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Why Greece Bailout Games Will Cause The Rest Of The EU To Breakout The Grease
Yesterday I shared my opinion of Grecian bailout games with Capital Account's Lauren Lyster. It was direct, honest, hard hitting and borderline offensive - hopefully par for the course of what is expected from me.
Just in case you didn't get the hints thrown in the video, Greece is truly fuc#ed, truly... The leaked Troika document referenced in the video assumes positive GDP growth of 2% to 4% in a year and a half. Here is where we stand now.

Luckily, employment hasn't been hit that hard. after all we all need to work...

Because... If you didn't have a job, you wouldn't be able to pay back your loans. Then again, one way to solve this problem is simply not to give anybody a loan, eh?

Alas, we don't have to worry about that since the money spigots are just so turned on to the Greek corporate sector you don't have to worry about a scarcity of jobs. With all of that capital sloshing around the system, Grecian companies are bound to start going on a hiring binge ANY MINUTE NOW!

I know I was a little skeptical about the optimism of the leaked Troika report, but considering how accurate those EU/IMF guys have been in the past regarding Greece, I should be ashamed of myself for even considering the possibility of doubting my betters, eh? Simply reference Lies, Damn Lies, and Sovereign Truths: Why the Euro is Destined to Collapse!...
This document/blog post alone should serve to sink the Euro and blow out CDS spreads for several European sovereign. Why? Because the truth hurts and the truth is not what has been coming from European sovereign states as of late.
The IMF and the EU have been consistently and overtly optimistic from the very beginning of this crisis. Their numbers have been dramatically over the top on the super bright, this will end pretty, rosy scenario side - and that is after multiple revisions to the downside!!! We can visit the US concept of regulatory capture (see How Regulatory Capture Turns Doo Doo Deadly and Lehman Brothers Dies While Getting Away with Murder: Regulatory Capture at its Best) for the EU, but due to time constraints we will save that topic for a later date. To make matters even worse, the sovereign states have taken these dramatically optimistic and proven unrealistic projections and have made even more optimistic and dramatically unrealistic projections on top of those in order to create the illusion of a workable "austerity" plan when in reality there is no way in hell the stated and published plans will come anywhere near reducing the debts and deficits as advertised - No Way in Hell (Hades/Tartarus/Anao/Uffern/Peklo/Niffliehem - just to cover some of the Euro states caught fudging the numbers)!
Let's take a visual perusal of what I am talking about, focusing on those sovereign nations that I have covered thus far.
Notice how dramatically off the market the IMF has been, skewered HEAVILY to the optimistic side. Now, notice how aggressively the IMF has downwardly revsied their forecasts to still end up widlly optimistic. ![]()
Ever since the beginning of this crisis, IMF estimates of government balance have been just as bad...
The EU/EC has proven to be no better, and if anything is arguably worse!
Revisions-R-US!
and the EU on goverment balance??? Way, way, way off.
If the IMF was wrong, what in the world does that make the EC/EU?
The EC forecasts have been just as bad, if not much, much worse in nearly all of the forecasting scenarios we presented. Hey, if you think tha's bad, try taking a look at what the govenment of Greece has done with these fairy tale forecasts, as excerpted from the blog post "Greek Crisis Is Over, Region Safe", Prodi Says - I say Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!...
Think about it! With a .5% revisions, the EC was still 3 full points to the optimistic side on GDP, that puts the possibility of Greek government forecasts, which are much more optimistic than both the EU and the slightly more stringent but still mostly erroneous IMF numbers, being anywhere near realistic somewhere between zero and no way in hell (tartarus, hades, purgatory...).
Now, if the Greek government's macroeconomic assumptions are overstated when compared with EU estimates, and the EU estimates are overstated when compared to the IMF estimates, and the IMF estimates are overstated when compared to reality.... Just who the hell can you trust these days??? Never fear, Reggie's here. Download our "unbiased, non-captured, empirically driven" forecast of the REAL Greek economy - (subscribers only, click here to subscribe)
Greece Public Finances Projections 2010-03-15 11:33:27 694.35 Kb. Related banking research can be downloaded here:
In my post from earlier this week, Grecian Tragedy Formula, Bailout Number 3 I pointed out the abject absurdity of what was contained in said leaked, Troika document.
The Capital Accounts interview above is the culmination of several of these articles on the topic of kicking the Grecian can down the road causing considerably more damage than it can ever hope to solve. Reference: The Ugly Truth About The Greek Situation That'sToo Difficult Broadcast Through Mainstream Media
In Contagion Should Be The MSM Word Du Jour, Not Bailouts and Definitely Not Greece! I included output from our subscriber-only
Sovereign Contagion Model (click here to subscribe).
This model details the various paths of contagion that can be taken given default by "XYZ" country. Examples include the effects of a China slowdown on the EU and vice versa. Hey, guess what's in the news today? Eurozone Recession Could Cut China’s Growth by 50%.
Also in the model and has can be seen in the illustrative chart above, is the signficant influence that the UK has upon the PIIGS. That's right, the same UK that sports 9%+ of its GDP as bank NPAs! And in the news today... UK GDP contraction sparks fear of a technical recession
