Posted on 11/26/2010 1:28:48 AM PST by bruinbirdman
The escalating debt crisis on the eurozone periphery is starting to contaminate the creditworthiness of Germany and the core states of monetary union.
Credit default swaps (CDS) measuring risk on German, French and Dutch bonds have surged over recent days, rising significantly above the levels of non-EMU states in Scandinavia.
"Germany cannot keep paying for bail-outs without going bankrupt itself," said Professor Wilhelm Hankel, of Frankfurt University. "This is frightening people. You cannot find a bank safe deposit box in Germany because every single one has already been taken and stuffed with gold and silver. It is like an underground Switzerland within our borders. People have terrible memories of 1948 and 1923 when they lost their savings."
The refrain was picked up this week by German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. "We're not swimming in money, we're drowning in debts," he told the Bundestag.
While Germany's public and private debt is not extreme, it is very high for a country on the cusp of an acute ageing crisis. Adjusted for demographics, Germany is already one of the most indebted nations in the world.
Reports that EU officials are hatching plans to double the size of EU's €440bn (£373bn) rescue mechanism have inevitably caused outrage in Germany. Brussels has denied the claims, but the story has refused to die precisely because markets know the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) cannot cope with the all too possible event of a triple bail-out for Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
EU leaders hoped this moment would never come when they launched their "shock and awe" fund last May. The pledge alone was supposed to be enough. But EU proposals in late October for creditor "haircuts" have set off capital flight, or a "buyers' strike" in the words of Klaus Regling, head
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Our little union in America is not working out so well either.
“Someone else’s money only lasts so long, and THIEVES will rob you blind if 1) you let em, and 2) if you refuse to see what it is they are doing. This “One world Government” is nothing other than a robbery in plain daylight!
And Obama is deliberately trying to set us up for that HERE.
Oh no no no.
Sorry Germany, you were stupid enough to do it not once, but twice and now a THIRD time! And they expect things to change?! Is this not insanity?
Socialism DOES NOT WORK. “Bailout” is another word for redistributive wealth - SOCIALISM!!! All they did was change the name!
If he is right – we may learn in February – the EU debt crisis will take a dramatic new turn.”
If the court rules against this power grab by the EU and the “deep pockets of the German's” is lost then I suspect all hell will break loose in the Euro Zone.
It looks as if the EUSSR is about to go the way of the USSR.
If Germany says no to a bail out, the Euro really may collapse.
German taxpayers are already in a quiet rebellion over this issue.
German politicians and German bureaucrats are the last line of defense for a single currency.
Oh yeah, that's a safe place for your gold and silver - - the government will never look there when it's looking for wealth to confiscate.
Huge amounts of Irish, Spanish, Greek, Italian, and Portuguese sovereign debt are held by European commercial banks.
If those countries begin to default, some of the largest banks in Europe would be insolvent.
A certain early US President made a stern warning: “beware of foreign entanglements.” We are seeing in the EU, the fallout of such “entanglements” - This is what happens when globalists insist that everyone’s economies be so closely bound (also heard “beware the ties that bind”).
Germany has been the loudest and staunchest defender of the Euro. Not saying they won’t blink when the rubber hits the road but i have to think it will be some other nation first if it happens at all. They may try and work their way through this and when things get better,economies always get better and worse,pull the plug on the whole bad experiment.
Exactly why nobody walks away from the bailout process or the single currency at this time.
If Germany says no to a bail out, the Euro really may collapse.
If they say yes to the bailout. Germany will go with it.
You don’t back paper with paper.
One thing that is not clear is the amount of Spain, Portugal, Ireland debt is held by United States banks.
This is why I fear the 2010's will become a perfect repeat of the 1930's--deepening economic malaise, political extremism and eventually world war. 
This is what economic writer Harry S. Dent foretold in his recent book The Great Depression Ahead; if we can somehow survive this tumult the 2020's could become another economic boom period.
“One thing that is not clear is the amount of Spain, Portugal, Ireland debt is held by United States banks.”
We won’t know until our central bank is audited.
Dear Germans...work hard and long hours so your socialist comrades can retire early, sit around at cafes and drink coffee all day, retire early and spend like there is no tomorrow. It is for the better good, Comrade.
well the Euro was a way to set up the 4th Reich without firing a shot — and it worked, until now.
One thing that is not clear is the amount of Spain, Portugal, Ireland debt is held by United States banks.
Not to worry. Obama and Bernacke will just print more dollars, with an electronic memo, to bail out the banks.
TARP II anyone?
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