Approval Of DEH Privatization Plan

The plan for the privatisation of the Greek Public Public Corporation (DEH), and which was announced in May, involves a three-stage privatization plan that was finally approved by the cabinet this week which local press suggest was part of the required terms indicated by the troika to release the EUR 4bn disbursement. The plan calls for up to 49% of the transmission company (ADMHE) to be in the hands of private investors by the end of 2013, along with management with the option to go to 51% by 2014.

Furthermore, a “small PPC” is going to be created through the carve-out of 30% of the company’s production capacity, which will then be sold to investors by Q1 2015 and finally the divestment of 17% of the existing company by Q1 2016.

Aside from formulating the required structured ahead of privatization, these reforms also create the backdrop required for a fully liberalized electricity market.

NEW SCANDAL: 19 Summoned On Felony Charges In Shady Defense System Sale

According to press reports a Greek prosecutor on Thursday summoned 19 people to respond to felony charges in connection to the sale of a system designed to jam enemy communications to the Defense Ministry in 2001.

Following an investigation carried out by prosecutor Popi Papandreou, the Defense Ministry agreed to purchase the system for roughly 72 million euros (excluding value-added tax). However, press reports in Athens claim that it never accepted delivery of the software and hardware, despite providing the company with a 35-million-Euro advance.

Charges of defrauding the Greek state, and serving as accomplices, were apparently leveled against two ex-general secretaries who served at the Defense Ministry, an former army chief, the owner of the company involved, the company's managing director and about 14 members of the armed forces who served on committees that approved the deal.

A magistrate dealing with corruption issues is now expected to take over the case.

The Power Of The Big Banks - Who Controls The Global Economy?

Are the big banks really as powerful as some people say that they are?  Do they really control the global economy?  If you ask most people, they would tell you that governments control the global economy.  But the campaigns of our politicians are funded by the ultra-wealthy, the big banks and the large corporations that they control.  Others would tell you that the Federal Reserve and the rest of the central banks around the world control the global economy.

But the truth is that the Federal Reserve was established by the bankers and for the benefit of the bankers.  As you will see below, at the very core of the global economy there exists a "super-entity" of financial institutions that control an almost unimaginable amount of wealth and power.  These financial institutions and the ultra-wealthy individuals behind them are really the ones that are pulling all the strings.  In this world money equals power, and the borrower is the servant of the lender.

When you follow the pyramid all the way to the top, it begins to become very clear who really is in control.

In business schools all over America today, instead of dreaming of starting new businesses and contributing something positive to society, most business students are dreaming of going to Wall Street and getting rich.  But Wall Street doesn't actually create or build anything of value for society.  Instead, the bankers make most of their profits by essentially pushing money and paper around.


In a recent article, Chris Martenson commented on this...

    Today, some of the most celebrated individuals and institutions are ensconced within the financial industry; in banks, hedge funds, and private equity firms. Which is odd because none of these firms or individuals actually make anything, which society might point to as additive to our living standards. Instead, these financial magicians harvest value from the rest of society that has to work hard to produce real things of real value.
    While the work they do is quite sophisticated and takes a lot of skill, very few of these firms direct capital to new efforts, new products, and new innovations. Instead they either trade in the secondary markets for equities, bonds, derivatives, and the like, which perform the 'service' of moving paper from one location to another while generating 'profits.' Or, in the case of banks, they create money out of thin air and lend it out – at interest of course.

But just because they aren't adding much value to society does not mean that these big banks are not extremely powerful.  In fact, anyone that underestimates that power of these monolithic financial institutions is being quite foolish.

A team of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich studied the relationships between 37 million companies and investors worldwide, and what they found was absolutely stunning.

What they discovered is that there is a "super-entity" of just 147 very tightly knit companies that controls 40 percent of the entire network...

    When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.

So exactly who are the companies that are at the core of this "super-entity"?

Well, almost all of them are banks or financial institutions.  The following is a list of the 50 "most connected" companies from the study, and the notes in parentheses are from Chris Martenson...

