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Statement Of The Day: Austrian Finance Minister Says No Danger To Europe From Hungary's Debt Problems
In what is without doubt the statement of the day, the Austrian finance minister has said there is "no danger to Europe from Hungary's debt problems." What he has failed to mention is that just in case he is wrong, his country is next on the chopping block, due to its massive exposure to Hungarian bad debt, and the hockeystick seen in Belgian bonds will seem like a smooth slope compared to what will happen in Vienna. But why discuss the truth: after all the IMF's Strauss-Khan was caught on the tape saying Europe's stress is "probably exaggerated." Probably... If anyone knows of a soap opera with more tragicomedy, manipulation and lying, please advise.
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Do I win?
It'll happen in the third half.
Brilliant! Can I use that?
Bernanke: If I had some ham I could make a ham sandwich if you had some bread.
Nice
why would Austria be commenting on Hungary finances effecting all of Europe...it's like Timmy G stating that California's fiscal condition should have no effect on the world!
Probably because, as the report says, they have massive exposure to Hungarian debt.
Ever hear of the Austrio-Hungary Empire? Those countries are buds.
Straussy makes Cliff Barnes look like a winner!
Most Hungarian mortgages in addition to all corporate debt is denominated in EUR and CHF. UBS might need some more help from SNB (probably close to the total of Swiss GDP) and Austria is broke for sure.
By definition if additional credit facilities are put in place in order to help Hungary -- and those credit facilities are backed by the European taxpayer -- then there is danger to Europe. Apparently other nations (cough, Germany, cough) being forced to pick up the tab, doesn't constitute "danger"?
Apparently what he means to say is, "There is probably no danger that Europe will implode spectacularly as a result of Hungary's debt problems".
In which case, the word "probably" is ... probably crucial.
When are they going to realize that nice, cheap words aren't going to work anymore?
And that there's nothing else within their power to do about it, so the most constructive thing to do is STFU.
That's what the lawyer said...
He "probably" wants to get re-elected
The world central planners are probably too stupid to understand a basic fact. They have no credibility. When you have no credibility, you do not gain credibility back by making speeches and saying soothing things. Every moron knows that - except these.
Feigned Ignorance, ready to liquidate us.
+2cents
"I believe it is peace for our time"
Neville Chamberlain
there's the official denial..
put thro the bullshit translator = "shit. shit shit shit!!!!"
I can't think of a soap opera, but anything starring Meredith Baxter-Birney on the channel formerly known as "Lifetime" is probably a good call.
The opening of the Hungarian frontiers 1989 was a big, fat problem for my good, old Eastern Germany! Last one though.
These EURO officials all need to attend the IMF Seminar on obfustification.
He mustn't have gone to the Austrian School.....
Nice stick save. to bad it is a little bit to late in the game to be making these statements when the cat is out of the bag.
The statements spewing out of the mouths of these clowns are a counter-indicator. They mean exactly the opposite of what they are trying to convince the public. And that's not "probably", that's a "certainty".
They would deny the existence of the moon if they thought it would save their ass.
LOL
The rising tide of bad (government) debt is why they will try to deny the moon.
Propogandists continue to spew the same tired tricks, that are working less and less.
The Big Lie has been found wanting. But old dogs seldom learn new tricks.
Beyond total collapse there is little to fear.
Hungary's never been in the Euro, and it's threatening to blow up the European core's financial system. Doesn't this suggest that the Euro is not in fact central to the European debt crisis? If the Euro never existed but the present EU common market did, would the debt situation be all that much better? Sure, Greece can't devalue without leaving the Euro, Euro-area interest rates were too low for it, and Eurozone investors were lured into Greece by the (apparent?) lack of currency risk. But again, the Austro-Hungarian Debtpile was built without these 'advantages'. And /a priori/, it seems very unlikely that a half-global Minskian credit tsunami, two decades in the making, would really have spared Europe if only there hadn't been those exchange-rate peculiarities in the northern Mediterranean economies. Perhaps the only really significant change would have been that the bad loans would have been more heavily concentrated in the European core, or in the US and the developing economies?
But the debt taken on by the eastern bloc nations, both public and private is denominated in Euros
Not the public, but that just makes it worse.
Sure, but 1) if there were no Euro then that Euro-denominated debt might just have been denominated in deutschmarks or Austrian schillings or Swiss francs instead. In fact, it seems that even as things stand the total value of Hungarian CHF mortgages sold last October was worth half as much as total EUR mortgages and more than total forint mortgages. (In fact Ms. Singer has implied that one of the reasons the Swiss were trying to keep their currency weak was to prevent a wave of Eastern European mortgage defaults.) And 2) even if all the debt were denominated in HUF, so much the worse for the lenders. In that case a HUF devaluation would effectively force a haircut on the foreign lenders without a technical default on the part of the Hungarian mortgageholders and other debtors. But that technicality wouldn't (as far as I understand) change the reality that the banks would be taking large /de facto/ losses, and we can't have banks taking losses or else O NO MOAR LEHMANS. So either Hungary would have to be paid or given soft loans to pay the banks from, in exchange for not devaluing (the Greek tragedyfarce), the banks would have to be bailed out directly, or there would indeed be more Lehmans. Again, basically the same dilemma the EU faces in dealing with Greece.
Remain calm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAmPIq29ro