EFSM

Greek Economy Faces Total Collapse As Doctors Flee, Retail Sales Plunge 70%

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greece

– Greek Economy Faces Total Collapse As Doctors Flee, Retail Sales Plunge 70%  (ZeroHedge, July 28, 2015):

Back in May we outlined the cost to the Greek economy of each day without a deal between Athens and creditors.

At the time, a report from the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Enterprises showed that 60 businesses closed and 613 jobs were lost for each business day that the crisis persisted without a resolution.

Since then, things have deteriorated further and indeed, with the imposition of capital controls, businesses found that supplier credit was difficult to come by, leading to the very real possibility that Greece would soon face a shortage of imported goods, something many Greeks clearly anticipated in the wake of the referendum call as evidenced by the lines at gas stations and empty shelves at grocery stores.

As a reminder, here’s what WSJ said earlier this month: 

Read moreGreek Economy Faces Total Collapse As Doctors Flee, Retail Sales Plunge 70%

Greek Banks Will NOT Re-Open Monday Even As Loan To Repay ECB Approved

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– Greek Banks Will Not Re-Open Monday Even As Loan To Repay ECB Approved (ZeroHedge, July 17, 2015):

The timing could not be worse from a visual perspective but within minutes of the Eurogroup confirming that they approved the €7.16 billion bridge loan (which will merely be recycled back to The ECB to ensure the appearance of normalcy continues), local reports note that the Greek finance ministry says banks will not re-open on Monday (as promised).

The elites get their money…

Read moreGreek Banks Will NOT Re-Open Monday Even As Loan To Repay ECB Approved

Spain And Italy Are Toast Unless Germany Allows The ECB To Print Trillions Of Euros

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– Spain And Italy Are Toast Unless Germany Allows The ECB To Print Trillions Of Euros (Economic Collapse, Aug 2, 2012):

The financial chess game in Europe is still being played out, but in the end it is going to boil down to one very fundamental decision.  Is Germany going to allow the ECB to print up trillions of euros and use those euros to buy up the sovereign debt of troubled eurozone members such as Spain and Italy or not?  Nothing short of this is going to solve the problems in Europe.  You can forget the ESM and the EFSF.  Anyone that thinks they are going to solve the problems in Europe is someone that would also take a water pistol to fight a raging wildfire.  No, the only thing that is going to keep Spain and Italy from collapsing under the weight of a mountain of debt is a financial nuke.  The ECB needs to have the power to print up trillions of euros and use that money to buy up massive amounts of sovereign debt in order to guarantee that Spain and Italy will be able to borrow lots more money at very low interest rates.  In fact, this is probably what European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has in mind when he says that he is going to “do whatever it takes to preserve the euro”.  However, there is one giant problem.  The ECB is not going to be able to do this unless Germany allows them to.  And after enduring the horror of hyperinflation under the Weimar Republic, Germany is not too keen on introducing trillions upon trillions of new euros into the European economy.  If Germany allows the ECB to go down this path, Germany will end up experiencing tremendous inflation and the only benefit for Germany will be that the eurozone was kept together.  That doesn’t sound like a very good deal for Germany.

Right now, the yield on 10 year Spanish bonds is above 7 percent and the yield on 10 year Italian bonds is above 6 percent.

Those are unsustainable levels.

The only thing that is going to bring those bond yields down permanently to where they need to be is unlimited ECB intervention.

But that is not going to happen without German permission.

Meanwhile, the situation in Spain gets worse by the day.

An article in Der Spiegel recently described the slow motion bank run that is systematically ripping the Spanish banking system to shreds….

Capital outflows from Spain more than quadrupled in May to €41.3 billion ($50.7 billion) compared with May 2011, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Spanish central bank.

In the first five months of 2012, a total of €163 billion left the country, the figures indicate. During the same period a year earlier, Spain recorded a net inflow of €14.6 billion.

If those numbers sound really bad to you, that is because they are really bad.

At this point, authorities in Spain are starting to panic.  According to Graham Summers, Spain has imposed the following new capital restrictions during the last month alone….

  • A minimum fine of  €10,000 for taxpayers who do not report their foreign accounts.
  • Secondary fines of  €5,000 for each additional account
  • No cash transactions greater than €2,500
  • Cash transaction restrictions apply to individuals and businesses

How would you feel if the U.S. government permanently banned all cash transactions greater than $2,500?

That is how crazy things have already become in Spain.

Read moreSpain And Italy Are Toast Unless Germany Allows The ECB To Print Trillions Of Euros

Dummies Guide To Europe’s Ever-Increasing Jumble Of Acronyms

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– Dummies Guide To Europe’s Ever-Increasing Jumble Of Acronyms (ZeroHedge, July 12, 2012):

It seems every week there are new acronyms or catchy-phrases for Europe’s Rescue and Fiscal Progress decisions. Goldman Sachs provides a quick primer on everything from ELA to EFSM and from Two-Pack (not Tupac) to the Four Presidents’ Report.

Rescue Programs

EFSF
European Financial Stability Facility. A temporary special purpose vehicle financed by members of the euro area to address the European sovereign debt crisis by providing financial assistance to euro area states in economic difficulty. The ESFS can issue bonds or other debt instruments in the market to raise funds needed to provide loans to euro area countries under financial stress, recapitalize banks (through loans to governments) or buy sovereign debt; these bonds are guaranteed by the Euro area member states. Euro area member states’ capital guarantees total €780 billion and the facility has a lending capacity of €440 billion. Since it began operations in August 2010, money has been lent to Ireland, Portugal, and Greece and is in the process of being lent to Spain and Cyprus.

EFSM
European Financial Stabilization Mechanism. An emergency funding program for EU member states in economic difficulty, which is reliant on funds raised in the financial markets and guaranteed by the European Commission (EC) using the budget of the European Union as collateral. The fund has the authority to raise up to €60 billion and has made loans to Ireland and Portugal (in conjunction with the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) since its May 2010 inception.

Read moreDummies Guide To Europe’s Ever-Increasing Jumble Of Acronyms