Wednesday’s Worry – World Wide Cash Crunch
by phil - March 31st, 2010 8:37 am
Hugo Chavez is running low on cash.
Should you care that he just had to withdraw $5Bn from reserves, sending them to a 10-month low and down 19% to $28.35Bn? Well it’s not just Venezuela but they are a good example of what’s happening around the World as even oil-rich nations can no longer prop up their economies and will have to begin competing with the US, Europe and Japan to borrow money on the international markets. Venezuela may have external debt financing needs this year of as much as $19 billion and as much as $22 billion in 2011 should authorities choose not to use non-reserve savings estimated at $41.1 billion, according to Morgan Stanley. “Short of some break in Venezuela’s current dynamic, the economy may be faced with a severe dollar crunch as early as this year,” Pardelli and Volberg said. “The dollar crunch may prompt the authorities to attempt to buy time by drawing down their hard currency savings, issuing debt or significantly ratcheting up policy heterodoxy.”
Greece needs $15.6Bn by the end of May and that much again in August and November. Seven-year notes sold by the government this week fell even after the European Union and the International Monetary Fund crafted an aid package that would be triggered should the nation be unable to raise sufficient cash from capital markets to cover its financing needs. Greece may pay about 13 billion Euros more in interest on the debt it sells this year than it would have to had yields stayed at their pre-crisis levels relative to Germany’s.
The UK will be spending 10% of their tax revenues just to pay the interest on their debt as debt itself soars to 90% of GDP with debt now costing the UK more than their Defence and Transportation budgets combined. Neighboring Ireland is looking at a $110Bn bill over the next 12 months to stabilize it’s bad banks – and that’s AFTER giving the banks a 47% haircut on the value of the assets the government will be picking up. This will not be counted as an addition to Ireland’s already $95Bn in debt for 2010 because, technically, they are buying an asset - even if the asset is toxic. It’s the same trick our Fed uses every month to pretend things are fine…
Fed President Richard Fisher says the U.S. can’t ignore the effect of the…
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Chavez Threatens to Seize Businesses, Devalues Currency by 50%; Chavez vs. Obama, Parallels Greater Than You Think!
by ilene - January 11th, 2010 3:51 pm
Chavez Threatens to Seize Businesses, Devalues Currency by 50%; Chavez vs. Obama, Parallels Greater Than You Think!
Courtesy of Mish
Turn out the lights. The collapse of Venezuela is well underway. It will not be long before the country completely stops functioning, assuming you think Venezuela is functioning now.
Please consider Chavez Devalued Bolivar 50 Percent.
Venezuela devalued its currency by half yesterday, the first such action since March 2005, as President Hugo Chavez seeks to pull the economy from recession amid falling oil revenue.
Chavez said the bolivar will be devalued to 4.3 per dollar from 2.15 per dollar for most imports. A second, subsidized peg of 2.60 bolivars per dollar will be used for importing food, medicine and machinery intended to boost the economy’s competitiveness.
The government, which restricted foreign currency trading in January 2003 following a two-month general strike intended to oust Chavez from power, last devalued the currency by about 11 percent in March 2005. The bolivar was also devalued in 2004.
Chavez Threatens to Seize Businesses
Inquiring minds are reading Chavez Says He’ll Seize Businesses That Raise Prices.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that businesses have no reason to raise prices following the devaluation of the bolivar and that the government will seize any entity that boosts its prices.
Chavez said he’ll create an anti-speculation committee to monitor prices after private businesses said that prices would double and consumers rushed to buy household appliances and televisions. The government is the only authority able to dictate price increases, he said.
The government also will “attack” the so-called parallel exchange rate, which Chavez called “illegal.”
The bolivar traded at 6.25 per dollar on Jan. 8, traders said.
“They put the value of the dollar at more than 6 in an arbitrary and illegal manner,” Chavez said. “We have to organize to reduce and attack that speculative, illegal dollar that hurts the Venezuelan economy so much.”
Official Rate vs. Black Market Rate
Official Rate: 4.3 bolivar per dollar
Previous Official Rate: 2.15 bolivar per dollar
Black Market Rate: 6.25 bolivar per dollar
Virtually no one in private business will exchange at the rate of 4.3 bolivar per dollar. Banks will not do it either, otherwise there would be no need for a black market.
Massive Shortages Coming
Chavez just effectively…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.