Finally this has caught the attention of the EU and a move is being made in Brussels to “force” the Swiss government/banks to transfer all of the assets of Greek citizens back to the Greek banks. For a Greek this means that your money is hostage. It has been functionally expropriated. It will be transferred into a banking system that is fraught with risk. Some portion of the money that goes back to Greece will certainly be lost. This is setting a dangerous precedent for more masive interventions in capital controls should the situation degenerate in the future.
We have a situation developing where the European Union is effectively trying to institute capital controls.- BRUSSELS—The European Commission is helping Greece negotiate an agreement with Switzerland to repatriate as much as $81 billion believed to be hidden in Swiss bank accounts, a high level European Union executive body official said Nov. 17.
The European Commission is working with Switzerland and Greece stop what it believes is an ongoing exodus of money from Greek bank accounts into Swiss and other offshore banking centers, the EU official said.
The fear of broader capital controls and more repatriation will spread like wildfire. The fact is, capital flight is a very reasonable response in our current environment. Capital controls that either stop or reverse it will undermine confidence and create a panic the will feed a gigantic exodus of capitals to countries out of reach of the EU grasp.
Officials in Brussels are unleashing hell.
1 comment:
Without the ability to print money
or a massive intervention by the
ECB, greeks have no choice but to
withdraw thier money from greek
banks in the form of euros before
the nation stops withdrawls and
converts thier money into less
valuble greek national currency.
No one wants to take a 40-50% loss
on thier savings, so I think the end game is coming as soon as ordinary greeks see the smart money
leaving the country for safer havens. The spillover is of course
Italy, Spain and so forth. The ECB
can write a check for 180 billion
to Greece to cover deposits or the
ECB and Germany can write a check
for 1 Trillion and the euro problem
will be put on the back burner for
a time. It is possible that some
plan (Everyone has a plan that won't work) will be put in place to
stop the greek bank outflow such as
a bank holiday, capital repatriation, and capital controls.
I suspect the end game is already in play and we should be ready for
some very bad news in the near future.
Greeks of course, may not wait for it.
Post a Comment