[QUOTE=ewmayer;207001]Regarding the "like the coconut" link, it works for me (Firefox, with my usual security-paranoid settings, i.e. no images,no javascript, no popups) ... anyone else having trouble viewing the page?[/QUOTE]Sorry, I didn't make it clear that it was the link to magazine cover picture that didn't work as you had intended.

Paul

[QUOTE=xilman;207010]Sorry, I didn't make it clear that it was the link to magazine cover picture that didn't work as you had intended.

Paul[/QUOTE]
Ah - yes, the original link has apparently been obsoleted. Luckily, I found a cached copy of the pic on my PC:

[SIZE=1]__________[/SIZE]

[SIZE=1]...you simply have a double ?-separated "[URL="http://p3.focus.de/img/gen/Z/r/HBZrzUeA_Pxgen_r_Ax480.jpg"]link[/URL]?link" URL (a deliberate trick against copying by that web source?), but the simple trimmed [/SIZE][URL="http://p3.focus.de/img/gen/Z/r/HBZrzUeA_Pxgen_r_Ax480.jpg"][SIZE=1]link[/SIZE][/URL][SIZE=1] works fine. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Very subtle picture.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Or maybe my browser's cache also plays tricks on me. The picture shows sometimes and ...then it doesn't.[/SIZE]

when faced with "hot linking" error, it is customary to copy the link and paste it into a new browser window (so that the referrer is blank)

[QUOTE=axn;207039]when faced with "hot linking" error, it is customary to copy the link and paste it into a new browser window (so that the referrer is blank)[/QUOTE]

If you use mozilla, set network.http.sendRefererHeader = 0

Referrers were never the website's business anyway.

Caveat: some sites will inexplicably fail to work if you do this.

[QUOTE=xilman;207010]Sorry, I didn't make it clear that it was the link to magazine cover picture that didn't work as you had intended.

Paul[/QUOTE]Try it this [URL="http://p3.focus.de/img/gen/Z/r/HBZrzUeA_Pxgen_r_Ax480.jpg"]way[/URL]....

@schickel - no that does not work. I get a hot-linking error.

Just go here [url]http://www.focus.de/magazin/archiv/jahrgang_2010/ausgabe_8/[/url]

Greek leader calls for "immediate austerity"
 

[url=http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14498605?nclick_check=1]Greek leader's dramatic speech calls for immediate austerity[/url]
[quote]ATHENS, Greece — Prime Minister George Papandreou called on Greeks to brace for more painful spending cuts to deal with an unprecedented financial crisis, saying their sacrifices were essential to national survival.

In a dramatic speech Tuesday to his Socialist party's deputies in Parliament, Papandreou said time was running out to pull the country out of the crisis. His government is to announce further spending cuts on Wednesday — likely to include more tax hikes and deeper reductions in civil servants' pay.

The cuts are aimed at reducing the deficit, winning firm backing from the European Union and convincing bond investors that Greece is creditworthy so they will keep lending.

"We would have liked to have had more time for the results of our big structural reforms to become apparent. ... But this time simply doesn't exist today," Papandreou said. "Our creditors, on whom we unfortunately depend, won't give it to us."

The speech came a day after the EU's finance chief, Olli Rehn, told Athens it must impose more painful, permanent spending cuts soon if it is to emerge from the crisis, which has undermined the 16-country euro.

"We must take decisions today, not tomorrow. Yes, we must take further measures," Papandreou said.
[b]
He stressed that his country faced catastrophic consequences if it could not borrow on more reasonable terms. The crisis has made the cost of Greek borrowing rise as markets show concern over whether Athens can pay back its debts.

"If our country doesn't manage to borrow on similar terms to those of other European Union countries, the results will be something worse than catastrophic," Papandreou said, adding that "we are borrowing from international markets that simply do not believe us."
[/b]
Greece saw its credibility plummet after Papandreou's newly elected government in October sharply revised the deficit put out by the previous government to a staggering 12.7 percent of annual economic output — over four times the EU limit and up from an initial estimate of under 4 percent of GDP.

Greeks will fight "to save Greece, its citizens and our children from whatever the nightmare scenario of bankruptcy could be," he said, adding that "we are today in a state of war in front of negative scenarios for our country."

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told the AP that Athens expects an 'immediate' reaction from the EU once the measures are announced. An EU endorsement of the new plan could help calm jittery markets, bringing down the cost of borrowing for Greece — currently about twice that of Germany — ahead of a planned bond sale, and give the government breathing space to focus on structural reforms.

Papaconstantinou said Greece expects EU reaction to be "immediate, within the day."[/quote]
[i]My Comment:[/i] Ah yes, nothing like a palpable sense of desperation from the leadership and a populace already engaging in weekly nation-paralyzing strikes to protest already-announced "draconian" proposals like increasing the retirement age by 2 years to - gasp! - 63 years to calm those jittery markets, eh?

I`ll be very interested to see what the "within the day" reaction from the rest of the EU will be ... possible responses would seem to range from "collective loud laughter" (that would be bad for Greece) to a market-soothing "looks very promising" round of jawboning, which would suffice to allow Greece to dump a couple more billion in IOUs onto the bond markets at a couple hundred basis points lower than currently, before the riots in the Athens streets begin in earnest, and everyone realizes that the "bold proposal" was just a bond-market pump and dump scam. But with multiple [url=http://www.zerohedge.com/article/greek-roadmap-update-goldmans-erik-nielsen]large coupon payments coming due[/url] in the next couple of months, the markets will only forgive happy-talk-not-backed-by-real-action for a very short time.

