Depression verses “helicopter money”


CuriousityQUESTION:  you wrote the Socrates site on 3/23/2016 “Once the “confidence” in government cracks for the BULK OF THE SILENT MAJORITY who do not listen to money supply and conspiracy theories, then we move into game over. That is when we will see assets rise as confidence shifts from a corrupt government for the majority will no longer trust then and they will turn to the private sector.” Mr. Armstrong can you please name the private assets that will appreciate? and if there are similarities with 1929, where we are now in 2016? Thank you for all your efforts to teach us the world economy.

DS

LongBranchNJ-DepressionScrip

ANSWER: There is absolutely no correlation with 1929 from the USA perspective. The people who see that nonsense do not know the facts or the history. The 1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis was omitted from the history books. John Kenneth Galbraith blamed corporations in his book the Great Crash which ignored the government defaults and blamed corporate America. There was no “helicopter money” for it was exactly the opposite – massive DEFLATION. There was a shortage of money to the point that hundreds of cities began to issue their own “Depression Scrip”.

All of these forecasts keep projecting hyperinflation are based solely upon a misguided notion of what caused the German hyperinflation. The USA suffered massive DEFLATION because of a contraction in money supply, not inflation. So what we face is not a 1929 scenario and the analysis put out there on that event is commingled with the German hyperinflation creating a hybrid of something which has NEVER taken place in history even once.

Confidence-wide

Everything hinges upon the “confidence” of the silent majority. They are starting to rumble. That is the key to the future. We are watching this beginning and that is Trump, precisely in line with out model calling for political chaos to emerge in 2016.

Have Governments Always Spent More than Tax Revenues?


 

Die Herennius cr 464-2 or cr 308-1a Pietas leftHerennius 308-1aIt might surprise many, nonetheless, governments have routinely spent more than they take in from taxes. In ancient times, governments simply minted more coins to fund their operations, they did not generally borrow. Some Greeks borrowed from the temples to fund wars and did default. However, typically, tax revenues amounted to only about 80% of expenditure. Records have survived as well as dies from which coins were struck. Pictured here, you will see an actual Roman die from the Republican period which has survived. Each die was hand carved so we can distinguish between dies and as such, the fact that the average number of coins produced before a die breaks is about 15,000. Here is a coin struck from this issue that this die represents. Since we can catalogue the number of known dies, we then can reasonably estimate the annual production of money in the Roman Republic as well as the Imperial era.

Rep155-66BC-Production

Tiberius TOKENS - RThe above chart demonstrates the annual production of coinage during the Roman Republic 155-66BC. We can differentiate periods of contraction (deflation) from inflation. We can see that some periods were clearly deflationary and there emerged a shortage of money at times. The Roman Emperor Tiberius, who followed Augustus in 14AD, was notoriously frugal. We find private coinage appearing as tokens to make up the difference for such periods of deflation.

The private token issues during the period of Tiberius (14-37AD) are reminescent of the Great Depression when hundreds of cities issued Depression Scrip. We also find private token coinage produced during the American Civil War. They even issued Postage Currency whereby stamps were exchanged as money.

 

MoneySuppy-157-50BC

Decline Roman Monetary System Martin ArmstrongEconomicsIf we then can ascertain the annual production of coinage with a reasonable degree of accuracy, adding up those annual production figures will give us a look at the total money supply. We are then able the also reasonably ascertain that the Roman government collected only about 80% of its total expenditure from taxes. The rest was not borrowed, but simply produced.

Consequently, this provides the understanding as to why there would even be the practice of debasement. The fact that tax revenues fell short of expenses explains that about 20% of the annual budget was covered by new mine production. Rarely has there ever been a “balanced” budget based exclusively on tax revenue.

This further explains why coins of someone like Gordian I (238AD) who reigned only thirty-six days have survived and bring today about $3,000 instead of hundreds of thousands.

 

Then there is the coinage of Didius Julianus, his wife and daughter who ruled only for 66 days in 193AD.  The corruption had reached such levels that it was clear that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire began at this junction in time. The Praetorian Guard actually accepted bids for the position of Emperor. There were two rival bidders who presented themselves – Titus Flavius Sulpicianus (father-in-law of Pertinax) and Marcus Didius Julianus. Didius’ bid was 25,000 sestertii per man, which was the high bid and he was duly declared Emperor. This is why there was so much coinage which has survived for someone who was in office just 66 days.

