Greek Bank Run Hits The Big Time...

TBI ^ | 12-6-2011 | Joe Weisenthal

[blam]

Greek Bank Run Hits The Big Time...

Joe Weisenthal
Dec. 6, 2011, 2:00 PM

On Drudge right now... the red link goes to this story about Greeks taking money out of their bank accounts.

[blam]

Anxious Greeks Emptying Their Bank Accounts

December 6, 2011
By Ferry Batzoglou in Athens

AFP A branch of the Greek central bank. Bank deposits are falling rapidly.

Many Greeks are draining their savings accounts because they are out of work, face rising taxes or are afraid the country will be forced to leave the euro zone. By withdrawing money, they are forcing banks to scale back their lending -- and are inadvertently making the recession even worse.

Georgios Provopoulos, the governor of the central bank of Greece, is a man of statistics, and they speak a clear language. "In September and October, savings and time deposits fell by a further 13 to 14 billion euros. In the first 10 days of November the decline continued on a large scale," he recently told the economic affairs committee of the Greek parliament.

With disarming honesty, the central banker explained to the lawmakers why the Greek economy isn't managing to recover from a recession that has gone on for three years now: "Our banking system lacks the scope to finance growth."

He means that the outflow of funds from Greek bank accounts has been accelerating rapidly. At the start of 2010, savings and time deposits held by private households in Greece totalled €237.7 billion -- by the end of 2011, they had fallen by €49 billion. Since then, the decline has been gaining momentum. Savings fell by a further €5.4 billion in September and by an estimated €8.5 billion in October -- the biggest monthly outflow of funds since the start of the debt crisis in late 2009.

The raid on bank accounts stems from deep uncertainty in Greek households which culminated in early November during the political turmoil that followed the announcement by then-Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou of a referendum on the second Greek bailout package.

Papandreou withdrew the plan and stepped down following an outcry among other European leaders against the referendum, and a new government was formed on Nov. 11 under former central banker Loukas Papademos. That appears to have slowed the drop in bank savings, at least for the time being.

Bank Withdrawals Worsening Crisis

Nevertheless, the Greeks today only have €170 billion in savings -- almost 30 percent less than at the start of 2010.

(snip)

[MeganC]

With the USA now over $30 trillion in debt I can’t imagine it will be too long before this kind of thing happens here.

[WOBBLY BOB]

"Will $20 hold you over, Adonis?"

[SENTINEL]

I highly recommend this book, which contains an average guy's first hand account of the 2001 economic collapse in Argentina.

[whitedog57]

Here is a great PowerPoint/PDF presentation that I found on Zero Hedge which summarize the Greek and Euro debt problem.

Economic Minute Presentation on the European Financial Crisis - Low GDP Growth, Staggering Debt, Geithner On The Prowl In Europe!

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com

[Travis McGee]

I wonder what images of Greek bank runs will do around the rest of the Eurozone?

Can the psychological contagion spread to Italy and other countries, and trigger a general bank run?

Remember: The First Rule of Bank Runs is GET THERE FIRST.

[Hacklehead]

And the US stock market is still rising.

[jiggyboy]

Happy [Bank] Holidays, to you!

[Travis McGee]

I strongly second that recommendation of FerFal’s book.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I had a great aunt whose bank took a Holiday during the Depression and never re-opened. Then her husband died, and she ended up being the only Caucasian resident in a very, very nasty public housing project (until the rest of the family could pool enough resources for a nicer place and convince her to get out)

[LadyJMayo]

I don’t understand why our stock market isn’t tanking on this kind of news. What is “propping” it up?

[NoNAIS]

The Twilight Zone?
Nobody sneezed wrong today?
Unexpected Employment Revisions?
Silly Putty?

---

In reality - nothing. That’s why the fall can never be predicted.

[thepoodlebites]

|I don’t understand why our stock market isn’t tanking on this kind of news. What is “propping” it up?

I think it’s (stealth) QE3. QE2 propped the market up from Sep 2010 - Apr 2011. Then we lost half of that gain over the summer. Now it seems to be repeating but I don’t think it will work this time.

[tacticalogic]

It’s like when Wyle E. Coyote runs off the edge of the cliff. He doesn’t fall until he looks down.

[Leavemealone]

Something sure is holding the market up.

I’ve had a short position for 2 1/2 weeks and just keep getting my a$$ handed to me day after day.

[Oatka]

Can the psychological contagion spread to Italy and other countries, and trigger a general bank run?

I think that will happen with lightning speed. I still expect to wake up some Monday a.m. (cuz bad things happen on the weekend) and see the whole Euro thing has collapsed.

[blam]

New Signs of "Invisible" Bank Run In Southern Europe, Cash Shifts to Scandinavia

[jdsteel]

I know this sounds crazy, but watch; U.S. markets will dip sometime soon, we will have a successful 30 year treasury auction on Dec. 14, then markets will once again recover. Don’t put money on this, just observe. This has happened all year.

[silverleaf]

book mark

[thepoodlebites]

|I’ve had a short position for 2 1/2 weeks and just keep getting my a$$ handed to me day after day.

I feel your pain, bought puts on the SPY in Dec. 2010 and watched as the market defied gravity. If the SPX gets to 1300 before Christmas, I will try again. The market can’t defy gravity indefinitely, must pay for printing money at some point.