Posted on 11/26/2011 9:58:19 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
For the growing chorus of observers who fear that a breakup of the euro zone might be at hand, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has a pointed rebuke: It’s never going to happen.
But some banks are no longer so sure, especially as the sovereign debt crisis threatened to ensnare Germany itself this week, when investors began to question the nation’s stature as Europe’s main pillar of stability.
On Friday, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Belgium’s credit standing to AA from AA+, saying it might not be able to cut its towering debt load any time soon. Ratings agencies this week cautioned that France could lose its AAA rating if the crisis grew. On Thursday, agencies lowered the ratings of Portugal and Hungary to junk.
While European leaders still say there is no need to draw up a Plan B, some of the world’s biggest banks, and their supervisors, are doing just that.
“We cannot be, and are not, complacent on this front,” Andrew Bailey, a regulator at Britain’s Financial Services Authority, said this week. “We must not ignore the prospect of a disorderly departure of some countries from the euro zone,” he said.
Banks including Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Nomura issued a cascade of reports this week examining the likelihood of a breakup of the euro zone. “The euro zone financial crisis has entered a far more dangerous phase,” analysts at Nomura wrote on Friday. Unless the European Central Bank steps in to help where politicians have failed, “a euro breakup now appears probable rather than possible,” the bank said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
One is the unwillingness to lend any more funds to the countries. .this they can't finance there ever increasign welfare state.
The other is the potential, and ever increasing unwillingness of ANY one bank...especially one in Asia, to roll-over an existing CD..
All it takes is just ONE bank..to say it wants its money..and the game's up..
Exactly. Lots of junk to go around. We’re intrinsically linked by UNaccountable UNregulated socialists junk DERIVATIVES backstopped by UNaccountable UNaudited FED stymied by UNaccountable socialist supercommittees.
-——What if they hide their money further afield like in Britain, Switzerland, the US or even in the Caymans? ———
For many, hiding it is not the plan. Many many European companies have a very large US presence. The US operation will achieve dominance until the storm in Europe blows over.
You left out two large financial centers...... Singapore and Dubai.
Many of the countries I mentioned in my original post are sitting on a lot of cash, especially in eastern Asia. They’re increasingly reluctant to invest in the financial sinkhole that is much of Europe, and this is why I think countries all over the Pacific Rim plus the more prosperous nations in South America, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Middle East have quietly setup up protection mechanisms in case all heck breaks out in Europe.
The best thing they can do to protect themselves is withdraw all lending to entities in the Eurozone. Sovereign, corporate, bank to bank, everything. Of course, that is what is happening, and its making the European situation even worse.
In essence, not his fault!
If Republicans present a weak candidate without charisma and a solid conservative stance (Romney), then prepare for Obama to be reelected.
IMF Readying Loan of as Much as $794 Billion for Italy, La Stampa Reports
Note to American taxpayers: Incoming!!!!
Greeks who moved their savings to Swiss banks seeking safety are watching the E.U. and their government leaning on the Swiss to send the money back to the tottering Greek banks whether the money owners like it or not. E.U. Officials Negotiating Forced Greek Capital Repatriation With Swiss Banks is the report. Reminiscent of the 1930s… I guess private property doesn’t mean much to governments when their interests are involved. If this happens:
1. It will spread, capital transfers will be widely controlled, and
2. There will be PANIC! Which will make things much worse, much faster.
E.U. Forcing Swiss Banks To Return Greek Depositor’s Money To Greece?
I'm not sure if the EU will succeed. The whole point of having a Swiss account is to protect your money from craziness in your home country. If the Swiss give in, then lots of Europeans will close out their Swiss accounts and move their money to the Caymans or elsewhere. It will be a huge loss of credibility for the Swiss banking industry.
Because, if the Swiss have to bend over for the Greeks, who WILL they be able to refuse in the future? They will become Europe's shared "prison girlfriend".
“Europe’s common currency ... ushered in years of prosperity for its members, especially Germany, as interest rates declined and money flooded into the union — until the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy sent global credit markets into chaos three years ago and the financial crisis took on new life with the near-default of Greece last year.”
