British School Bans Makeup and Mirrors to Combat Vanity -

British School Bans Makeup and Mirrors to Combat Vanity - 

Teenage girls at a British secondary school have apparently become entranced by their own heavily made up reflections.

In order to prevent female students from spending school hours primping in the bathroom, Shelley College, a co-ed public school in northern England, has barred students from wearing make-up and spending time in front of the mirror.

According to the Today show, some students had been ignoring the school's old "discreet makeup only" rule, often wearing heavy makeup and spending far too much time socializing around bathroom mirrors. So the school has instituted a no-makeup policy for 13 to 16-year-old students and teachers have been doing daily checks to ensure that they're obeying. The mirrors in the bathroom have also been temporarily taken down, so that girls won't be tempted to congregate around them, obsessing over their appearances.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/19/british-school-bans-makeup-and-mirrors-to-combat-vanity/#ixzz1YQVIxTSu

World's biggest sperm bank tells redheads: Keep your semen, no one wants it... -

World's biggest sperm bank tells redheads: Keep your semen, no one wants it... - 

The world's largest sperm bank is telling redheads to keep their semen.

Demand for ginger-haired donors is so low that Cryos International says they needn't bother donating.

"There are too many redheads in relation to demand," Ole Schou, the director of Cryos, told the Danish newspaper, Ekstrabladet, according to London's Telegraph.

Men with scarlett manes sell "like hot cakes" in Ireland, Schou said, but that's about it.

"I do not think you choose a redhead, unless the partner - for example, the sterile male - has red hair, or because the lone woman has a preference for redheads," he said, the Telegraph reported. "And that's perhaps not so many, especially in the latter case."

Men with brown hair and brown eyes are very popular, Schou noted.

Cryos ships sperm to more than 65 countries around the world, and donors can score up to $500 for their semen.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2011/09/18/2011-09-18_worlds_biggest_sperm_bank_cryos_tells_redheads_we_dont_need_your_semen_.html#ixzz1YOPjXQ3a

‘Missing’ heat found deep in the ocean - New study explains why global surface temperatures don’t rise in a straight line -

‘Missing’ heat found deep in the ocean - New study explains why global surface temperatures don’t rise in a straight line - 

Changes in ocean currents and circulation are capturing some of the sun’s incoming heat deep in the ocean, according to researchers with theNational Center for Atmospheric Research, who said their latest computer models account for some of the global warming heat that’s “missing” from land and sea surface temperature readings.

The heat is stored at depths below 1,000 feet and could lead to periods as long as 10 years when the rate of heating on the Earth’s surface flattens. The findings also suggest that several more intervals like this can be expected over the next century, even as the trend toward overall warming continues.

“We will see global warming go through hiatus periods in the future,” said NCAR’s Gerald Meehl, lead author of the study. “However, these periods would likely last only about a decade or so, and warming would then resume. This study illustrates one reason why global temperatures do not simply rise in a straight line.”

The research, by scientists at NCAR and the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia, will be published online on September 18 in Nature Climate Change. Funding for the study came from the National Science Foundation, NCAR’s sponsor, and the Department of Energy.

The 2000s were Earth’s warmest decade in more than a century of weather records. However, the single-year mark for warmest global temperature, which had been set in 1998, remained unmatched until 2010.

Yet emissions of greenhouse gases continued to climb during the 2000s, and satellite measurements showed that the discrepancy between incoming sunshine and outgoing radiation from Earth actually increased. This implied that heat was building up somewhere on Earth, according to a 2010 study published in Science by NCAR researchers Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo.

The sprinkling of global warming deniers and skeptics in the science community latched on to the concept of “missing heat,” claiming that it somehow showed that the existing global warming models are flawed.

Now, the latest study by the NCAR climate scientists suggests that the oceans might be storing some of the heat that would otherwise go toward other processes, such as warming the atmosphere or land, or melting more ice and snow.

Observations from a global network of buoys showed some warming in the upper ocean, but not enough to account for the global build-up of heat. Although scientists suspected the deep oceans were playing a role, few measurements were available to confirm that hypothesis.

