If You're Outraged By Greece Now, Wait Till You Read Michael Lewis' New Book

Financial journalist and award-winning author Michael Lewis is out with a new book called "Boomerang."

And based solely on its RAVE book review in The New York Times, it sounds awesome and relevant.

The new book traces the origins of the European sovereign debt crisis, giving "the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008..."

The prime example of course is Greece. Lewis writes about how Greece rang up massive debt, according to a review by The New York Times:

Greece, Mr. Lewis writes, ran up astonishing debts — from high-paying government jobs and generous pensions, as well as waste, bribery and theft — that came to “about $1.2 trillion, or more than a quarter-million dollars for every working Greek.” In just the last 12 years, he says, “the wage bill of the Greek public sector has doubled, in real terms” with the average government job now paying almost three times the average private sector job. Those who work in jobs classified as “arduous” can retire and start collecting pensions, he adds, “as early as 55 for men and 50 for women”; more than 600 Greek professions have somehow managed “to get themselves classified as arduous: hairdressers, radio announcers, waiters, musicians, and on and on and on.”

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-lewis-new-book-2011-9#ixzz1ZGLBFX8i

The Circular Logic That Dooms Euro TARP From The Start

The Eurozone bailout, now being referred to as Euro TARP, is doomed to fail.  While nothing has been officially announced the markets are rallying broadly on the back of a news article published by CNBC on Monday. The details are lacking as to the actual structure but speculation is already running rampant across the financial markets as to what it might look like.  

What is presumed is that Euro TARP will follow the proposal originally proffered by Tim Geithner on his European trip recently. That proposal had been widely dismissed by the G20 as they couldn't come to terms on any type of structure. The current idea outlined by CNBC will bypass the G20 entirely and allow the European Investment Bank (EIB), a bank owned by the member states of the European Union, to take money from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and capitalize a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that it will create.  

The SPV will then issue bonds to investors and use the proceeds to purchase sovereign debt of distressed European states, which will hopefully alleviate the pressure on the distressed states (PIIGS) and the European banks that already own their sovereign debt.     

If alarm bells aren't already going off they will be in just moment as you get the gist of the rest of this disastrous plan. 

Read more: http://www.streettalklive.com/daily-x-change/367-why-the-euro-tarp-is-doomed-to-fail.html#ixzz1ZGKPTQw5