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All Greek Banks Closed Today, Euro Nose-Dives

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By Associated Press. Greece’s five-year financial crisis took its most dramatic turn to date Sunday, with the cabinet deciding, after an 8-hour session, that Greek banks would remain shut for six working days and restrictions would be imposed on cash withdrawals.

The Athens Stock Exchange would also not open on Monday, financial sector officials confirmed.

A decree published in the official Government Gazette stipulates banks will not open Monday morning and will remain closed through Monday, July 6. The finance minister could decide to short or extend that period.

Withdrawals from ATM with credit or cash cards will be capped at 60 euros ($66) daily. The decree said ATMs would be working at the latest 12 hours from its publication, meaning cash machines would open by early afternoon, at the latest.

Web banking transactions will be mostly free, allowing people to pay their bills online. However, they cannot move money to accounts abroad. (Read more from “All Greek Banks Closed Today, Here’s Why” HERE)

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Euro, Stocks Plunge as Greece Seen on Course to Default

By Reuters. The euro fell almost 2 percent and share prices tumbled across Asia on Monday as Greece looked set to default on its debt repayment this week, forcing Athens to impose capital controls to halt bank runs.

With the prospect of Greece being forced out of the euro in plain sight, the common currency fell as much as 1.9 percent to $1.0955 , its lowest in almost a month, and last stood down 1.4 percent at $1.1007.

Against the yen, the common currency dropped more than 3 percent to 133.80 yen, a five-week low.

U.S. stock futures dived almost 2 percent at one point to hitting a three-month low, and last traded down 1.6 percent. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Desperate “Bubble Thinking” Takes Hold on Wall Street

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money-4If it looks like a bubble, smells like a bubble and walks like a bubble, it is a bubble.

What we have in the certain stocks today is a bubble every bit as epic as the one that took the NASDAQ Composite Index (INDEX:.IXIC) to its previous record of 5048 back in 2000.

There are few certainties in this world, but one of them is that bubbles pop.

And like all previous bubbles, this bubble will pop too.

One of the key signs of a bubble is when investors and the analysts that cheer them over the cliff refuse to acknowledge facts that contradict their bullishness.

The Evidence Is Irrefutable

Exhibit “A” is Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). At the beginning of the year, analysts were forecasting that the company would earn $2.78 per share and had an average price target on the company’s stock of $269 per share – $49 per share higher than where it was trading at the time. Since then, a series of setbacks have led analysts to radically lower their earnings estimates to a mere $0.53 per share – a reduction of 80%.

But instead of lowering their price target on the stock by a commensurate amount, analysts have only lowered it by $19 per share to $251 – a reduction of a mere 7.1%.

That is bubble thinking. The psychological term for that is denial. The Wall Street term for that is careerism.

Exhibit “B” is Amazon.com Inc. . . (Read more from “Desperate “Bubble Thinking” Takes Hold on Wall Street” HERE)

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Open Letter to All Representatives of the House, State of Alaska

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This past week, Alaska’s House of Representatives voted to move forward a reduced budget at approximately $5.4 billion. While there is a substantial difference between our revenue income and this budget, it is clear that the House Finance committees ( HFIN ) have done diligent work to get to this number.

The real issue is to completely rethink our funding formulas to get Alaska’s budget to a level of sustainability. The old models are archaic and will not provide a legitimate path forward. We must act on two fronts:

1. To sustain and promote our diverse investment formulas in order to counter-balance any further decline in the price of oil.

2. To root out the gross inefficiencies of a government system unaccountable in it’s irresponsible spending. This is imperative. This is clearly the issues Representative Lora Reinbold stands against, which brings me to this point.

I wish to speak to all of you with clarity regarding the stance Representative Lora Reinbold took on the House floor. While she gave great credit to the diligent work that had been done in the House committees, she could not, in good conscious, vote for a budget which, in her representative opinion, is loaded with inefficiencies and questionable expenditures given the current, serious, fiscal climate.

As citizen’s we take great issue with an ” internal system” which coerces members of political groups to “delphi” their vote. This is certainly against the grain of representative democracy and especially egregious considering all of you took an oath to defend our Constitution.

It has come to our collective attention that the House leadership will be meeting in conference to take up the issue of a reprimand and disciplinary action toward Representative Reinbold. She is not the target. The target is clearly an inefficient system and financial structure which has be perpetuated for way too long.

As you step into the halls of your committee, to mitigate the perception of damage a rogue representative may cause to your cabal, I want to remind you that Alaska is filled with “rogue citizens” who have staked our tents in the valley of her thoughts and convictions. To make her a target of your disdain is to send a clear and concise message to us all, for it is not only her you are reprimanding, but the foundations of our representative democracy. Your reprimand will not only be to her, but to us all.


In conclusion, I do not write to you as the Chair of the Libertarian Party, nor do I write to you as the Chair of United for Liberty. I write to all of you as a parent who wants my daughter to enjoy the full breath of freedom and liberty which has been given to us all. The manner in which you direct the financial future of Alaska will determine whether she may return to Alaska one day beyond college and continue writing the story of my family as proud Alaskan’s.

I ask you for your maturity in our financial guidance and I ask you to embrace our Alaskan sister, Lora. She deserves nothing less.

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Obama Unveils Ridiculous Budget for 2016

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Photo Credit: Breitbart President Obama on Monday will unveil a nearly $4 trillion budget for 2016 that offers a tax cut for the middle class and a $478 billion infrastructure plan, as well as new taxes on the wealthy and businesses.

Administration officials cast the plan, which will be released to the public at 11:30 a.m., as balancing investments in government programs with fiscal discipline.

“You don’t need to choose between those two things, you can, in fact, accomplish both. We believe our budget provides a roadmap for how to do that,” a senior administration official told reporters during a conference call Sunday.

The budget busts through ceilings on spending that were introduced in a 2011 budget deal between President Obama and House Republicans. The increased spending is likely to be rejected by Republicans now in control of the House and Senate.

The budget will request $74 billion more in spending for domestic programs and the Pentagon that would be allowed under the spending ceilings. (Read more about the budget for 2016 HERE)

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