Goodbye Euro, Hello Drachma
A few months ago, when Zero Hedge first broke the news that the Drachma is trading at several major banks on a "when issued" basis at the client's request, it was promptly dismissed. Alas, it may be time to dismiss the dismissal, after Spiegel reports that as one of the scenarios considered for a Greek default, Germany anticipates the reintroduction of the drachma by the pathological liars at the Greek parliament. Yes: the currency that Greece was so happy to jettison 10 years ago when after the assistance of Goldman to hide its bloated debt, to much pomp and circumstance it entered the soon to be defunct Eurozone, is coming baaaaack.
From Spiegel, with the article recreated in its entirety as the implications for the EUR, the eurozone, and crony communism as massive:
German Finance Minister Prepares for Possible Greek Bankruptcy
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who is reportedly doubtful that the country can be saved from bankruptcy, is preparing for the possibility of Greek insolvency. Officials in his ministry are currently reviewing scenarios for handling such a situation, exploring what it might mean for the rest of the euro zone. Under the first scenario for a Greek bankruptcy, the country would remain in the euro zone. Under the other, Athens would abandon the common currency and reintroduce the drachma.
The European bailout mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), is playing a key role in those considerations. Soon the EFSF is expected to be given new powers agreed to by European leaders at a special euro crisis summit in late July. Two instruments at the EFSF's disposal are at the forefront of the Finance Ministry's scenarios.
Bankruptcy Could Create Credit Crunch
One of these key instruments would be credit lines provided to countries like Spain or Italy if investors stop lending them money after a Greek bankruptcy. If banks were forced to write off the billions in Greek government bonds on their books, they could become reliant on billions in rescue fund aid in numerous euro-zone countries. Both developments are to be expected in a Greek insolvency, regardless of whether the country exits the euro or not.
Volker Bouffier, the governor of the state of Hesse, which is home to Germany's financial capital Frankfurt, is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, as is Schäuble. Bouffier is now urging that the possibility for countries to leave the euro zone be created quickly. Current European Union treaties provide no provisions for a country to abandon the currency.
"If the savings and reform efforts of the Greek government aren't successful, then we need to ask the question of whether we need new rules to make it possible for a euro country to leave the currency union," Bouffier told SPIEGEL.
As for what happens to all the trillions in other interconnected debt, should all Euro bills have to white out the Greek text on then, we imagine the word "prayer" is key.
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As long as they don't kill the ouzo.
Hmmmm DJ Futures down 138 already.
no kidding, when i was stationed in west germany, 85-87, i was addicted to that stuff.....
Used to buy it in the hills overlooking the NAMFI firing range on Crete for $1/btl. No label. Very good stuff. Was never sober long enough to get addicted.
What they should kill is the drachma, then 'do the Iceland' and introduce the new currency, the ouzo.
they would have the strongest currency in the world.
got turned on that stuff by a REDHEADED girl, got addicted to both....
with an exchange rate of 3DM's to 1usd, we lived like kings....
yep, the good old days....
I hope so. I'd buy them up and put them with my stash of Iraqi Dinars. You can't possible lose when the exchange rate is that extreme.
GD counterfeiters LOL
Anyone ???
How do you post a friggin image ?
Become a contributor.
And cracks start to surface in Switzerland: UBS voices disapproval of SNB peg.
http://www.tdg.ch/actu/economie/ubs-credit-suisse-desaccord-face-taux-pl...
But Jim (Doesn't the guy spend any time in the office managing his client's money?) O'Neill says it's A Good Thing. Bet he got that from Martha Stewart.
of course this is Wilders holding this.....hater!
go to a site, such as: http://www.postimage.org/ and load your image there, it will generate a link which you can post most anywhere.
Thanks for info.
Thanks - I just tried it, and testing it here. This is an image that I find very funny. The title of this image is fitting: "Ooops".
http://postimage.org/image/2zocavmhw/
was that OJ ?
If the pic don't fit you must aquit!
