Turkey defies US, EU ban on Iran oil

Turkey has defied Western calls to ban Iranian crude imports, saying Ankara will not go along with the EU and US sanctions on Iranian oil.

A Turkish Energy Ministry spokesman said on Monday, “We are not bound by EU or US decisions.”

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu ruled out the possibility of Ankara complying with the unilateral sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, saying Turkey is currently trying to facilitate talks between Tehran and Western nations on Iran's nuclear program.

Turkey imports a significant amount of Iranian oil for its biggest petrochemical company, Tupras, which operates four refineries with a total of 28.1 million tons of annual crude oil processing capacity.

Russia, India, and China have also criticized the West's sanctions on Iranian crude.

Read full article here: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/224025.html

Iran Sanctions Conducive to Weak Dollar and Spiralling Gold Prices

We are trying to figure out the best way to describe the banking and oil sanctions against Iran, which are blatant acts of war. Just look back in history at similar situations and you will see what we are referring too. It is simple incompetence or is the allied plan a false flag feint in order to distract attention away from debt problems?

A month ago when the US was trying to terrorize Syria and Iran with oil and banking sanctions we said they did not have a chance of winning. Iran’s nations that are friendlies, such as China, India and Russia are major nations that will assist in the circumvention of some 70% of those sanctions. As we predicted all the excitement in the Straight of Hormuz was just that, another distraction. This week the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft Carrier, went through the Straight, which tells us as we said earlier, it was all just a game. That relieved pressure of financial markets in Europe, the UK and US.

Most people forget an agreement has been in place for more than a year between Russia and China, so the precedent has been set and it works. To simplify things India wants to use gold in exchange for oil, a very simple and novel idea.

What does all this add up too? The basic common denominator is a growing existence of the US dollar and of the world financial system. What Washington has done has expedited the end of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Worse yet for the dollar deals like this are in the works all over Asia. Alliances are forming as we speak and it is only a matter of time before it happens. We believe this will take place over the next two years, accompanied by higher interest rates. These countries are proceeding at their own pace and will soon have major agreements in place.

The movement toward an alternative trade, a monetary and financial system is underway and the US is trying to force dollar usage on everyone, like it or not. If the US doesn’t come up with an alternative soon they may be ejected out of world trade, because few will want their currency. These engineered events just make the US look weaker in the long run. Foreigners are already euro sellers and T-bill buyers.

Read full article: here

20 signs europe is heading towards depression

The following are 20 signs that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression….

#1 The unemployment rate for those between the ages of 16 and 24 is 28 percent in Italy, 43 percent in Greece and 51 percent in Spain.

#2 Overall, the unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 in the EU is 22.7 percent.

#3 Citigroup is projecting that the economy of Portugal will shrink by 5.7 percent this year.

#4 The total of all forms of debt in Portugal (government, business and consumer) is equivalent to 360 percent of GDP.

#5 The Greek “recession” is now entering a fifth year.

#6 The Greek economy shrank by 6 percent during 2011.

#7 It is being projected that the Greek economy will shrink by another 5 percent during 2012.

#8 The overall unemployment rate in Greece is now 18.5 percent.

#9 In Greece, 20 percent of all retail stores have been permanently shut down.

#10 The number of suicides in Greece rose by 40 percent in just one recent 12 month time period.

#11 According to the IMF, the amount of debt accumulated by the Greek government is equal to approximately 160 percent of GDP.

#12 In total, there are now more than 5 million unemployed workers in Spain.

#13 Bad loans in Spain recently reached a 17-year high.

#14 The overall unemployment rate in Spain is now a whopping 22.8 percent.

#15 The number of property repossessions in Spain has risen by 32 percentover the past year.

#16 When the maturing debt that the Italian government must roll over in 2012 is added to their projected budget deficit, the total comes to approximately 23.1 percent of Italy’s GDP.

#17 Manufacturing activity in the euro zone has fallen for five months in a row.

#18 The UK economy actually contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.

#19 The German economy actually contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.

#20 The Baltic Dry Index, often used as a gauge for the health of the world economy, has fallen a staggering 61 percent since October.

Economic gloom is slowly spreading throughout Europe like a dark cloud. Some of the strongest economies in Europe are only just starting to slow down. Others are already gripped by tremendous economic pain. Trends forecaster Gerald Celente recently explained to ABC Australia that much of the EU is already experiencing an economic depression….

“If you live in Greece, you’re in a depression; if you live in Spain, you’re in a depression; if you live in Portugal or Ireland, you’re in a depression,” Celente said. “If you live in Lithuania, you’re running to the bank to get your money out of the bank as the bank runs go on. It’s a depression. Hungary, there’s a depression, and much of Eastern Europe, Romania, Bulgaria. And there are a lot of depressions going on [already].”

As things fall apart in Europe, the political wrangling is going to become even more intense.

For example, over the past few days a shocking new German proposal has come to light. Germany apparently would like Greece to give a “EU budget commissioner” the power to veto all Greek decisions on taxes and spending.

That would represent an unprecedented loss of sovereignty for Greece, and obviously Greek politicians are not excited about the idea at all.

In fact, Greek education minister Anna Diamantopoulou said that the proposal was “the product of a sick imagination“.

Read full article: http://www.prisonplanet.com/20-signs-that-europe-is-plunging-into-a-full-blown-economic-depression.html

Europe not getting better

Are things in europe getting better? Not a chance...

More than a quarter (28%) of Italians between 16 and 24 are unemployed. Others are struggling to get by on unpaid internships or poorly paid jobs with little security.

Italy's new prime minister, Mario Monti, has vowed to help the younger generation, promising among other things to help them start businesses, but as austerity bites deep the future is uncertain, even terrifying, for many.

It's not just Italy, of course. Eurozone unemployment is at a record. According to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, 16.3 million people are out of work in the 17 countries that joined the euro. The story of a lost generation is becoming the scandal of a continent. In Spain, 51.4% of those aged 16-24 are jobless. In Greece, the figure is 43%.

Read the full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/28/europes-lost-generation-young-eu

elias@akfinancials.net