To track where the heat was going, Meehl and colleagues used a powerful software tool known as the Community Climate System Model, which was developed by scientists at NCAR and the Department of Energy with colleagues at other organizations. Using the model’s ability to portray complex interactions between the atmosphere, land, oceans, and sea ice, they performed five simulations of global temperatures.

Read more -

http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/09/19/global-warming-missing-heat-found-deep-in-the-ocean/

Huge Defunct Satellite Falling to Earth Faster Than Expected -

Huge Defunct Satellite Falling to Earth Faster Than Expected - 

NASA space junk experts have refined the forecast for the anticipated death plunge of a giant satellite, with the U.S. space agency now predicting the 6 1/2-ton climate probe will plummet to Earth around Sept. 23, a day earlier than previously reported.

The defunct bus-size spacecraft is NASA's Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS), which launched in 1991 and was shut down in 2005 after completing its mission. The satellite was expected to fall to Earth sometime this year, with experts initially pegging a weeks-long window between late September and early October, then narrowing it to the last week of this month.

Read more -

http://www.space.com/12982-dead-nasa-satellite-falling-earth-sept-24.html

Track it here -

http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=21701&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=CET

NFL wants all fans patted down from the ankles up this season to improve fan safety -

NFL wants all fans patted down from the ankles up this season to improve fan safety - 


The NFL wants all fans patted down from the ankles up this season to improve fan safety.
Under the new “enhanced” pat-down procedures, the NFL wants all 32 clubs to search fans from the ankles to the knees as well as the waist up. Previously, security guards only patted down fans from the waist up while looking for booze, weapons or other banned items.
The stricter physical screening policy impacts the 16.6 million fans expected to attend live regular season NFL games this season.
The NFL recommended the new guidelines before Week 1 of the season, says spokesman Brian McCarthy. The league hopes fans will be “patient” — and arrive earlier to games to avoid long, punishing lines.
“The enhanced security procedures recommended by our office before the start of the season will further increase the safety of fans but will require some additional time,” McCarthy told USA TODAY in a statement Thursday. “We encourage fans to come early, enjoy their tailgating tradition, and be patient as they enter the stadium.”


Read more -
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/09/nfl-orders-ankles-up-frisks-for-16-million-fans-enterting-stadiums-security-buffalo-bills/1?loc=interstitialskip

D.C. schools have the nation’s first statewide standardized test on sex education, drug use and health -

D.C. schools have the nation’s first statewide standardized test on sex education, drug use and health - 

I can just imagine the skit Jon Stewart and his crew at The Daily Showwill put together on this: D.C. schools officials have written the nation’s first statewide standardized test on sex education, drug use and health.

Yes, indeed, according to this story by my colleague Bill Turque, there will be 50 questions and the test will be given for the first time in April 2012 to kids in fifth, eighth and tenth grades, along with the regular standardized tests in math and reading and other traditional academic subjects that are part of the city’s accountability system.

The decision to create the test comes out of a D.C. law passed in 2010 requiring that the city produce a report every year describing progress on student health concerns. But the legislation’s sponsor, D.C. Council member Mary Cheh, a Democrat representing the city’s wealthiest ward, says she didn’t anticipate the geniuses at the school district (my words, not hers) would come up with a standardized test to meet the requirement.

She figured they would find another way but, alas, she was underestimating the obsession for standardized testing that drives school reform in the District and across the country today.

There is no end to the subjects that school reformers cannot subject to a standardized test, including, Yearbook class, about which a high school student complained in this post, entitled “Student: Why do I have to take a standardized test in Yearbook?” that I published in May.

Here’s why. The student was in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina, where officials last spring field-tested 52 new standardized tests in a new assessment regime originally aimed at giving students these exams in every subject so that all of their teachers could be evaluated on the test scores.

It is unfair to use test scores to evaluate the “value” a teacher adds to a student’s academic progress; there are lots of factors that go into how well a student does on a test and ferretting out exactly how influential a teacher is isn’t exactly a science. Still, it is the approach favored by today’s reformers, and hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in creating such systems.

