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September Arrives, As Does The French "Dexia Moment" - France Nationalizes Its Second Largest Mortgage Lender
September has arrived which means for Europe reality can, mercifully, return. First on the agenda: moments ago the French government suddenly announced the nationalization of troubled mortgage lender Credit Immobilier de France, which is also the country's second lagrest mortgage specialist after an attempt to find a buyer for the company failed. "To allow the CIF group to respect its overall commitments, the state decided to respond favourably to its request to grant it a guarantee," Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said according to Reuters. What he really meant was that in order to avoid a bank run following the realization that the housing crisis has finally come home, his boss, socialist Hollande, has decided to renege on his core campaign promise, and bail out an "evil, evil" bank. Sadly, while the nationalization was predicted by us long ago, the reality is that the French government waited too long with the sale, which prompted the Moody's downgrade of CIF by 3 notches earlier this week, which in turn was the catalyst that made any delay in the nationalization inevitable. The alternative: fears that one of the key players in the French mortgage house of cards was effectively insolvent would spread like wildfire, leading to disastrous consequences for the banking system. End result: congratulations France: your Fannie/Freddie-Dexia moment has finally arrived, and the score, naturally: bankers 1 - taxpayers 0.
From Le Figaro:
Here comes another crisis that the new government could do well without. After the latest downgrade by Moody's, the fate of Crédit Immobilier de France (CIF) was sealed. After failing to find a willing buyer, the lender called the State to the rescue.
"To allow the group CIF to meet all its commitments, the government decided to respond favorably to its request to grant a guarantee," said Saturday the Ministry of Economy, confirming a report in Le Figaro. "This guarantee will be implemented subject to the approval of the European Commission and Parliament, which will be seized within the next Finance Bill," says the statement of Bercy. As in the granting of state guarantees for Dexia, the government needs the approval of Brussels under the State aid procedure.
The government supports the establishment to avoid panic on a large French issuer. Because if the CIF is a small branch network with 300 branches, more than 30 billion euros in loans bear its signature. However, the downgrade by Moody's gave investors the right to be reimbursed for certain bond lines. Therefore unable to refinance since the first degradation of the note in February, was moving rapidly towards the liquidity crisis. Friday evening, a board of CIF followed up with the inevitable next step.
Just so the French government doesn't look like it is folding like a cheap lawn chair after all those loud populist campaign promises, there was a casualty:
The government has set conditions for their intervention. One of them has already been met. Claude Sadoun, CEO of the banking system, leaves office. His successor will be chosen by the state. It is up to the banking group, owned 56 SACICAP, regional companies and local communities around the world HLM - prepare a resolution plan that will be presented in Brussels.
In other words, France just had its Dexia moment, roughly one year after the Belgian bank suffered the same fate, and 4 years after America's had its own Fannie/Freddie mortgage lender nationalization incident. Looks like history will rhyme yet again.
Finally, we can only hope the name CIF sounds familiar to our readers: after all, this first major shift in the insolvency contagion in the direction of Europe's core was predicted here, to the dot, just over three months ago.
From May 20, 2012
The Mortgage Crisis Hits France Front And Center: Are French Bank Nationalizations Imminent?
Name the plunging bond below:
If you said some sovereign or corporate issue based out of Spain, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, or even Greece you would be close... but no cigar. No - the bond in question is an issue of Caisse Centrale du Credit Immobilier de France (3CIF), which together with its sister entity CIF Euromortgage (CIFE), is a 100% subsidiary of Credit Immobilier de France Development (CIFD), which as Fitch describes it, is a French "housing loans specialist, with business exclusively directed to France." CIFD is in turn owned by Procivis Group, which just happens to be France's second largest full-service real estate group.
In other words, CIFD, together with its subsidiaries 3CIF and CIFE represent a critical glance into the functioning (or lack thereof) of the French mortgage market. The various CIF mortgage entities are related as per the following Org Chart:
A brief summary on the Procivis Group, of which the CIF entities are a part of, via Fitch (bear with us - this is important):
Business
Mortgage financing in France continues to be predominantly distributed through the biggest retail and saving banks in the country. Specialist banks thus have a modest cumulative market share (10%-12%), but benefit from their wide range of products to maintain their franchise. CIFD offered 15 products at end-2011 and has developed some innovative services (eg, price insurance under which the difference between the sale price and the original price paid by the borrower, if negative, is covered up to EUR40,000 by the insurer). Its specialisation and its strong expertise in the French housing market represent key strengths compared with more global peers, as they enable the group to provide bespoke products to its customers. CIFD extends loans predominantly to private individuals, but also caters for investors' needs. The latter accounted for c.21% of the bank's loan portfolio at end-September 2011. While CIFD has its own widespread lending network, approximately 65% of the loans originated by the SFRs in 9M11 were brought in by intermediaries such as real estate agents, building property developers and brokers. CIFD is also trying to extend the number of bilateral partnerships it has with corporates. On top of loans to employees of the French groups Electricité de France and Gaz de France (EUR1.2bn loans combined at end-2010, 9M11 new loans up 30% yoy), the bank launched an offer with Crédit Social des Fonctionnaires in September 2011, targeting first-time home-buying civil servants. CIFD's SOFIAP subsidiary is dedicated to providing housing loans to SNCF employees (French railway company).
Ownership
CIFD is owned by 56 Sociétés Anonymes Coopératives d'Intérêt Collectif pour l'Accession à la Propriété (SACICAPs), whose mission is assigned by the state despite their private-sector status, and which together with Procivis Immobilier make up the Procivis group. The SACICAPs use dividends up?streamed from their competitive subsidiaries to grant subsidised housing loans and build social housing in cooperation with local authorities and social housing entities. Procivis Immobilier is France's second?largest full-service real estate group.
The SACICAPs are held by numerous shareholders that, by law, have to include local authorities and social housing entities. Shareholders consist principally of local institutions. Fitch does not believe they can be relied on to support CIFD in case of need.