Fascinating. This idiot “Slimes” reporter is blaming Eurozone woes on Lehman Brothers!!??? Gee, and here I thought that the problem was because the socialist PIIGS were finally running out of other peoples’ money to spend. That they’ve borrowed so much money that no one will buy their sovereign bonds any longer, even at interest rates greater than 7%. That their socialist economies are on the verge of collapse from borrowing and spending more than their GDPs, and that the bond rating agencies have reduced their bonds to junk status.
Silly me. Those things couldn’t have squat to do with the incipient collapse of the European Union, right? Naw. Not if you’re stupid and ignorant enough to believe that Lehman Brothers is why Europe will fall. I guess The Slimes still thinks their readers are stupid and ignorant, and they would be if the only information they got was from The Slimes itself. But fortunately, The Slimes is dying, and millions of other informational sites have sprung up on the Internet where one can become truly educated and aware of what is going on in the world today, rather than the bizarro world The Slimes tries to depict.
“Europe’s common currency ... ushered in years of prosperity for its members, especially Germany, as interest rates declined and money flooded into the union — until the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy sent global credit markets into chaos three years ago and the financial crisis took on new life with the near-default of Greece last year.”
Fascinating. This idiot “Slimes” reporter is blaming Eurozone woes on Lehman Brothers!!??? Gee, and here I thought that the problem was because the socialist PIIGS were finally running out of other peoples’ money to spend. That they’ve borrowed so much money that no one will buy their sovereign bonds any longer, even at interest rates greater than 7%. That their socialist economies are on the verge of collapse from borrowing and spending more than their GDPs, and that the bond rating agencies have reduced their bonds to junk status.
Silly me. Those things couldn’t have squat to do with the incipient collapse of the European Union, right? Naw. Not if you’re stupid and ignorant enough to believe that Lehman Brothers is why Europe will fall. I guess The Slimes still thinks their readers are stupid and ignorant, and they would be if the only information they got was from The Slimes itself. But fortunately, The Slimes is dying, and millions of other informational sites have sprung up on the Internet where one can become truly educated and aware of what is going on in the world today, rather than the bizarro world The Slimes tries to depict.
“Europe’s common currency ... ushered in years of prosperity for its members, especially Germany, as interest rates declined and money flooded into the union — until the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy sent global credit markets into chaos three years ago and the financial crisis took on new life with the near-default of Greece last year.”
Fascinating. This idiot “Slimes” reporter is blaming Eurozone woes on Lehman Brothers!!??? Gee, and here I thought that the problem was because the socialist PIIGS were finally running out of other peoples’ money to spend. That they’ve borrowed so much money that no one will buy their sovereign bonds any longer, even at interest rates greater than 7%. That their socialist economies are on the verge of collapse from borrowing and spending more than their GDPs, and that the bond rating agencies have reduced their bonds to junk status.
Silly me. Those things couldn’t have squat to do with the incipient collapse of the European Union, right? Naw. Not if you’re stupid and ignorant enough to believe that Lehman Brothers is why Europe will fall. I guess The Slimes still thinks their readers are stupid and ignorant, and they would be if the only information they got was from The Slimes itself. But fortunately, The Slimes is dying, and millions of other informational sites have sprung up on the Internet where one can become truly educated and aware of what is going on in the world today, rather than the bizarro world The Slimes tries to depict.
“Europe’s common currency ... ushered in years of prosperity for its members, especially Germany, as interest rates declined and money flooded into the union — until the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy sent global credit markets into chaos three years ago and the financial crisis took on new life with the near-default of Greece last year.”
Fascinating. This idiot “Slimes” reporter is blaming Eurozone woes on Lehman Brothers!!??? Gee, and here I thought that the problem was because the socialist PIIGS were finally running out of other peoples’ money to spend. That they’ve borrowed so much money that no one will buy their sovereign bonds any longer, even at interest rates greater than 7%. That their socialist economies are on the verge of collapse from borrowing and spending more than their GDPs, and that the bond rating agencies have reduced their bonds to junk status.