After a wave of skepticism in the obsessive testing in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district, officials are now saying that the tests aren’t to evaluate teachers for any merit pay scheme, but are just to give teachers information that can help them with individual students.

Really? How can tests given in the spring, with results coming even later, help teachers figure out strategies for students who are about to go home for the summer? Besides, why don’t we trust teachers to design their own tests to evaluate students? Do we need to pay for-profit test companies to design them?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/dcs-new-sex-ed-standardized-test-fodder-for-a-jon-stewart-skit/2011/09/14/gIQAVtVMTK_blog.html

Read more - 

Lawless America: 20 Examples Of Desperate People Doing Desperate Things -

Lawless America: 20 Examples Of Desperate People Doing Desperate Things - 


All over America today, desperate people are doing desperate things.  As the economy continues to crumble, the American people are starting to become very frustrated.  Millions have lost their homes and millions have lost their jobs.

As hopelessness and despair rise, an increasing number of Americans are turning to crime or are lashing out in unpredictable ways.  Many parts of America are rapidly turning into lawless hellholes.  In some of the areas that have been the hardest hit by the declining economy, police forces are being severely cut back and desperate criminals are being given a lot of freedom to roam.  In fact, in some major cities (such as Oakland, California), the police have announced that there are certain types of crime that they will not even respond to any more.  For a couple of decades, crime had been steadily declining in the United States, but now we are seeing very disturbing reports from all over the nation of desperate people doing desperate things as they scramble to survive or as they vent their frustrations.  If the examples that you are about to read are any indication, then America is headed down a very dark path.
Today, there are a whole lot of young people that feel as though all hope is gone.  Less than 30 percent of all teens had a job this summer.  Only 14 percent of Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.
As Gerald Celente always says, when people lose everything that they have, they tend to lose it.
The very fabric of American society is starting to come apart, and it is frightening to even think about what is going to happen if the economy gets even worse.
The following are 20 examples of desperate people doing desperate things in America….
#1 As the price of gold has risen to unprecedented heights, thieves have taken notice.  This summer there has been an epidemic of gold robberies in the city of Los Angeles.  Store owners have felt forced to significantly beef us security.  In fact, store owners have addedso much security that at this point “parts of downtown Los Angeles now look more like a militarized zone than a commercial corridor.”
But it is not just Los Angeles that is having a major problem with gold robberies.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article by Thomas Watkins….

In Oakland, police say dozens of women have had gold necklaces yanked from their necks on the street. More than 100 similar thefts have been reported in Los Angeles, a rash of robberies is taking place in St. Paul, Minn., and police in Phoenix say muggers chatted up high school girls then ripped their gold necklaces from them.
“We’ve never seen this,” said Oakland police Sgt. Holly Joshi.

#2 When the level of trust in society starts declining significantly, people start becoming very paranoid.  And when people feel constantly threatened, they tend to lash out in unusual ways.  For example, one man wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey actually smuggled a taser into a recent game between the Cowboys and the New York Jets and started zapping people with it.
#3 When people become truly desperate, they also tend to become highly unpredictable.  Just consider what Justino Sanchez Diaz did recently during a family dinner….

Before the family gathered for dinner, Sanchez-Diaz soaked the walls of the dining room in gasoline and set cans of gas under the furniture. And when the 13 members of the family sat down to eat, the man came out with a can of kerosene and splashed it all over everyone, then set them on fire with a blowtorch.

#4 When desperation spreads throughout a society, you literally do not know who you can trust.  Right now identity theft in the United States is at epidemic levels and it is getting worse.  Every time you give someone your information now, there is a chance that your identity could be compromised.  Just consider the following example from the state of Texas….

If you have a mind sick enough to rip off desperately ill people, you probably think to yourself, “Cancer patients — hey, they may die soon, so what’ll they care?”
Houston police say Shantel Moore, 29, apparently had that kind of coldhearted and inhumane logic. The Stafford woman worked for Methodist Hospital in Houston, and cops say she stole identity information from cancer patients and used it to get tons of payday loan money.