Solidarity Mechanisms Within CIFD
A cross-support mechanism has been in place since 2004, and covers all the entities of the group. Under this mechanism, each member's commitments are backed by the equity of all group entities, including non-controlling interests. CIFE benefits from this mechanism, but does not contribute to it. Additional solidarity requirements exist through the group's status as a "réseau" (equivalent to a network under French banking law), under which its central body –CIFD – has the power to enforce any measure that it deems necessary.
Corporate Governance
CIFD is not publicly listed, and the level and frequency of financial disclosure, although satisfactory, reflects this. The 12 members of CIFD's board of directors are representatives of the SACICAPs. The undiversified nature of CIFD's business and the moderate size of its operations help to facilitate control and oversight of the bank's operations by the executive team and the board of directors.
Strategy
Given the prevailing depreciated economic and market environment, which weighs on lending volumes, interest margins and fees, the bank's profitability is likely to be under significant pressure over the next couple of years. Expanding its insurance solutions, leveraging alternative commercial channels (eg, bilateral partnerships), maintaining a high degree of specialisation, and continuing its cost integration are the cornerstones of CIFD's strategy.
Within a continued period of market turbulence, clear emphasis has been placed on maintaining sound liquidity and cautious risk monitoring.
* * *
For the longest time, CIF was well off everyone's radar. All that changed two weeks ago, on May 8, when trading of securities issued by 3CIF and CIFE was suspended at the request of French and Luxembourg regulators, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers and the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. The result was an immediate plunge as there was little to no additional clarification about the sudden trading halt, leading many to speculate the worst - namely that underlying operations had deteriorated substantially, to the point where little to no collateral and/or cash flow was left to service liabilities.
It subsequently surfaced that the halt was driven by a failure of the bank to file accounts by an April 30 deadline, which in turn prompted speculation that the group's rating would see multi-notch downgrades, something which as explained below, would have profound impact on the wholesale market-funded mortgage lender, as well as on the far broader French cover bond market
Peripheral news only made it worse. As IFRE reports, "A report on French news website Mediapart likened the bank to Northern Rock. Last month, the same news outlet had warned of the risk of a small French Lehman Brothers, without naming the entity, explaining that a severe downgrade could activate some expensive guarantee mechanisms similar to margin calls. Moody’s had indicated in February that it could downgrade 3CIF by up to four notches, as part of a sweeping European bank rating review. The second Mediapart story was published on Tuesday, a public holiday in France. Unsurprisingly, the senior bonds, which remained free to trade, came under huge pressure the following day."
Sure enough not only bonds of 3CIF, but more importantly, of covered-bond issuer CIF Euromortgage were likewise crushed beginning Tuesday:
But the biggest wildcard was what rating Moody's would cut 3CIF to as part of its wholesale bank downgrade initiative announced back in February. Well, on Thursday the rating agency released its updated view on 3CIF, which in many ways was a crushing blow to the company which now has no choice but to be nationalized:
Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded the standalone bank financial strength (BFSR) of Caisse Centrale du Crédit Immobilier de France (3CIF) to E/caa1, outlook developing, from C/a3 on review for downgrade. The rating agency is maintaining the review for downgrade initiated on 15 February 2012 on 3CIF's long- and short-term debt and deposit ratings of A1 and P-1, respectively.
The long-term ratings now incorporate 12 notches of systemic support (previously two notches), based on the rating agency's view that the French public sector is highly likely to provide both financial support over the short- to medium-term and assistance in orchestrating a longer-term adaptation of 3CIF's business model, which is currently unviable. Should such support not be forthcoming promptly, or should attempts to achieve a longer-term solution fail, Moody's would expect 3CIF's long-term debt rating to transition down close to Caa1 (the standalone financial strength rating implied by 3CIF's BFSR).
In other words, Moody's has given France a loud and clear notice that while it will has not yet downgraded the non-standalone ratings of 3CIF, so critical for various collateral call arrangements, absent explicit government support, or an acquisition of the troubled lender by a third party, this downgrade would be imminent as "The long-term ratings now incorporate 12 notches of systemic support (previously two notches), based on the rating agency's view that the French public sector is highly likely to provide both financial support over the short- to medium-term and assistance in orchestrating a longer-term adaptation of 3CIF's business model, which is currently unviable."
To summarize: 3CIF has an "unviable" business model whose long-term rating would be 12 notches below the provisional and pending downgrade A1 currently retained, or roughly Caa1. Needless to say, a Caa1 rating would unleash a full blown AIG-type collateral call on every entity in the org chart shown above.

Sure enough, Moody's continues:
Should such support not be forthcoming promptly, or should attempts to achieve a longer-term solution fail, Moody's would expect 3CIF's long-term debt rating to transition down close to Caa1 (the standalone financial strength rating implied by 3CIF's BFSR).
It gets worse:
Moody's decision to downgrade 3CIF's BFSR to E/caa1 from C/a3 is based on the rating agency's assessment that the bank is no longer
viable without ongoing financial support and ultimately a more durable solution. While 3CIF's interest margin and asset base have shown some resilience throughout the recent crisis, its business is entirely wholesale-funded, thus making it vulnerable to debt market disruptions and to loss of investor confidence. The firm currently has very limited access to private-sector financing, and the rating agency sees no prospect of that changing in the foreseeable future. Moody's notes that the trading of securities issued by 3CIF and CIF Euromortgage was suspended on 8 May 2012 at the request of the French and Luxemburg regulators, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers and the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier.
The rating agency notes that the group has a policy of maintaining a liquidity buffer equivalent to at least six months of financing needs. This should leave the group with sufficient liquidity to meet maturing debt obligations for several months. However, given recent developments, Moody's believes that there is a high risk that this liquidity buffer will erode steadily over that period. These significant liquidity risks imply that the group is likely to become wholly reliant on liquidity support from the French public sector, and ultimately to require some form of more permanent solution, which would likely involve a merger, strategic investment, or other joint venture with a third party facilitated by the government. Moody's believes that the group's adjusted BFSR/standalone credit assessment at E/caa1 reflects this risk. The developing outlook reflects the uncertainty surrounding the strategy of the bank and the authorities' plan to address the weakness in the bank's funding profile, as well as the potential for the group's financial strength to be materially improved, if a credible strategy were to emerge.
