The Never Ending European Financial Crisis

greekdominoesLast Friday we saw horror headlines from Societe Generale.

Euro zone stocks could plummet up to 50 percent if Greece makes a disorderly exit from the euro zone.

Additionally it was proclaimed bank runs have started in Europe.

A bank run is now happening within the eurozone. So far it has been relatively slow and prolonged, but it is a run nonetheless. And last week, it showed signs of accelerating sharply, in a way which demands an urgent response from policy-makers.

Right now the ECB is pressuring the Euro Zone to come up with deposit guarantee scheme to stop depositors from existing the Euro and various European banks:

Now investors are worried about the contagion effect a Greek exit from the euro zone could have on savers in other countries.

"Preventing bank runs in Italy, Spain and Portugal should be the top priority," said Berenberg Bank economist Holger Schmieding. "Policymakers need to make sure that the potential Greek precedent of a forced conversion of domestic euro deposits into a weak new currency would not spark a run on banks ... elsewhere."

The ECB is pressing the euro zone to set up a fund that would prevent this dangerous ripple effect, a message reinforced by ECB policymaker Joerg Asmussen last week.

"The recapitalization of a troubled bank by its government may lead to a deterioration of the government's fiscal position," Asmussen said. "The deteriorating fiscal position in turn further weakens banks' balance sheets, through their holdings of sovereign bonds.

"This feedback loop has to be stopped ... A European bank resolution authority and a European deposit insurance scheme are two elements that could be used to address the nexus between sovereigns and banks."

Friday the Financial Times reported Greece will run out of money, but due to an unstable political situation:

Greece’s public finances could collapse as early as next month, leaving salaries and pensions unpaid unless a stable government emerges from the June 17 election, according to Lucas Papademos, the technocrat prime minister who left office after this month’s inconclusive vote.

Mr Papademos warned that conditions were deteriorating faster than expected with cash flow likely to turn negative in early June amid a sharp fall in tax revenues and a loosening of spending controls during two back-to-back election campaigns.

Yet Monday we saw all happy faces by quoting some polls claiming the Greece Pro Bail Out party leads.

Spain's Bankis, reported a €3.3 billion loss which could grow to €7 billion. The Spanish government is issuing denials they do not need a bail out. Yet, Bloomberg reports the Spanish citizen is on the hook, once again, to bail out a bank:

A taxpayer-funded bailout of Bankia would foist losses on a wider portion of society than making individual bondholders, many of them depositors, lose money.

Spain’s hands are tied with the rescue of Bankia (BKIA) because alternatives to injecting cash or government debt, such as forcing bond investors to bear the cost, risk hurting ordinary depositors.

The €19 billion bail out Bankia requires exceeds their equity value.

Then are reports the EU financial sector needs yet another €100 billion in bail out funds to boot. While the mixed messages and changing headlines continue, Simon Johnson brings us the end of the euro survival guide:

In every economic crisis there comes a moment of clarity. In Europe soon, millions of people will wake up to realize that the euro-as-we-know-it is gone. Economic chaos awaits them.

In other words, most are waiting for the Euro to implode and even Lloyds of London is preparing for the Euro's demise.

The U.K. Telegraph is now running a debt crisis live site to get the latest. No surprise the headline is Spain's Q2 GDP will contract.

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Comments

very good commentary, "false dawn" on Greece

This collection of latest European crisis events alludes to headline buzz, but this post Greece's false dawn spells it out.

Anyone really monitoring European events knows by now we get press release after press release, statement after statement, token action after token action trying to smooth over public perception. Yesterday's "good news Greek style" is just another one of those smooth over actions.

The Euro is dead, next will be the Weimar USD

This is just a slow bleed. Everyone who isn't a paid shill, a bankster, or a politician puppet or bureaucrat serving the banksters' global regime knows the Euro has been dead for a long time. Greece will leave and come back stronger in a few years which would not be possible if it followed Berlin's mandates. There are already banks runs now for weeks in Europe - why else would Greek police actually tell people it's safer to keep $ in banks and not in their homes other than to build false sense of security. The USD will get stronger short-term, but because Helicopter Ben and Turbo Timmy insist on printing us to oblivion because of QE 1-99 and ZIRP effects, eventually the USD will be used as kindling. But as long as the banksters like Christine "Let Them Eat Cake" Lagarde and the puppet masters like Blankfein and Dimon have gigs, it's all good.