Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts

Friday, March 3, 2017

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog: Fruits of peace? Israel has started exporting natural gas to Jordan.

naturalgas

New post on Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

Fruits of peace? Israel has started exporting natural gas to Jordan. Also developing export deals with Egypt, Greece, Cyprus & Turkey. Here’s the latest.

by joelcrosenberg
(Central Israel) -- It's not just talk. If you look closely, there are actually tangible signs of peace and economic cooperation between Israel and her neighbors.
Taken Jordan, for example. The Hashemite Kingdom signed a peace treaty with the Jewish State in 1994. While there remain many political sensitivities in the relationship, the two countries continue to develop ever closer security and economic ties. This week, we're learning how the quiet cooperation between the two countries has taken another important step.
"An Israeli company said Thursday it has started exporting gas from an offshore field to Jordan, marking the country’s first ever exports of natural gas," reported the Times of Israel. "The exports to Jordan began in January, Delek Drilling — part of a consortium leading the development of Israel’s offshore gas reserves."
With almost no oil or gas resources of its own, Jordan currently imports 97% of its energy needs. I'm encouraged that the Israeli government and the Israeli and American companies drilling for natural gas off the Mediterranean coast were willing to make their first export deal with Jordan, a good neighbor and partner for peace.
I'm also encouraged by the fact that the leaders of Jordan want to cooperate with Israel on such an important energy project, despite some political opposition.
But Jordan isn't the only story.
  • For many years since the 1979 Camp David accords, Egypt has been selling natural gas from the Sinai to Israel. Recent reports indicate Israel and Egypt are looking for new ways to explore for more gas and cooperate in exporting natural gas.
  • Israel and Turkey are also working on a natural gas deal that could be finalized in 2017.
  • Israel, Greece and Cyprus are reportedly developing plans for a natural gas pipeline.
Let's keep praying for peace -- but let's also be grateful for the tangible progress that has been made already.
  • There was no formal announcement at the time but it is the first time Israel has ever exported natural gas, a company spokeswoman said.
  • Jordanian firms Arab Potash and Jordan Bromine signed a deal in 2014 to import 2 billion cubic metres (around 70 billion cubic feet) of gas from Israel’s Tamar field over 15 years....
  • Jordan is one of only two Arab countries to have a peace deal with Israel but the 1994 agreement is unpopular among Jordanians — almost half of whom are of Palestinian origin.
  • Detractors of the gas deal, including Jordan’s main opposition Islamist party, reject any cooperation with a country they regard as an enemy....
  • In September 2016, a larger deal worth an estimated $10 billion was signed to export gas from the Leviathan offshore field to Jordan.
  • In the face of protests, Jordanian Information Minister Mohamed Momani defended the deal, telling state television it would cut $600 million a year from the state’s energy bill. Deliveries from Leviathan are expected to begin in 2019.
More coverage:
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joelcrosenberg | March 3, 2017 at 8:22 am | Categories: Epicenter | URL: http://wp.me/piWZ7-74T

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The Collapse Of Italy’s Banks Threatens To Plunge The European Financial System Into Chaos - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Italy Flag Map - Public Domain
Posted: 07 Mar 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

The Italian banking system is a “leaning tower” that truly could completely collapse at literally any moment.  And as Italy’s banks begin to go down like dominoes, it is going to set off financial panic all over Europe unlike anything we have ever seen before.  

I wrote about the troubles in Italy back in January, but since that time the crisis has escalated.  At this point, Italian banking stocks have declined a whopping 28 percent since the beginning of 2016, and when you look at some of the biggest Italian banks the numbers become even more frightening.  On Monday, shares of Monte dei Paschi were down 4.7 percent, and they have now plummeted 56 percent since the start of the year.  Shares of Carige were down 8 percent, and they have now plunged a total of 58 percent since the start of the year.  This is what a financial crisis looks like, and just like we are seeing in South America, the problems in Italy appear to be significantly accelerating.

So what makes Italy so important?

