Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Portugal Contagion Spreads
Despite reassurances from US asset-gatherers and TV 'personalities' that Portugal must be fixed (because US equities are up), it is anything but. Today's triple whammy from the 'recovered' Portugal starts withBanco Espirito Santo bonds and stocks hitting new record lows (down over 10% more on the day). The contagion has rippled across to Rioforte, which controls Grupo Espirito Santo's non-financial arm - and is likely to default on a EUR 847 million payment to Portugal Telecom. And just to add further salt to that wound, Portuguesebusiness lending in May collapsed at a record pace (down 8.23%). But apart from that, yeash Portugal is all fixed and their sovereign bonds are worth every penny...
Step 1 - Banco Espirito Santo bonds and stocks continue to collapse...
Step 2 - The Contagion spreads to the rest of Portugal...
- Rioforte, which controls Grupo Espirito Santo’s non-financial arm, is likely to default on 847m-euro payment due to be made to PT today, Folha de S.Paulo reports, without saying where it got the information.
- Payment is part of 897m-euro debt to PT
- Negotiations are still underway
- Rioforte has been trying to sell assets over last few days to enable it to make the payment
- Co. has potential to raise 300m euros from sales of assets, including Tivoli hotel chain
- Rioforte, PT seek solution to enable loan payment, without changing terms of merger w/Oi
Zero
Step 3 - Credit Creation is collapsing as business lending plunges by its most on record...
* * *
But apart from that Portugal is fixed
Credit to Zero Hedge
Monday, July 14, 2014
Russia, Brazil Bring Bilateral Cooperation to New Level – Brazilian President
MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) – The partnership between Russia and Brazil is getting stronger and moving to a new higher level, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Monday.
“Our common strategy and partnership are getting stronger and moving to a higher level, which implies development of new projects. We see that your country is a very important player in terms of geopolitics both nowadays and in the future,” Rousseff stressed following the results of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Brazilian leader also pointed to Russia-Brazil long-term partnership and expressed hope that it would further develop in various spheres.
“Our countries are one of the largest in the world and we cannot limit ourselves to what we have at the moment. The recent events show that scientific and technological cooperation is extremely significant, that is why I would like to say that I am glad that Russia has joined our scientific work and implementation of GLONASS satellite navigation systems in Brazil,” she said.
According to Rousseff, Russian companies could also expand their presence in Brazil “in the spheres of the oil sector and railway construction.”
The Brazilian president thanked Putin for “an excellent organization of the Sochi Olympic Games” and said she was convinced that “Russia and Brazil could always cooperate in sports projects: both in the 2018 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.”
President Putin met his Brazilian counterpart as part of his Latin American tour. On July 15-16, the Russian leader is due to attend a meeting of the BRICS nations also including India, China and South Africa, in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza.
Credit to RIA Novosti
The hidden intelligence agendas behind Hamas’ 1,000-rocket barrage
Hamas launches M-75 missiles
Speculation has been rife about the motivations behind Hamas’ more than 100-rocket-a-day barrage against the Israeli population, week after week. The most popular theory is that the Palestinian Islamists are aiming for a spectacular victory over Israel by hitting an important strategic target and/or causing a high number of fatalities. Until one or both those objectives is achieved, the Palestinian Islamists won’t stop shooting.
But, as the Israeli Operation Defends Edge ended its first week on July 14, another explanation was finding acceptance among well-informed military and intelligence observers: They don’t believe Hamas tacticians have squandered 1,000 rockets thus far on a whim or at random. They are most likely motivated by three goals, which are also important to Hamas’ future plans – and not just Hamas:
1. Why would Hamas keep on shooting when so many of its rockets miss their targets or are destined to be downed by Israel’s Iron Dome interception batteries? The answer is that its tacticians have a hidden agenda. The rocket crews and their masters are testing the strengths and weaknesses of Israel’s wonder weapon for future reference.
Hamas knew in advance of the massive rocket blitz it launched against Israel in the last week of June that the Iron Dome defensive shield was if not impermeable then a major impediment.
At the same time, by battering the very areas where this shield was deployed, Hamas planners sought to expose its weak points and provide the Palestinians terrorists and their allies, Iran and Hizballah, with valuable data about the linchpin of Israel’s defenses.
This explanation would account for the changing focus of the rocket barrage: After three days of concentrated fire on Israel’s three main cities, the Tel Aviv conurbation, Jerusalem and Haifa, Hamas turned Monday, July 14, to its familiar victims around the Gaza Strip’s borders. In those three days, data had been collected on Iron Dome’s performance and handed over to the analysts.
2. When the distribution of Hamas targets is examined, a premeditated program becomes visible: They were not randomly aimed at Dimona, Tel Aviv, Modiin and Hadera, but sought out the nuclear reactor (Dimona), Israel’s national and business heartland (Tel Aviv), the national power center (Hadera), Ben Gurion airport (Modiin), Israeli air bases near Negev towns, and military and port installations in Haifa, Ashkelon and Ashdod.
Hamas strategists noted that when the rocket fire intensified, so too did the Iron Dome interceptions.
While not averse to hitting Israel’s prime strategic sites directly, the Palestinians were their missed launches to develop data for guidance systems that would make their rockets and mortars more accurate in future conflicts.
The first Hamas drone from Gaza over Ashdod coast, shot down by a Patriot anti-missile early Monday, served this strategy,
The drone appears to have spent some time over the Mediterranean without approaching the Israeli coast before it was detected and downed. It may have been gathering information on the Israel coast and the strategic facilities located there.
Hamas later boasted that it had lofted not one but six unmanned aerial vehicles, whose range was 60 km and which were claimed capable of both surveillance and attack.
The IDF responded fast by declaring the southern coastal area a closed military zone.
Israel’s armed forces have been engaged in rocket-air combat for seven days, conducting a total of 1,470 air strikes, compared with more than 1,000 rockets fired by Hamas and its partner Jihad Islami.
Hamas still retains the bulk of its rocket stockpile. Some observers suggest that the Israeli Air Force will soon run out of worthwhile targets. The air force’s target bank is renewed almost hourly by incoming data. To replenish the dwindling stock, the military would have to expand its intelligence assets and resources, including surveillance and other means of monitoring the sites used by the enemy for control and command, as welll as informers.
Inserting a variety of sensitive intelligence resources at key points in the Gaza Strip is an essential requisite - not just for the current conflict, but for the long term. They would be there to have quality intelligence ready and available in real time, so providing a key factor for tipping the scales in the current and future rounds of violence.
Special forces working under cover to “label” targets for dedicated payloads to be delivered by air or “smart artillery” would provide such intelligence, just as Hamas uses rocket attacks and drones to suss out the secrets of Israel’s advanced defenses.
Above all, the clandestine insertion of special forces into the Gaza Strip could break the standoff between Israel and Hamas by cracking the control and surveillance communications systems linking commanders with the ranks and the politicians running the territory.
Ironically, the primitive nature of those communications makes them invulnerable to the IDF’s sophisticated Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) methods.
Credit to DEBFKAfile
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