Which means that France's new president has one option only: to step in and bail out a bank within days of his inauguration, or else see the first domino of the housing market tumble.
At the same time, Moody's has raised its assumptions of systemic support to reflect its view that the French public sector is highly likely to provide liquidity assistance over the short- to medium-term if required by 3CIF, in order to allow time for a longer-term solution to be identified and implemented. Moody's also considers it likely that the French public sector will provide assistance in orchestrating a longer-term adaptation of 3CIF's business model. The rating agency's expectation of a strong willingness on the part of the government to support 3CIF reflects the importance of the bank's lending activities to the French housing market, especially in assisting less privileged households, and the broader implications of further disruptions in 3CIF's operations. A further factor underpinning Moody's assumption of government support is 3CIF's public sector ownership via the 56 "sociétés anonymes coopératives d'intérêt collectif pour l'accession à la propriété" (SACICAPs), which are social housing companies that operate under private law with a locally-anchored and diversified ownership, spread across "colleges" including social housing associations ("organismes HLM") and local governments ("collectivités territoriales").
Moody's logic explained: everyone hates banks and bankers, but when their jobs is to "assist less privileged households" bailing everyone out is ok. Better still, would be if someone were to come and purchase CIFD outright. Sadly, as Retuers reports, this isn't happening:
The issuer has been put up for sale with HSBC acting as an advisor to the borrower, financial daily Les Echos reported last Thursday. HSBC has refused to comment.
The search for a buyer has so far proved fruitless. Caisse d'Epargne, part of the BPCE Group, and Banque Postale, which is currently looking to grow its retail covered bond business, were considered strong possibilities. BPCE, however, has ruled itself out, while Banque Postale has declined to comment.
An acquisition of 3CIF by La Banque Postale, a government-backed institution, could be an indirect nationalisation and would have the added bonus of avoiding any involvement from the French Treasury.
Alas, as IFRE adds, Banque Postale just denied any such speculation:
Caisse d’Epargne, part of the BPCE Group, and Banque Postale, which is currently looking to grow its retail covered bond business, are strong possibilities for a merger, a source said on Wednesday. However, a spokesperson for BPCE dismissed the suggestion that it might be a suitor.
Which leaves just one option:
A direct nationalisation would likely mean some form of capital injection - an unpalatable outcome given the new government rhetoric and the fact that the existing owners' stake would have to be wiped out. CIF is 100% owned by 56 regional cooperative entities.
Oops. And to think that Hollande was so dead set on an outright war with bankers... The realization that his very first act of any importance would be an outright nationalization just makes things so very amusing.
The saga could have political implications for newly-elected president Francois Hollande who promised the French electorate he would not bail out the country's financial institutions at the expense of the taxpayer.
"3CIF have no choice but to be nationalised," said a senior official at a French bank. "It has already done the rounds with French banks and it looks like no one wants to buy it."
The nationalisation option was echoed by other bankers, who point to 3CIF's conservative residential mortgage lending operations as well as its reliance on wholesale funding.
And while Hollande's dithering would likely have disastrous implications for one specialist mortgage provider, the reality is that the fallout would be far, far greater, if CIF Euromortgage were to suffer the same fate as its pari passu sister entity. Because as the following thoughts from BNP confirm, the fun is just getting started.
On 30 June 2011 CIFEUR had covered bonds outstanding with a total volume of €24.8bn. 74% of the collateral of these bonds consisted of CIF senior mortgage securitisation tranches, the rest of the cover pool comprised of a mix of Mortgage Promissory Notes, Replacement Assets and external European RMBS tranches. At the end of 2011, the over-collateralisation stood at 6.7%. The covered bonds are currently rated Aaa by Moody’s (on review for downgrade) and AAA by Fitch. The issuer states that its annual covered bond funding needs range between €3 to €4bn.
According to a report from Fitch from July 2011, proceeds from the senior securitisation tranches and external RMBS tranches are accumulated in an account held by 3CIF. The internal guidelines of CIFEUR specify that its exposure must be towards banks that are rated at least P1/F1, a downgrade of 3CIF below that level could therefore force CIFEUR to find a different account bank. This in turn would mean that cash flows accumulating from the asset side would have to be held outside the group. If 3CIF acts as swap counterparty for CIFEUR, a downgrade of 3CIF could also create the need to find alternative swap counterparties.
The suspension of the covered bonds, which is an unusual step, has caused spreads to widen both in the group’s unsecured and covered bonds.
We expect spreads in CIFEUR’s covered bonds to remain under pressure as long as the uncertainty about the reasons for the suspension and the speculation about the group prevails. Despite this uncertainty, we hope that the systemic importance of the covered bond product in France (market volume is in excess of €300bn) would be reason enough for official bodies to deal with this matter in a manner that avoids market disruption and reputational damage as much as possible.
Bottom line: absent Hollande breaking his key election promise, not only does the French mortgage market "get it" once Moodys follows up with the non-standalone rating downgrade (forget French Fitch - they will never issue a report that will results in the slow-motion death of the French mortgage market), but the contagion immediately spreads to the entire French covered bond market on the sudden uncertainty whether the French state will backstop the hundreds of billions in related bonds, putting the entire concept of a "covered bond" in jeopardy, with potentially sweeping consequences to a trillion+ market.