#5 When thieves get desperate, they also tend to become very bold.  A reader named Mark left the following comment on one of my recent articles….

Some tweekers drove up last week looking for scrap metal and one was out of their truck and heading to the shop when I came out of the house. It used to be that strangers would not even cross our bridge or get out of their car wondering about what the dogs would do. Times are changing and not for the better.

#6 In some areas of the country, desperate people are not just searching for scrap metal. As one reader shared recently, there are some parts of the U.S. that are literally being transformed into hellholes by hordes of desperate people….

Here, in the California desert, many vacant houses are being taken over. Fixtures are being ripped out and sold as scrap. Trench latrines are being dug in backyards and water is being pilfered from neighboring pools and hoses. While most of these folks are simply trying to keep a roof over their heads (while they keep their heads down), many are also setting up meth labs and in-door marijuana grows.
I can see the eventual day when the total breakdown of the economy and our society will drive thousands from the cities. A lot of those will be looking for ‘opportunities’.

As sad as it is, if you’re not one of the most unfortunate, it’s time to prepare a defense for your goods, family and self. You are going to be viewed as wealthy, no matter how poor you feel, by someone with nothing left to lose.
Do not rely on police or government authorities. We all saw how that went in New Orleans. Be ready as an individual family unit.

#7 Sadly, family units all over the country are breaking down.  The hearts of parents have become very cold.  Some people are so desperate that they are even trying to sell their own babies.  For example, one grandmother in Florida has been accused of trying to sell her newborn grandson for $75,000.
In another incident, a Vancouver, Washington woman has been charged with trying to sell her newborn baby in front of a Taco Bell.  She was only trying to get somewhere between $500 and $5000 for her baby.
#8 What some parents are doing to their children is absolutely horrifying.  If you have a weak stomach, you may not want to read this one.  In Louisiana recently, a 30-year-old man decapitated his 7-year-old son with a meat cleaver and left his head on the side of the road.  What made this crime even more shocking is the fact that his son was suffering from cerebral palsy and was confined to a wheelchair.  Reportedly the man had gotten “tired of taking care” of the young child.  The following is an excerpt from a Daily Mail report about this horrible crime….

A father has admitted to chopping his son’s head off with a meat cleaver and leaving it in the roadside outside his home so that the child’s mother would see it.

Keep in mind that the father and son had not had a fight.  Rather, the father had just “gotten tired” of taking care of the son.
#9 But it isn’t just parents that are becoming cold-hearted.  In Georgia recently, a 14-year-old teen stabbed his grandmother and his great-grandmother with a sword.  The 77-year-old great grandmother is dead, but it looks like the grandmother is going to be okay.
#10 All over the nation, there are reports of kids killing their parents.  A 21-year-old man in the Chicago area is accused of killing his father with a weed trimmer while his father was sleeping in bed.
#11 In one of the most famous cases of parental murder this year, a 17-year-old Florida teen killed his parents with a hammer, hid their bodies in the master bedroom, and then invited dozens of people over for a massive house party.
Did this kind of stuff happen in America 50 or 60 years ago?
#12 Not all desperate people are committing crimes of violence.  In fact, some desperate Americans are now purposely committing crimes just so that they can be arrested and receive free medical care.
Yes, you read that correctly.  There are 50 million Americans without health insurance and some of them are now purposely breaking the law so that they can go to prison and receive the care that they need.  Just consider the following example from an article in the Gaston Gazette….

James Richard Verone woke up June 9 with a sense of anticipation.
He took a shower.
Ironed his shirt.
Hailed a cab.
Then robbed a bank.
He wasn’t especially nervous. If anything, Verone said he was excited to finally execute his plan to gain access to free medical care.

#13 Millions of other desperate Americans are not lashing out or committing crimes at all.  Instead, they are just quietly suffering.  A reader named Richard recently left a comment in which he shared the desperation that he encountered during a recent trip to the beach….