Today, to cover the short-fall, governments borrow each year with no intention of paying anything back. The Romans did not borrow, they increased the money supply to cover the short-fall in expenditure. This was the common practice and it did not cause runaway inflation. That came during the 3rd century following the capture of Valerian I by the Persians who turned him into a royal slave and when he died, they stuffed him as a trophy. This resulted in the collapse in the money supply as people hoarded and feared the invasion of barbarians. This is when the wall was built around Rome by Aurelian (270-275AD).

US Debt accumulated Interest as Percent of total

Should we stop the borrowing and just increase the money supply as a finite percent of GDP? This makes sense when at time up to 70% of the accumulated national debt has been simply interest expenditures.

  We Want Free trade, but what is it?


The concept of Free Trade is very simple but it is found nowhere on the planet today and for most of the past as well; and a hard fact is that if a federal government is involved even a little bit you can bet your bottom dollar there is no Free Trade. Free Trade means that ever transaction is a negotiation between the two parties which are the buyer and the seller for a greed to price in some currency for a good or service in a different country.

So let’s set up a two country world model country A the USA and country B China. The buyer in country A gets the goods and the seller in country B gets the currency. Where things get sticky is what does the seller do with the currency he gets, dollars in this case, since he can’t spend it in his country?  Well you say he takes it to the bank and converts it into the currency the seller uses, Yuan in this case, at some specified exchange rate; but that doesn’t solve the problem it just transfer it to the bank. The bank will hold the dollars for a time as the bank knows that a buyer in the banks country will need the Dollars they are holding to buy something in the USA at some time in the near future.  Now so long as the need for Dollars and Yuan are proportionally equal, say one Dollar for one Yuan the trading system is in balance and we have Free Trade; meaning at the end of the year the bank has no dollars or yuan in its trading account.

Now we add a complication to the analysis which is what does the bank do if at the end of the year it has a balance of dollars, a surplus, which were not needed?  Well since we are still in a Free Trade situation the bank could reduce the exchange rate making the Dollars cheaper vis-a-vis the Yuan say two Dollars for one Yuan which makes the USA goods 50% cheaper. So the demand for dollars goes up and more USA goods are purchase and the system is back in balance. So there is a method to insure that the trade is in fact free; meaning free of government interference i.e. tariffs, customs inspections, fixed exchange rates and various standards and quotas.

What the cleaver Asians have figured out, first the Japanese, is that the American politicians are stupid and corrupt and like buying votes with free things to the poor.  But to get the money for paying for the free things (someone does have to pay) they would need to tax the rich and since they are the rich that wouldn’t work so well so they needed another way to get the money that they could blame on others, evil companies. In the previous example we had a surplus of Dollars in China being held by the bank and so in this example the Chinese government took the Dollars from the banks at the previous rate of one Dollar per one Yuan so they now had the dollars. Now the cleaver part was that they didn’t buy goods in the USA they bought US Treasuries, basically they were leading their Dollars to the US Government. And our government was glad to get them as it gave them more money to buy free things for the masses. However there was a price this system made it almost impossible for the US companies to compete in China; and worse it made the Chinese goods so cheap that they had to start buying their parts from China. This system is not sustainable as there are only so many jobs that can be shipped to China and at that point they will have trillions of Dollars in their hands and they will end up buying the country with it.

EXPORT JOBS

We are now in a political a system, not an economic system, where we get cheap goods and in return we ship them our jobs. No sane government would ever do this as it can’t last very long and at some point there is no returning to the old system, and we are almost there.

Analysis of Global Temperature Trends, February, 2016 What’s really going on with the Climate?


The analysis and plots shown here are based on the following: first NASA-GISS temperature anomalies (converted to degrees Celsius so non-scientists will understand the plots) as shown in their table LOTI, second James E. Hansen’s Scenario B data, which is the very core of the IPCC Global Climate models (GCM’s) and which was based on a CO2 sensitivity value of 3.0O Celsius, lastly, a plot based on an alternative climate model designated ‘PCM’ based on a sensitively value of 0.65O Celsius.