Interestingly, only a few hours ago the head of Greece's debt management agency was reported saying that [url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aD.UpuN5FmjQ&pos=5]there was no urgency at all[/url] about those on-deck bond sales.

I also find it quite interesting how quickly "sovereign debt buyers" and "players in the global currency casino" have turned into [url=http://www.zerohedge.com/article/what-cds-speculators-reason-why-greek-spreads-blew-because-bond-selling-not-cds-buying]"evil financial-market speculators"[/url] once they actually start showing some healthy skepticism about the finances of a nation which has now been shown to have been systematically lying about same for decades. Sure, it's pretty ethically dubious for the Vampire SquidMen to first help concoct currency-swap deals designed to help Greece (and numerous other nations whose names will be revealed in due time) hide the extent of its debt, SquidProfit handsomely thereby, and then profit some more by betting against the same country once the scheme blows up. But that's what financial Cephalopods *do*, namely make money coming and going. Greece et al were all too happy to have the devil calamari around when he was helping them to pull the wool over the eyes of the rest of the EU; now that the obscuring fleece is in tatters, the hue and cry about "market speculators" has begun. Pot, meet kettle, and stop whining about the soot.

The "dramatic speech" report led (among other things) to the following [url=http://www.zerohedge.com/article/greek-prime-minister-greece-faces-bankruptcy-without-radical-action-country-wartime-situatio]amusing exchange[/url] among a pair of ZeroHedge readers:

[b]A:[/b] [i]"Come on Greece, 300 Spartans held off a million Persians back in the day

Can't you beat back just a few bond vigilantes today, jeez"[/i]

[b]B:[/b] [reply] [i]"If the 300 spartans had been part of a labor union and demanded more benefits in the face of the approaching Persians or they would strike, I think the history lesson would have ended quite differently.[/i]

[QUOTE=garo;207152]@schickel - no that does not work. I get a hot-linking error.

Just go here [url]http://www.focus.de/magazin/archiv/jahrgang_2010/ausgabe_8/[/url][/QUOTE]Ahhh...it worked for me because I opened a new tab and pasted in the link. Didn't think to check by clicking on the link :doh!:

Happy Birthday, Carlo "Charles" Ponzi
 

Today would have been the 128th birthday of a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi]famous financial innovator[/url] (to use Wall-Street-style laudatory terminology) whose name frequently graces these pages. Happy birthday, Chuck!

The entire Wikipedia article on Ponzi is well worth reading - fascinating stuff, containing many eerie parallels (besides the obvious ones, that is) with the current financial crisis. I laughed out loud when I got to the part about the Massachusetts Bank Commissioner becoming concerned that the scope of Ponzi`s operations had imperiled the functioning of the entire Boston banking system. Can you say "systemic risk"? The difference being that - unlike today - when Ponzi`s scheme finally did blow up, the banks involved were allowed to fail, the investors lost most of their money, and guess what? The system as a whole survived. Now the Bernankes, Paulsons and Geithners of the world would have you believe that "this time is different" due to the global scope of the Ponzi - that is true, and of course it is an indictment of central bankers and government (non)regulators that they let things get this out of hand - in fact, they actively promoted the serial modern tulip-bulb manias that we've seen in the past decades. But the fact remains that there is only one cure for the resulting problem, and it is the same as it was in Ponzi`s day - you must force the bad debt out into the open to be defaulted on, and let fail institutions rendered insolvent as a result. The main useful role the government can play here is to try to protect the remaining productive parts of the economy, and to prevent generalized panic from choking off capital to long-term viable businesses. Instead, the prudent are being punished for the mistakes, greed and crimes of the scam participants and beneficiaries.


[b]Greece: "We Have a Plan ... We Just Need a Few Thousand Water Cannons To Make It Work..."[/b]

[url=http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/03/news/international/Greece_debt_reductions/index.htm]Greece outlines plan to cut massive deficit[/url]: [i]Facing firm demands from the European Union and financial markets to cut its deficit, Greece announced cost-cutting measures Wednesday that will save the debt-challenged country €4.8 billion, $6.53 billion, this year.[/i]
[quote]The Greek government plans to decrease civil service workers' salaries by one month's pay by cutting 30% of their holiday bonus payments, according to The Wall Street Journal's online edition. Officials also said civil service pensions will also be frozen for the year.

To increase revenue, the Greek government said it will raise the value-added tax to 21% from 19%, and boost the tax on tobacco and alcohol by 20%, according to the Journal.[/quote]
[i]My Comment:[/i] Cutting 30% of public employees` holiday *bonus* payments equates to one months` salary? In other words, these surely-well-deserved-performance-based yearly bonuses amount to over [b]three months`[/b] salary? Are you kidding me?

Let the nationwide state of perma-strike-dom begin...

[QUOTE=ewmayer;207249]Cutting 30% of public employees holiday *bonus* payments equates to one months salary ? In other words, these surely-well-deserved-performance-based yearly bonuses amount to over three months salary ? Are you kidding me ?[/QUOTE]Ernst,

Unless you know how the total package of the Greek public employees compares to that of employees in the private sector, you can not start screaming... Partial comparisons can be very misleading indeed.

Jacob