As to questions of how CIFD allowed its funding and liquidity to, stealthily, get to a point where the entity needs an immediate nationalization of its suddenly "unviable business model", here it is from Fitch:
Liquidity is managed through a significant ECB-eligible-for-repo asset portfolio (EUR1.8bn after a haircut at end-November 2011). Moreover, through CIFE, the bank has the ability to package covered bonds from its own loan portfolio, which could be used as collateral for repo with the ECB, although packaging would require a three- to four-week delay. The two sources of liquidity provided a combined EUR3.2bn buffer at end-November 2011, which would have allowed the bank to sustain an eight-month period without any access to wholesale markets while maintaining the projected new lending volumes at the same time (against an internally set six-month limit). Instances of closed secured funding exist (end of 2008), and CIFD has successfully used its packaged loans for repo transactions with the ECB. Since 2008, CIFD has stopped buying RMBS and now favours covered bonds.
Ah yes, nothing like the ECB quietly stepping in and providing "liquidity" in exchange for repoable collateral of worthless value... until the stakes get so high that the lack of even one cent in incremental pledgable collateral results in something nobody could have foreseen, namely a full blown bank run.
Something tells us we have seen this before... Oh yes - Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and of course Italy. In other words, as CIF was running out of real assets, the ECB allowed it to hypothecate via the repo market whatever dregs it could scrounge, (even if that meant bonds which are a liability yet promptly converted into an asset by the magic of shadow banking's repo operations), on and off balance sheet, and pledge to Mario Draghi in exchange for 100 cents to the Euro collateral value: precisely what prompted us to explain back on March 21, when the market was at its 2012 highs, "Why NOTHING Has Been Fixed In Europe (And Why LTRO 3 Is Not Coming)."
At the end of the day, Europe's main problem was, is and continues to be the active disappearance of any and all cash and money good assets, as well as collateral, as it is increasingly pledged (or re-pledged once repo mechanisms get involved) to other financial institutions, and primariliy to the ECB, in exchange for short-term funding (read loans, further explained here "Encumberance 101, Or Why Europe Is Running Out Of Assets").
Alas the can kicking time is now over. And what many took for sacred previously, such as the French mortgage market, has suddenly, just like every other contraption of modern financial markets, been shown to be simply the latest naked emperor in a city full of in kind dressed supreme rulers.
And what it all boils down to is this: will Hollande, for all his pompous rhetoric, immediately do what the market expects him to, which is to unleash the French nationalization machine, first with CIFD, and soon, many other insolvent banks, or, will he stay true to his word, and watch as risk assets crash and burn all around him. Perhaps the question is better posed to the French citizens: is their hatred of bank bailouts greater than the fear of facing the fair value of all assets absent central bank and sovereign backstops?
Which, incidentally, is the number one question that will once again face everyone in the "developed" world. Back in 2008 the answer was made clear, even with a solid dose of buyer's remorse in the years that followed. What will it be this time around? Because if Greece has so far been the only country willing to let it all go, and prepare to exist in a world unburdened by a bank-imposed status quo, the only reason for this is that Greek citizens have already lost so much, that the opportunity cost to overturning the status quo is virtually nil. What will it be the taxpayers of all other developed, pardon insolvent welfare-state, countries?
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French toast.
666 is what it will be
that is plain to see
Mark of the Beast
...BITCHEZ!!!
...umm, that's burnt French Toast.
Only when I see a return of the Guillotine for the Banksters will I consider investing in
France.
ok i'll say it.
FUCKING BULLISH, BITCHEZZZ!!!
Next cover of the Newsweek ...... " We Are All GSE's Now "
Fanifredidexia??
Sounds serious.
Hollande The Socialist, who knew?
Is that anything like, Obama the Usurping Marxist Kenyan?
It's about time the bank runs started.
GAO finds 16 trillion scam from the FED to it's shareholding banking buddies:
http://www.silverdoctors.com/gao-audit-reveals-fed-gave-16-trillion-to-t...
More like Hollande The Muppet. They all are. Lord help us.
It's boring for some, but I always fear confusion:
President Hollande is the leader of the French Socialist Party. This guy is proud of being called socialist. They are Social Democrats, btw.
If the US had a similar political setup as France, I believe 15%-20% of Americans would have a similar party with a similar political agenda.
What's your FICA score? 666? Higher?
Your totally correct, it's about over and we will see craziness.
I think it's still called Freedom Toast in the bowels of the Capitol Building, circa 2003
Uh I think anything in the bowels of the capitol building is called shit!
Circa current day and for about the past 30 years.
FORWARD SOVIET!
How long before Obama nationalizes JPMorgue or GS? Or probably it's the other way around that's gonna happen. GS will privatize the government.
it'll be 'politically unacceptable' to directly bailout JPM (again?) and GS (again??) so here's how it's going to work
nobble a large bank (easy to do as they're all leveraged to fuck) and under the guise of a "rescue" funnel vast amounts of funny money into the dead dinosaur to bailout the other dead dinosaur (GS or JPM) who is taking them over
turd sugar coated, everyone can wash their hands and look like firefighters instead of firestarters, the elite stumble on drunk, more rotten and bloated than ever
what do you mean politically un acceptable? thats what QE is.. a bank bail out. Call a spade a spade
Already did, most Gubmints have been privatized by GS. They own the world and JPM owns all that's in it, we are fucked unless and until we take out the bankers and the current financial system - period.
Reality won't have arrived in Europe until Greece defaults.
When you give somebody more money so they can repay you a prior loan, they have already defaulted.
...is that not the nature of the derivative beast? lol, or is that just a Goat?
I think The Bailout Game was explained pretty well in The Creature From Jekyll Island:
Chapter 3
Protectors of the Public
Summary
The game called bailout is not a whimsical figment of the imagination, it is for real. Here are some big games of the season and their final scores.
In 1970, Penn Central railroad became bankrupt. The banks which loaned the money had taken over its board of directors and had driven it further into the hole, all the while extending bigger and bigger loans to cover the losses. Directors concealed reality from the stockholders and made additional loans so the company could pay dividends to keep up the false front. During this time, the directors and their banks unloaded their stock at unrealistically high prices. When the truth became public, the stockholders were left holding the empty bag. The bailout, which was engineered by the Federal Reserve, involved government subsidies to other banks to grant additional loans. Then Congress was told that the collapse of Penn Central would be devastating to the public interest. Congress responded by granting $125 million in loan guarantees so that banks would not be at risk. The railroad eventually failed anyway, but the bank loans were covered. Penn Central was nationalized into AMTRAK and continued to operate at a loss.