2 Legit 2 Quit
No, it was OT!
There, I fixed it for you
http://postimage.org/image/2raw8zxqc/
Ole Faithful ... Test
<img src="http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/46a8b23318.gif" border="0"></a>
WOW, i think i just saw uncle ben going to walmart to buy a loaf of bread. circa 2012. america
What was the exchange rate for the red=head? :)
exchange? free. you just had to be very careful arourd them. dont piss them off. case in point. of all female sniper aces inrussian army wwll, 62% were redheads...(5 sniper kills=ace). but you treat a redhead with respect and do what she asks, life is awesome, because redheads are passionate, in love and war.......better than mortal man deserves.
I don't like Ouzo.
I like Pernot.
Viva La France.
and introduce the new currency, the ouzo.
HAHA. In colonial New Jersey, applejack was used as currency.
Greeks should have dual currency. Ouzo and Vaseline
BOHICA.......BITCHEZ
I'm going to catch hell for this, but so what... The euro isn't going away and nobody's leaving it. The euro was just a step toward one european gov, and one world gov.
The EU will print, the fed will print, japan will print, swiss... -- everyone will print. They won't let the political dream die.
The sales pitch is a unified europe won't have another world war. True, but large parts of the world can and will starve after the bankers take everything worth taking. The sheeple will eventually vote it in. What choice do they have?
The euro isn't going away and nobody's leaving it. The euro was just a step toward one european gov, and one world gov.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
One world government? Again that?
No. One world government is not in the box.
we've got one side of the world that is on the path of increasing critical mass in order to avoid pay back. Extorters have this in common: they will try to make it so that retaliation on one extorter matter to all of them.
Indeed, Europeans will try to melt into one european in order to achieve. After that step, the US and Europe will try to merge.
This same side also tries to atomize as much as possible the other sides. Because extorters have this in common: they hate extorted organizing themselves in order to resist extortion. Extorters want extorted as unorganized, as isolated, as lonely as possible.
No one world government. Just one side of the world that is fleeing ahead in order to avoid pay back by diluting more and more its responsibility.
The League of Nations will make a come back.
lets hope not......
"Was never sober long enough to get addicted."
Nice line! Green! Green reminds me of absinthe....
You beat me to it; it's a peachy line. Your avatar always brings a smile; as an engineer, of course, I am addicted to rolling element bearings !
You sir, are a genius!
V
How America Got it's Power
Souda Bay Rock Club transient member, here. My beverage of choice there was Greek Amstel. Ouzo boilermakers worked OK if I recall correctly.
Of course, there is a lot I can't recall correctly from back then.
Ahhh, the good old days, when you got a decent mark rate.
"I am sure the Euro will oblige us to introduce a new set of economic policy instruments. It is politically impossible to propose that now. But some day there will be a crisis and new instruments will be created."
— Romano Prodi, EU Commission President, December 2001
Didn't quite work out like that, did it?
http://azizonomics.com/2011/09/11/big-change-for-europe/
It's just Greece defaulting, they do it on average every 12 years. In no way does this reflect on the viability of the Euro itself, which is supranational, and has 65% of its reserves as gold (and watch for that to increase).
The Euro is a good thing, it was designed to replace the dollar when that fails. Should the Euro fail, will you be happy to see gold and oil at 30 to 40 times their current levels?
Read a bit more, rather than writing sensationalist rubbish.
Lol. Way to completely misunderstand the significance of a Eurozone nation defaulting.
@HitTheFan
"Should the Euro fail, will you be happy to see gold and oil at 30 to 40 times their current levels?"
I have hedged accordingly for that eventuality.
@Popo
Haven't you heard what Jim Rogers said the other day ? I know ZH misleaded us on that one but the guy (and so does China and Russia) believes in Europe :
http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-rogers-buy-all-the-euros-you-can-if-g...
Europe has industries, infrastructures and gold to back the Euro and also a tied and well educated population.
