Italian banks could spark next euro financial crisis?????.
With its record profits in Greece, Greece is a perfect laboratory for the new German banking machine, they say, and the only way to be safe from their banking machine is to stay away.
There could be no way out of this dilemma, however. After the worst Greek economic crisis since the 1930s and during which Greece lost close to 75 billion euros, banks are refusing to lend out any more. The country is now in an emergency account for the euro, which is threatening to turn into a permanent euro-zone crisis. In addition, the Greek government has slashed government spending by almost 3% compared to previous estimates, with some estimates rising as high as 3.6%. The European Commission has decided it will not let Greece out o??? ???f a euro-zone rescue programme without new debt relief for the next six months, while even Merkel’s European partners seem to be moving too fast to the door.
The most significant aspect of this crisis is the fact that the Greek bank deposit system is collapsing. The country has just 0.12 trillion euros as collateral, and these don’t even hold all of the Greek banks’ Greek liabilities. “At least until there is an injec????tion of emergency liquidity, the Greek banking system cannot be saved,” says Alexei S. Shvartzkov, deputy chief economist at Barclays. Greece’s banks have been closed since late November and December, which means that they have all but collapsed under the weight of the Greek banking system. In December alone, bank reserves fell from 2.35 trillion euros to 1.85 trillion euros – which has an average shortfall of 6.5%, according to the Bank of Greece.
It is therefore essential that Greece does not face a further crisis, argues Shvartzkov: “While the government and its creditors keep making concessions, the Greek economy appears to be on a knife’s edge. This is a crisis that only the Greek people can get out of. Otherwise, a crisis would have consequences not just for Greece but for many of the eurozone’s weaker members.”
On Monday night, the government announced an extraordinary package to help Greek banks: to increase government spending by 500 million euros to 5.7% of GDP by next year, as well as by 50 billion euros in order to ensure banks are able to lend out more. If the latest Greek government claims are credible, then this package will raise GDP over that of the EU-27 by 2.4%. There are suggestions that the government has been offering money to banks on interest rates rather tha
