You Can't Make This Stuff Up

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

this fits perfectly with an article i posted in some thread or other recently - i think it was in the netherlands or denmark, someone who took out a business loan was being PAID interest by the bank, while savings accounts were being CHARGED interest.

I obviously missed that one jk, or I would have attached my earlier post to yours on the same thread.

It's one thing for sovereigns to perhaps trade into negative interest territory; one may consider the demand for lower Euro currency credit risk such as Bunds, and higher quality non-Euro denominated sovereign debt such as Denmark, predicated in part by the desire to hedge against an eventual failure of the Euro currency itself. But what struck me in the FT article is the ability of a private enterprise to borrow at zero cost.

This world has enveloped itself in a level of mythology that rivals the ancient Greeks.

[jk]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

this fits perfectly with an article i posted in some thread or other recently - i think it was in the netherlands or denmark, someone who took out a business loan was being PAID interest by the bank, while savings accounts were being CHARGED interest.

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Free money! Really!!

The last time something this idiotic happened in the credit markets it was early 2007; the banks were falling all over themselves to lend and Private Equity firms were dictating the terms of the loans. That was a harbinger of the global credit system cardiac arrest later that year (BNP Paribas, then Northern Rock).

From the FT:

March 4, 2015 6:25 pm

GDF Suez issues euro bond at record low rate

GDF Suez broke fresh ground when it issued the lowest coupon on a 20-year corporate benchmark bond in the eurozone, highlighting relentless investor demand for less risky assets that is allowing companies to borrow at record low rates.

The French energy giant, rated at single-A, launched a €500m issue of the 20-year paper with a coupon of 1.5 per cent on Wednesday...

...Bond yields have plummeted in the eurozone in recent weeks, reaching lows ahead of the European Central Bank’s full-blown quantitative easing programme due to begin this month.

In a further twist, the utility company launched a zero-coupon two-year bond, an extremely uncommon event that means investors receive no annual return for lending their money...

...“There’s tremendous competition for assets. GDF Suez has really taken advantage to the perfect degree,” said Mr Tannenbaum.

“It’s a symbol that signals what issuers are able to do in the current credit environment.”...

...The issue was heavily oversubscribed, with some €6.5bn orders placed by money managers, pension funds and insurance companies from across the single currency bloc.

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

as for lustiness and eroticism, i remember one time when my wife and i were in our 20's and made a snow-woman we named snofia.....

From the Washington Post article I referenced. This must be what wakes the mullah's at night; nightmares of the rampant moral corruption of their flock at the hands of the non-believer infidels.

عبدالرحمن العكيمي @ALOKEMEabdualrh
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إبداعات أبناء تبوك والشمال في فن النحت بالثلج تجلّت خلال أيام البياض الفائتة وهذه أنثى من ثلج تبدو فاتنة بالبياض
2:29 AM - 12 Jan 2015

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[jk]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

as for lustiness and eroticism, i remember one time when my wife and i were in our 20's and made a snow-woman we named snofia.....

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Saudi Arabia will always be fodder for this thread...

Frosty fatwa: Saudi cleric bans snowmen

By Abby Phillip January 13

Do you want to build a snowman? You'd love to? Well, that's too bad — at least according to Saudi Arabia's Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid, a prominent cleric.

With snow covering the highland areas of Tabuk province in Saudi Arabia, there's not much else to do with the fluffy white stuff other than build snowmen and snow camels.


But with photos of snowpeople and snow camels popping up everywhere, Munajjid made it clear that Islamic teachings strictly prohibit the practice.



Asked whether the unusually snowy winter in Saudi Arabia meant that parents could build snowmen with their children, Munajjid delivered the bad news.

"It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun," Munajjid wrote on his Web site, according to Reuters...

...If you think that sounds slightly depressing, you're not alone.

“We have snow for fleeting days, maybe even hours, and there is always someone who wants to rob us of the joy and the fun,” wrote a blogger identified by Gulf News as Mishaal. “It seems that the only thing left for us is to sit down and drink coffee."

But Munajjid has his supporters.

"It [building snowmen] is imitating the infidels, it promotes lustiness and eroticism," wrote one person, according to Reuters, "May God preserve the scholars, for they enjoy sharp vision and recognize matters that even Satan does not think about."...

...And for those who were wondering, the prohibitions also apply to gingerbread men and other human-shaped winter treats.

“The ban, condoned by religious scholars, also covers models of people and animals made of sweets and paste, not just snow, if their facial features are clearly sculpted,” Munajjid added. “This means that if the model has no head or the facial features are obliterated, then there is no ban on it."...

[lakedaemonian]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

which may have something to do with why the speed limits have been bumped up to 80 on i-15...

I've got to go back to Vegas again later this year for work.While they've gone some way to appeal to families and non-drinkers/gamblers, I still find the place just about puts me in a diabetic coma and an epileptic seizure just trying to take it all in with the eyes.Back in 2001 on our way to Europe, we got caught in Idaho during 9/11.The trip was just starting but was obviously cancelled since nothing was moving in the air except military and very special people.So we rented a car and drove to Vegas on our way to LA to wait for the Air NZ plane home.We got there in almost exactly 6 hours.Only close call was with a cop about 1 hour north of Vegas right about when you see the giant column of light in all of the darkness.The entire vegas economy seems based on facilitating people doing things openly that they would only do behind closed doors at home.I reckon burqas and magic underpants offer little protection against human wants and needs.