I was at the beach today, it was almost dark. I watched as a well dressed lady in her 50′s walked onto the public access deck and laid down her things. She looked around to see if she was being observed, felt safe enough to proceed with her shameful task and then she pulled out several small plastic bags. Quickly she went through the trash can and began to remove anything of value, especially aluminum drink cans. That is when I made my way to her. At first she seemed embarrassed, but after I assured her that I sold scrap metal sometimes for extra money, she seemed relieved. She then released a pent up storm of sorrow and hurt as she spoke of her shame and humiliation.
She had recently lost her husband of 32 years and was all alone. She lived in a home she couldn’t afford and was about to lose. Attempts to sell brought only discouragement and despair. “Soon” she said, “I will be homeless.” She said the cans were her insurance, her only means of real survival, since she had already run out of unemployment money. When I tried to offer to help in some way, she suddenly shut me down and refused any help. I told her she wasn’t alone and prayed with her. It certainly made the beach a sad place to be. In the coming months I feel we will all see this same scene played out over and over.

#14 Other Americans have become so desperate that they have given up completely.  The following tragic example is from an article posted on MSN Money….

On the morning she realized her husband and son would learn the family was losing their house, Carlene Balderrama, 53, faxed a note to the mortgage company, then went to the basement and shot herself.
“I hope you’re more compassionate with my husband than you were with me,” she wrote in a suicide note left for the company.

#15 When people get desperate, violence tends to increase.  We are starting to see shocking examples of this all over the country.  For example, at least 42 people were hit by gunfire in New York City over the Labor Day weekend.
Another disturbing thing that we are seeing is the trend toward mob violence.  Previously, I have written about the epidemic of “flash mob” crimes that we are now seeing all over the nation.  When large groups of people start banding together to commit violent crimes, that is a very disturbing sign.
#16 When criminals get desperate, they don’t care who they attack and they will take everything from you that they can.  For example, three young thugs in the Bronx recently beat the living daylights out of a 64-year-old man and took his wallet, his cellphone and even his Bible.
#17 If you are attacked, are you going to call the police?  Are you sure that they can be trusted?  Even police officers are committing desperate acts these days.  Just check out what one police officer in Chicago is charged with doing….

A Chicago Police officer stole $50,000 from his ailing elderly father to pay off his bills and gambling debts and unsuccessfully attempted to swipe his dad’s retirement savings by impersonating him

#18 In the old days, thieves would usually only focus on items of high value.  But these days it seems like there is nothing that they will not steal.  There have been reports coming in from all over America of thieves stealing air conditioners, drain covers, hair extensions and even embalming fluid.
#19 When people get desperate, they will often do things that they never even imagined that they would be willing to do.  In Utah recently, an unemployed 28-year-old man starting running advertisements in which he actually offered to serve as “human prey” for huntersfor the bargain price of $10,000.  For an additional $2,000, he said that he would be willing to allow hunters to “hunt” him down while running around naked.
#20 When criminals become desperate, they often lose all common sense.  In the San Diego area recently, one desperate thief actually tried to rob a 7-11 convenience storewhile dressed in a Gumby costume.  Apparently the clerk thought it was a prank, so the thief tried to pull a weapon but was unable to do so because the costume was too awkward.  Police are still searching for the suspect, who is described as being very tall, very green and very thin.
America is quickly becoming a lawless place.  Yes, authorities in many areas will attempt to crack down, but what are they going to do when millions of people all start doing desperate things all at once?
A reader identified as El Pollo de Oro recently left a comment in which he summed up the direction that he thinks this country is headed….

The Banana Republic of America, the Third World cesspool that used to be the United States, is a very violent place, but the violence is going to get much, much worse. If the BRA is this dangerous and unstable now, what is it going to be like when our terrible economy becomes even worse and unemployment becomes even higher? It won’t be pretty. As Gerald Celente says, get ready for a lot of violence. We’ll continue to see acts of thuggery for the sake of thuggery (flash mobs), but most of the violence will be profit-motivated: drug violence (hola Sinaloa Cartel, hola Los Zeta y la Familia Michoacana), kidnapping, carjacking, home invasions, armed robbery in broad daylight. Today’s unemployed IT worker is tomorrow’s kidnapper; today’s unemployed construction worker is tomorrow’s drug trafficker or carjacker. The former USA is now a Third World hellhole, and the BRA will have all the violence, poverty, squalor and crime that Third World hellholes are known for.