Well, we all saw how difficult it was for the rest of Europe to come up with a plan to rescue Greece.  But Greece is relatively small – they only have the 44th largest economy in the world.

The Italian economy is far larger.  Italy has the 8th largest economy in the world, and their government debt to GDP ratio is currently sitting at about 132 percent.
There is no way that Europe has the resources or the ability to handle a full meltdown of the Italian financial system.  Unfortunately, that is precisely what is happening.  Italian banks are absolutely drowning in non-performing loans, and as Jeffrey Moore has noted, this potentially represents “the greatest threat to the world’s already burdened financial system”…
Shares of Italy’s largest financial institutions have plummeted in the opening months of 2016 as piles of bad debt on their balance sheets become too high to ignore.  Amid all of the risks facing EU members in 2016, the risk of contagion from Italy’s troubled banks poses the greatest threat to the world’s already burdened financial system.
At the core of the issue is the concerning level of Non-Performing Loans (NPL’s) on banks’ books, with estimates ranging from 17% to 21% of total lending.  This amounts to approximately €200 billion of NPL’s, or 12% of Italy’s GDP.  Moreover, in some cases, bad loans make up an alarming 30% of individual banks’ balance sheets.
Things have already gotten so bad that the European Central Bank is now monitoring liquidity levels at Monte dei Paschi and Carige on a daily basis.  The following comes from Reuters
The European Central Bank is checking liquidity levels at a number of Italian banks, including Banca Carige and Monte dei Paschi di Siena , on a daily basis, two sources close to the matter said on Monday.
Italian banking shares have fallen sharply since the start of the year amid market concerns about some 360 billion euros of bad loans on their books and weak capital levels.
The ECB has been putting pressure on several Italian banks to improve their capital position. The regulator can decide to monitor liquidity levels at any bank it supervises on a weekly or daily basis if it has any concern about deposits or funding.

A run on the big Italian banks has already begun.  Italians have already been quietly pulling billions of euros out of the banking system, and if these banks continue to crumble this “stealth run” could quickly become a stampede.

And of course panic in Italy would quickly spread to other financially troubled members of the eurozone such as Spain, Portugal, Greece and France.  Here is some additional analysis from Jeffrey Moore
A deteriorating financial crisis in Italy could risk repercussions across the EU exponentially greater than those spurred by Greece.  The ripple effects of market turmoil and the potential for dangerous precedents being set by EU authorities in panicked response to that turmoil, could ignite yet more latent financial vulnerabilities in fragile EU members such as Spain and Portugal.
Unfortunately, most Americans are completely blinded to what is going on in the rest of the world because stocks in the U.S. have had a really good run for the past couple of weeks.  Headlines are declaring that the risk of a new recession “has passed” and that the crisis “is over”.  Meanwhile, South America is plunging into a full-blown depression, the Italian banking system is melting down, global manufacturing numbers are the worst that we have seen since the last recession, and global trade is absolutely imploding.

Other than that, things are pretty good.

Seriously, it is absolutely critical that we don’t allow ourselves to be fooled by every little wave of momentum in the stock market.

It is a fact that sales and profits for U.S. corporations are declining.  This is a trend that began all the way back in mid-2014 and that has accelerated during the early stages of 2016.  The following comes from Wolf Richter
Total US business sales – not just sales by S&P 500 companies but also sales by small caps and all other businesses, even those that are not publicly traded – peaked in July 2014 at $1.365 trillion, according to the Census Bureau. By December 2015, total business sales were down 4.6% from that peak. A bad 18 months for sales! They’re back where they’d first been in January 2013!
Sales by S&P 500 companies dropped 3.8% in 2015, according to FactSet, the worst year since the Financial Crisis.
I know that a lot of people have been eagerly anticipating a complete and total global economic collapse for a long time, and many of them just want to “get it over with”.
Well, the truth is that nobody should want to see what is coming.  Personally, I rejoice for every extra day, week or month we are given.  Every extra day is another day to prepare, and every extra day is another day to enjoy the extremely comfortable standard of living that our debt-fueled prosperity has produced for us.

