Europe sees huge influx of deposits into the Bank of See-Ya'-Later:
Worries about a run on Greek banks have rattled Athens this week, after savers withdrew at least 700 million euros on Monday alone…Five of Greece’s top banks saw 37 billion euros taken out last year, including 12 billion from EFG Eurobank and 8-9 billion apiece at National Bank of Greece, Piraeus and Alpha Bank. In February, Evangelos Venizelos, finance minister at the time, said only 16 billion euros had gone abroad, with a third of that going to Britain. Savers have shifted to property, gold and other banks, or stashed it privately.
Well, at least the rest of Europe is secu….
It is not only Greeks who are worried about their savings. Data shows depositors have also taken flight from banks in Belgium, France and Italy. And on Thursday, Spain’s Bankia was reported to have seen more than 1 billion euros drained by its customers in the past week…..More than 120 billion euros was taken from two banks in Belgium alone...Some 90 billion euros was taken from France’s banks, including around 30 billion each from Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas.
It's all good.
Socialism is great, until you run out of other people's money!
- The Great Margaret Thatcher-
(The real one, not the Hollyweird bastardised version)
Say Good Night Dick,the E.U is done and there is no laugh in about it.
Ford, I have a feeling that things are going to go well and truly south in the next couple of years. Hope I'm wrong.
but 'bama's boys say it's going so good...if you ignore most of the data, that is....
graphs and numbers at link, moonbats can save their time and just chant "'bama's the one" over and over...
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/05/an_undergraduate_takes-down_paul_krugman.html
Paul Krugman gave up being an honest economist a long time ago - shortly after he learned that the cool crowd gave him more attention when he conjured up economic-like arguments to support the left's irrational view of the world.
His most recent piece of propaganda claims that increased national debt causes economic growth. He supports his claim by looking at 5 countries and showing that the countries with higher debt levels grew faster over the last 3 months. Thousands of Krugman zombies must have been elated to finally see hard evidence that the 1% aren't any smarter or harder working: All you have to do is take on a lot of credit card debt.
But an economic Jedi -- an undergraduate from the University of Illinois -- uncovered the subtle flaw in Krugman's logic: The earth has more than 5 countries, and the world wasn't created 3 months ago. The student used a graph posted on his Facebook page to show that if you look at the 21 largest countries over the past year, you see a strong, clear relationship: Economies with higher debt grow less. (By the way, the IMF agrees with the undergrad.)
Krugman's analysis does offer one important value: It's an excellent example of what statisticians refer to as "strangling the data" to get it to say whatever the left wants to hear.
Yet with all this disasterous mismanagement they can still find pompous socialist Belgie bureaucrats to criticize our food distribution systems. Ten bucks says they'll be hitting us up for free food within the next year or two because their socialist masters can't feed their depressed populations.
What I find hilarious is that the Euroweenies see Britain as a safe haven. I'd guess that Switzerland is still safe as haven't heard much about the Swiss living beyond their means.
The only thing that would make any sense at this time is to convert money into things that might be useful after the big crash. Guns and ammo are #1 on the list as they will help deal with people who want to steal your property. Canned food is also at the top of the list as likely the whole just in time food distribution system will collapse if the monetary system collapses. Also, a generator, enough gasoline to run it for a while and tools. Can never have too many tools.
The only investments I've made in the last 10 years that have done well are in ammo which has more than tripled its value since I bought it. I thought about buying gold before it was too expensive but, aside from using it as a nice heavy paperweight, a brick of gold is only useful if you have the means to make something out of it. I don't.
Also, moving to the country if one can afford to do so would be a very good survival move as large cities are going to be unlivable after the big crash. By country, I mean small towns or cities of no more than 50,000 people as these tend to be places where people still know how to do things on their own.
This whole unfolding slow motion financial disaster is a real pain in the ass as I hate dealing with financial matters usually just ensuring that income exceeds expenses. Now have to go on a bit of a shopping spree to invest in items that will hold their value over the next decade or more.
I want those euro commie weenies to collapse hard. Total disintegration. They need to face their policies and learn to never allow progressives to run anything again. The rest of the world needs to point and laugh and clue in to end progressivism by seeing the lesson Europe hopefully will learn.