1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc (Investment Management)
3. FMR Corporation (Financial Services)
4. AXA (Investments & Life Insurance)
5. State Street Corporation (Investment Management)
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co (Bank)
7. Legal & General Group plc (Investments & Life Insurance)
8. Vanguard Group Inc (Investment Management)
9. UBS AG (Bank)
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (Bank)
11. Wellington Management Co LLP (Investment Management)
12. Deutsche Bank AG (Bank)
13. Franklin Resources Inc (Investment Management)
14. Credit Suisse Group (Bank)
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp (Bank)
17. Natixis (Investment Management)
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (Bank)
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc (Investment Management)
20. Legg Mason Inc (Investment Management)
21. Morgan Stanley (Bank)
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (Bank)
23. Northern Trust Corporation (Investment Management)
24. Société Générale (Bank)
25. Bank of America Corporation (Bank)
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc (Bank)
27. Invesco plc (Investment mgmt) 28. Allianz SE 29. TIAA (Investments & Insurance)
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company (Investments & Insurance)
31. Aviva plc (Insurance)
32. Schroders plc (Investment Management)
33. Dodge & Cox (Investment Management)
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc* (Bank)
35. Sun Life Financial Inc (Investments & Insurance)
36. Standard Life plc (Investments & Insurance)
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc (Investments and Financial Services)
39. The Depository Trust Company (Securities Depository)
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV (Bank, Investments & Insurance)
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP (Financial Services)
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA (Bank)
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan (Owns a lot of banks' shares in Japan)
45. Vereniging Aegon (Investments & Insurance)
46. BNP Paribas (Bank)
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc (Owns stakes in 27 money management firms)
48. Resona Holdings Inc (Banking Group in Japan)
49. Capital Group International Inc (Investments and Financial Services)
50. China Petrochemical Group Company

Are you starting to get the idea?

The global economy truly is completely dominated by banks and other financial institutions.
In the United States, the big banks are not just content to own other companies anymore.  Now, some of our largest banks are actually starting to directly get into businesses such as "electric power production, oil refining and distribution, owning and operating of public assets such as ports and airports, and even uranium mining".  The following is an excerpt from a letter that several members of the U.S. Congress recently sent to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke...

    We write in regards to the expansion of large banks into what had traditionally been non-financial commercial spheres. Specifically, we are concerned about how large banks have recently expanded their businesses into such fields as electric power production, oil refining and distribution, owning and operating of public assets such as ports and airports, and even uranium mining.
    Here are a few examples. Morgan Stanley imported 4 million barrels of oil and petroleum products into the United States in June, 2012. Goldman Sachs stores aluminum in vast warehouses in Detroit as well as serving as a commodities derivatives dealer. This “bank” is also expanding into the ownership and operation of airports, toll roads, and ports. JP Morgan markets electricity in California.
    In other words, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are no longer just banks – they have effectively become oil companies, port and airport operators, commodities dealers, and electric utilities as well. This is causing unforeseen problems for the industrial sector of the economy. For example, Coca Cola has filed a complaint with the London Metal Exchange that Goldman Sachs was hoarding aluminum. JP Morgan is currently being probed by regulators for manipulating power prices in California, where the “bank” was marketing electricity from power plants it controlled. We don’t know what other price manipulation could be occurring due to potential informational advantages accruing to derivatives dealers who also market and sell commodities. The long shadow of Enron could loom in these activities.

This week, Goldman Sachs has been facing allegations that it has cost American consumers billions of dollars by manipulating the price of aluminum.  The following is from an article that was posted on CNBC...

    Hundreds of millions of times a day, thirsty Americans open a can of soda, beer or juice. And every time they do it, they pay a fraction of a penny more because of a shrewd maneuver by Goldman Sachs and other financial players that ultimately costs consumers billions of dollars.
    The story of how this works begins in 27 industrial warehouses in the Detroit area where Goldman stores customers' aluminum. Each day, a fleet of trucks shuffles 1,500-pound bars of the metal among the warehouses. Two or three times a day, sometimes more, the drivers make the same circuits. They load in one warehouse. They unload in another. And then they do it again.
    This industrial dance has been choreographed by Goldman to exploit pricing regulations set up by an overseas commodities exchange, an investigation by The New York Times has found. The back–and-forth lengthens the storage time. And that adds many millions a year to the coffers of Goldman, which owns the warehouses and charges rent to store the metal. It also increases prices paid by manufacturers and consumers across the country.

If that sounds shady to you, that is because it is shady.

But as the big banks continue to gain even more power in our society, this kind of thing will become even more common.

