, that recent and continuing efforts to revive the old economy by printing money risk the destruction of the money system itself. Given this all-too-human tendency to attempt to preserve the status quo, in this case by printing money, I must reiterate my advice to be sure that gold forms a significant portion of your core portfolio. , Complete Latest Hedge Fund Holdings Analysis Durden 2-22-12 -The fine folks at Street of Walls have been kind enough to provide us with their latest 13F breakdown which looks at the position changes across America's 30 largest and most important hedge funds. , NAR Continues Tradition Of Making Mockery Of Itself, Revises December Home Sales From +5% to -0.5% Durden 2-22-12 And here is yet another reason why we will permanently ignore the pathologically lying real estate syndicate known as the NAR (link): December data was just revised from +5% to -0.5% (from 4.61 million to 4.38 million). Since December market expectations were for a +5.2% print, imagine the sheer horror the algos would have been faced with had the real number been reported on time. Needless to say, if this number had been unrevised, the January +4.3% increase would have been a decline. This way the aglos focused only on the immediate moment get two months of beats in a row. Huzzah. Anyone who trades anything based on this borderline criminal self-reporting enterprise needs to have their head checked. In other news, when will the LIBOR investigation finally target the NAR? , Why The Core Needs To Save The Periphery Durden 2-22-12 We have discussed, at length, the symbiotic (or perhaps parasitic) relationship between the banking system in Europe and the governments (read Central Banks). The LTRO has done nothing but bring them into a closer and more mutually-reinforcing chaotic relationship as we suspect many of the Italian and Spanish banks have gone all-in on the ultimate event risk trade in their government's debt. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the bulk of the Greek bailout money will flow directly to the European banking system and Credit Suisse has recently updated the bank exposure (by country) to peripheral sovereign debt that shows just how massively dependent each peripheral nation's banking system is on its own government for capital and more importantly, how the core (France and Germany) remains massively exposed (in terms of Tier 1 Capital) to the PIIGS. Retroactive (negative) salary cuts may well not be the worst of what is to come as the bankers deleveraging returns to bite them in a phoenix-like resurrection of sovereign risk on now even-more sovereign-bloated (and levered) balance sheets. , It's Official - Greece Unveils The Negative Salary, And A Whole New Meaning For "Pay To Play" Durden 2-22-12 , Zombie Housing Market Chronicles - Fed Fails Again To Stimulate A Housing Recovery Durden 2-22-12 While today the association of real estate advertising agents known as the NAR will tell us that the home market is improving - an economic observation which we will completely ignore as any data out of the NAR is now proven to be manipulated and fraudulent, a far better indication of the ongoing implosion in the housing market, and more importantly - the sheer powerlessness of the Fed to do anything about it - came out of the latest weekly Mortgage Brokers Association, which showed that refi applications were down 4.8% W/W, while purchases slid 2.9%, after collapsing 8.4% in the past week. , No, This Is Not Mount Olympus... Durden 2-22-12 ...This is a chart of the Greek bank stock index, which has gone from an all out demented euphoria to suicidal depression in 5 days, as the rumor that Greece is "saved" has been replaced with the reality that Greece is still "completely broke" , Greek 1 Year Hits 763% Durden 2-22-12 , WTF Did All That Printed Money Go? : ilene : 02/22/2012 - A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enema. , Dave’s Daily: http://www.etfdigest.com MARKETS ARE GETTING TIRED February 22, 2012 ‘Clearly it’s hard for markets to consistently produce 3%-5% monthly returns without taking a break. This is what we’re now seeing absent—more positive news. Jobless Claims data Thursday should shed some light on conditions as will next week’s Employment Report which needs to verify a better trend in conditions. Gallup is projecting an unemployment rate in excess of 9% again although they don’t seasonally adjust like the BS BLS does.We read yesterday some breathless financial commentators remarking that mutual funds showed the first positive fund flows since the previous January. That’s a nice assertion, but January is always a time for people to invest for their IRA or 401K and so forth. Surprisingly ETF fund flow data from the previous bullish week showed $1.2 billion in outflows for both equity and bond sectors.Basically, markets are just getting tired. We’ve remarked to members regarding weekly DeMark 9 count indicators which normally reflect “trend exhaustion”. This is not to say these counts are perfect and may just indicate some sideways movement ahead. And, that’s all we may be seeing despite how much liquidity global central banks are feeding bulls. Meanwhile the SEC’s Mary Shapiro said she’s worried about HFT (High Frequency Trading). Worrying isn’t a policy. Wake me when you’re on to something real… , Fitch downgrades Greece on debt swap plan , Greek Debt Deal Done—Yeah Right Greg Hunter | I keep asking myself, when is a deal not a deal?