-0.2% vs. -0.2%
I believe Germany poses the biggest threat to global harmony for 2012. Here's why...
European banks are (in addition to borrowing on a secured basis from those customers they usually lend to) also paying insurers and pension funds to take their illiquid bonds in exchange for better quality ones, in a desperate bid to secure much-needed cash from the ECB, which only provides cash against collateral. This may not be as safe a measure as it sounds. Below is a sensitivity analysis of Generali's (a highly leveraged Italian insurer, subscribers see
Exposure of European insurers to PIIGS) sovereign debt holdings.
As you can see, Generali is highly leveraged into PIIGS debt, with 400% of its tangible equity exposed. Despite such leveraged exposure, I calculate (off the cuff, not an in depth analysis) that it took a 10% hit to Tangible Equity. Now, that's a lot, but one would assume that it would have been much worse. What saved it?
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well, if actually history is repeating itself in some way, and the present time accordance to the time afore the WWII, afterwards blow we would see what accordance to the address of the European Communities, jogos de fazenda would we get eurobonds, about-face abutment and afresh adopted EU president
There was this "play room" and there happened to be this NES. That was the aboriginal time I played Contra. It fabricated me feel larger instead obtaining cooped up in an exceedingly hospital bed for days.jogos da barbie
well, if absolutely history is repeating itself in some way, and the present time accord to the time afore the WWII, afterwards accident we would see what accord to the bearing of the European Communities, would we get eurobonds, alteration abutment and anon adopted EU president? jogo de damas
Damn i just kept looking at her legs.....oh the numbers, same old shit, the house is burning down, we are fukashimaed
The camera man has a rewarding job.
Reggie - the Jap property market declined for 20 years because more and more sov money was present relative to bank credit.
Property bubbles do not create wealth - its probally still in a glut phase anyhow.
Is it possible that the overleveraged creditors are in the status, of as Elvis would do after his concerts.
" Elvis has left the building"
The creditors have stalled the inevitable default over enough time to leave the building before it burns down.
IE no major effect on the markets now when default is officially announced,
by the way the definition of default is a redefining of the debt instrument.
So I would say they have defaulted already.
it's a tall order going up against "the syndicate" Reggie. "The House always wins" as they say...and they want a strong euro. The big news will be the elections in France. If the Conservatives lose "as France goes so goes the EU." I'm unclear what anyone in the EU could give France to..."make it not hurt anymore." Of course if we're talking Spain...
reality will be unavoidable even for "the House" when the electorate start kicking... it's happened in France before...
OK, I'm going (pale white guy). Did anyone listen to the Video? Did anyone understand the context of the interview?
All ya niggas caught the GDP/ real growth-employment #'s? I was thanking Mr' Middleton for his (candjure), not fraternal knowledge!
I think Lauren Lyster is in love with Reggie Middleton, the same way her producer Demetri Kofinas is in love with Margaret Brennan.
Thanks for the frightening insight Reggie. Some of those charts simply make me giggle. What else am I meant to do. I met a guy, aged 61, taking his dog for a walk the other day in UK. He spends most of his time looking after his wife, but had two jobs cleaning - one in the morning and one in the evening. Four hours min wage. He was happy though. The job gave him enough for his needs and gavep him the freedom to do what he wanted/needed. We're not all in high finance here lol. Last week he lost both jobs. Cleaning jobs are now tough to get in UK :(
He's thinking of that "equity release" sceme as a short term help :(
As I've seen said here before... "Coming to a country near you soon"
Great work Reggie.
You should have included Greek defense spending.
While greece gets the spotlight for defense spending, because they NOMINALLY cannot afford it at all... thus, full-frontal absurdity.... what has gotten much less spotlight, is that most european nations (or actually, most western nations) have in the last 5 years invested in expensive military reform and modernization programs, mainly geared towards "transforming the military from a force geared against conventional national enemies, towards urban civil wars".
And i'm not talking 2012, even though it is heating up now.... the change in doctrine has begun already around 2005. Western national govs have been assuming a shift towards "wars against populations" for years.
Dunn.... dunnn.... dunnn.
Good for you Reggie! I thought you were TOO soft on those " Turd Shiners" , over at CNBS earlier this week. Or was that late last week? It's all a BBLLUURR at this point. Keep up the " Bitch Slaps". I'll go all in on confirmation of my reservations to fly south.
I have a VERY keen sense of awareness. The interviewer does not have a wedding ring.................
Nice............................................................................
Reggie is right, they are F*cked and the rest of the EU govt. knows it. They are playing a game of denial and obfuscation in order to push this down the road.
Keep em coming man....
I'm thinking of getting hammered and streaking the trading floor at the NYSE.
DtR
The truth never comes out until well after the "credit events" or selloffs take place. In the meantime, everything's rosy and totally under control. We're all just the marks and the rubes in this con game.
Shoot me if I ever trade off of any data the IMF ECU ECB or UN puts out.
Some 'Uncanny' Valleys in the charts.