Daily Digest 8/3 - Eurozone Crisis Resurfaces, TX Man Pays $15 for $340k House, The Power Of Silver

• The Crash Course: An Interview With Chris Martenson
• Italy calls emergency meeting as eurozone crisis resurfaces
• Italian Banks Caught in Sovereign Debt Crossfire
• Zapatero Delays Vacation as Spanish Bond Yields Head for 7%
• Worsening euro crisis may force bigger rescue fund
• Italy, Spain Stuck in No-Go Debt Zone for Merrill, DWS Funds: Euro Credit
• Texas man pays $15 to move into $340,000 house
• Even Tooth Fairy is pinching pennies during U.S. debt crisis
• Average Irish person 30 percent worse off due to recession
• 20 Cents for Gas Shows the Power of Silver - 2 August 2011
• Obama calls for measures to create jobs
• Chicago to Lay Off Traffic Aides to Cut Budget
• Miami police to vote on recalling mayor

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Economy

The Crash Course: An Interview With Dr. Chris Martenson

-Exponential growth is different from linear growth. We naturally think linear yet the current situation is exponential.

-Growth and prosperity are also different. You can have growth or prosperity, but not both perpetually.

-Problems and predicaments are different as well. A problem can be solved to avoid a certain outcome. A predicament has no solution, only an outcome. We currently have a predicament that we must adjust to.

Italy calls emergency meeting as eurozone crisis resurfaces

A fresh wave of eurozone panic prompted Italian authorities to call an emergency meeting on Tuesday and Spain's prime minister to delay his holiday as borrowing costs for the two nations hit fresh highs....

Concerns that Spain and Italy will be the next victims of the eurozone crisis drove benchmark bond yields to all-time highs and unsettled stock markets.

Yields on 10-year Spanish government bonds rose 25 basis points to 6.426pc, while Italy's 10-year bonds also hit highs of 6.219pc -edging closer to the 7pc levels that forced its smaller Greek and Portuguese neighbours to ask for a bail-out.

Italian Banks Caught in Sovereign Debt Crossfire

Big holdings of Italian bonds by the country's banks are making them a proxy for funds responding to debt concerns by cutting their exposure to Italy....The sell-off in Italian debt pushed 10-year yields above the 6 percent mark. Above this level, concerns about the cost of refinancing Italy's 1.6 trillion euro debt intensify.

"Six percent was seen as a line in the sand for yields and now that that's gone, people don't want any risk apart from Germany," said a London-based bond trader.

Zapatero Delays Vacation as Spanish Bond Yields Head for 7%

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero delayed a planned vacation as the country's borrowing costs approached the 7 percent mark that heralded bailouts of Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

Worsening euro crisis may force bigger rescue fund

A worsening euro zone debt crisis may ultimately force the bloc to expand its 440 billion euro ($625 billion) bailout fund, despite political opposition in key contributing countries, some officials and analysts say. An emergency summit of euro zone leaders last month agreed to let the fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, deploy its money in new ways to fight the crisis. But it did not take a major step for which investors were hoping: give the EFSF more firepower. Since then, the euro zone's debt problem has become even more worrying, threatening to move beyond small countries such as Greece to engulf large states such as Spain and Italy.

Italy, Spain Stuck in No-Go Debt Zone for Merrill, DWS Funds: Euro Credit

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, unconvinced that the second Greek bailout has stemmed the debt crisis, won’t put any of its $1.5 trillion of assets into Italian or Spanish bonds.

The unit of Bank of America Corp. (BAC) has spurned bonds from Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy since deciding to avoid them in April of last year, according to Johannes Jooste, a senior Merrill portfolio strategist in London. Merrill isn’t alone: Frankfurt-based DWS Investment, which oversees $390 billion for clients, and Legal & Investment Management say they are “underweight” Spanish debt.

Texas man pays $15 to move into $340,000 house

It has the makings of a tall tale: A man finds a two-story, 3,250-square-foot house worth $340,000 in a Dallas suburb and pays only $15 for it.

Kenneth T. Robinson, 50, who sells vitamins and other dietary supplements for a marketing company, laid claim to the 1997-built house in Flower Mound under Texas' obscure "adverse possession" law — commonly known as "squatter's rights."

Robinson determined that the owner of record moved out about a year ago and cannot be found, and the property wasn't listed for sale. He filed an affidavit of adverse possession with Denton County for a $15 fee, turned on the utilities and moved in.

Even Tooth Fairy is pinching pennies during US debt crisis

As US politicians wrangled how to avert a massive debt default, American children are feeling the pinch of a sagging economy as they got 40 per cent less from Tooth Fairy. A recent survey found that the national going rate has seen a 40-cent slump this year: From USD 3 to USD 2.60.

It found that 10 per cent of kids are reaching under their pillows ... and coming up empty compared to last year when just six per cent of kids found no reason to flash that toothless grin.

Average Irish person 30 percent worse off due to recession

A report by economist consultants at Indecon found that close to 300,000 people had been “wiped out” financially since 2007. They also revealed that the average Irish person is 30% worse off than they were before the start of the financial crisis.

Their reasoning for the steep decline is the changeover from full-time to part-time jobs, and how the private sector was hit a lot harder than the public sector was. Personal incomes, as a result, dropped by around 50%, mainly because private sector employees were well-paid before, but were forced out of their jobs due to the recession.

20 Cents for Gas Shows the Power of Silver - 2 August 2011

Take a look at this picture, taken at a gas station in Ashland, Oregon, May 2011: See what I mean? The gas station is accepting payment for gas in the old, un-debased version of the currency. A gallon of gas was nearing $5 per gallon at the time the picture was taken.

Obama calls for measures to create jobs

President Obama on Tuesday said cuts in federal spending won't do much to help the U.S. economy and he urged Congress to take swift measures to create jobs. Obama issued his plea shortly after the Senate passed a deal that raises the borrowing limit of the U.S.

Government by up $2.4 trillion, while cutting federal spending by a similar amount over the next decade. Obama indicated support for an extension of the temporary cut in worker payroll taxes and more money for unemployment benefits, among other things.

Chicago to Lay Off Traffic Aides to Cut Budget

The City of Chicago is set to lay off dozens of traffic aides who guide traffic through downtown intersections.

Eighty traffic aides will be losing their jobs Aug. 15 as part of a budget-cutting measure.

Miami police to vote on recalling mayor (Video)

The Miami Police Department is looking into an effort aimed at recalling Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado.....The police union is facing the prospect of steep salary cuts for the 2011-12 budget year.

Regalado issued this statement in response to FOP's recall effort: "I believe I'm being punished for not raising taxes to the people of Miami for the second year in a row. We are in a very difficult economic time, and like every family, we have to cut expenses. We want to do the right thing for the residents of Miami, without having massive layoffs in our workforce."

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