Bankers Arrested In Iceland, Ireland, UK, USA, Switzerland, India, France, Russia, Austria… – 2 August 2012

(Part 1)Uploaded on 29 July 2012 by Eliot Ness

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Faber Says Germany Should Abandon The Euro – 2 July 2012

Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, spoke with Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu this morning and said that, “If I were running Germany, I would have abandoned the eurozone last week.”

Faber went on to say, “In the case of Greece, one should have kicked out Greece three years ago. It would have been much cheaper.”

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Socialists Score Well In First Round Of French Parliamentary Elections, Poised To Take Control Of Assembly And Senate For First Tiem Ever; Economically Insane Ideas Coming Up – 11 June 2012

Be prepared for the Socialists to wreck France. The Guardian reports French Socialists on course to score absolute majority in parliament and President François Hollande is about to get a free hand in his response to country’s economic crisis.

The left has scored well in the first round of French parliamentary elections, leaving the Socialist party within reach of an absolute majority that would give François Hollande, the president, a free hand in his approach to dealing with the economic crisis.

RT – Eu Health Commission : Monsanto Strain Won’t Be Banned – 26 May 2012

Members of the “Occupy” movement in the Midwest protest against Monsanto’s agricultural practices in front of the Missouri Botanical Garden during the “Occupy the Midwest” regional conference in St. Louis, Missouri March 16, 2012 (Reuters/Sarah Conard)

Invincible agricultural giant Monsanto has once again demonstrated its ability to crush countries on the legal battlefield. The EFSA has ruled there is no “scientific evidence” of damage caused by consuming genetically-modified maize.

John Ward – Euroblown : Why I’m Betting That Germany Will Leave Before Greece – 25 May 2012

Yesterday in Brussels, Herman Van Rompuy opened the anarchic proceedings by saying he sensed “a strong will to compromise”. Something of a surreal soundbite and, as usual with the Nipponese Bard, completely wrong.

The popular maverick site Zero Hedge referred to this week’s Euro-bunfight as ‘yesterday’s dismally predictable non-event summit’  last night.  They’re right on the money about it being just as unproductive as advertised – but actually I think it was highly significant for any number of reasons.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Flight To Safety : German 2-Year Bonds Yield Hits-Zero; Eurozone Officials Tell Countries To Prepare For Greece Exit – 24 May 2012

The once taboo subject of a Greek departure from the eurozone cracked in the past couple of weeks, primarily with threats to Greece.

Today the exit discussion dam broke wide open as Eurozone tells members to make contingencies for “Grexit”

Euro zone officials have told members of the currency area to prepare contingency plans in case Greece decides to quit the bloc, an eventuality which Germany’s central bank said would be “manageable”.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Germany Rules Out Eurobonds For 104th Time; Damned If They Do, Damned If They Don’t – 23 May 2012

I have no idea what the actual number of times Germany Has ruled out Eurobonds. It could be 504 or even 1004. I Made up the number 104 which simply means “a lot”.

Nonetheless, the Eurobond idea resurfaces every other week or so, and every time, someone from Germany (typically Merkel, the Bundesbank, or the Finance Minister) rules them out.

John Ward – Creditag Results Drop 75% AS A Billion Written OFF In Greece – 11 May 2012

Slog warnings fulfilled as anaylsts’ estimates trash

Following three days of confident predictions by The Slog that Credit Agricole SA, France’s third-largest bank by market value, is in trouble based on Greco-Spanish exposure and subsidiary ownership, the bank announced this morning (Friday) that first-quarter profit dropped 75%.

This was twice the level of fall expected by an average sample of analysts earlier in the week. Net income fell to €252 million (from 1 billion a year ago) . The average analyst’s estimate was €482.

BBC News – Socialist Francois Hollande Wins French Presidency – 6 May 2012

Socialist Francois Hollande has been elected as France’s new president.

He got about 52% of votes in Sunday’s run-off, according to early projections, against 48% for centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy has admitted defeat, saying: “Francois Hollande is the president of France and he must be respected.”

Analysts say the vote has wide implications for the whole eurozone. Mr Hollande has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in member countries.

(Read the whole story : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news link to original article)

Common Dreams Staff – Court : Monsanto Guilty Of Chemical Poisoning In France – 13 February 2012

A French court Monday found US agriculture giant Monsanto legally responsible for the poisoning of a farmer with one of its herbicides in 2004.

Paul François, a cereal farmer in the southwestern department of Charente “Monsanto is responsible for Paul Francois’ suffering after he inhaled the Lasso product… and must entirely compensate him,” said the judgement from the court in the southeastern city of Lyon.

In 2004, Paul François, a cereal farmer in the southwestern department of Charente, opened the tank of his pulveriser machine. He inhaled fumes of Lasso, a weedkiller manufactured by Monsanto, and fainted.

He was taken to hospital and stopped work for almost a year, reports radio station France Info. He suffers from memory loss and often feels faint.

* * *

Reuters is reporting:

A French court on Monday declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides.

Farmer mixing Lasso, a Monsanto herbicideIn the first such case heard in court in France, grain grower Paul Francois says he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller in 2004.

He blames the agri-business giant for not providing adequate warnings on the product label.

The ruling was given by a court in Lyon, southeast France, which ordered an expert opinion of Francois’s losses to establish the sum of damages. [...]

“I am alive today, but part of the farming population is going to be sacrificed and is going to die because of this,” Francois, 47, told Reuters.

“I am alive today, but part of the farming population is going to be sacrificed and is going to die because of this”He and other farmers suffering from illness set up an association last year to make a case that their health problems should be linked to their use of crop protection products.

The agricultural branch of the French social security system says that since 1996, it has gathered farmers’ reports of sickness potentially related to pesticides, with about 200 alerts a year.

http://www.commondreams.org link to original article