Most Americans have absolutely no idea how spoiled we really are.  Even just fifty years ago, life was so much harder in this country.  If we had to go back and live the way that Americans did 100 or 150 years ago, there are very few of us that would be able to successfully do that.

So enjoy the remaining days of debt-fueled prosperity while you still can, because great change is coming, and it is going to be extremely bitter for most of the population.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Rick Joyner & Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin - Prophetic Perspectives


Rick Joyner & Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin - Prophetic Perspectives

Watch here: Rick Joyner & Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin - Prophetic Perspectives


General Boykin Answers
Rick Joyner
Thursday, March 3, 2016


Rick asks Lt. General (Ret) W.G. (Jerry) Boykin important questions regarding the times in which we live including "What is socialism?", and "What are some crucial issues for choosing our next president?" 

Friday, February 12, 2016

Fake furniture shipment in Greece - The armed invasion ....Trojan Horse style.

 
Date: February 11, 2016 at 9:51:10 PM CST
Subject:  Fake furniture shipment in Greece

Subject: Fake furniture shipment in Greece
Please read. This is alarming and could be coming to the U.S.

If you have any doubts about Muslim immigration, this might clear up your thinking.

This “furniture shipment” was supposed to go to the refugee camps in GREECE To make their life more bearable and ease their hardships.
52 tons of guns and ammunition in big 40’ double containers followed the migrants to Europe, pretending to be furniture but, was discovered by the Greek border securities in 14 containers.

If this doesn’t convince you that this IMMIGRATION is nothing less than an ARMED INVASION then nothing will.

Wonder still why all those young (military age) men without children or wives are taking on the task of traveling all those miles posing as refugees?

They are coming.......Like they said they would.

Coming to a gun-free place of work / a school / a Gov't building near you.
































Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Day Of Reckoning: The Collapse Of The Too Big To Fail Banks In Europe Is Here - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Europe Lightning - Public Domain

Posted: 08 Feb 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 

There is so much chaos going on that I don’t even know where to start.  For a very long time I have been warning my readers that a major banking collapse was coming to Europe, and now it is finally unfolding. 

Let’s start with Deutsche Bank.  The stock of the most important bank in the “strongest economy in Europe” plunged another 8 percent on Monday, and it is now hovering just above the all-time record low that was set during the last financial crisis.  Overall, the stock price is now down a staggering 36 percent since 2016 began, and Deutsche Bank credit default swaps are going parabolic.  Of course my readers were alerted to major problems at Deutsche Bank all the way back in September, and now the endgame is playing out. 

In addition to Deutsche Bank, the list of other “too big to fail” banks in Europe that appear to be in very serious trouble includes Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, HSBC and BNP Paribas.  Just about every major bank in Italy could fall on that list as well, and Greek bank stocks lost close to a quarter of their value on Monday alone.  Financial Armageddon has come to Europe, and the entire planet is going to feel the pain.

The collapse of the banks in Europe is dragging down stock prices all over the continent.  At this point, more than one-fifth of all stock market wealth in Europe has already been wiped out since the middle of last year.  That means that we only have four-fifths left.  The following comes from USA Today
The MSCI Europe index is now down 20.5% from its highest point over the past 12 months, says S&P Global Market Intelligence, placing it in the 20% decline that unofficially defines a bear market.
Europe’s stock implosion makes the U.S.’ sell-off look like child’s play. The U.S.-centric Standard & Poor’s 500 Monday fell another 1.4% – but it’s only down 13% from its high. Some individual European markets are getting hit even harder. The Milan MIB 30, Madrid Ibex 35 and MSCI United Kingdom indexes are off 29%, 23% and 20% from their 52-week highs, respectively as investors fear the worse could be headed for the Old World.
These declines are being primarily driven by the banks.  According to MarketWatch, European banking stocks have fallen for six weeks in a row, and this is the longest streak that we have seen since the heart of the last financial crisis…
The region’s banking gauge, the Stoxx Europe 600 Banks Index FX7, -5.59% has logged six straight weeks of declines, its longest weekly losing stretch since 2008, when banks booked 10 weeks of losses, beginning in May, according to FactSet data.
The current environment for European banks is very, very bad. Over a full business cycle, I think it’s very questionable whether banks on average are able to cover their cost of equity. And as a result that makes it an unattractive investment for long-term investors,” warned Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank.
Overall, Europe’s banking stocks are down 23 percent year to date and 39 percent since the peak of the market in the middle of last year.

