As Germany and Italy Slide Slowly to the Right, Sweden Doubles Down on Far-Left #PCMadness

Elections in Germany, Italy shift political landscape

By Nicholas Sakelaris

The Alternative for Germany Party -- led by Bjorn Hocke, at left -- made key gains in the regional parliament of Thuringia Sunday. File Photo by Filip Singer/EPA-EFE 

(UPI) -- The Alternative for Germany Party gained some key ground in elections over the weekend, but not enough to remove the Left Party from power.

The Left Party won 31 percent of the vote Sunday while the AfD Party claimed 23 percent in in Thuringia in eastern Germany. The Left Party was once part of the Communist Party in East Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union Party finished third in voting, adding uncertainty to the makeup of the future state government.

The AfD Party in Thuringia is led by Bjorn Hocke, who made a name for himself by speaking against the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, calling it a "memorial of shame." He wants a "reversal" of Germany's culture of remembrance.

Thuringia, Germany

In central Italy, the League Party gained control for the first time in a half-century in a landslide victory. It won 58 percent of Sunday's vote in Italy's Umbria region. The two ruling parties, the Democratic Party and the 5StarMovement, earned 37 percent.

"We are writing history here tonight," League leader Matteo Salvini said

The results could shake up Italy's government just two months after the Democratic Party and 5StarMovement removed League from power. Umbria has long been a left-leaning stronghold ruled by communist, left or center-left parties.

Sunday marked the first time the Democratic Party and 5StarMovement teamed up with a joint candidate. Before the election, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the election was "not a vote on my government."

Umbria, Italy

Civil war or bright future? Sweden beckons more migrants with ‘land of benefits’ website as ex-Scania CEO predicts grave conflict

A crowd of refugees arrives in Malmo © Reuters / TT News Agency

Sweden is beckoning even more migrants with a government website advertising its generous benefits system, while the former CEO of automaker Scania warns that a glut of foreigners is pushing the country toward civil war.

Sweden.se, a government-run website, entices migrants to make the journey north and details the benefits they can receive. Boasting the world's longest parental leave (though most new arrivals from the Middle East and Africa remain unemployed), Sweden also offers free health and dental care to immigrants, as well as sizable child allowances – which the website calculates for a family with six children.

The site, operated by the Swedish Institute (SI), is available in four languages – English, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic. While the English version offers the usual tourism-industry listicles on "10 Swedish myths uncovered" and "20 things to know before moving to Sweden," the Arabic version prominently features sections on benefits, acquiring work permits, and the rights of the child (including the right to education in their mother tongue).

Per-Arne Wikström, SI's head of communications, defended Stockholm's creation. "I have no problem with showing off that Sweden is a welfare country. We have a system that arouses interest," he told TV4 on Monday as politicians eviscerated the site for enticing even more migrants - needy, yet internet-connected - into a country already overburdened with benefits-seekers.

"Incredible. The government's own authority markets Sweden abroad as a generous grant country," tweeted Elisabeth Svantesson, economic policy spokesperson of the Moderate Party, while party leader Ulf Kristersson slammed the page for sending "a completely wrong signal" about Sweden.

Already, some 94 percent of migrants who came to Sweden in 2015 to seek asylum take state benefits, according to Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet, a situation which has nearly bankrupted municipalities like Bengtsfors and Filipstad. With almost 420,000 asylum seekers arriving in the country since 2011 - and a total of over 920,000 immigrants - the country, with less than 10 million inhabitants, is struggling to accommodate the new arrivals. 

"What Sweden needs is quotas in the welfare system and a strict migration policy. For a long time to come," Svantesson continued.

Sweden No-Go Zones

The cultural divide between native Swedes and new arrivals from the Middle East and Africa is too great to bridge in a single generation, former Scania CEO Leif Östling told Swedish outlet SwebbTV on Saturday. He warned that clashes between migrants and locals, which have already turned some areas into "no-go zones" where even the police fear to tread, could spiral into "internal wars" requiring the military to get involved.

The future is grim for Sweden's economy, Östling continued, "and it's because we've taken in far too many people from outside," with no thought toward whether they would be able to assimilate and acclimatize to Sweden's "incredibly complicated society."

Those who come from the Middle East and Africa live in a society that we left almost a hundred years ago.