Note: I am making a revision to my model based on some new information that will make my climate model more accurate; even with the NASA/NOAA data manipulation which is in full force now. I expect to have this work completed by the next post for January 2016 data. This change has been completed and this paper uses the new a revised model. This change was to link the developed patterns to multiples of Pi which did in fact make an improvement and reduced errors from NASA observations.

An explanation of the alternative model designated, PCM, is in order since many have interpreted this PCM model as a statistical least squares projection of some kind. Nothing could be further from the truth. A decade ago when I started this work the first thing I did was look at geological temperature changes since it is well known that the climate is not a constant; I learned that in my undergrad geology and climatology courses in 1964.

The following observations give a starting point to any serious study. First, there is a clear movement in global temperatures with a 1,000 some year cycle going back at least 3,000 to 4,000 years; probably because of the apsidal precession of about 21,000 years for a complete cycle. However about every 10,000 years the seasons are reversed making the winter colder and the summer warmer in the northern hemisphere. 10,000 years from now the seasons will be reversed. Secondly, there are also 60 to 70 year cycles in the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans that are well documented. Lastly we also know that there are greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) estimated that carbon dioxide had a doubling rate of 3.0O Celsius plus or minus 1.5O Celsius in 1979.

The core problem with the current climate change theory is that the IPCC still uses the NAS 3.0O Celsius as the sensitivity value of carbon dioxide and a number in that range is required to make the IPCC GCM’s work. The problem with using this value is it leaves no room for other factors and hence the need of the infamous hockey stick plots of the IPCC from Mann, Bradley & Hughes in 1999. The PCM model is based on a much lower value for carbon dioxide consistent with current research that places the value between 0.65O and 1.5O Celsius per doubling of carbon dioxide. If the long and short movement in temperatures and a lower value for carbon dioxide are properly analyzed and combined a plot that matched historical and current (non manipulated) NASA temperature estimates very well can be constructed. This is not curve fitting.

The PCM model is such a construct and it is not based on statistical analyses of raw data. It is based on creating curves that match observations (which is real science) and those observations appear to be related to the movement of water in the world’s oceans. The movements of ocean currents are well documented in the literature. All that was done here was properly combine the separate variables into one curve which had not been previously done, to my knowledge. Since this combined curve is an excellent predictor of global temperatures unlike the IPCC GCM’s, it appears to reflect reality a bit better than the convoluted IPCC GCM’s, which after the past 19 years of no statistical warming have been shown to be in error.

Now, to smooth out highly erratic monthly variations a 12 month running average is used in all the plots. This information will be shown in four tables and updated each month as the new data comes in about the middle of the month. Since no model or simulation that cannot reasonably predict that which it was design to do is worth anything the information presented here definitively proves that NASA, NOAA and the IPCC just don’t have a clue.

Note, starting in late 20014 and continuing to the present NASA has made major changes to the way they calculate the values used in their table LOTI. These changes have significantly increased the apparent global temperatures (political reasons) and these changes are not supported by satellite data; so they are probably not real. For example in the report issued in April 2010 the following temperatures were reported March 2002 102, January 2007 108.  The January 2016 report shows March 2002 90, January 2007 95 and January 2016 as 111 but was it and will it say there? This paper uses the questionable NASA data since it is all that is available at this time. Prior to this “change” the PCM plot showed almost no error for NASA data as can be seen in the plots posted here last year.

NASA 2016-02 01

The first plot, UL is a plot of the NASA temperature anomaly converted to degrees Celsius and shown in red with a black trend line added. There has been a very clear reversal in the upward movement of global temperatures since about 2001 and neither the UN IPCC nor anyone else has an explanation for this 13 years later. Since CO2 has continued to increase at what could be argued an increasing rate, this raises serious doubts about the logic programmed into all the IPCC global climate models.

The next plot UR, also in red, shows the IPCC estimates of what the Global temperature should be, based on Hansen’s Scenario B, with the NASA actual temperatures’ subtracted from them.  Therefore this plot represents a deviation from what the Climate “believers” KNOW what the temperature should be; with a positive value indicating the IPCC values are higher than actual and a negative value indicating the IPCC values are lower than actual, as measured by NASA.  A black trend line is added and we can clearly see that the deviation from expected is increasing at an increasing rate. This makes sense since the IPCC models project increased temperatures based primarily on the increasing level of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, for them, the actual temperatures from NASA are trending down (even as they try to hide the down ward movement with data manipulation) since other factors are in play, therefore each year the gap between them widens. Since we have 13 years of observations’ showing this pattern it becomes hard to justify a continuing belief in the IPCC climate models, there is obviously something very wrong here.