America used to be the envy of the world.
Now, much of the rest of the world is watching our decline in horror.
When a complete economic collapse finally occurs, what is this country going to look like?  Will it be an all-out struggle for survival, or will we be able to handle ourselves fairly well like we did during the Great Depression?
One thing is for sure, this nation is headed in the wrong direction.
So what is the solution to our problems?
One group in Massachusetts thinks that they know what the problem is.  Amazingly, they are actually pushing really hard to have the Pledge of Allegiance permanently banned from all public school classrooms in the state.
Apparently the group believes that the Pledge of Allegiance has “no educational value” and that it places “unnecessary pressure” on kids.
This is yet another example of how divided our country has become.  We are constantly fighting over really stupid stuff, and meanwhile our nation is rapidly going down the toilet.
Look, our economy is going to get even worse and tens of millions of hurting Americans are going to become even more frustrated.
Something desperately needs to be done to turn this country around.
Do you think that you know the solution to the problems facing America?
If so, please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….


Read more - 
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/lawless-america-20-examples-of-desperate-people-doing-desperate-things

Eel removed from man's bladder after entering through penis... -

Eel removed from man's bladder after entering through penis... - 



Zhang Nan was bathing with live eels to cleanse his skin when one rogue serpent took a liking to his manhood.
The eel treatment in question is a similar concept to the popular London spas that offer fish pedicures. 

Thinking that the eels would make him look ten years younger, Nan dived into the water and let them feast upon layers of dead skin. 

But after laying in the spa bath, Nan felt a sharp pain and realised a small eel was working its way up his urethra and into his bladder. 

'I climbed into the bath and I could feel the eels nibbling my body. But then suddenly I felt a severe pain and realised a small eel had gone into the end of my penis,' the 56-year-old from Honghu, Hubei province said. 

'I tried to hold it and take it out, but the eel was too slippery to be held and it disappeared up my penis.'

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/875317-eel-removed-from-mans-bladder-after-entering-penis-during-beauty-spa#ixzz1XqxJtQfm

Father's Testosterone Drops Steeply After Baby Arrives -

Father's Testosterone Drops Steeply After Baby Arrives - 

A father's testosterone level drops steeply after his baby arrives, showing that human males are biologically wired to care for their offspring, a U.S. study out Tuesday showed.

Researchers from Northwestern University, Illinois, followed a large group of men in their 20s and found testosterone levels fell after they found partners and became fathers.

They said the effect is the same in many other species in which males take care of dependent offspring, as testosterone boosts behaviors and other traits that help a male compete for a mate.

This "mating-related" behavior, however, can conflict with the responsibilities of fatherhood, so when males do have children it becomes advantageous for the body to reduce production of the hormone, according to the study.

Christopher Kuzawa, co-author of the study, said, "Raising human offspring is such an effort that it is cooperative by necessity, and our study shows that human fathers are biologically wired to help with the job."

The new study's findings also suggest that fathers may experience an especially large, but temporary, decline in testosterone when they first bring home a baby, as fathers adjust to the demands of having a newborn.

Previous studies had shown that fathers tended to have lower testosterone levels, but they were not conclusive regarding whether fatherhood diminished testosterone or whether men with low testosterone in the first place were more likely to become fathers.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/09/13/fathers-testosterone-drops-steeply-after-baby-arrives/#ixzz1XpqLU7Cl

