For six years, the world has operated under a complete delusion that Central Banks somehow fixed the 2008 Crisis.
All of the arguments claiming this defied common sense. A 5th grader would tell you that you cannot solve a debt problem by issuing more debt. Similarly, anyone with a functioning brain could tell you that a bunch of academics with no real-world experience, none of whom have ever started a business or created a single job can’t “save” the economy.
However, there is an AWFUL lot of money at stake in believing these lies. So the media and the banks and the politicians were happy to promote them. Indeed, one could very easily argue that nearly all of the wealth and power held by those at the top of the economy stem from this fiction.
So it’s little surprise that no one would admit the facts: that the Fed and other Central Banks not only don’t have a clue how to fix the problem, but that they actually have almost no incentive to do so.
So here are the facts:
1) The REAL problem for the financial system is the bond bubble. In 2008 when the crisis hit it was $80 trillion. It has since grown to over $100 trillion.
2) The derivatives market that uses this bond bubble as collateral is over $555 trillion in size.
3) Many of the large multinational corporations, sovereign governments, and even municipalities have used derivatives to fake earnings and hide debt. NO ONE knows to what degree this has been the case, but given that 20% of corporate CFOs have admitted to faking earnings in the past, it’s likely a significant amount.
4) Corporations today are more leveraged than they were in 2007. As Stanley Druckenmiller noted recently, in 2007 corporate bonds were $3.5 trillion… today they are $7 trillion: an amount equal tot nearly 50% of US GDP.
5) The Central Banks are now all leveraged at levels greater than or equal to Lehman Brothers was when it imploded. The Fed is leveraged at 78 to 1. The ECB is leveraged at over 26 to 1. Lehman Brothers was leveraged at 30 to 1.
6) The Central Banks have no idea how to exit their strategies. Fed minutes released from 2009 show Janet Yellen was worried about how to exit when the Fed’s balance sheet was $1.3 trillion. Today it’s over $4.5 trillion.
Today, Central Bankers are now actively punishing depositors and bond holders with negative interest rates. Globally, over $5 trillion in debt currently have negative yields in nominal terms, meaning the bond literally has a negative yield when it trades. In the simplest of terms this means that investors are PAYING to own these bonds.
Bonds are not unique in this regard. Switzerland, Denmark and other countries are now charging deposits at their banks. In France and Italy, you are not allowed to make cash transactions above €1,000. So if get fed up with the banks and want to pull your money out, you cannot.
The lies will continue until something breaks. When it does break, there will be no warning and it will be too late to get your money out.
Consider the timeline for the Cyprus “bail-in”
First off, the Cyprus bank “bail-in” or March 2013 did not come out of nowhere. The country first asked for a bail-OUT in JUNE 2012. Here’s the timeline.
· June 25, 2012: Cyprus formally requests a bailout from the EU.
· November 24, 2012: Cyprus announces it has reached an agreement with the EU the bailout process once Cyprus banks are examined by EU officials (ballpark estimate of capital needed is €17.5 billion).
During the period of late June 2012 until November 2012, Cyprus’s problems were allegedly being assessed and nothing more. Throughout this period, NO ONE in a position of significant political or financial power suggested to Cypriots or anyone else who had money in the Cyprus banks that their money would be STOLEN.
Instead, numerous bureaucrats came out to assure the public that this situation was under control and that the risks to the Cyprus banks would be carefully assessed. All fo them were lying.
Then, in the span of a single week, a bank holiday was declared, bank accounts were frozen, and deposits were stolen.
Here’s the specific sequence of events:
· March 16 2013: Cyprus announces the terms of its bail-in: a 6.75% confiscation of accounts under €100,000 and 9.9% for accounts larger than €100,000… a bank holiday is announced.
· March 17 2013: emergency session of Parliament to vote on bailout/bail-in is postponed.
· March 18 2013: Bank holiday extended until March 21 2013.
· March 19 2013: Cyprus parliament rejects bail-in bill.
· March 20 2013: Bank holiday extended until March 26 2013.
· March 24 2013: Cash limits of €100 in withdrawals begin for largest banks in Cyprus.
· March 25 2013: Bail-in deal agreed upon. Those depositors with over €100,000 either lose 40% of their money (Bank of Cyprus) or lose 60% (Laiki).
So… everyone who knew anything about the situation was either completely incompetent or lying. Regardless, those whose money was at stake (depositors) were the ones who got screwed.
All of the above tell us that another Crisis is brewing. You do not start confiscating deposits at banks until the government itself is bankrupt and cannot foot the bill for a bailout.
We’ve now reached that point for several countries in Europe. But this issue will be spreading throughout the world and even to the US in the coming months.
If you've yet to take action to prepare for this, we offer a FREE investment report called the Financial Crisis "Round Two" Survival Guide that outlines simple, easy to follow strategies you can use to not only protect your portfolio from it, but actually produce profits.
We are making 1,000 copies available for FREE the general public.
We are currently down to the last 15.
To pick up yours, swing by….
http://www.phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/roundtwo.html [12]
Best Regards
Phoenix Capital Research