The next plot LL shown in blue is based on the equations in the PCM climate model described in previous papers and posts here and since it is generated by “equations” a trend line is not needed.  As can be seen the PCM, LL, there is a 69.1 year cycle that moves the trend line up and then down a total of 0.29O Celsius and we are now in the downward portion of that trend (-.01491O C per year) which will continue until around 2035.  This short cycle is clearly observed in the raw NASA data in the LOTI table going back to 1868. Then there is a long trend, 1036.7 years with an up and down of 1.65O Celsius (.00396O C per year) also observed in the NASA data. Lastly, there is CO2 adding about .007O Celsius per year so they basically wash out at -.0039 O C per year, which matches the current holding pattern we are experiencing. After about 2035 the short cycle will have bottomed and turn up and all three will be on the upswing again. These are all round numbers shown here as representative values.

The last plot LR in blue uses the same logic as used in the UR plot, here we use the PCM estimates of what the Global temperature should be with the NASA actual temperatures’ subtracted from them.  A positive value indicates the PCM values are higher than actual and a negative value indicates the PCM values are lower than expected. A black trend line was added and it clearly shows that the PCM model is tracking the NASA actual values very closely.  In, fact since 1970 the PCM model has rarely been off by more than +/- 0.1 degrees Celsius until the last few months where the manipulation showed up and has an average trend of almost zero error, while the IPCC models are erratic and are were approaching an error rate of over +0.4O C above expected until the last few months.

Note: Since I first started posting this monthly analysis a year and a half ago NOAA and NASA were directed make the global temperatures fit the political narrative that the planet was over heating and something drastic need to be done right now. The problem was as shown in this analysis the “real” world temperatures were not at the level that the IPCC GCM’s said they should be. Major adjustments to the data have been made that give the illusion that temperatures are going up even though they are not.  However, as this analysis shows even with the manipulation that has destroyed all credibility from NOAA and NASA they cannot get the global temperatures even close to what their false theory claims they should be.

The next Chart shows the PCM model and all the various government plots related to climate change from 1875 through 2075. Clearly within the next dozen years we will know one way or the other which kind of climate model works. One based on observations and the other based on questionable science. There is no disrespect meant against the real climate scientists that have been marginalized this disrespect is meant for the political scientists who are the worst kind as they work for money not for the truth. Unfortunately, over the past year NASA has been directed by the current administration to make the global temperature match what the IPCC climate models predict it should be; therefore we see the very odd plot in the oval in the following Chart.

NASA 2016-02 02

In summary, the IPCC models were designed before a true picture of the world’s climate was understood. During the 1980’s and 1990’s CO2 levels were going up and the world temperature was also going up so there appeared to be correlation and causation. The mistake that was made was looking at only a ~20 year period when the real variations in climate move in much longer cycles.  Those other cycles can be observed in the NASA data but they were ignored for some reason.  By ignoring those trends and focusing only on CO2 the models will be unable to correctly plot global temperatures until they are fixed.

Lastly, the next chart shows what a plot of the PCM model, in yellow, would look like from the year 1400 to the year 2900. The plot matches reasonably well with history and fits the current NASA-GISS table LOTI data, in red, very closely, despite homogenization.  I understand that this model is not based on physics but it is also not curve fitting. It’s based on observed reoccurring patterns in the climate. These patterns can be modeled and when they are, you get a plot that works better than any of the IPCC’s GCM’s. If the conditions that create these patterns do not change and CO2 continues to increase to 800 ppm or even 1000 ppm than this model will work into the foreseeable future.  150 years from now global temperatures will peak at around 15.75 to 16.00 degrees C and then will be on the downside of the long cycle for the next 500 years.  The overall effect of CO2 reaching levels of 1000 ppm or even higher will be about 1.5 degrees C which is about the same as that of the long cycle.  The Green plot shows the pattern with no change in CO2 from the pre-industrial era of ~280 ppm.

Carbon Dioxide is not capable of doing what Hansen and Gore claim! 