20 Signs Of Imminent Financial Collapse In Europe -

20 Signs Of Imminent Financial Collapse In Europe - 




Are we on the verge of a massive financial collapse in Europe?  Rumors of an imminent default by Greece are flying around all over the place and Greek government officials are openly admitting that they are running out of money.  Without more bailout funds it is absolutely certain that Greece will soon default on their debts.  But German officials are threatening to hold up more bailout payments until the Greeks "do what they agreed to do".  The attitude in Germany is that the Greeks must now pay the price for going into so much debt.  Officials in the Greek government are becoming frustrated because the more austerity measures they implement, the more their economy shrinks.  As the economy shrinks, so do tax payments and the budget deficit gets even larger.  Meanwhile, hordes of very angry Greek citizens are violently protesting in the streets.  If Germany allows Greece to default, that is going to start financial dominoes tumbling around the globe and it is going to be a signal to the financial markets that there is a very real possibility that Portugal, Italy and Spain will be allowed to default as well.  Needless to say, all hell would break loose at that point.
So why is Greece so important?
Well, there are two reasons why Greece is so important.
Number one, major banks all over Europe are heavily invested in Greek debt.  Since many of those banks are also very highly leveraged, if they are forced to take huge losses on Greek debt it could wipe many of them out.
Secondly, if Greece defaults, it tells the markets that Portugal, Italy and Spain would likely not be rescued either.  It would suddenly become much, much more expensive for those countries to borrow money, which would make their already huge debt problems far worse.
If Italy or Spain were to go down, it would wipe out major banks all over the globe.
Recently, Paul Krugman of the New York Times summarized the scale of the problem the world financial system is now facing....

Financial turmoil in Europe is no longer a problem of small, peripheral economies like Greece. What’s under way right now is a full-scale market run on the much larger economies of Spain and Italy. At this point countries in crisis account for about a third of the euro area’s G.D.P., so the common European currency itself is under existential threat.

Most Americans don't spend a lot of time thinking about the financial condition of Europe.
But they should.
Right now, the U.S. economy is really struggling to stay out of another recession.  If Europe has a financial meltdown, there is no way that the United States is going to be able to avoid another huge economic downturn.
If you think that things are bad now, just wait.  After the next major financial crisis what we are going through right now is going to look like a Sunday picnic.
The following are 20 signs of imminent financial collapse in Europe....
#1 The yield on 2 year Greek bonds is now over 60 percent.  The yield on 1 year Greek bonds is now over 110 percent.  Basically, world financial markets now fully expect that Greece will default.
#2 European bank stocks are getting absolutely killed once again today.  We have seen this happen time after time in the last few weeks.  What we are now witnessing is a clear trend.  Just like back in 2008, major banking stocks are leading the way down the financial toilet.
#3 The German government is now making preparations to bail out major German banks when Greece defaults.  Reportedly, the German government is telling banks and financial institutions to be prepared for a 50 percent "haircut" on Greek debt obligations.
#4 With thousands upon thousands of angry citizens protesting in the streets, the Greek government seems hesitant to fully implement the austerity measures that are being required of them.  But if Greece does not do what they are being told to do, Germany may withhold further aid.  German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says that Greece is now "on a knife’s edge".
#5 Germany is increasingly taking a hard line with Greece, and the Greeks are feeling very pushed around by the Germans at this point.  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard made this point very eloquentlyin a recent article for the Telegraph....

Germany’s EU commissioner Günther Oettinger said Europe should send blue helmets to take control of Greek tax collection and liquidate state assets. They had better be well armed. The headlines in the Greek press have been "Unconditional Capitulation", and "Terrorization of Greeks", and even “Fourth Reich”.

#6 Everyone knows that Greece simply cannot last much longer without continued bailouts.  John Mauldin explained why this is so in a recent article....

It is elementary school arithmetic. The Greek debt-to-GDP is currently at 140%. It will be close to 180% by year’s end (assuming someone gives them the money). The deficit is north of 15%. They simply cannot afford to make the interest payments. True market (not Eurozone-subsidized) interest rates on Greek short-term debt are close to 100%, as I read the press. Their long-term debt simply cannot be refinanced without Eurozone bailouts.

#7 The austerity measures that have already been implemented are causing the Greek economy to shrink rapidly.  Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has announced that the Greek government is now projecting that the economy will shrink by 5.3% in 2011.
#8 Greek Deputy Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis says that Greece only has enough cash to continue operating until next month.
#9 Major banks in the U.S., in Japan and in Europe have a tremendous amount of exposure to Greek debt.  If they are forced to take major losses on Greek debt, quite a few major banks that are very highly leveraged could suddenly be in danger of being wiped out.
#10 If Greece goes down, Portugal could very well be next.  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph explains it this way....

