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European Stress Tests Confimed To Be A Farce: Will Not Include Discussion Of Sovereign Risks

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Morgan Stanley's Huw van Steenis has confirmed that the European Stress Tests will be nothing more than a dud and a farce: the primary risk consideration that is enveloping Europe, i.e. sovereign risk, will not even be discussed at all in the stress tests. With this bit of information everyone can now effectively discount the "Stress" test for what truly are: a Geithner-inspired propaganda tool, which has zero credibility, and which will only seek to persuade the idiot money to buy at least a few Spanish bonds, alongside the ECB, which is now buying up about €10 billion (and rising) in toxic sovereign debt both in the primary and secondary market, each week.

From Morgan Stanley:

Will stress tests include haircuts on peripheral Sovereign debt?

Our take: The guidance we have been given is the tests were not going to include any discussion of sovereign risks for all sorts of obvious reasons, not least the massive EU/IMF support plan for Greece and back-up for other countries. We think that some investors will be disappointed by this. To be clear, one does not have to have a strong view on the outcome of the peripheral bonds either way to realize that a bank with a large concentration of Greek bonds as % of tangible equity may act in a far more risk averse fashion in extending credit than one with a much lower %, given the uncertainty on how this will play out over the coming years – see the exhibit below. This surely is an issue which macro-prudential policy should weigh up, independent of taking a view on what will happen on the debt itself. As we argued in our last note, the vast majority of banks which hold Greek bonds in their held to maturity books have not sold their Greek debt. However, it appears that this is a keen debating point. Madame Lagarde told Reuters today: “We will stress the system a little more to make the results more credible.”

For us this is the definitive "credibility breaker."Any readers who are not quite as convinced, and wish to read Huw's full take on this latest farce, can read the full note below.

 

 

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Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:50 | 421483 ratava
ratava's picture

so its ten billion deflated from actual economy and inflated into commodity, stock and worthless sovereign paper prices per week. awesome, get the pitchforks out.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:53 | 421490 sheeple
sheeple's picture

"Stress" test for what truly are: a Geithner-inspired propaganda tool

 

fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on the investors

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:09 | 421531 Pladizow
Pladizow's picture

Architect Ben: Lets give this bridge a stress test.

Engineer Tim: OK, how.

Architect Ben: Lets run a hamster over it.

Engineer Tim: OK.

Both: Wow, the bridge held up. Tell the media to report to the people that all is well.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:10 | 421538 TooBearish
TooBearish's picture

Who would put any credence into these 'stress tests' is beyond imagination - is Moody's in charge?

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:27 | 421573 Boilermaker
Boilermaker's picture

No, it's BP's public relations experts.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:12 | 421542 SDRII
SDRII's picture

But STD is reportedly spending billion to buy US based M&T along with branches in the UK from RBS. This as rumors swirl it may spin out the UK operation partially to free up capital for more acquisitions. Diversified I'd say - to all the right Central bank windows.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:20 | 421559 sumo
sumo's picture

First you decide what result you want. Then you design the test to suit. Easy peasy.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:21 | 421560 Boilermaker
Boilermaker's picture

Shocking...simply shocking.

I would assume this would spur massive insider buying of their equities then.  I expect that to happen any moment.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:24 | 421568 Bam_Man
Bam_Man's picture

Yes, except for the "dodgy bits", the banks are all A-OK.

Glad you could clear that up for us.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:26 | 421570 assumptionblindness
assumptionblindness's picture

Although the tests are a sham I don't believe anything that MS has to say on the subject.  As such, we can probably expect sovereign 'haircut' estimates to be included in the final report. 

Spain may need a bowl cut.  Greece is going for the Mr. T look.  Portugal is going to keep it long in the back and short on the top and sides.  Italy just needs to have their split ends trimmed a bit.  Finally, Ireland just needs to get their roots bleached.  No big issues....     

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:29 | 421577 Boilermaker
Boilermaker's picture

I assume Morgan Stanley reserves the future right to have fucked up massively in the evaluation and analysis.  You know, kind of a 'shit happened' scenario.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:42 | 421595 BlackBeard
BlackBeard's picture

Smells like Timmay shit his pants again.

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 13:42 | 421597 Dr Hackenbush
Dr Hackenbush's picture

2009 Redux

Never underestimate those cleaver Elves

 

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 14:06 | 421649 John Self
John Self's picture

Just like commercial real estate wasn't included in the US versions.  Nothing to worry about, since it's not like there's any CRE in their portfolios, though.

"Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, Boston's not a big college town. "

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 14:07 | 421655 carbonmutant
carbonmutant's picture

Is there something we're being fed that isn't a propaganda tool?

Fri, 06/18/2010 - 14:25 | 421689 b_thunder
b_thunder's picture

Did you expect Timmy Geithner's-like  "stress test" to be like?  Same old smoke & mirrors, extend and pretend, print and spend, until... well, until the bottom falls out!

 

Sat, 06/19/2010 - 11:19 | 422591 Grand Supercycle
Grand Supercycle's picture

 

EURO bullish signals I warned of during the past few weeks - has resulted in the recent rally and the daily chart remains bullish.

The DOW/SP500 counter trend rally suggested on June 13 continues, however ...

http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com/about

Mon, 06/21/2010 - 14:10 | 425237 wallstreettobay...
wallstreettobaystreet's picture


Stress testing is defined as a useful method for determining how a portfolio will fare during a period of financial crisis.

 

...I guess half of europe defaulting on sovereign debt is not a financial crisis.

check out my blog @ http://wallstreettobaystreet.blogspot.com/

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