So what can we do about it?

Not much.

Do you think that the media will tell us the truth about all of this?  I wouldn't count on it.  At this point, there are just six giant media corporations that control more than 90 percent of the news and entertainment that you see on your television.  And those six giant media corporations are very hesitant to do anything that will damage their corporate owners or their corporate advertisers.

Do you think that our politicians will do anything about all of this?  I wouldn't count on it.  In national elections, the candidate that raises more money wins more than 80 percent of the time.  Our politicians know where their bread is buttered, and as history has shown most of them are very good to the guys with the big checkbooks.

As I said at the top of this article, money is power, and according to a report that was released last summer, the global elite have up to 32 TRILLION dollars stashed in offshore banks around the globe.

The global economy belongs to them.  We are just living in it.

But hopefully if enough people start waking up, someday we will see some significant changes.

By Michael Snyder - This article first appeared on the Economic Collapse Blog.  Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Click here to visit his blog.

BUSTED - Greek Shipowner Arrested For Embezzlement

Greek shipping tycoon Victor Restis, was charged with embezzlement at the expense of First Business Bank (FBB) bank, and given until Friday, July 26, to prepare his defence and led back to jail. According to press reports he was arrested the same day on a warrant related to a 5.8 million euros loan from FBB that ended up with a former business partner of his and gave his testimony before investigator Rea Katsiveli, specializing in corruption.

Reports claim that at least three people involved in the case are still at large.

The same sources note that Restis is denying the charges and claiming that he has sued his business partners over the loan case.

On the other, other reports claim that two more arrest warrants have been issued for former business partners of his.

A dispatch fropm the state news agency noted that Katsiveli ordered his arrest following press reports that initiated an investigation in January on bad loans made by FBB. The case file includes two reports by the Bank of Greece and a third one by the Authority for Fighting Money Laundering, while the exact loan amount is still being determined.

Meanwhile, the National Bank of Greece, which acquired FBB, issued a statement on Tuesday saying that it had "absorbed only the healthy part of FBB" and that it was "in no way responsible for actions or oversights by the previous administration of FBB."

The National Bank said it had taken over FBB's 19 branches as of May 13, 2013 and the former FBB had been placed under liquidation proceedings, which was still being carried out by an independent liquidator appointed by the Bank of Greece, the country's central bank.

Huge Migrant-Trafficking Bust - Greek Police Seeking More Suspects

Greek police officials announced that they are seeking a man and a woman, and possibly other suspects, in connection with a migrant-trafficking outfit discovered when 31 illegal migrants were arrested in the town of Aitoliko earlier this week shortly after they were let off a coach that had taken there from Athens. According to the authorities, each migrant had paid between 500 and 1,500 euros for their passage to Italy.

Also arrested as migrant traffickers were two Greek nationals, an Albanian and two Iraqis aged 49, 38, 36, 41 and 38 years old, respectively.

The five under arrest and the two sought by police are suspected of having formed a gang that transported illegal migrants from Greece to Italy. The bust was made by Messolonghi security police and the Aitolikos police department, who were acting on a tip-off. Based on the information at their disposal, police identified a hired coach driven by the 49-year-old, which had earlier let off the 31 migrants in a remote area at the Acheloos River estuary.

They also found two passenger vehicles driven by the other four suspects, which were driving before and behind the coach.

Based on a police investigation, the 49-year-old had made arrangements with the woman now being sought to pick up the 31 migrants at a central metro station in Athens on Monday afternoon. He then drove them to the Aitolikos region and, with the other suspects under arrest, led them to the Acheloos estuary. Their final destination was Italy, so police are also conducting an investigation to determine whether arrangements had been made and with whom to take them there by boat. (AMNA)

Cola & Honey: Excessive Amounts Harmful for Health

Drinking excessive amounts of cola and eating honey made from the pollen of Rhododendrons can cause unusual syncope (fainting) and symptoms of arrhythmia, report two case studies presented as abstracts at the EHRA EUROPACE 2013 meeting, in Athens 23 to 26 June.

     "Both these studies underline the importance of clinicians taking detailed medical histories for patients with unexplained arrhythmias and including questions about their dietary intakes," says Professor Andreas Goette, the EHRA Scientific Programme Committee chairperson.