Silly me. Those things couldn’t have squat to do with the incipient collapse of the European Union, right? Naw. Not if you’re stupid and ignorant enough to believe that Lehman Brothers is why Europe will fall. I guess The Slimes still thinks their readers are stupid and ignorant, and they would be if the only information they got was from The Slimes itself. But fortunately, The Slimes is dying, and millions of other informational sites have sprung up on the Internet where one can become truly educated and aware of what is going on in the world today, rather than the bizarro world The Slimes tries to depict.
“Europe’s common currency ... ushered in years of prosperity for its members, especially Germany, as interest rates declined and money flooded into the union — until the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy sent global credit markets into chaos three years ago and the financial crisis took on new life with the near-default of Greece last year.”
Fascinating. This idiot “Slimes” reporter is blaming Eurozone woes on Lehman Brothers!!??? Gee, and here I thought that the problem was because the socialist PIIGS were finally running out of other peoples’ money to spend. That they’ve borrowed so much money that no one will buy their sovereign bonds any longer, even at interest rates greater than 7%. That their socialist economies are on the verge of collapse from borrowing and spending more than their GDPs, and that the bond rating agencies have reduced their bonds to junk status.
Silly me. Those things couldn’t have squat to do with the incipient collapse of the European Union, right? Naw. Not if you’re stupid and ignorant enough to believe that Lehman Brothers is why Europe will fall. I guess The Slimes still thinks their readers are stupid and ignorant, and they would be if the only information they got was from The Slimes itself. But fortunately, The Slimes is dying, and millions of other informational sites have sprung up on the Internet where one can become truly educated and aware of what is going on in the world today, rather than the bizarro world The Slimes tries to depict.
“Europe’s common currency ... ushered in years of prosperity for its members, especially Germany, as interest rates declined and money flooded into the union — until the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy sent global credit markets into chaos three years ago and the financial crisis took on new life with the near-default of Greece last year.”
Fascinating. This idiot “Slimes” reporter is blaming Eurozone woes on Lehman Brothers!!??? Gee, and here I thought that the problem was because the socialist PIIGS were finally running out of other peoples’ money to spend. That they’ve borrowed so much money that no one will buy their sovereign bonds any longer, even at interest rates greater than 7%. That their socialist economies are on the verge of collapse from borrowing and spending more than their GDPs, and that the bond rating agencies have reduced their bonds to junk status.
Silly me. Those things couldn’t have squat to do with the incipient collapse of the European Union, right? Naw. Not if you’re stupid and ignorant enough to believe that Lehman Brothers is why Europe will fall. I guess The Slimes still thinks their readers are stupid and ignorant, and they would be if the only information they got was from The Slimes itself. But fortunately, The Slimes is dying, and millions of other informational sites have sprung up on the Internet where one can become truly educated and aware of what is going on in the world today, rather than the bizarro world The Slimes tries to depict.
You know, I’ve been suspicious of the Euro currency all along, and do not care for it at all, it’s a complete contrivance.
However, it appears to me that the shrill warnings do not match up with the behavior of exchange rates. Friday close, Euro was approximately $1.32. Trending down but nothing extraordinary, a seven week low.
I’ve always thought it pays to watch what people do and not what they say, especially politicians and businessmen. There’s a big apparent disconnect right now. That could all change rapidly, but as of now it does not look like the money is on a Euro collapse.
The fact that the dollar is not going down much relative to the dollar may just mean that the traders are not impressed with the dollar either. The financial storm, when it comes, will be global.
The fact that the dollar is not going down much relative to the EURO may just mean that the traders are not impressed with the dollar either. The financial storm, when it comes, will be global.
If anything, the dollar has benefitted from EU problems due to so-called flight to safety (odd as that sounds, we’re bad off but they’re worse at least for the moment), and so the decline of the Euro vis-a-vis the dollar would therefore be exaggerated.
Note that the single EU currency was introduced at par with the dollar in 1999.
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