Two weeks ago, when Spain unveiled the specifics of the SAREB, also known as the Spanish Bad Bank initiative, which is simply the haphazardly put together chaotic plan to shift toxic assets from Spain's already insolvent banking sector to a bank that is even more insolvent than all others as it is fulled to the brim with "assets" such as land which has already been discounted by 80%, and backed with Spanish government guarantees, which are largely worthless as the entire country has been on the verge of demanding a bailout for 4 months now, we summarized it simply as follows [8]: "it is ugly - far uglier than many had expected. And while the Spanish government expects private interest to take some of this massively discounted 'crap' off their hands, we have three words: 'deleveraging' and 'no bid!" We were right, although one wouldn't get that impression if one reads the official party line. Here is how Reuters [9]summarized the government's party line: "Spain's bad bank is generating a lot of interest amongst international investors, an economy ministry source said. The bad bank would be possible with only domestic participation but non-resident investors gave the vehicle credibility, the source said." That's a lie. Here is the truth.
From Spain's El Confidencial [10]:
The government postponed for a month the launch of the Sareb. The 'bad bank' that will manage real estate assets and real estate loans of nationalized entities not formally ready for December 1, when committed to the European aid program set out in the MOU. To overcome this delay, the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) will create a society preparatory to meet deadlines and allow time for entering the shareholders, to the difficulties in attracting private investors before 30 November.
In other words, not only was the Spanish government caught lying (hardly notable these days), but just as we expected, over two weeks after the launch of "Sareb" - the latest deus ex which was supposed to offload the need to issue ever more sovereign debt to fund Spain's nationalization of ever more insolvent sectors to private investors, said private investors have taken a long, hard look at the "deal" the Bad Bank offers them and have said "no bid." Oh yes, and so much for "vehicle credibility."
We can't wait to see what other Tim Geithner inspired financial contraptions a broke Spain, and an asset-less Europe, have up their sleeve next.