[lektrode]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

.....
Contradictions pop up everywhere, and more so the farther you are from Mecca and Salt Lake City and the closer you get to the neon of Vegas.

which may have something to do with why the speed limits have been bumped up to 80 on i-15...

[lakedaemonian]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

are you saying WOMEN in BURQAS are doing happy hour? or just men?

We would have been murdered(as would the local women) if they ever joined our discrete happy hour.

But it was perfectly fine for the men to do so with discretion in a place where alcohol was perceived a bit like hard drugs, although in saying that the number of hard drug users was epidemic.

The local women we worked directly with(interpreters and analysts) didn't wear burqas, unlike the other 75-80% of local women.

Contradictions pop up everywhere, and more so the farther you are from Mecca and Salt Lake City and the closer you get to the neon of Vegas.

[jk]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

You might be surprised.

Such as Thursday when otherwise devout Muslims, after a bit of back and forth, share a brief and discrete happy hour with a trusted infidel expat or two in an Islamic state.

Mostdays in Dubai.

Everyday in Thailand and Las Vegas.

My wife can attest to the same with otherwise devout Mormons.

are you saying WOMEN in BURQAS are doing happy hour? or just men?

[lakedaemonian]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

the liquor store owner should have been suspicious from the beginning: a woman devout enough to wear a burqa wouldn't be going into a LIQUOR store.

You might be surprised.

Such as Thursday when otherwise devout Muslims, after a bit of back and forth, share a brief and discrete happy hour with a trusted infidel expat or two in an Islamic state.

Mostdays in Dubai.

Everyday in Thailand and Las Vegas.

My wife can attest to the same with otherwise devout Mormons.

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Apparently Russia and Saudi are somewhat more alike than just being underlain by lakes of oil. Of course Saudi retains the lead here; being female qualifying as the ultimate sex disorder in the Kingdom apparently. Must be something in the water from all that fracing.

8 January 2015 Last updated at 14:01 ET


Russia says drivers must not have 'sex disorders'

Russia has listed transsexual and transgender people among those who will no longer qualify for driving licences.

Fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism are also included as "mental disorders" now barring people from driving.

The government says it is tightening medical controls for drivers because Russia has too many road accidents.

"Pathological" gambling and compulsive stealing are also on the list. Russian psychiatrists and human rights lawyers have condemned the move...

...In 2013 Russia made "promoting non-traditional lifestyles" illegal...

...But the Professional Drivers Union supported the move. "We have too many deaths on the road, and I believe toughening medical requirements for applicants is fully justified," said the union's head Alexander Kotov.

However, he said the requirements should not be so strict for non-professional drivers...

[jk]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Abu Dhabi to consider allowing marriage instead of jail

Sunday, 7 December 2014 1:59 PM

Abu Dhabi’s judiciary is considering a proposal to allow couples who are charged with having sex outside of wedlock to get married in order to avoid a trial.

According a report in The National, when case comes before the courts, the judge would ask the couple if they wanted to be married.

Authorities in the emirate say the proposal would ease caseloads, and help to reduce penalties.

Ali Al Qareiny, a lawyer at Al Mansour Advocates and Legal Consultancy, told The National that most cases come before the courts after a man and woman are caught being intimate in public.

He added that the courts should provide ongoing guidance to the couple, to ensure that the marriage was stable, and not a fraud.

Under UAE law, sex outside marriage is considered adultery and is punishable with a minimum of one year in jail.

this seems like the obverse of woody allen's story that he and his first wife had saved up some money, and had to choose between a trip to the caribbean and getting a divorce. the trip would be over in a week, but a divorce you have forever.

[GRG55]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Abu Dhabi to consider allowing marriage instead of jail

Sunday, 7 December 2014 1:59 PM

Abu Dhabi’s judiciary is considering a proposal to allow couples who are charged with having sex outside of wedlock to get married in order to avoid a trial.

According a report in The National, when case comes before the courts, the judge would ask the couple if they wanted to be married.

Authorities in the emirate say the proposal would ease caseloads, and help to reduce penalties.

Ali Al Qareiny, a lawyer at Al Mansour Advocates and Legal Consultancy, told The National that most cases come before the courts after a man and woman are caught being intimate in public.

He added that the courts should provide ongoing guidance to the couple, to ensure that the marriage was stable, and not a fraud.

Under UAE law, sex outside marriage is considered adultery and is punishable with a minimum of one year in jail.

[metalman]

Re: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

the liquor store owner should have been suspicious from the beginning: a woman devout enough to wear a burqa wouldn't be going into a LIQUOR store.

'a woman devout enough to wear a burqa wouldn't be going into a LIQUOR store' thought the attentive bystander as he wrote down the license plate number :-)