@EBD
Your feeling is correct. Think about it, in your personal life - unless you are truly blessed - you have found yourself with less money then month. This required you to do with less to fix the problem.
Nobody has done this in fact they have pretended that they are special and can fix it. They are not so this has to get worse to get better.
The balance sheet is called this for a reason eventually everything balances out.
I think I will listen to Flatt & Scruggs again so far that is the happiest post here in awhile.
I doubt that the Southern European nations are culturally disposed to accepting austerity unless at fascist gunpoint. Within the next few weeks there will likely be runs on the Banks in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. France has just voted on how they go down. Germany has the most to lose if they start up the printing presses. Your call Angela! Abandon the beast or go down trying to save those entitled to their entitlements paid for by others at any cost.
Obamas advice to the EU is to ease up on the austerity programs. You know........the part that has worked so well for the USA and has worked wonders for the domestic economy.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/wrapup-1-europes-economic-woes-091236878.html
If Merkel was worried before she talked to Obama, I'd bet she is in total panic mode by now. Apparently Hollande and Obama see eye to eye. To hell with austerity....let's just raise taxes. What could possibly go wrong ?
@ Patrick at May 20, 2012 1:05 AM
"I want those euro commie weenies to collapse hard. Total disintegration"
Careful what you wish for. If they disintegrate they will take the USA down with them. The stock market and banking system are too integrated with Europe to avoid major damage.
It's like I was telling Slavery Lover in another thread.
Capital flies. And nowadays, you don't need to move bulky gold, or get burned on the buy/sell spread on diamonds. Couple of computer clicks, and your money is outta there. Why stick around for nationalisation, exchange controls, or devaluation? If you're wrong, and nothing bad happens, big deal; you might lose 1% on transaction costs to restore your old positions. But when that black swan flutters down, you'll be glad you acted sooner rather than later.
I have heard that in one city in Germany (I think it is Monachium) property prices recently jumped up. Majority of house buyers are Greeks.
I'm about to let Investors Group do some hoarding/investing for my retirement in 10 years or so (I hope!). Nothing in Europe.
Hope they do better than Credential, precious metals/balanced Canadian securities. Dropped 15% in six months.Stayed there for a year. Maybe it'll take a disaster to help my portfolio. Dunno if it includes ammo though.
Compound interest looked good there, a while back.
A run on banks is the worst thing that can happen. It would likely be back-stopped by govt intervention. At some point the govt runs out of dry powder and they have to print cash or face inflation on the bond market. Greece is presently paying 28% interest.
@bemused: Krugman is right to a point. Govt spending will cause economic growth but it is unsustainable. At some point, if prolonged, the govt will run out of dry powder. See above. The result will be a bursting of a bubble that was created by govt massively deep pockets. Not good.
This does not have to be your fate. Learn about inverse ETFs and shorting the market. Google is your friend.
They are only noticing that now. Europeans with assets have been moving them for a couple of years. This has been fuelling the condo market in Van and toronto. It has positively been juicing the property market in the UK.
That we are down to middle class accessing liquid assets just means the final couple of phases are happening happening.
Greece leaves, or is kicked out. Spain and Italy are real economies, but they may be forced to leave as well. The rot within the Euro banking system might be unfixable. Lets hope that our banks havent bee sucked in as well. And other than a token gesture our government should do nothing.
After having fussy Eurocrats claiming we are food poor and that the Dutch want to impose sanctions on Oil sands oil I would start finding numerous ways to do nothing for the euro's without extracting a price, an increasingly high price.
Our future lay in Asia, India, australia, and South America....you know, all the places that the PM has been visiting the last two years cutting trade deals.
Its rumoured that the Greeks moved their euros to a more robust asset base: the Facebook IPO. Oh, wait...
Bull, the only problem is that Greece's government doesn't have anything to backstop its banks with. But yes, a run on banks is the beginning of the end. There's never enough to cover all deposits or even a large percentage of them, so the banks collapse and people lose their savings. The banks call in debts prematurely, and debtors get wiped out even if they were making the terms of their loans.
The only way to deal with it is the way the US did under the TARP program. Flood so much cash into the system that the government swamps any doubt about its willingness to secure the entire banking system.
