Keiser: Greece should float its income producing assets rather than sell them off (VIDEO)

Compare the tens of billions Groupon is, according to Max Keiser, expected to raise on the Nasdaq using fantasy accounting and negative cashflow to the mere hundreds of millions that Spain and Greece are selling off their income producing assets. It would also leave them open to being able to buy back the shares as their economies improve.

Greece’s prized assets of up for grabs to show its credit worthiness. But according to a recent report on Max Keiser, so is Ireland, and Spain.

The video below is indicative of this.

There is more of an "ominous problem" in Greece than a probable default

Greenlight's latest investor letter is out, via Zerohedge, and David Einhorn had much to say on the crisis in Greece, but kept his Ben Bernake slamming relatively contained, and asked why S&P is waiting to downgrade the US.

So, firstly, Einhorn doesn't see how privatization of state assets in Greece will resolve the country's underlying insolvency issues.

He believes the efforts so far "aren’t really designed to prevent what most people would recognize as a default or losses to bondholders. They are designed to hide a much more ominous problem."

That problem? A credit event that would "trigger the payout" on credit default swaps.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy declared that there could not be a “credit event.” Why would Mr. Sarkozy do this? Perhaps the French banks have enormous exposure to sovereign credit events, and it might not be just a Greek default that they are worried about.

Likely, the real worry is that the first default will expose the fiction that sovereign debt is risk-free. If the authorities permit one default, their credibility to prevent additional defaults will be lost. No one knows just how much aggregate exposure to sovereign debt and CDS is hidden in the banking system, and no one is itching to find out.

Einhorn also panned the ratings agencies on the situation closer to home, after S&P said that if need be, they would downgrade the U.S -- "Earth to S&P: if you can foresee a near-term default scenario that is plausible enough for you to warn about it, AAA cannot be the correct current rating," he wrote. And though it wasn’t as piqued as in earlier letters, Einhorn couldn't resist a jab at Bernanke:

Higher energy and food prices are crowding out consumer demand for other items, and the market consensus is that QE2 has proven to be counter-productive. Unable to concede this, Mr. Bernanke nonetheless seems determined to have it both ways, remarking in a recent speech that monetary policy cannot be a panacea. We won’t know whether the Fed is serious until it withholds monetary easing in the face of a further softening of economic conditions or a falling stock market.

The hedge fund dumped Yahoo, MDC Holdings (held since '96 and "one of the biggest contributors to the Partnerships’ returns of all time"), CIT, MI Developments, Xeroz, Vicat SA. Meanwhile, Greenlight opened a stake in Seagate Technology. 

On stock-picking in this market, Einhorn opined on how much easier it was to read the original tech bubble, compared to whatever it is that is happening right now: 


One difference between then and now is that during the internet bubble, the market categorized stocks into “new economy” and “old economy.” It was relatively easy to pick out the dangerous stocks. This time the distinction is less clear.

The fund also recorded a big loss on its Yen position, with Greenligh Capital LP, Greenlight Capital    Qualified and Greenlight Capital Offshore returning (2.5)%, (2.1)% and (2.2)%1 net of fees and expenses, respectively in Q2, "bringing the respective year to date net returns to (5.0)%, (5.0)% and (5.3)%." 


In summary Greenlight's "longs declined a fraction of a percent... shorts rose by about a percent and... lost a little bit on macro investments... The main problem with [its] performance was a lack of winners in the quarter."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com

Greeks have had it up to here with politicians… yogurt flies

Greeks are getting personal. Increasingly angry with politicians they blame for dragging their country to the brink of financial ruin, they are picketing their homes, jeering them and even pelting them with yoghurt.

As the debt crisis deepens, the incidents multiply. Greek media have counted more than 80 verbal and physical attacks against MPs in recent months, prompting Prime Minister George Papandreou this week to condemn the spate of violence. "It must be made clear to all that attacks against parliamentarians and citizens mutilate democracy," Papandreou told his cabinet in nationally televised comments.

Long seen as honest and affable, Papandreou himself has not been spared attacks, drawing boos at public appearances since imposing harsh austerity in exchange for a 110-billion-euro IMF/EU bailout a year ago. "People see that politicians have cheated them and anger grows," said Dimitris Kollatos, a theatre director who launched the Door-to-Door movement, organising pickets at politicians' houses. "It will get worse this winter."

The public blames the entire political class for decades of corruption and mismanagement that have brought Greece close to bankruptcy and debt default. At daily protests in the central Syntagma Square, nooses swing from mock gallows as crowds chant "Thieves, Thieves" at parliament.

Fury is directed at all parties. Hundreds have protested recently at the homes of former prime ministers Costas Simitis, a socialist, and Costas Karamanlis, a conservative. "Going to people's homes to protest is an ancient Greek tradition," Kollatos told Reuters in Athens, home to one of the first known democracies. "If you are a politician who mocks people and abuses power, we have a right to come to your home."

Door-to-Door is peaceful, usually shouting slogans such as "Where did you get the money?" and "Apologise!". But some protests have been violent.

Former conservative transport minister Costis Hatzidakis was hospitalised in December after being attacked by bus driver union members with sticks and stones outside parliament. But the most common form of protest is jeers and derogatory slogans as politicians appear in public, either for work or just dining out with their families. Some have confessed to friends they have cancelled social outings for fear of being harassed.

The ruling socialists are blaming the Left Coalition party of instigating many of these attacks but the leftists deny any involvement, saying people's righteous indignation is justified.

"I will not be intimidated by this ideological terrorism," Civil Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis, in charge of police, told parliament this week, referring to protests at his house he said were politically motivated. "Stay away from my wife and child," he said.

Another popular way to show anger is to hurl yoghurt at politicians. At least 5 have been subjected to this so far, including Communist Party (KKE) deputy Liana Kanelli on her way to parliament for a vote on a fresh wave of austerity measures. "I tasted it and it was good quality," she joked with reporters after being pelted in June. "Thankfully, I had another shirt with me."

Health Minister Andreas Loverdos was less amused when he and his entourage were attacked with eggs and other projectiles in April, sending some socialist officials to hospital. "It was not enough for them to shout, they came to strike us," he said. "But nobody can stop us from doing our work."

Kollatos said his group was in favour of throwing yoghurt as a benign way of protesting but nothing beyond that. "Yoghurt is not bad. An egg's a little bit worse," he said

Sources: http://www.timeslive.co.za