KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Monday February 23 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Greek finance minister says euro will collapse if Greece exits - (www.reuters.com) If Greece is forced out of the euro zone, other countries will inevitably follow and the currency bloc will collapse, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday, in comments which drew a rebuke from Italy. Greece's new leftist government is trying to re-negotiate its debt repayments and has begun to roll back austerity policies agreed with its international creditors. In an interview with Italian state television network RAI, Varoufakis said Greece's debt problems must be solved as part of a rejection of austerity policies for the euro zone as a whole. He called for a massive "new deal" investment programme funded by the European Investment Bank. "The euro is fragile, it’s like building a castle of cards, if you take out the Greek card the others will collapse." Varoufakis said according to an Italian transcript of the interview released by RAI ahead of broadcast. The euro zone faces a risk of fragmentation and "de-construction" unless it faces up to the fact that Greece, and not only Greece, is unable to pay back its debt under the current terms, Varoufakis said.

US Rig Count Plunges By Most Since 1993, Production Hits Record Highs - (www.zerohedge.com) Despite the dramatic plunge in rig counts, this week saw yet another surge in production to record highs and with storage levels getting close to full, it would seem - despite the bounce/squeeze in prices to $53 as the data hit - that supply remains well ahead of any demand. Total rig count dropped 98 to 1,358 - for the largest weekly drop of the 10 week run as cutting is accelerating rapidly - now down 30%. This is the biggest weekly rig count drop since 1993. West Virginia remains the relative hardest hit with rig count depletions but Permian Basin collapse 49 rigs to 369 this week. US Oil Rig Count Down 84 to 1,056. Canada Rig Count +1. Total Rig count... biggest percentage weekly drop since 1993

The ECB just made an worrying move in approving more emergency liquidity for Greek banks - (www.businessinsider.com) The European Central Bank (ECB) just increased the amount of emergency funding available to Greek banks by €5 billion — despite indications that the savers were pulling less of their money out in February. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the ECB was extending the Emergency Liquidity Assistance that can be given to Greek banks from its current (self-imposed) maximum of €60 billion to €65 billion. However, its reasons for doing so remain unclear. Earlier reports had suggested that fears of deposit flight, where Greek savers withdrew their money from banks and deprived them of a key source of funding, after the left-wing Syriza party took power and the ECB altered its rules to prevent Greek government debt (and government-guaranteed debt) from being used to access its emergency loan programme were failing to materialise. A survey of Greek banks found that although savers remained nervous about the new government's plans deposit outflows had slowed in February, according to Reuters.

Greek Crisis Set To Ignite Panic In Markets Around The World - (www.kingworldnews.com) Despite many global markets near all-time highs, today one of the legends in the gold world warned King World News that the Greek crisis will ignite panic in markets across the globe. Keith Barron: “The Greek crisis is being underplayed by leaders like Cameron and Merkel. Merkel even said, ‘If they want to go, they can go.’ But a Greek exit will cause absolute pandemonium in the banking system and Merkel knows that…. Fallout Will Be Much More Dangerous: When little Cyprus had their crisis it reverberated all around the world. This is a similar situation but the fallout will be much more dangerous. I’ve been predicting for at least six months on KWN that Greece would leave the euro. Of course if Greece leaves the euro, then the next to go will be the Italians, Spanish and the Portuguese. One of the problems is that there have been large withdrawals from Greek banks since the beginning of December. The Greeks are afraid of what happened in Cyprus after the bail-in. Everyone in Cyprus with more than 150 thousand euros in the bank actually had their money confiscated.

Taxpayers paying $39 billion a year for … nothing – (www.wnd.com) Americans are paying $39 billion a year – that’s $10 from every man, woman and child in the nation per month all year long – for essentially nothing. That’s the conclusion of a new report by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance called “Filling the Solar Sinkhole: Billions of Bucks Have Delivered Too Little Bang.” Its principle conclusion is that the Obama administration’s agenda of pushing more and more money to “green projects” isn’t helping the country and has cost $39 billion a year for each of the last five years. That’s $3,600 out of the grocery budget or housing budget for a family of six over that time span. “American taxpayers spent an average of $39 billion a year over the past five years financing grants, subsidizing tax credits, guaranteeing loans, bailing out failed solar energy boondoggles and otherwise underwriting every idea under the sun to make solar energy cheaper and more popular,” the report states. “But none of it has worked. Solar energy remains prohibitively expensive – often three times more than electricity produced from natural gas and other sources. As a result, less than 1 percent of the electricity consumers by Americans comes from solar energy sources.”

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