In the first abstract¹ Dr. Naima Zarqane and Prof. Nadir Saoudi, from the Princess Grace Hospital Centre, Monaco, report how excessive consumption of cola drinks can result in marked potassium loss (hypokalemia), QT prolongation on ECGs and potentially life threatening arrhythmias.

In the abstract the team describe the case of a 31 year old woman admitted to hospital for traumatic syncope. Once other problems had been excluded (including a family history of sudden death, digestive symptoms, and metabolic or hormonal abnormalities), tests revealed the patient had blood potassium levels of 2.4 mmol/L, and a QTc (The QT interval on the ECG corrected for heart rate) of 610 ms. Normal blood potassium levels range between 3.5 to 5.1 mmol/L; while the normal QTc for women is less than or equal to 450 ms.

When they took a medical history the clinicians discovered that since the age of 15 years the patient had exclusively replaced water with cola beverages. When cola consumption ceased on medical advice, the patient's potassium level returned to 4.1 mmol/L at one week, and 4.2 mmol/L at one month, and her QTc duration returned to 430 ms at one week.

A literature search revealed six other case studies where excessive cola consumption could be related to adverse medical conditions including rhabdomyolysis (damaged skeletal muscle tissue), arrhythmias, and even one death related to Torsades de pointes (a form of ventricular tachycardia that can degenerate into ventricular fibrillation).

There are two potential explanations for the connection between cola consumption and low blood potassium level the authors say. Through osmotic principles the high fructose corn syrup content of cola is likely to prevent water from being absorbed by the gut and lead to people suffering from diarrhoea that is associated with heavy fluid losses that 'flush' potassium out of the body. Additionally, caffeine in the cola is also likely to have an effect on the loop of Henle in the kidneys where it reduces the amount of potassium that is reabsorbed. In the heart reduced extracellular potassium can inhibit the potassium current in ion channels and delay ventricular repolarisation that may in turn promote arrhythmias.

"One of the take home messages is that cardiologists need to be aware of the connection between cola consumption and potassium loss and should ask patients found to have QT prolongation about beverage habits," says Dr. Zarqane.

     "It's also important that the people are made aware of the potential health dangers of excessive consumption of sugary drinks. There are important political messages for governments to ensure that bottled water is cheaper than sugary drinks, which is not always the case," says Prof. Saoudi.

In a further study it would be helpful to explore whether there are differences in blood levels of potassium between people who had high cola intakes, and people who did not consume the drink, he says. Excessive drinking of cola and other sugary beverages is likely to have additional adverse cardiovascular effects. "Due to the high calorie intake it's likely to result in weight gain which increases the risk of developing metabolic syndrome," said Prof. Saoudi.

'Mad Honey Poisoning'

In the second abstract² Dr. Ugur Turk, from Central Hospital, Izmir, Turkey, reports on the cases of a 68 year old father and 27 year old son who were both admitted to the Izmir emergency department at the same time with symptoms of vomiting and dizziness. Surface ECGs revealed both patients to have complete atrioventricular block and atrial flutter with slow ventricular responses.

When a history was taken both father and son reported that their breakfasts over the past three mornings had included high amounts of honey from the Black sea region of Turkey. This information immediately triggered Turk and colleagues to consider that their patients could be suffering from 'mad honey poisoning'.

Mad honey poisoning occurs after people consume honey contaminated with grayanotoxin, a chemical contained in nectar from the Rhododendron species ponticum and luteum. Grayanotoxin is a neurotoxin that binds to the sodium channels in the cell membrane, maintaining them in an open state and prolonging depolarisation.

     "It's like the effect of cholingeric agents, and results in stimulation of the unmyelinated afferent cardiac branches of the vagus nerve which leads to a tonic inhibition of central vasomotor centres with a reduced sympathetic output and a reduced peripheral vascular resistance,"says Dr. Turk, "This in turn triggers the cardioinhibitory Berzold-Jarisch reflex which leads to bradycardia, continued hypotension, and peripheral vasodilatation."

Mad honey poisoning generally lasts no more than 24 hours, with symptoms of the mild form including dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, excessive perspiration, hypersalivation and paraesthesia. Symptoms of the more severe form include syncope, seizures, complete atrioventricular block and even fatal tachyarrhythmias (due to oscillatory after potentials).