Yet to push Greece over the edge risks instant contagion to Portugal, which has higher levels of total debt, and an equally bad current account deficit near 9pc of GDP, and is just as unable to comply with Germany's austerity dictates in the long run. From there the chain-reaction into EMU's soft-core would be fast and furious.

#11 The yield on 2 year Portuguese bonds is now over 15 percent.  A year ago the yield on those bonds was about 4 percent.
#12 Portugal, Ireland and Italy now also have debt to GDP ratios that are well above 100%.
#13 Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain owe the rest of the world about 3 trillion euroscombined.
#14 Major banks in the "healthy" areas of Europe could soon see their credit ratings downgraded.  For example, there are persistent rumors that Moody's is about to downgrade the credit ratings of several major French banks.
#15 Most major European banks are leveraged to the hilt and are massively exposed to sovereign debt.  Before it fell in 2008, Lehman Brothers was leveraged 31 to 1.  Today, major German banks are leveraged 32 to 1, and those banks are currently holding a massive amount of European sovereign debt.
#16 The ECB is not going to be able to buy up debt from troubled eurozone members indefinitely.  The European Central Bank is already holding somewhere in the neighborhood of 444 billion euros of debt from the governments of Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Spain.  On Friday, Jurgen Stark of Germany resigned from the European Central Bank in protest over these reckless bond purchases.
#17 According to London-based think tank Open Europe, the European Central Bank is now massively overleveraged....

"Should the ECB see its assets fall by just 4.23pc in value . . . its entire capital base would be wiped out."

#18 The recent decision issued by the German Constitutional Court seems to have ruled out the establishment of any "permanent" bailout mechanism for the eurozone.  Just consider the following language from the decision....

"No permanent treaty mechanisms shall be established that leads to liability for the decisions of other states, especially if they entail incalculable consequences"

#19 Economist Nouriel Roubini is warning that without "massive stimulus" by the governments of the western world we are going to see a major financial collapse and we will find ourselves plunging into a depression....

“In the short term, we need to do massive stimulus; otherwise, there's going to be another Great Depression”

#20 German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler is warning that "an orderly default" for Greece is not "off the table"....

''To stabilize the euro, we must not take anything off the table in the short run. That includes, as a worst-case scenario, an orderly default for Greece if the necessary instruments for it are available.''

Right now, Greece is caught in a death spiral.  The more austerity measures they implement, the more their economy slows down.  The more their economy slows down, the more their tax revenues go down.  The more their tax revenues go down, the worse their debt problems become.
Greece could end up leaving the euro, but that would make their economic problems far, far worse and it would be very damaging to the rest of the eurozone as well.
Quite a few politicians in Europe are touting a "United States of Europe" as the ultimate solution to these problems, but right now the citizens of the eurozone are overwhelming against deeper economic integration.
Plus, giving the EU even more power would mean an even greater loss of national sovereignty for the people of Europe.
That would not be a good thing.
So what we are stuck with right now is the status quo.  But the current state of affairs cannot last much longer.  Germany is getting sick and tired of giving out bailouts and nations such as Greece are getting sick and tired of the austerity measures that are being forced upon them.
At some point, something is going to snap.  When that happens, world financial markets are going to respond with a mixture of panic and fear.  Credit markets will freeze up because nobody will be able to tell who is stable and who is about to collapse.  Dominoes will start to fall and quite a few major financial institutions will be wiped out.  Governments around the world will have to figure out who they want to bail out and who they don't want to bail out.
It will be a giant mess.
For decades, the governments of the western world have been warned that they were getting into way too much debt.
For decades, the major banks and the big financial institutions were warned that they were becoming way too leveraged and were taking far too many risks.
Well, nobody listened.
So now we get to watch a global financial nightmare play out in slow motion.
Grab some popcorn and get ready.  It is going to be quite a show.


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