The financial crisis that began during the second half of 2015 is picking up speed over in Europe, and it isn’t just Deutsche Bank that could implode at any moment.  Credit Suisse is the most important bank in Switzerland, and they announced a fourth quarter loss of 5.8 billion dollars.  The stock price has fallen 34 percent year to date, and many are now raising questions about the continued viability of the bank.

Similar scenes are being repeated all over the continent.  On Monday we learned that Russia had just shut down two more major banks, and the collapse of Greek banks has pushed Greek stock prices to a 25 year low
Greek stocks tumbled on Monday to close nearly eight percent lower, with bank shares losing almost a quarter of their market value amid concerns over the future of government reforms.
The general index on the Athens stock exchange closed down 7.9 percent at 464.23 points — a 25-year-low — while banks suffered a 24.3-percent average drop.
This is what a financial crisis looks like.

Fortunately things are not this bad here in the U.S. quite yet, but we are on the exact same path that they are.

One of the big things that is fueling the banking crisis in Europe is the fact that the too big to fail banks over there have more than 100 billion dollars of exposure to energy sector loans.  This makes European banks even more sensitive to the price of oil than U.S. banks.  The following comes from CNBC
The four U.S. banks with the highest dollar amount of exposure to energy loans have a capital position 60 percent greater than European banks Deutsche BankUBSCredit Suisse and HSBC, according to CLSA research using a measure called tangible common equity to tangible assets ratio. Or, as Mayo put it, “U.S. banks have more quality capital.”
Analysts at JPMorgan saw the energy loan crisis coming for Europe, and highlighted in early January where investors might get hit.
“[Standard Chartered] and [Deutsche Bank] would be the most sensitive banks to higher default rates in oil and gas,” the analysts wrote in their January report.
There is Deutsche Bank again.

It is funny how they keep coming up.

In the U.S., the collapse of the price of oil is pushing energy company after energy company into bankruptcy.  This has happened 42 times in North America since the beginning of last year so far, and rumors that Chesapeake Energy is heading that direction caused their stock price to plummet a staggering 33 percent on Monday
Energy stocks continue to tank, with Transocean (RIG) dropping 7% and Baker Hughes (BHI) down nearly 5%. But those losses pale in comparison with Chesapeake Energy (CHK), the energy giant that plummeted as much as 51% amid bankruptcy fears. Chesapeake denied it’s currently planning to file for bankruptcy, but its stock still closed down 33% on the day.
And let’s not forget about the ongoing bursting of the tech bubble that I wrote about yesterday.

On Monday the carnage continued, and this pushed the Nasdaq down to its lowest level in almost 18 months
Technology shares with lofty valuations, including those of midcap data analytics company Tableau Software Inc and Internet giant Facebook Inc, extended their losses on Monday following a gutting selloff in the previous session.
Shares of cloud services companies such as Splunk Inc and Salesforce.com Inc had also declined sharply on Friday. They fell again on Monday, dragging down the Nasdaq Composite index 2.4 percent to its lowest in nearly 1-1/2 years.
Those that read my articles regularly know that I have been warning this would happen.
All over the world we are witnessing a financial implosion.  As I write this article, the Japanese market has only been open less than an hour and it is already down 747 points.
The next great financial crisis is already here, and right now we are only in the early chapters.