Many corporate executives share his views, Östling said, but they are afraid to speak up for fear of hurting their companies. Sweden has long had a reputation as a country that is welcoming to migrants, and its government appears determined to keep up that image.

Even if it kills them!

‘Breaking Point’: Puerto Rico Files for Historic $70bn Bankruptcy

© Alvin Baez / Reuters

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is seeking the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in US history, after failed negotiations with creditors over its $70 billion debt crisis. That’s more than four times the debt Detroit collapsed under.

On Wednesday, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico announced they had moved to place the US territory into federal bankruptcy court, making it the largest entity of the US government to seek refuge from creditors in the courts in history. 

Chairman of the Oversight Board José Carrión said the filing was made to “provide a method for the Commonwealth and its instrumentalities to achieve fiscal responsibility and access to the capital markets,” according to a press release.

US territories are barred from filing for a traditional bankruptcy like most US cities or states. Last year, Congress approved the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) to address the impending financial crisis Puerto Rico was already facing.

Under the PROMESA bill, the oversight board and the Title III process were created. Title III, which is similar to the Chapter 9 bankruptcy, allows Puerto Rico and other US territories to restructure their debt under the supervision of a federal judge.

The announcement came a day after major creditors sued Puerto Rico over defaults to its bonds. The Commonwealth held several meetings with creditor representatives to come to an agreement. However, on Monday at midnight, a temporary court stay that protected Puerto Rico from lawsuits expired and negotiations were ended.

“We have sustained our position to negotiate in good faith, but before the current scenario, we choose to protect our people,” Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a tweet Wednesday.

Rossello sent a letter to the Financial Oversight and Management Board on Tuesday, saying he hopes the Title III proceedings will “accelerate the negotiation process, leading to as much creditor consensus where possible and achieving where necessary a prompt and efficient judicial resolution of any issues or disputes.” 

Ted Hampton, an analyst at Moody’s Investor Service, says the bankruptcy process is a “positive step.”

"Although a court proceeding will take considerable time and likely involve losses for all Puerto Rico bondholders, it will be an orderly process," Hampton says. 

On Wednesday, the oversight board declared the Commonwealth was “unable to provide its citizens with effective services,” according to court filings obtained by The Deal. 

That document shows Puerto Rico’s 10-year recession has led them to declare a “fiscal and socioeconomic crisis without precedent” in its history. Since 2007, the Commonwealth said it has seen a 14 percent decline in gross national product, a 23 percent decrease in employed persons and a 10 percent drop in population.

According to the US Census Bureau, 46 percent of Puerto Rico’s residents live below federal poverty levels, compared to the national average of 14 percent and 36 percent in Detroit. 

Puerto Rico has approximately $74 billion of bond debt and $48 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. The previous largest public bankruptcy in the US was set by Detroit in 2013 when it declared a total of $18 billion of bond debt and retirement obligations.

“The result is that Puerto Rico can no longer fully pay its debt and pay for government services. Nor can Puerto Rico refinance its debt—it no longer has access to the capital markets,” the oversight board said in the court filing. “In short, Puerto Rico’s crisis has reached a breaking point.”

Puerto Rico’s current fiscal plan sets aside $800 million a year for debt payments, however, it is only a fraction of the $35 billion it owes in interest in payments over the next 10 years. The cost of fully paying off their debt would be around $3.5 billion a year.

Is The Global Economy Imploding?

21 New Numbers That Show That The Global Economy Is Absolutely Imploding

By Michael Snyder

Earth At Night - Public Domain

After a series of stunning declines through the month of January and the first half of February, global financial markets seem to have found a patch of relative stability at least for the moment.  But that does not mean that the crisis is over.  On the contrary, all of the hard economic numbers that are coming in from around the world tell us that the global economy is coming apart at the seams.  This is especially true when you look at global trade numbers.

The amount of stuff that is being bought, sold and shipped around the planet is falling precipitously. So don’t be fooled if stocks go up one day or down the next.  The truth is that we are in the early chapters of a brand new economic meltdown, and I believe that all of the signs indicate that it will continue to get worse in the months ahead.  The following are 21 new numbers that show that the global economy is absolutely imploding…

#1 Chinese exports fell by 11.2 percent year over year in January.

#2 Chinese imports were even worse in January.  On a year over year basis, they declined a whopping 18.8 percent.

