Being a British website, I know we have a lot of Britons on here as well many posters from the Continent. I'm curious, what do you guys think of the recent EMU bankruptcy and the calls for monetary reform by Germany? I'm an American, so I don't get alot of news on this subject, although I recently found this interesting article on PM Cameron's opposition to pulling Britain into the Euro: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/09/niall-ferguson-great-britain-saves-itself-by-rejecting-the-eu.html#comments Sounds like a good decision, Britain is a strong country and should stand on it's own. Germany could do the same, it seems the EU works well for them but not for the smaller countries. What do you guys think?

All the calls of reforms, summits etc. is all very well and good, but it does nothing to address the fundamental issue; that there's simply too much debt there among the PIIGS nations and also the likes of France and Germany itself (which has 200% Debt to GDP depending on who you listen to).

In Greece many Greeks now hoard their savings in their homes because they are worried the banking system may collapse. Those who can are trying to shift their funds abroad. The Greek central bank estimates that around a fifth of the deposits withdrawn have been moved out of the country.


Nomura Global FX analysts are expecting a huge depreciation in the value of the euro against the dollar in the next four months, according to an investor note out yesterday.

They argue that one euro will fall to just $1.20 within the next four months, compared to a current value around $1.34. What's more, they think this estimate has downside risks.

Their analysis is predicated on a baseline scenario that EU leaders will put stop-gap measures in place in the near-term but will ultimately have to adopt large-scale QE to stave of the crisis in the medium term.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nomura-t ... z1g7lj6J3G

That you clearly aren't very informed.

There was never any question of the UK joining the euro, with his latest actions Cameron totally isolated the UK in the EU.

The UK isn't in great shape either, as is the EU and the USA. All are facing tremendous difficulties.

Like I said, that is why I started this post, because I don't get a lot of news on this subject being that I'm on the other side of the ocean.

Here are some fresh news:

The Telegraph sounded alarm bells late Friday that the Eurozone banking system is on the edge of collapse. Specifically, the problem is related to a lack of acceptable collateral, or ‘collateral crunch’, for overnight and other short-term bank funding (emphasis added): Senior analysts and traders warned of impending bank failures as a summit intended to solve the European crisis failed to deliver a solution that eased concerns over bank funding. The European Central Bank admitted it had held meetings about providing emergency funding to the region’s struggling banks, however City figures said a ‘collateral crunch’ was looming. “If anyone thinks things are getting better then they simply don’t understand how severe the problems are. I think a major bank could fail within weeks,” said one London-based executive at a major global bank. Many banks, including some French, Italian and Spanish lenders, have already run out of many of the acceptable forms of collateral such as U.S. Treasuries and other liquid securities used to finance short-term loans and have been forced to resort to lending out their gold reserves to maintain access to dollar funding. Izabella Kaminska at FT Alphaville wrote about this story early and has covered it well. She wrote that the problem is becoming so acute that even the Bundesbank is running out of money. While policy is decided centrally, actual enforcement and implementation of that policy is conducted on a national central bank (NCB) level. Generally speaking, the system ensures that all NCBs carrying surpluses channel them over to NCBs carrying deficits. The problem is that since the crisis unfolded, the number of NCBs handling deficits has started to outnumber the number of NCBs holding surpluses. One particular NCB — the Bundesbank — has become a sort of lender of last resort for the whole Eurobanking system.

More here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/313085- ... o-collapse

According to the website Bankorrealestate.com, the four largest U.S. banks are in much worse shape than even their European counterparts. J.P Morgan Chase is believed to be carrying as much as $78 trillion dollars in derivative debt, Citibank is said to have $56 trillion, Bank of America is said to have $53 trillion and Goldman Sachs is believed to have $48 trillion. According to BOR’s report, U.S. banks are over-leveraged by debt-to-asset ratio somewhere around the tune of 50:1. It might be worth mentioning that the GDP of the entire world for one year is only $100 trillion and the largest U.S. bank is almost carrying that much is debt exposure. Meaning banks have almost no real money in them, only IOU’s and enough government-printed cash to keep the fiat pyramid scheme going for yet a little while longer until the whole system is so over-stressed with debt that it eventually crashes.

More here: http://www.bankreorealestate.com/credit ... tives.html

People are abandoning unwanted babies in Europe:

As the euro zone debt crisis deepens and austerity measures take their toll across Europe, the number of young children and babies abandoned across the region has increased, according to local charities. A “baby hatch” in Hamburg, Germany has seen an increase in babies. The rise in the abandonment of infants across Europe is most visible in the spread of “baby hatches” or “boxes” across Europe, where unwanted infants are left anonymously. The phenomenon was previously more prevalent among immigrants, but it is becoming more widespread among financially desperate members of the local population. The hatches are sensor-activated so when a baby is placed, an alarm is activated and a carer comes to collect the child. Despite the practice being widely viewed as contravening the 1953 European Convention on Human Rights, of the 27 EU member countries, 11 countries still have “baby hatches” in operation, including Germany, Italy and Portugal. In those countries where hatches are illegal, the number of infants abandoned in hospitals, clinics and churches has also risen, raising concerns among European charities, the UN and the European Commission that austerity measures and increasing social deprivation are the catalyst for the rise in child abandonment. According to SOS Villages, a European charity that attempts to help families in financial hardship before abandonment occurs, in the last year alone 1,200 children in Greece and 750 in Italy have been abandoned. That is almost double the 400 children abandoned in Italy a year ago, and up from 114 children abandoned in Greece in 2003. With the cost of raising children estimated to be 20-30 percent of an average household budget (per child) in Europe, more families are now struggling to cope with the costs. The charity SOS Villages has reported that adoption rates in Greece and Italy have risen by 20 percent in the last two years, a sharp rise in line with the deterioration of the economy. George Protopapas, National Director of the charity’s Greek division said that parents already struggling with keeping a roof over their heads are now barely managing to keep their children clothed and fed, if at all. Protopapas cited the example of a four-year old child left at a nursery by her mother with a note that read: “I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.” In the past year, SOS Greece has had a 150 percent increase in applications for all kinds of support, mainly [for] financial reasons, and 87 percent of applicants are Greeks, Protopapas said. Data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority shows that 27.7 percent of Greeks are now facing penury or poverty. “For the moment most cases come from [the] low and poor class. Greek middle-class families are affected by the crisis but I believe they will be the victims in the coming two years. They will probably need serious support to survive,” Protopapas said.

fucking panic...as despisable as the greed that caused the events that led to it.