In 1970, Lockheed faced bankruptcy, Congress heard essentially the same story. Thousands would be unemployed, subcontractors would go out of business, and the public would suffer greatly. So Congress agreed to guarantee $250 million in new loans, which put Lockheed 60% deeper into debt than before. Now that government was guaranteeing the loans, it had to make sure Lockheed became profitable. This was accomplished by granting lucrative defense contracts at non-competitive bids. The banks were paid back.
.
.
.
In 1982, Chicago's Continental Illinois became insolvent. It was the nation's seventh largest bank with $42 billion in assets. The previous year, its profits had soared as a result of loans to high-risk business ventures and foreign governments. Although it had been the darling of market analysts, it quickly unraveled when its cash flow turned negative, and overseas banks began to withdraw deposits. It was the worlds first electronic bank run. Federal Reserve Chairman Volcker told the FDIC that it would be unthinkable to allow the world economy to be ruined by a bank failure of this magnitude. So, the FDIC assumed $4.5 billion in bad loans and, in return for the bailout, took 80% ownership of the bank in the form of stock. In effect, the bank was nationalized, but no one called it that. The United States government was now in the banking business.
All the money to accomplish these bailouts was made possible by the Federal Reserve System acting as the "lender of last resort." That was one of the purposes for which it had been created. We must not forget that the phrase "lender of last resort" means that money is created out of nothing, resulting in the confiscation of out nation's wealth through the hidden tax called inflation.
The Creature from Jekyll Island, G Edward Griffin. 2002 American Media, Westlake Village, CA. p 63-65. Previously lifted here.
The book of which you speak is the bible and should be required reading for all high school seniors.
I mention it to everyone I meet.
Lending money to repay a previous loan is nothing compared to the US government where new loans are taken out to pay the interest and then more loans to pay the interest on the interest.
LMAO Pete, and the ''Vote 2 Party Dial 666-ADD-Debt'' offers of temptation, founded upon the strong delusion, define the market algo spike byte from the market Apple Whore of Babylon, and the words ''you shall not surely die''. LMAO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A5t5_O8hdA
Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication...
http://statueofliberty.org/Statue_of_Liberty_Picture.html
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
In Revelation John the beloved refers to Jerusalem as "Babylon." Babylon can not possibly refer to the Romish "church" because the Hebrew (not "jew"ish because there is no such thing as the word j-e-w till the play by Sheriden in 1775 A.D., yes sorry you stupid or naive goyim but Jesus was certainly not a j-e-w) temple still stands in Revelation whereas Constantine started the Romish "church" in 4th C. A.D.
Not right about the first use of the word 'Jew' ... In Jesus' time the Romans and Greeks were using the similar words in their languages, for the Roman Empire it was the Latin 'Judaeus' ...
English form 'Jew' shortening the Latin, seems to go back to the 1200s ...
From Webster's re the word 'Jew':
« Middle English, from Anglo-French ju, jeu, from Latin Judaeus, from Greek Ioudaios, from Hebrew ... Judah, Jewish kingdom
First Known Use: 13th century »
you, you Judean Resistance League suicide squad leader, you
Furthermore, Christopher Marlowe wrote The Jew of Malta in 1589 or 1590.
P.I.K = default
You will default before Greece. Just like me.
Midtowng: "Reality won't have arrived in Europe until Greece defaults."
Greece defaulted already earlier in the year. But it was called a private sector creditor haircut or some such horseshit.
A rose by any other name and all that.............
It will be interesting to see how french people react when 75% tax is in force.
http://www.freefdawatchlist.com/2012/08/weekly-outlook-sept-4th-sept-7th-dow.html
The highest marginal tax rate in the US during Isenhower/Nixon was 91%.
75% will not cause a second storm on the Bastille.
I'm gonna say this is... bullish!!
Isn't that what Tyler already wrote:
'September has arrived which means for Europe the rally can, mercifully, return.'
Oops, I read 'rally' for 'reality.' Maybe it's all the same anyway ...
Ah, for the good old days, when folks were still worried about Europe's THIRD largest economy.
LOL. The self-professed socialists and capitalists are in reality both cronyists, and their actions identical.
They just call it different things. Socialists would call it nationalizing assets that previously were mismanaged by private sector and be ok with it, and capitalists would call it a vital capital injection to revitalise the housing and finance markets.
Besides, by this point everything just seems so inevitable, it's like a well-known endgame in chess like rook-and-king versus king. No matter what jawboning or fingerboning occurs.
American mortgage lenders should not be nationalized.
They should be pulverized and upper management thrown in prison.
A Modest Proposal to the MA Commissioner of Banks August 30, 2012
Le Bonus.
Ah, yes...September.
Trois...deux...un, Bank Run.
this is old news. CIF was taken under the government umbrella some time ago, more than three month ago as ZH had pointed out. The bank has been under napthalene since then under the supervision of the government inhouse pseudo bank Caisse des Dépots. This shows the chickens are coming home to roost in the professional/social housing real estate sectors in France. We are in for a long slow/fast meltdown as without government stimulus and bank credit lines the RE sector in France will start sweating fast. Fortunately there is no glut like in Spain. But what is on the market can get marked down by 30% if the market slumps as it probably will. Its all part of deflation chimes which TBTB don't want to hear. They prefer the Draghi sonata of 'we will fix this recession which is NOT a depression" song; but for how long more?
I agree.This will jump start ALL the housing gremlins we've had in US.Additionally I think
French housing market will collapse much further than %30.
French people will not stand for bailouts so believe mortgage jubilee in offing.Or,, equity reductions.