Unfortunately for the EU, that's NOT what they've done over the past two years. There's only been a small drip of cash into bailing out the Greeks et.al. Rather than boost confidence, it's had the reverse effect. If they were going to do this, they should rather have cut Greece loose years ago.
They've done the worst of all possible options. Greece is going down anyway, but it's taking with it all the money the EU has shovelled into it over the past two years as well. If anything, the EU is a textbook example of how to mismanage a credit crisis.
Stephen, we've already said that. Flaherty made it explicitly clear that not one Canadian dime would be contributed to the IMF. And anyone who bought Greek government bonds after the last tranche of cash from the EU deserves to go down in flames for sheer stupidity.
cgh,
Flaherty has generally done a good job, but he is a politician and if his lips move you need to be worried about lies. We will see, the pressure mounted at G8's and amongst the elite is high.
Obama now has a friend in Hollande of Frnace. Merkel and Harper have got along and I think they are on the same page but....the US has always been saying BIG BAZOOKA.
As for a TARP....who will be the buyer, the ECB? And who funds the ECB? The Germans largely, or they backstop it. There is a difference between the situation in 2008 and now. The crisis is deeper entrenched, it is government debt assets that are the problem and all of the contingent liabilities that the Greek and other governments have signed up for.
There is lots of liquidity in the system, and pumping in more to save an otherwise solvent bank works. However, the issue here is that there is a fundamental insolvency that cannot be resolved with more debt. Bankruptcy is or direct grants are the only answer, and the Germans learned that the Greeks don't respond to a grant.
end the pain, of the Greek people and everyone else, cut the Greeks loose from the Euro. Save your money for picking up the pieces afterwards. If the greeks find they are 70% poorer than before then so be it. Its going to happen anyway, dont make everyone else poorer keeping up the faceade.
The really wise Rich are in flight. They are securing their wealth. Which means they see whats a coming.
I bet if you go over what happened before WW 1 or Two you would see the same patterns.
I bet many Russians did the same before the Revolution there. Including wealthy Spanish before the civil war.
was in the process to give Number-One-Son a modestly charged up visa gift card,a fare thee well, as he prepares for his "great European Tour"
Helpfull lady at the bank strongly advised against carrying short term fixed euro currency. apparently good old Canuck Bucks are more dependable
This does not have to be your fate. Learn about inverse ETFs and shorting the market. Google is your friend.
Posted by: Bull at May 20, 2012 4:08 AM
When the WHOLE market goes south, paper instruments of any sort are useless.
Posted by: eastern paul at May 20, 2012 3:43 AM
I'm about to let Investors Group do some hoarding/investing for my retirement in 10 years or so (I hope!). Nothing in Europe.
Trading = profits for IG...not you.
Take one example: Toronto Dominion Bank.
They bought out Canada Trust and recently bought out MBNA. Govt of Canada feeds funds to our banks for liquidity.
Knowing this, what are you paying Investors Syndicate...ooops Group for?
TD and Royal may fade with the market...but they will fade LAST. TG
What gives weight to all this. Is most financial shows in good standing, are now in panic mode.
Most of the very very rich, have their money in Gold, commodities (not Land or reality) or Diamonds. Cash is long due to inflate. You can bet another Obama injection of Phooey money is coming to North American Markets.
/Quote/..
end the pain, of the Greek people and everyone else, cut the Greeks loose from the Euro. Save your money for picking up the pieces afterwards. If the greeks find they are 70% poorer than before then so be it. Its going to happen anyway, dont make everyone else poorer keeping up the faceade.
Posted by: Stephen at May 20, 2012 9:12 AM /Quote
If only this fairy tale would work. Greeks are only one domino of hundreds. The mold extends to us in North America as well.
The underlying rot is sweat labour in the third world.
We need a middle class to prosper but we send their jobs to China, Korea, Mexico and the Phillipines. Then we buy their bargain priced goods while shipping them raw logs, minerals, and bitumen.
Process logs, machine minerals, and refine bitumen here and our economy is bound to improve.
Over Alberta's dead body, however.TG
Fiat money eventualy returns to its true value and that is what we are seeing.
They can posture and print all the money they want but if the rotten debt is swept under the rug instead of allowng it to default we only delay the inevitable.
Loki >
Done.