What has the USA in comparison ? Nothing. No more industry. No job creation. No gold. Trillions of debt. A divised nation with a sick, fat and ignorant population. A dying agriculture exterminated by chemicals and GMO. Natural desasters and no man's lands all over the country.
The dollar is backed by a mirage.
@hitthefan, normally you would be right about greece just defaulting, but there is the concern of what follows--- spain, italy, portugal, etc. its a much different situation than the last time greece "just defaulted". we are on the precipice of european debt implosion. the amount of bonds and swaps out there lurking in banks that already have limited liquidity is keeping european leaders up at night. so maybe you should read a bit more, rather than writing myopic views of what a greek default entails.
I for one think the pain the Greeks departure will provide stern motivation to the others to get their houses in order or suffer the same fate. I have changed my tune from Euro failure, and I was banking on it.
Greece is out IMO, and let it be a sobering lesson to the others.
get their houses in order? thats laughable. how? with global growth already anemic, will the rest of the spendthrifts make the necessary cuts, or will they just make token gestures like raising alcohol taxes and then make promises about real change that will shirley fix the problem in some undetermined date in the future?
http://looker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/shirley.jpg
Awesome photo.
And don't call me surely.
I agree @kito. I don't see a painless way out of this one.
How does one get a house in order when Ponzi built the foundation?
...and don't call me shirley
cripes too late
"let it be a sobering lesson to the others"
What lesson?
That money is created out of thin air?
That money is created as debt by banks?
If you're not killing germans they're killing you seems to be the lesson so far.
The Germans are bastards because they no longer want to prop up terminally broke free-loading liars in Grreece? What is your idiotic comment even supposed to mean?
Cool. The guy with the white hair is Dutchman Geert Wilders who is a MP in Holland. He is under death threat from the Islamics. Holland and Finland have also said - ENOUGH to the bailouts.
Everyone in the EC is a bastard because it is completely obvious that Greece should have defaulted. They're pretending that if they cut people's pensions and salaries and jobs that magically they'll have more money, when the opposite is the case. The economy is getting worse and worse as more debt is accumulated. Any patriotic Greek government would have defaulted as soon as they "discovered" that they and the other leading party had been cooking the book for decades. They are all playing games, including Germany. If Germany expelled Greece it would be doing Greece a favor. The money they are using to "bail out" Greece really is for French and German banks.
Right, and don't forget once those "periphery" PIIGS go bust, who's going to buy all the crap from France and Germany? They drained all blood from their captive patrons and they will go down in flames with them as well.
You know who? India.
Never seen such a full court press in the auto sector especially..... BMW/AUDI/BENZ/VW.....
Selling Indian's cars they cannot afford, on roads that these cars are dead on (no ground clearence, 2 ft deep potholes common), guzzle gas in an economy where we have one of the highest gas prices in the world....
Now the French, Renault, Peugot.... it's quite hilarious actually. And these cars are huge and indian traffic is a SQUEEZE. And Groupe Dannone, trying to sell Yogurt to India.... on and on the circus turns.
Supply Side Driven Globalization, FTW!
V
Yogurt is good for you...WARM yogurt, not so much! :>D
Hah SK! Sounds as bad as Warm Beer! Why would anyone drink warm beer?
V
"Should the Euro fail, will you be happy to see gold and oil at 30 to 40 times their current levels?"
YES
Me too, Knukles, and don't forget silver.
Because it will be a wash.
Fiat backed by nothing but pontificating blowhards, backstabbing goodwill, debt & credit will be shown for what it is and always has been when it was tried throughout history...a complete failure.
Plus...we get to see Krugmans head explode ;-)
Be sure to dress Gallagherized for this event.
;-)
I'm long trash bags.
Can't we just wait for Zombies to eat his brai...Never mind
Can't wait... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxziaKSCMWw
Knukles: gold and oil at 30-40X. silver at 100X. And Merkel's & Sarko's heads on a pike!