While no specific antidote exists for grayanotoxin poisoning mild cases can be treated with atropine and selective M2 muscarinic receptor antagonists; while for the more severe form treatment options include temporary pacemaker implantation, and vasopressor agents.

The possibility of honey poisoning, says Dr. Turk, should always be considered in previously healthy patients admitted with unexplained hypotension, bradycardia and other rhythm disturbances. The condition occurs most frequently in people who have consumed honey from the Black sea region of Turkey, a major bee keeping area that is also the native habitat of Rhododendron ponticum and luteum.

"The dissemination of honey around the world means that physicians any where may be faced with honey poisoning," says Dr. Turk. Anyone buying honey from Turkey should first consume a small amount and leave it a few days before eating any more to check that they do not experience strange side effects.

The symptoms of both father and son resolved without the need for any medications and they were discharged from hospital on the fourth day. When their honey was sent away for melissopalynology, (analysis of the pollen contained in honey) the result revealed it did indeed contain pollen from the Rhododendron species.

Bus Routes In Southern Athens To Change When Metro Stations Open On Weekend

The Athens public transport organisation announced imminent changes to bus routes serving the city's southern suburbs as of this Saturday, when the new metro stations on the extension of line 2 are open for use by the public. The new stations are in Ilioupoli, Alimos, Argyroupoli and Elliniko.

Based on the new plan, buses previously beginning their routes from Agios Dimitrios or Dafni stations are set to be transferred to Elliniko, while other lines are going to be merged or abolished.

The changes include:

Bus E22 will be renamed E22 Elliniko Station-Saronida (Express) and start/end at Elliniko.

Bus X97 will be renamed X97 Elliniko Station-Athens Airport (Express) and start/end at Elliniko.

Bus 171 will be renamed 171 Elliniko Station-Varkiza and start/end at Elliniko

Bus 124 will be renamed 124 Glyfada-Agia Triada-Elliniko Station and start/end at Elliniko

Bus 141 will have a new route and be renamed 141 "Dafni Station-Kalamaki"

Bus 247 will have a new route and be renamed 142 "Argyroupoli Station-Kalamaki"

Bus 155 will be merged with bus 216 and renamed 155 "Elliniko - Alimos Station - Agia Marina" and start/end at Alimos station

Bus 101 is renamed 101 "Elliniko-Alimos" and its route modified to serve local movements in the Elliniko and Alimos area and to link these areas with Alimos station.

Bus 210 "Terpsithea-Elliniko-Agios Dimitrios" is suspended since the area is served by other buses

Bus 202 "Dafni Station - Synggrou Station- Fix" is also suspended due to low passenger traffic.

Bus B2 "Acadimia-Agios Kosmas (via the coastal road)" will be made more frequent.

"CoralWarm" European project for study on coral reefs and global warming

The European Research Council (ERC), an agency supporting cutting-edge research in the EU, has awarded a grant of more than three million Euros to conduct a study on corals and global warming to Zvy Dubinsky, a leading researcher of aquatic photosynthesis at Bar-Ilan University's Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, and coral biologist Stefano Goffredo and Guiseppe Falini, an expert in bio-mineralization, of Italy's University of Bologna, as well as a team of scientists including Luca Pasquini, of the University of Bologna, and Oren Levy, a molecular biologist at Bar-Ilan.

Palestinian scientists and students from Al-Quds University will also collaborate on the project.

The project, entitled "Corals and global warming: the Mediterranean versus the Red Sea (CoralWarm)", will be carried out over a period of five years. The main goal of the project is to create a mathematical model which will enable scientists to foresee how Mediterranean and tropical coral reefs will change over the next 50-100 years, following temperature and acidity increase, as forecasted by IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Scientists involved in the project will collect data about Meditteranean and Red Sea key coral species. All the data collected from the stations during Scuba dives will then be analyzed from different approaches: the chemical, bio-molecular, physiological and morphological aspects. Additional data will be collected via corals raised in aquaria at Bar-Ilan University. All of the data will help understand how coral populations will change in relation to solar radiation and pH variations.

Corals are major bio-constructors on earth. They build tri-dimensional habitats, which then host the rest of the food chain actors. That's why a coral reef reduction or deterioration will cause major effects not only on the environment, but also to the economy. The negative effects will affect fishery, tourism and also the protection of coastlines that is now guaranteed by tropical coral reef.