This may be the catalyst of meltdown in europe if not worldwide!
All the best humans!
What is amazing here is the bail out. This is a private company of 60 cooperative groups specialised in government subsidised housing through strong political lobbying over thirty years. They were owned by/tied up to no deposit bank. They borrowed money on the market. So the risk of a bank run was minimal here. It was a pure political decision. Someone is trying to stop the housing market from plunging. Its totaly contrary to Hollande's avowed position. I am sure this will start a stink in parliament.
It is clear to me that it is not just the Socialists who are trying to make things look dandy!
If you read the top of the French Figaro article - le Figaro is definitely not socialist - you will see the following in bold type:
Le gouvernement est contraint de voler au secours du petit prêteur immobilier sous la menace d'une crise de liquidité. Son PDG a quitté ses fonctions après un conseil d'administration de crise.Here is a translation:
The government was forced to rescue the small mortgage lender under the threat of a liquidity crisis. Its CEO has resigned after a board crisis.Please note the use of the word petit (small)
It is supposed to be the "second largest mortgage lender" in France so it is a bit ridiculous to call it small.
Oh please! People will put up with whatever the bankers dish out. The sheeple have shown what ignorant cowards they are time and time again.
This means nothing in the grand scheme. It will only embolden the criminals even further.
When banks go belly up they get taken over by government. When governments go broke, who takes them over? And in any case how can bankrupt governments take over bankrupt banks?
When banks go belly up they get taken over by government. When governments go broke, who takes them over?
the bankers usually ...i know, i know, sounds crazy but it's a small (incestuous) world politics
And in any case how can bankrupt governments take over bankrupt banks?
actually it's the other way round, it's a reverse takeover as the banks takeover Govt which was their front sales office anyway and has been for hundreds of years (you just never knew it)
At rock bottom, FIRE sale prices. Liquidation sale!
The endgame will occur when every last dime has been sucked out of the middle class. What then? One world government...or maybe three aka 1984.
Hugh Hendry predicted with reasonably close accuracy that France was going to nationalize it's banks....:
He's pretty f*****g good, and his other predictions were very good as well.
More here: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/hugh-hendry-when-i-speak-tv-it-gives-impre...
Privatization of gains, socialization of losses.
We are already there, but when everything is owned completely by the "government" (banks), the government (banks) can then renege on any and all social contracts.
Currently there is the delusional perception that there are "markets" and "companies" and "individuals".
If the bailouts and FED intervention aren't ownership of the populace by fiat via banks I don't know what is.
They can keep this game going for 20-30 years more, as we all become paupers in banana republics.
Why vote?
Why work?
Why pay taxes?
You are already a slave on the plantation!
too right
get out of this bwankers ponzi scam mis-described as "democracy"
Stop Paying Your Taxes ...don't feed the parasites
You are mistaken.
This is democracy.
Prescription: Two aspirin, a valium, 2 shares of AAPL, hearty bowl of cream of mushroom soup.
'This is demoncracy' -- fixed it for you!
I attended a lecture by Yuri Maltsev a Soviet defector and economist. He said essentially all governments are socialist. If you have a small government you have small amounts. Larger governments, larger amounts.
From his experience in the old Soviet Union everyone is the property of the state and you are treated like slaves. Fear is the predominant form of motivation and like slaves you DO get everything for free, like housing, medical care, food, etc. The only problem is that no one wants to work or produce and only the political class gets any advantage.
I noted that we currently live in a "permission society" in the USA. You cannot buy, sell, move, trade, set up shop or do anything without government permission. You cannot even drive your property from point A to B without a host of permits, licenses, registrations, taxes, fees and documents. Yuri, said that is the first step that even Lenin admitted. At first you take control of everything through bureaucratic means. In the end you assert your direct ownership of everything. I submit to you that that is the endgame and as Ebworthen says, we are all slaves on the plantation. Like some plantations we are allowed to keep some of what we earn on the side but it is all in fact under the control of govenment. The question is how much pain can you stand if you decide to opt out of the system. I suggest it is too much pain until the system itself crashes and no one has much to lose.
"as Ebworthen says, we are all slaves on the plantation."
Completely wrong.
Almost everyone is a slave to their own mind. Those in power use the near universal desire to control others as a means of control. Is that not irony?
If nobody wanted government, none of this would be happening.
Perhaps you are a Christian Scientist and it is all in your mind. It is real. It was very real in the Soviet Union and N. Korea and it is coming here. I do not agree with it and want to resist it, however I am describing reality. I do agree that we get the government we will tolerate if that is your bigger point. If all N. Korean citizens refused to cooperate to the point of death then it would fall. However, that is not what they do and their government will kill as many as necessary to make the point.
If you want to resist by not complying, fine. Refuse to register your car, pay the taxes on it, get the smog certificate, renew your license, renew your registration, etc and then try to drive it. The pain of compliance is less than the pain of noncompliance which is the way it is meant to be.
In the West we vote ourselves into our own slavery supposing we are doing something good.
Well said
PIIGSFuck it is.
Tks TD.
Enfin, la suite!
More pls.
"What he really meant was that in order to avoid a bank run ...his boss, socialist Hollande, has decided to renege on his core campaign promise, and bail out an "evil, evil" bank...."
what a shocker
it's not like socialists are the (debt) salesmen of bwankers for the past 100 years ...how else would bwankers have put society on the hook and bled it dry if it weren't for their loony left puppets
PS. Great reporting ZH and burning the midnight oil ;)
I watched Batman Begins for the first time last night. We may just be Gotham City, not worthy of salvation. Funny how it took just 100 yrs of US central banking combined leftist social policy to deystroy the entire world. Happened in the blink of an eye.
Maybe Batman will come along and save us all.
Yes, he will, I'm sure of it.
deus ex machina
Where else could I possibly get information like this--great work Tyler? I decided to go back in time and re-read this article on the origin of ZH:
http://nymag.com/guides/money/2009/59457/
I am so proud to be a ZH kid!