NASA 2016-02 03

The purpose of this post is to make people aware of the errors inherent in the IPCC models so that they can be corrected. 

The Obama administration’s “need” for a binding UN climate treaty with mandated CO2 reductions in Europe and America was achieved as predicted at the COP12 conference in Paris in December 2015. To support this endeavor NASA was forced to show ever increasing global temperatures that will make less and less sense based on observations and satellite data which will all be dismissed or ignored.  Within a few years the manipulation will be obvious even to those without knowledge in the subject.

 

Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. He is considered one of the most influential philosophers for science of the 20th century, and he also wrote extensively on social and political philosophy. The following quotes of his apply to this subject.

If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories.

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

… (S)cience is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected.

Will Gold and Silver Become the Underground Currencies of the Future?


Surviving the Depression

QUESTION: Martin … the reasoning behind goldbugs … advising people to buy gold to thwart the cashless society that govts will soon impose on us all.  Do you think gold and silver will become the underground currency of the alternative economy as people try to get around the official cashless economy or not?

thanks

Regards

P

ANSWER:They probably will to some extent, but it will be very limited. Gold and silver have lost their mobility. You can no longer hop on a plane with a briefcase full of metal. The more likely outcome is that gold and silver will simply be a hedge against government. It is unlikely that everyone will simply be using them at the local Starbucks.

Government will make transactions in gold or silver illegal and equivalent to money laundering. These people are not about to let anything circumvent their dreams. Nevertheless, their plans are by no means sustainable. The more likely outcome will be that they collapse and we move to some new political system. However, keep in mind that this could take until 2032 for a complete reboot.

In France, a train that passes through Switzerland and Liechtenstein is routinely stopped. The French financial police enter and search bags and luggage for valuables. You cannot travel with valuables worth more than $10,000. They will confiscate whatever they can. In Italy, if you look like you have a lot of gold chains on they will pull you over and weigh them.

Business Cycle

The likelihood that you will be able to travel with gold is about zero. The likelihood that you will be able to go to the local grocery store and buy food with silver or gold coins is also zero. The more probable outcome is that this will provide a hedge against government to make the transition to the next monetary system. These people are fighting for dominance over society. Do you really think it will be that easy that everyone will be using gold and silver coins? They will not go down without a fight and the first blood draw will be on our side — not theirs.

4 Elections Away from 2017 the Year from Political Hell


2017-2016-R

BREXITThere has been a major political uprising in Germany. For the first time, the Green Party has beaten the establishment in Baden-Württemberg. I have been warning that Trump is not some freak show. This is a global uprising we are watching in politics as we head into  2017 – the year from Political Hell. We are indeed, only three major elections away from perhaps the revision of NATO, the fall of the European Union, and the end of the socialist world order as we have know it. We have not just the US election, we have Germany, France.

Then we have this June and the British Exit vote which is actually the first. If Britain votes to leave, the EU is finished. If they vote to stay, Britain is finished and going down with the EU as the Muslim refugees pour in for free healthcare and welfare, and perhaps a few good looking girls as a bonus. This is like two guys walking in the field in Rockies. Suddenly they see a mountain lion. One quietly slips on his running shoes. The other looks at him and asks: “Do you really think you can out run him?” His friend replies: “No. I just have to outrun you.”

The ECB – A Victim of its own Ignorance?


Heads-Tails

Mario Draghi

“Rates will stay low, very low, for a long period of time and well past the horizon of our purchases,” Draghi declared. “From today’s perspective and taking into account the support of our measures to growth and inflation, we don’t anticipate that it will be necessary to reduce rates further.” The ECB cut its main interest rates to new record lows on Thursday as they continue to move into negative territory without a clue as how to reverse the trend. Beginning in April, the ECB will buy €80 billion euros worth of bonds each month, which is an increase from the €60 billion euros presently. Draghi will keep the stimulus program running at least until March 2017. However, while he thinks simply lower interest rates will entice people to borrow, he fails to see the other side of the coin that is spinning.

Beginning in April, the ECB will buy €80 billion euros worth of bonds each month, which is an increase from the €60 billion euros presently. Draghi will keep the stimulus program running at least until March 2017. However, while he thinks simply lower interest rates will entice people to borrow, he fails to see the other side of the coin that is spinning.

