Via Digby the report in the Telegraph: Germany unmoved by French pleas for more ECB action

Angela Merkel was unmoved by another roller-coaster day that saw Portuguese debt being downgraded to junk status, Italian bond yields pushed into the bail-out zone, and doubts cast over France’s AAA rating: the German Chancellor refused to allow the ECB to become Europe’s lender of last resort.

Ms Merkel instead used a three-way summit with France and Italy in Strasbourg to insist that new treaty powers to intervene and punish sinner states remained the key focus of Europe’s rescue efforts. She said: “The countries who don’t keep to the stability pact have to be punished – those who contravene it need to be penalised. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Angie, if they follow your lead it definitely won’t happen again, because there probably won’t be a Europe in which it can happen. The people who created the problem should have been thrown in prison, but they are still living the high life while the 99% are the ones being punished.

The euro is toast, and the European Union can’t be far behind. The only chance for individual countries to survive is to leave the euro, because the European Central Bank is unwilling to act like a central bank.

Until the ‘true believers’ like Angela Merkel are out of power, Europe doesn’t have a prayer of recovery.

Well, the police may not be attacking the Black Friday shoppers, but they are taking up the slack on their own: Shooting outside Calif. Walmart, 1 wounded and Woman pepper sprays other shoppers at LA Wal-Mart on Black Friday eve.

The propaganda mills media are already pushing the ‘party line’ with one saying 150 million people have gone shopping and another trumpeting 25% of Americans, both figures are made up out of whole cloth. It is the end of the month, so cash is in short supply, and people are avoiding credit cards. It is going to be another bad year, and the retailers know it as they are carrying much smaller inventories than they once regularly displayed.

Walmart has seen declining sales for over two years, so the dollar stores are the only sector with any real hopes for retailers catering to the 99%. The stores for the 1% haven’t really noticed the economic problems, and will probably have a good year.

Heat!

Is that really the sun?

[Editor: Ringo has found a sunny spot in the driveway and has no intention of giving it up.

Friday Ark