I never saw that article. Thanks for sharing.
For all his bearish views, few would have imagined TD is Bull-garian.
From the article:
If he knows this, then he also knows for whom Goldman Sachs is working (and I'm sure he does know, because he never touches upon it).
He doesn't need to. GS has publicly declared for who(m) they work. "Doing G-d's work" means...they work for the Vatican.
Jews working for the Vatican? LOL. Next you will tell me that Mary Magdelene had a kid by Jesus and .... their heirs are the Morgan line. Or something.
Nice attempt at "ridicule" (Sockpuppetry101: Tactic #3).
Meanwhile, this was Goldman Sachs' full Board of Directors a few years ago:
Henry M. Paulson
Robert J. Hurst
John A. Thain
John L. Thornton
John Browne
John H. Bryan
James A. Johnson
Ruth J. Simmons
William W. George
John F.W. Rogers
How many on that list are "jews"? Wake up!
Great blast from the past. Wonder if the cockroaches still need evidence of the corrupt nature of high frequency trading. Ha.
Thanks Parabolic. You gave me the incentive to finally finish reading that article.
What would ZH Club be without its comment crew?
It's on like Donkey Kong.
Got gold?
More hope and change broken promises,anybody surprised.
Local real estate radio show today talking about how you don't have to be a first time home owner to get a 3-1/2 % down FHA loan. Touting the USDA loan program that is similar.
Here comes housing bubble part Deux!
Wonder who is buying up MBS of Fannie/Freddie, FHA, USDA so they can be bailed out when it all goes to hell again?
Tks FTE for the link.
All Aboard the Bailboat
“What had to be saved at all costs was not housing or the dollar but the financial derivatives industry; and the precipice from which it had to be saved was an ‘event of default’ that could have collapsed a quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble, a collapse that could take the entire global banking system down with it…in terms of money traded, these investments represent the biggest financial market in the world…financial instruments that have no intrinsic value but derive their value from something else.” -- Ellen Hodgson Brown, J.D - Web of Debt (September 18, 2008)
bunnyswanson posted a link yesterday to hopegirl2012. Here are some interesting thoughts from WHILE YOU WERE ASLEEP. The Story of the 2012 Revolution :
This Next Economic Collapse will be greater that the Great Depression… what makes this one different?
Well for starters, it’s not going to happen in just one country. It’s going to happen to the whole world. The reason for this is we have centralized and globalized everything. So few things are separate from each other and trade lines are very blurred. As a result, if one country goes down, they all go down…
The other problem we have that makes this one different is the derivatives market and the colossal size of the money to be lost in this crash. The derivatives market, which represents all of the bad gambling debts that are going to be called in which will ultimately cause the crash, is estimated to be 600 Trillion dollars…
As for comparing the coming economic collapse to the great depression, they didn’t have the huge debt market back then that we have today. Also, they had budget surpluses during that time; we don’t have any. Also, America still had a manufacturing base back then, so we built our way out of the depression. We don’t manufacture anything in America anymore; we’ve shipped all the manufacturing plants overseas. And here’s the last big clincher, back then after they had already fallen into a great depression, unemployment was at 27%. Today, in our supposed “recession” if you count REAL unemployment (not the unemployment they try to downplay in their reporting), unemployment is at 25%...
Technically, it’s already collapsed; it’s past the point of no return. Everything we are running on today is completely artificial, and it would appear they won’t be able to just keep printing money much longer…
According to Lindsay Williams:
The Elite will take down the total global economy through the derivatives market… Don’t pay attention to the dollar, or the Euro. Don’t pay attention to the markets; these are not the real indicators of the collapse.
Here are the real indicators:
Watch for the Derivatives market to crack. The big banks have taken all the money that we gave them in the bailouts and instead of investing it back into the public they have put all of it into the derivatives market.
Signs of a derivatives market cracking are the following:
Indicator 1: Currency wars. This has already happened on two occasions: …
Indicator 2: Trade Wars. This has already happened. …
Last indicator before complete collapse: Interest rates. This has not happened yet.
When the Federal Reserve announces that they are going to begin to raise interest rates. This is the final indicator that we will have before a complete financial collapse. 1% rise in interest rates will be enough to do it...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/us-usa-fed-bullard-idUSTRE8121QG20120206
http://hopegirl2012.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/while-you-were-asleep-the-story-of-the-2012-revolution-by-hopegirl/
Merkel is puckering up in her cushy chair.
Merkel is certainly sitting pretty
"growth strategy" Hollande not so much ...he'll be lucky not to drown in a collapsing Shit Creek let alone have a milli-second toward paddling up-stream
Honestly, at this point in the game, who cares?
This won't do jack shit to the plan.
Let’s just wait until everyone gets back into Global Market secession. We can re-create new global fears by repeating our playbook strategy. The new improved HFT bots have been tweeked, lock and load bitchez.
Getco Slapped With $450k Fine For Weak HFT Oversight
According to media reports, the fine stemmed from a request by exchange operator Nasdaq OMX for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to examine trading at Getco subsidiary Octeg from the day after the flash crash of May 6, 2010, through the following December. Nasdaq ultimately determined that Octeg lacked reasonable oversight of high-frequency and algorithmic trading.
And they can't raise property taxes because that would cause more defaults which would reduce the value of those loans too. Lets watch the snowball roll down the hill one more time.
Will this have any direct impact on the French real estate market?
A September to remember ! Check out this documentary by Joel Gilbert !
Dreams From My Real Father
Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad World Tour
France may be able to guarantee deposits but I seriously doubt they have the ability to buy that rotting asset book for a profit like they do in freedumb's land. Nevertheless 2012 executive bonuses at Dexia will be enormous.
France has listed the Maginot Line among its collateral. Good luck trying to find a buyer for that.
