Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Rajoy Further Implicated In Scandal; Support Drops To 23.9% In Record Plunge

Prime minister Mariano Rajoy is now personally implicated in the slush fund scandal in Spain. Via Google translate, please consider Rajoy and his family were paid with money from Gürtel travel

The front page of Monday’s newspaper “La Gaceta” promises new revelations about political scandals that are playing close to the popular government of Mariano Rajoy.
The fore mentioned entitled ‘A Rajoy also paid travel, “about a picture of the back of the highest representative of the Spanish.

“His wife, his son and personal assistant flew business class to Las Palmas with money Gürtel”, added the subtitle, attaching notes as evidence under seal ‘exclusive’.That should not be a surprise, but what choices do voters have?

Mish / Mike Shedlock – Big Brother In Action : EU Wants Power To Sack Journalists; Prime Minster Rajoy Threatens Newspapers Following Corruption Articles

“Big Brother” in Action

In case you have not already realized it, 1984 has come and gone politically. All that remains is how fast we march down the path of “thought suppression”. Here are a couple of articles that will make my point.

The Telegraph reports EU wants power to sack journalists

A European Union report has urged tight press regulation and demanded that Brussels officials are given control of national media supervisors with new powers to enforce fines or the sacking of journalists.

The “high level” recommendations that will be used to draft future EU legislation also attack David Cameron for failing to automatically implement proposals by the Lord Justice Leveson inquiry for a state regulation of British press.

Mish / Mike Shedlock – China Averts $482 Billion In Local Bank Defaults Via Massive Rollover Scheme; Extend And Pretend Chinese Style

The Chinese banking system is insolvent. Of course, the entire global banking system is insolvent, but today’s spotlight is on China. Please consider China averts local government defaults.

Chinese banks have rolled over at least three-quarters of all loans to local governments that were due to mature by the end of 2012, an indication of the immense challenge facing China in working down its debt load.

Local governments borrowed heavily from banks to fuel China’s stimulus programme during the global financial crisis and are now struggling to generate the revenue to pay them back, a shortfall that could cast a shadow over Chinese economic growth.

Mish / Mike Shedlock – Iceland Wins! “Icesave” Lawsuit Dismissed, Court Orders EC And EFTA To Pay Costs

Iceland in an economic recovery thanks to its decision to not bailout banks at taxpayer expense during the great financial collapse. Iceland’s decision upset the UK and Netherlands. Both countries foolishly decided to reimburse its depositors, then sue Iceland to pay.

The story goes back to 2010 and I have commented many times on Iceland and Icesave and how Iceland was doing the right thing.

Here are a couple links on Icesave if you need to refresh your memory.

• Iceland Rejects IceSave; Does No Mean No?
• Icelandic Voters Reject “Icesave” Again, Effectively Telling UK and Netherlands Banks “Go to Hell”; Iceland’s Common Sense Stance

Iceland Wins in Court

Here is an image clip of page 36 of the court decision completely exonerating Iceland.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – When’s The Breaking Point?

Spanish banks have already shed 30,000 jobs in its banking crisis. Another 20,000 cuts are due in 2013, along with pay cuts and reduced pension contribution. In response Spain’s Banking Unions Announce Strikes.

Workers at three of Spain’s bailed-out banks will stage strikes in coming weeks as they fight mass layoffs, unions said on Monday, spreading industrial unrest to a sector where walkouts have so far been rare.

While the banks, crippled by a property bubble that burst five years ago, have hogged headlines, employees have so far mostly kept a low profile even as protests become a way of life elsewhere in Spain.

But about 20,000 layoffs planned for 2013, almost 10 percent of the total, could reduce the workforce to levels last seen in 1975, data from the unions showed.

Mike Shedlock – Massive Fraud In Spain Threatens Entire Government Of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy; Protestors In Madrid Shot “Resignation”

I am piecing together a story of fraud and corruption involving the highest levels of Spanish government. My unnamed sources think it could bring down Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

However, the news articles I have (primarily in Spanish) are particularly choppy.

The brief background story is “black money” (under the table fraud or bribes) was paid monthly to top Partido Popular (PP) party leaders.

PP is the party of prime minister Rajoy. Amounts ranged from 5,000 to 15,000 euros per month, between executive secretaries, public officials and other members of the PP. Top party officials were aware of, approved, or were part of the scheme.

Ex-Treasurer Hides €22 million in Swiss Account

Starting with an article in English, the Irish Times reports Ex-treasurer of Spain’s PP had €22m in Swiss bank