Tag Archives: banks
Quote of the Day
Quote of the day comes from The Slog:
I will say this one last time, and then give up: if somebody doesn’t rein in the banks, stop Berlin, and give the People of Europe back their democratic sovereignty within the next two years, we are going to see a Wind of Change that will make the First World War look like a skirmish.
Read his article here.
Before I wish you all a Merry Christmas…
Before I wish you all a Merry Christmas… I would like you all, and I mean all, read a post that will make you go cold. Enjoy your presents and turkey, the wine and port, because come March you may have nothing to eat or drink at all.
Don’t take my word for it, go read the Slog, one of the foremost economic blogs on the internet.
At the current rate, it’ll cost $9trillion to keep the eurobanks afloat until March 31st 2012.
Why we are heading for Grave New World
Now this is serious. You can’t even extrapolate forward and say, “That means the annual running total to bail out eurozone banks is $8trillion”. Looking ahead without being hawkish at all, a private eurobank borrowing need at this accelerating rate would require another $9trillion by the end of Q1 2012.
I calculate that number not as a serious prediction, but to make a simple and obvious point: the world doesn’t have ten trillion bucks right now to throw at 500 European banks. And even if it did, spending that amount on the banking system with the economy dying on its feet wouldn’t even allow the Hank Paulsons of this world to say with any credibility, “There is no alternative”. If this is what it costs just to keep one part of the global financial system from eating itself, then the system is a crock in need of urgent replacement.
Either the banks are allowed to fail. Or the ECB starts printing money. Or the current ClubMed bondholders stop jerking around and face facts: unless something gives here, we’re all dead.
The bottom line is that in order to try and bolster the defences of 500 private banks – hardly any of which are financing capitalist entrepreneurs any more – taxpayers, investors, pension holders and Treasuries around the globe are being turned upside down, and shaken vigorously until empty.
‘Empty’ is almost with us.
Please go read the whole post here. You will wish you hadn’t, but will kick yourself if you don’t.
Now, Merry Christmas to all our readers.
Holy Smoley – another super toxic layer to the banking crisis onion
I could not believe what I have just read over at Zero Hedge, although now it makes perfect sense why there is so much panic and urgency in the ranks of the unelected EU to get the authoritarian EUSSR political shit tied down.
It concludes:
Within hours of his autumn statement, Osborne has to redo the figures
Within hours of George Osborne telling parliament that the UK was better placed that other EU countries to weather the economic storm, the ratings agencies pulled the rug out from under his feet, downgrading British banks making the planned borrowing more expensive than calculated in his statement.
Credit rating agency Fitch published a reaction to the autumn statement. In it, the agency said that the new fiscal projections signal a "significant deterioration" in the UK economy since March, and warned that the country’s ability to absorb future shocks while keeping its AAA rating intact is now "largely exhausted".
Fitch also calculated that the UK will soon be the most indebted of all AAA-rated countries after the US.
Standard & Poors (S&P) took more decisive action. In a review of 37 global banks, downgrades appeared for the bulk of them. British banks that saw downgrades include Barclays, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group and The Royal Bank of Scotland.
The S&P downgrades also included ‘majors’ such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.
You can find the full list of downgrades here.
Strangely however, due to the complexity of the new ratings criteria, ratings for several big European banks, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, ING and Societe Generale remained unchanged despite the ongoing debt crisis there, presumably on rumours that the EFSF framework is in place… perhaps.
German FinMin Schaeuble’s comments, via The Telegraph, that "although Europe desperately needed a fund "capable of action", plans for the EFSF were too "intricate and complex" for investors to understand", further noting that the fund won’t stem the debt crisis.
But maybe the most damning statement comes from the architects of the fund themselves, Regling and Juncker, who said that it is "not possible to give one number on EFSF leveraging" and that the "EFSF firepower will be less than EUR1 trillion ". Case closed.
The bet that the Eurozone will collapse in on itself by Christmas still looks to be a good one.
Posted in Main Page
Tagged Autumn Statement, banks, downgrades, Moody's, osborne, standard and poors
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Stop this madness now, or belong to the banks forever
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. – Thomas Jefferson in the debate over the Re-charter of the Bank Bill (1809)
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” – Thomas Jefferson
… The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating. -Thomas Jefferson
History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance. -James Madison
If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations. -Andrew Jackson
…and nobody listened. Now we will pay the full price.
This illustration (via; NL) & h/t Kleinverzet