Lower rates rob savers of income, destroy pension funds, and leverage the debt to a dangerous level when the trend changes. People will not borrow or spend when they have no confidence in the future and businesses will not hire or expand. You cannot stimulate the economy with lower rates while crushing it with taxes.

It is true that the economic community was expecting a rate cut and more asset purchases of government debt. However, the ECB went further this time by saying it will start buying debt issued by companies as well as governments. While that is an improvement for corporations, whom typically have to pay back their debt unlike government, there is a dark cloud behind this statement. The debt they will buy, according to reliable sources, will be riskier debt of entities (banks) that are in trouble.

Einsteing-thinking

Nothing these people can do will ever reverse the trend. They raise taxes to cover their fiscal mismanagement and then “stimulate” by employing monetary theory. They will never resolve the problem and this entire crisis will go into meltdown since governments only borrow more and never reduce debt. They have become victims of their own ignorance.

 

Lagarde – Wants to Raise Retirement Age & Taxes to Steal More of Your Money


Lagarde Christine imf

Christine Lagarde remained at the IMF and one of three Troika members because she is a Socialist and on board with both raising retirement ages to cheat people out of what they planned and to raise taxes while closing all borders to the movement of capital. She is also pushing behind the curtain for the SDR to replace the dollar and then the IMF becomes the power behind a one-world currency without ever having to stand for election anywhere.
Lagarde if pitching as a priority the lifting of retirement ages to match her excuse, the increase in longevity gains. People have been taxed their whole lives and governments have squandered that money while making lavish promises. Now Lagarde was retained at the IMF because she can push the Socialist agenda which is robbing the average person while blaming the rich. She does not have to worry about elections so she can do as she likes. Then pension systems around the world world are collapsing not just due to demographics, but the stupidity of government management. Lagarde is looking to use the demographics as the excuse because government have been robbing the people all along while blaming the rich. Lagarde is looking to alter the pension systems by extending the “productive life” expectancy of individuals. Extending the retirement age will allow them to tax you longer in life while shortening your benefit period of retirement. If government was managed properly and honestly, there would be not such crisis had money actually been saved instead of spent.
Largard has been running around the world threatening all tax heavens that they would be blocked from the Swift System if they did not turnover all accounts. She even threaten the Vatican. Then she proposes broadening the tax base for consumption taxes (value-added or sales taxes), so everyone will pay a lot more including on the internet. Lagarde also wants to increase taxation of energy. She see the fall in oil as a windfall for new taxation to take prices back to their highs while enriching government.
Then she wants to improve taxation collection and proposes a tax on multinational corporations. She has supported the 2017 G20 accord to share info on everyone. Thus, Lagarde seeks to expand tax enforcement on a global scale making sure there is no place to hide. In the fiscal side, she argues that governments need to be better managed. However, she has no real suggestions how to accomplish that goal.

Beware of the IMF. They are seeking to emerge as the leader of a new one-world currency system.

Bavarian Banks Not Depositing Money at ECB


ILLUSTRATION - 5000 Euro in 50-Euro-Scheinen werden am 03.02.2016 am Schalter einer Sparkasse in München (Bayern) in einer Geldzählmaschine gezählt. Foto: Matthias Balk/dpa (zu dpa «Bundesregierung wirbt für Bargeld-Limit von 5000 Euro» vom 03.02.2016) +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++

Bavarian banks have figured out that negative interest rates are insane. They must pay the ECB to hold their cash. They have decided it is better to store their cash and eliminate deposits at the ECB as reported by Spiegel Online. These people are just brain dead. They think negative interest rates will somehow “stimulate” the economy. No, they

Hollande Objects to Any Special Deal for Britain to Stay in EU


Hollande-Francois-4

Sometimes you really have to ask: Is French President Francois Hollande simply clueless? At a European Union summit, Hollande said he opposes Britain’s demands for special treatment for its financial markets as a way to keep Britain in the bloc. Hollande has bluntly said that Britain cannot veto what happens in the Eurozone. Hollande’s socialist agenda will never yield. He is so out of touch with reality. If Britain remains in the EU, it will be the end of the financial markets in Britain. You definitely want to get your money out before you cannot. There is little doubt that Hollande will outlaw shorts, and that will destroy liquidity. This may be the final straw that diverts the financial capital of the world to Asia