The inevitable fiscal failure of Greece seems certain to cause a huge surge in precious metals prices; which I will welcome. If the ski-ramp were steep and high enough; I might sell out near the top, also. I believe Greece can be "de-coupled" from the Euro, one way or another, without the "failure" of the Euro; but this will be a traumatic event for financiers. Oil doesn't seem to be priced by "fear", or un-certainty, as the metals are.
PMs are priced by the crooks. everyone including china are happy with that while accumulation continues. we are approaching a newer stage of physical demand where sound money stays saved while the paper stuff gets spent. thats when they will lose control and default will be official.
did you partake of the nice lebanese blond?
Uhhhhh, no comment.
blood shot blond
little streaks of red runnig thru it
circa 1972...
harsh...
how about afghan black? did you get it from the mp's ......
gold seal afgani black..
use to get it from
proffesor and bananas...
400. $ a kilo
Lebenese blond. I haven't heard that term in about 30 years.
a kilo for a hundred dollars.........ah the good old days....
Lebanese Blonde Thievery Corporation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04bg9IC9N6w
Great track and aptly named band!
OMG
oh come on. is there anything wrong with walking around in a daze all day long......?
the girls
put 20 grams of black hash
in a pan of brownies..
"nobody" ate too...
he got really high........
You know what they say:
"A hash-pipe a day --"
uh, umm -- I can't remember the rest. 8-/
used to mix it up in the bowl with a little tobacco and then you partake and it puts a whole new outlook on the day....i used to go smoke with the brothers. they didn't like whitey too much, but they didn't seem to mind having me around....whatever. i think they liked texans.....ha ha ha
Back then, no.
crash season starting bitchez
Ouzo - Its also a very powerful mosquito repellent, might even work on vampiric banksters.
The PUKES at the PPT must still be sobering-up after their 9/11 "celebration" and have not reported to work, yet. Give them time. They will report before New York open.
Betcha just like last week; that 4000 contract order on the COMEX in the middle of the night, no capacity for volume, dumped unceremoniously. Indeed, not a sophisticated bit of trading, just begging to be noticed as in "Big Splash Lookie Here Folks."
Was only 12.5 tons (4000 contracts at 100 oz/contract = 400000oz, with 32,000 oz/ton = 12.5 tons)
And golly gee wiz folks, did any of you all notice that Libya was a large seller of gold some time within the last week or two "in order to pay administrative salaries and costs of war."
Fuck me....
No way. When the West Finances a Revolution, it's on MasterCard for the frequent flier bonus points. That was (IMHO) the Brits making sure they had enough physical for the BoE to ship Caesar Chavez in Venezuela part of his 99 tons of butter bars on the wall.
I might have been born at night but not last night for Christ's sake.
Ah, pattern recognition.
With Paulson being down some 30% YTD and continual down pressure on the stock market what is the #1 holder of GLD thinking about right now?
If the market keeps going down and we start seeing redemption requests the gold market could get interesting.
If he starts selling in size and selling starts to beget more selling....well, the last one sitting as they say. Few if any will know when he's selling as the orders will be routed through darkpools.
I think gold is over extended but that's my opinion. That's what makes a market.
That was some interesting research on gold from MS that ZH released earlier. Morgan Stanley of course being the 5th largest holder of GLD.
Wondered about that as well. I co manage a portfolio with a little piece invested in the advantage fund. We thought about redeeming but are in the gold class so not running for the exit. He's also 47 % net long as of the last con call a few weeks ago which tells me he's steering the ship around--likely fully hedged at this point. Well probably let it ride at this point--paulson's a crafty sort, still think there's a chance he could emerge in a year or two smelling like roses. Hope most of his other clients arrive at the same conclusion though...
Look at the price action of gold around AUG 23 and juxtapose it against the price action of CITI...
When you're a player of that size you can influence price but only for so long. The market however, is too big for that to last over extended periods and eventually someone gets killed.
....the market always catches on.