Ultimately what we are facing is going to be far worse than the financial crisis of 2008/2009, and as a result of this great shaking the entire world is going to fundamentally change.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Jonathan Cahn Offers Biblical Insight on Elul 29—The Day of Nullification

Jonathan Cahn Offers Biblical Insight on Elul 29—The Day of Nullification


The New York Stock Exchange went dark on Wednesday. The nation of Greece is seeing its financial crisis grow worse by the day and some are wondering if China could be facing a 1929 moment.
The New York Stock Exchange went dark on Wednesday. The nation of Greece is seeing its financial crisis grow worse by the day and some are wondering if China could be facing a 1929 moment. (Reuters)
Join us on our new podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

The New York Stock Exchange went dark on Wednesday. The nation of Greece is seeing its financial crisis grow worse by the day and some are wondering if China could be facing a 1929 moment.
Against this backdrop, the Bank of International Settlements has warned that the world is unable to fight the next global financial crash because central banks have spent everything they have to overcome the last meltdown.
None of this is any surprise to prophets who understand the end times. Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger and The Mystery of the Shemitah, has some sobering thoughts on the events unfolding before our eyes.
"We are now approaching the final two months of the Shemitah," says Cahn, who stunned millions across America and the world with the mysteries revealed in his New York Times best-seller The Harbinger. He now uncovers and reveals a new realm of astonishing mysteries so big they lie behind everything from world wars, the rise and fall of nations, economic recession and financial collapse and your future. 
As he sees it, this is the most crucial time on the biblical calendar. 
"In September, the Shemitah reaches it peak on Elul 29, the Day of Nullification, when all debt and credit are wiped away. The markets have been largely expanding for several years. So to see the sudden destabilization of the global financial realm, in Greece, Europe and China, just as we head toward the Shemitah's climax is especially striking," Cahn says.
"Added to this, the Greek crisis specifically deals with issue of debt and debt relief—the central issue of the Shemitah. Whether or not the Greek crisis finds a resolution, the very fact that such sudden destabilization occurred as the Shemitah nears its conclusion may be taken as a first alarm."
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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Transfer of Christianity - The Great Commission, Part 22 - Rick Joyner

The Transfer of Christianity - The Great Commission, Part 22

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Week 22, 2014
         Last week we addressed the elements of truth in the saying, “In Jerusalem, Christianity became a religion. In Greece, it became a philosophy. In Rome, it became an institution. In Britain, it became a tradition. In America, it became an enterprise.”  Not all of this was bad or unintended. The Christian culture that was to be received by all nations was also intended to receive from all nations.
         Even so, the expression of Christianity has picked up a lot of baggage from its passage through the nations that it needs to get rid of. Much of this will come as the center of gravity of Christianity transfers to Asia. One thing we can expect to see is Asia becoming a great filter that removes many of the impurities that the expression of Christianity has picked up. This will come from one of the great strengths of the Asian culture—its honor of history. They will be prone to go back to the roots of the faith, to the purest forms, and embrace them more than trends and fads that were added.  
         As we look at the history of Christianity, we can also note that its center would transfer from one place to another at different rates. It was only centered in Jerusalem for a few years. Then it remained in Greece, or to be more accurate, where the Greek culture was dominant which included Asia Minor, or what is now modern day Turkey. This is the region of the Seven Churches of Revelation and Constantinople, one of the most influential of all Christian cities, where it remained for centuries.
         Rome emerged as the dominant center of gravity, as a counterpoint to Constantinople, and held the dominant position in European Christianity for over a thousand years. Then Germany and Switzerland became two of the most powerful centers of the advancing church with the birth of the Protestant Reformation.
         America’s time as the center of the advancing church has been short, but powerful. This is typical of the innovation and initiative America is known for. The Evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Third Wave movements all were either birthed in America, or quickly found a receptive home there. Many other smaller but very influential movements were spun off of these.
         However, many problems and heresies spun off of these movements as well, probably due to the great weakness of the church in America—its lack of devotion to knowing and understanding the lessons of history. For all of its talk about devotion to biblical truth, studies have revealed that even in the Evangelical movement, less than 10% have a biblical worldview. This is bad, but not surprising. America’s DNA is from pioneers and risk takers—those always trying to expand the limits and look to the future. Such are not prone to stop and look backwards into history, or take much time on the slow, tedious work of laying strong foundations. Therefore, it seems fitting that the Christian center of gravity is moving toward a culture where the lessons of history are so honored. The balance is needed.
         Of course, over the last century some of the greatest revivals in history were ignited in South and Central America, as well as Africa. Their contributions have been great and will likely be even greater in the future. Such paradigms for understanding history are never completely smooth or perfect, but the centers where the biggest and most enduring influences were brought has mostly been in the Northern Hemisphere, and moved from east to west.      
         The Lord said that the end of the age is the harvest. The greatest ingathering of all time is beginning, but it is also more than this. The harvest is when all of the seeds that have been planted mature. Even as the center of Christianity moves to Asia, we can expect all of the other homes of the faith to come into a greater maturity. Just because the center of gravity may have moved elsewhere, it does not mean that their contributions are over.
         How long will the center of Christianity remain in Asia? Could it be that their contribution, rooted in depth and long history, can be accomplished quickly? Regardless of how long it takes, the center of gravity of Christianity will return to Jerusalem before the end comes. At that time, we can expect Isaiah 19:19-25 to be fulfilled.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Most Anti-Semites Never Met a Jew