#3 It may be hard to believe, but Chinese imports have now plunged for 15 months in a row.

#4 In India, exports were down 13.6 percent on a year over year basis in January.

#5 In Japan, exports declined 8 percent in December on a year over year basis, while imports plummeted 18 percent.

#6 For the sixth time in six years, Japanese GDP growth has gone negative.

#7 In the United States, exports were down 7 percent on a year over year basis in December.

#8 U.S. factory orders have fallen for 14 months in a row.

#9 The Restaurant Performance Index in the United States has dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008.

#10 This month the Baltic Dry Index fell below 300 for the first time ever.

#11 It is now cheaper to rent a 1,100 foot merchant vessel than it is to rent a Ferrari.

#12 Orders for Class 8 trucks in the United States dropped by 48 percent on a year over year basis in January.

#13 Due to a lack of demand for trucks, Daimler just laid off 1,250 U.S. workers.

#14 Even though Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to freeze oil production at current levels, the price of U.S. oil has still fallen below 30 dollars a barrel.

#15 It is being reported that 35 percent of all oil and gas companies around the world are at risk of falling into bankruptcy.

#16 According to CNN, 67 oil and gas companies in the United States filed for bankruptcy during 2015.

#17 The number of job cuts in the United States skyrocketed 218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

#18 All over America, retail stores are shutting down at a stunning pace.  The following list of store closures comes from one of my previous articles…

-Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States.

-K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores over the next several months.

-J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores after closing a total of 40 stores in 2015.

-Macy’s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores and lay off approximately 2,500 employees.

-The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores in North America.

-Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores all across America.

-Finish Line has announced that 150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years.

-Sears has shut down about 600 stores over the past year or so, but sales at the stores that remain open continue to fall precipitously.

#19 The price of gold is enjoying its best quarterly performance in 30 years.

#20 Global stocks have fallen into bear market territory, which means that about one-fifth of all global stock market wealth has already been wiped out.

#21 Unfortunately for global central banks, they have pretty much run out of ammunition.  Since March 2008, central banks have cut interest rates 637 times and they have purchased a staggering 12.3 trillion dollars worth of assets.  There is not much more that they can do, and now the next great crisis is upon us.

Without any outside influences, the global economy and the global financial system will continue to rapidly fall apart.

But if we do have a major “black swan event” take place, that could cause the bottom to fall out at any moment.

In particular, I am deeply concerned about the possibility that World War III could be sparked in the Middle East.  In an article that I published earlier today entitled “Turkey Is Asking The United States To Take Part In A Ground Invasion Of Syria“, I included a quote from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that reveals just how eager Turkey and Saudi Arabia are for war to begin…

“Some countries like us, Saudi Arabia and some other Western European countries have said that a ground operation is necessary,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters in an interview.

However, this kind of action could not be left to regional powers alone. “To expect this only from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar is neither right nor realistic. If such an operation is to take place, it has to be carried out jointly, like the (coalition) air strikes,” he said.

The Turks and the Saudis very much want the United States to take a leading role in any ground invasion of Syria, but the Obama administration is not likely to do that.

So we shall see if the Turks and the Saudis are willing to go ahead without us.  Let us hope that they do not decide to invade Syria, because that could start the biggest war in the Middle East that any of us have ever seen.

Unfortunately, Turkey is already attacking.

Turkey has been shelling Kurdish and Syrian military positions in northern Syria for four days in a row even though the Obama administration has been urging them to stop.

The first month and a half of 2016 has already been quite chaotic, and the stage is set for global events to greatly accelerate during the months ahead.

Sadly, the mainstream media in the United States is largely ignoring the preparations for a ground invasion of Syria, and they keep telling us that the global economy is going to be just fine, so most ordinary Americans are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is about to happen.

With the last serious economic crash there were several large economies that were still strong and growing - China, India, Brazil. These countries helped pull the rest of the world out of recession. This year, one is hard-pressed to find any countries with strong, growing economies. There is no-one to throw a life-line. Even the Gulf States are suffering from low oil prices. 

Americans have printed money with shameful abandon and borrowed excessively since 2008 raising their debt to GDP ratio to serious levels. With China working hard to replace the dollar with the yuan as global currency, the American greenback may collapse precipitously. 

2016 should be a very interesting, if not frightening year. There is a lot more going on than just the primaries.