Le Figaro:
"Ce nouveau sauvetage, en outre, ne devrait pas coûter d'argent au contribuable car le CIF est fortement capitalisé, avec 2,4 milliards d'euros de fonds propres. Les pouvoirs publics, au contraire, pourraient même réaliser un gain, au final, car les actifs de la banque sont de bonne qualité."
won't cost the taxpayer a dime, of course. "On the contrary, the state could even, in the end, make some profit, the bank's assets are of high quality".
... there's no limit to the official, mass-lulling propaganda. Just wait until France is obliged to impose some good old EU-imposed austerity on its populace! We'll see some fine bonfires in the streets of Paris! The sooner the better, get this shit over with.
Asses are of high quality.
Totally off topic: My 15 yr old daughter just told me that she and everyone she knows uses Facebook very rarely these days. Apparantly, all comms are through twitter.
I would suggest that ultimately and maybe very quickly, Facebook as a business model is Fuckedbook.
My kids did the same.
Same here, FB DOA...
Maybe Fuckbook is where she and her friends moved to?
I'd check that if I were you.
---
Thanks for your off topic post of no interest to most readers here
...sounds to me like someone has a boatload of FB shares. Bitter about it, too.
Chiennes haussiers!
Will this ever end. I am so sick of it. Is there no one on this planet who believes in free markets, the truth, and failure for those who deserve to fail. Anyone?
Our enemies would have you believe that. Don't.
Find the others.
I was the last one.
Sauve qui Peut!!
Who dat, again? "Credit Immobilizer baque de Franco" did I get that right?
So, are the French good at anything other than wine, cheese and surrendering?
Smoking and smelling bad.
There, fixed it for you. Now if you want good wine, Italian wine is what you want.
http://supervert.com/elibrary/marquis_de_sade
Rumor has it their women are pretty good at one other act.
Kissing?
French pessimism nears all-time high -poll
Bullish
France didn't bail that.
End of the road. Emergency measures being implemented.
Everyone is saying that gov. cannot run things efficiently. Only Capitalist can do the best job of running everything.
Are not bankers businesses/capitalists?
Nationalization cannot be an improvement according to the logic that gov. cannot run anything better than businesses.
Bankers are not capitalists, they are fascists.
you are talking about crony captilism.
Announced on a weekend. The pastrami munchers in bloomburgh will have forgotten about it come tuesday...ancient history by then.
Ceci n'est pas une reponse.
Maybe Obummer can offer the assistance of our DHS so they can go over there and get training during the 2nd French Revolution. Before the 2nd Revolution of Independence of banker terrorism takes place in the US.
one more thing for henri to be depressed about:
http://www.andmycat.com/2012/08/the-cat-who-cannels-sartre.html
Looks like Banker/Lender losses will be shifted to the French ....errrr, mmm, .... I mean, German taxpayers.
I think its about time Tyler Durden got together with John Dalt.
This is bullish, right?
Why such a short read?
Would you like a slice of contagion with your breakfast today Mr. Hollande?
France and Italy should have stayed in the restaurant business.
Oh boy. Wonder if it'll trade like FNM and FRE after their crash. That was fun.
Always been a pleasure chatting on intellectual sites. I guess I'll have to fine one, although I'll still read ZH, it's just that I'm getting tired of having to use hand sanitizer whenever I finish a comment..
JEW HATERS PARTY DOWN !!! and let the word go forth that the mother load of the average American IQ has been discovered. ZH, a JEW HATERS paradise.
It is funny how you use the traditional non-logic and guilt tactics of an old Jewish grandmother to explain why we need to give Israel money and guns. Then on any disagreement you cry "Holocaust!" and "Racism!"
And the JEW HATERS just keep outing themselves.
BTW,, if you read any of my work that started all this re: Israel sqeezed into possibly using nukes the logic was flawless which is how it came to pass that the reaction had to based not on irrational thought, false premises or any other artifice to justify the JEW HATERS comments.
I promise you you don't want to get into a rhetorical battle with me .... you'll lose.
Test;
It's sort of like the secret society secrets that are not. Israel has more like 300 nukes according to President Jimmy Carter, but 30 would do it. There are no secrets because of the internet, but those who believe there are would like you to believe so, so that they can think to themselves they have an edge on you.
PS
It's not countries starting shit, it's individual human people with superiority complexes.
PSS
I really don't give a shit about human interest stories and peoples personal problems. Go sell your pity party some place else, we're all stocked up here.
I should copyright this statement and sell it to a movie script writer.
I'm thankful the country of Israel was created. It forces the A-Jews to live amongst each other and try to get along with each other the way they are.
Yes we know the A-Jews now own almost everything and control the world, congratulations to them.
See also; Defamation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOUlJLrQ3sQ
It's just a character flaw the Byzantine Empire had pegged.
"Jews" will become irrelevant, so I don't bother myself thinking about this flaw in humanity anymore. I just revel in the fact that they are over-represented on Wall Street and in the current financial structure, and most people working in the financial industry will be unemployed Jews as their monetary system comes crashing down on them. They should have diversified their skill set.
I'm laughing at the superior intelect.
http://i.imgur.com/sj4X7.jpg
That's why I just thank The Creator every day for the complete and total worldwide economic collapse that is a 100% mathematical certainty. It's the only thing that will solve most of the USA's problems.
For anyone to wish for a total worldwide economic collaspe is insanity personified.
I was also unaware (Jews are overrepresented on WS) that there was a quota system on brainpower and hard work. In your world it very much sounds like you would have some larger authority dictate a quota of racial mix to work on WS. Thankfully one must at minimum pass the series 7 exam.
You are a very, very sick person, and to pray to the Creator for what you pray for (if you know religion) is blasphamy in almost every major religion on this planet. You invoke the Creator in a way as to ensure your eternity will not be a very pleasant one.
You might at least attempt Pascal's Wager .yeah..you'll have to look it up..no shame in that.
Tough talk, eh?
The Jew-haters are on all the sites, you know. At least around here they let you know up-front.
All those zero down loans to Spaniards who could not afford that $600,000 hacienda on a $42,000 salary.
How odd.