Greek funding update: Deal complete, interest acceptable, funding crisis averted for now….
Greek debt chief says bids for 10-year bond at EUR14 bln – DJ
DJ reports the Greek government’s offering of 10-year bonds has attracted EUR14 billion in bids, and will close soon, the head of the country’s debt management agency said. In the wake of a new package of austerity measures announced Wednesday, the government earlier launched an offering of 10-year bonds through a group of lead managers that comprises Barclays Capital, HSBC Holdings, National Bank of Greece, Nomura and Piraeus Bank. “The bond offering is going very well, beyond expectations,” said Petros Christodoulou. The government aims to raise EUR5 billion through the offering, but it appears to be heavily oversubscribed. After launch, Greece cut price guidance on the EUR5 billion, 300 basis points over mid-swaps from 310 basis points… “The bidding so far shows that confidence has returned to the Greek bond market,” a senior government official said. “It is a very good development. Everyone is breathing easier now.”
Guest post from Bill H.. His take on the CDS market is dead on and thought provoking, enjoy…
Credit default swap lunacy!
Dubai, Greece and the rest of the PIIGS, now Britain and next the U.S.. Speculators are pushing currencies and sovereign bonds and yields higher and lower almost at will using the CDS (credit default swaps) market. These rocket scientists hedge and or speculate (even attack) currencies with these CDS products and go to sleep at night with a clear conscience. They sleep tight each night not caring what destruction they have caused real people and the real economy and take mistaken solace that if say Greece were to fail “they are hedged”.
I am going to tell you that NO ONE with any CDS product is hedged against anything! First you must understand that if sovereigns begin to default, there will be no end until the last, biggest and most egregious financial entity falls (the U.S. Treasury). These CDS products look good on the books but who can afford to lose and make the winners whole? What currency do you get paid in if you win? My point here is the “counter party risk”. The only way a CDS product could be secure and iron clad is if it were written by a Gold depository and payable in Gold which has been authenticated, assayed and audited as to purity and it actually being there for payment.
We hear that CDS spreads widen for this country or that one. We have even heard this about the U.S. from time to time. But think about how stupid it would be to “insure” against a U.S. default with ANY paper product issued by ANY issuer. When the U.S. finally goes whether it be through default or hyperinflation, the Dollar will ultimately “go away”. So what if you were right? Are you getting paid in Dollars that became worthless? Isn’t this what you were insuring against in the first place? So you win but you receive bazillions of pieces of the very same paper you were insuring against and thus YOU LOSE?
Oh I see…you insured against a U.S. default and will get paid in Euros. This makes all kinds of sense since a U.S. default certainly won’t submarine Europe. This logic works forwards, backwards or in either direction! What I am saying here is that once ANY sovereign default occurs, IT”S OVER! EVERYTHING paper goes boom and in a puff of smoke so does ALL the “supposed” value. EVERYTHING paper blows away and ONLY assets that you can touch, feel and actually USE (manufacturing, farmland, mining) will have or retain value!
THE only true hedge against ANY sovereign default is either Gold or Silver, period. Gold and Silver are real money and will accrue ALL of the “printed” monies’ value over the years. This is a difficult concept to understand but all the fiats that have ever been printed in the past and present really had no value other than “confidence” value. Each Dollar, Pound, Yen, Euro etc. that has come into existence will “spill” its value into the metals upon its demise. I can’t believe that no one has yet (other than Jim Sinclair) publicly explained the stupidity employed in the “CDS protection” scheme.
Credit default swaps are not protection, they are nuclear land mines scattered across the land that will go off in succession after the first one is tripped. OR as Mr. Sinclair says, they will print to oblivion and wipe out all paper values through hyperinflation. Either way if you have wealth tied up in metal or mining shares, you will win in the end. Have you ever wondered why there is no such animal as a credit default swap on physical Gold? Could this be because Gold cannot default? Taking a leap forward, when everything else is defaulting (including and especially CDS products), doesn’t it make sense that fear capital will seek that that cannot default? Now that’s simple logic! Regards, Bill H.
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