Most Anti-Semites Never Met a Jew

Thursday, May 22, 2014 |  David Lazarus  ISRAEL TODAY

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According to a new world-wide survey, one in four adults are "deeply infected with anti-Semitic attitudes." That is the conclusion of the Anti-Defamation League's extraordinary new global survey.
The survey included 53,100 adults from 102 countries representing 88% of the world's adult population.
People responded true or false to typical anti-Semitic statements in their native language, such as "Jews have too much power over international markets, global media, and the U.S. government," or "Jews don't care about what happens to anyone but their own kind," and "Jews are responsible for most of the world's wars."
An estimated 1.1 billion people said that at least six of the anti-Semitic stereotypes were probably true. That means that 26% of the world's population, or one in every four adults in the world today still embrace traditional anti-Semitic sentiments.
"For the first time we have a real sense of how pervasive and persistent anti-Semitism is today around the world," ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement. "The data enables us to look beyond anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric and quantify the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes across the globe. We can now identify hotspots, as well as countries and regions of the world where hatred of Jews is essentially nonexistent."
The three countries with the lowest anti-Semitism Index Scores are Laos (0.2%), the Philippines (3%) and Sweden (4%).
In the United States, 9% of respondents believed a majority of the anti-Semitic statements.
The highest levels come from the Palestinian-controlled territories at 93% and Iraq at 92%. Overall in the Middle East and North Africa 74% of the population hold to anti-Semitic stereotypes. Yet in Iran, surprisingly, 56% of the population responded negatively towards the Jews.
The three countries outside the Middle East and North Africa with the highest anti-Semitism Index Scores are Greece (69%), Malaysia (61%) and Armenia (58%). In Eastern Europe, one in three still think the Jews are responsible for most of the world's problems.
Here's an interesting fact: 18% of respondents believe that the total worldwide Jewish population exceeds 700 million people! The actual number of Jewish people in the world is just over 13 million! Obviously, people who overestimate the world's Jewish population by this amount were also much more likely to harbor anti-Semitic attitudes.
Among people familiar with all the religions tested in the survey, more are unfavorable toward Jews (35%) than toward people of any other religion.
Where you get your news also matters, especially in the Muslim world. Muslims who get their information about Jews from the internet are much more likely to harbor anti-Semitic views than those who get their information from other sources. Average Index Scores by information source among Muslims: Internet 73%, Religious leaders 54%, TV 54%, Newspapers 49%, word of mouth 40%.
People in predominantly English-speaking countries are half as likely to hold anti-Semitic views (13% Index Score) as the overall global population surveyed.
Chillingly, 74% of the people surveyed said they've never met a Jewish person, including the people who believe a majority of the anti-Semitic stereotypes are probably true.
Research the ADL report here global100.adl.org
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