Spanish bank pays staff 30 per cent of their usual salary to take five years off

BBVA, a leading Spanish bank, is allowing staff to take five years paid leave, in an effort to cut costs during the recession.

Employees of BBVA, Spain’s second biggest bank, are being offered 30 per cent of their usual salary in return for staying away from work for between three and five years.

Anyone signing up to the scheme is guaranteed a job when their extended leave comes to an end. They will also have their health care costs covered for the length of their sabbatical.

Read moreSpanish bank pays staff 30 per cent of their usual salary to take five years off

Spanish economy heads for meltdown

Spanish discontent as soup kitchens spring up

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards are facing ruin as bankruptcies and unemployment rise

Faced with losing his home if he cannot find €6,000 (£5,350) by the end of this week, Javier Martínez has resorted to desperate measures: the unemployed father-of-four is selling his own flat and throwing in another, free.

Related article: Transplant tourism: Jobless Spaniards sell kidneys (Times Online)

The three-bedroom apartment in Tarazona, near Zaragoza in eastern Spain, is on the market for only €57,000. The former construction project manager is including a one-bedroom flat that he had been letting in an attempt to entice a buyer.

“I need to find the cash by May 15 or I may be declared bankrupt. I must provide for my children,” Mr Martínez said. He is one of hundreds of thousands of Spaniards facing ruin as Spain’s economy heads for meltdown.

The number of Spaniards unable to pay their debts has risen by 26 per cent to 2.7million in 2009, compared with the first four months of last year. During the same period 232,000 companies joined the list of bad debtors, a 67 per cent rise, according to AsNef-Equifax, a Spanish credit agency.

Bankruptcies are up 44 per cent in the first quarter this year against the final quarter of 2008, with the worst-hit sectors being services and construction.

Read moreSpanish economy heads for meltdown

Transplant tourism: Jobless Spaniards sell kidneys

A MACABRE traffic associated with poor countries in Asia and Latin America has sprung up for the first time in western Europe as the credit crunch reduces Spaniards to selling organs to “transplant tourists”.

Spanish “kidney for sale” advertisements have proliferated recently on the internet as people struggle to make ends meet in a country whose 17% unemployment rate is the highest in Europe.

Sergio, a 42-year-old welder and father of four, said he had received an offer of £20,000 from a German couple who needed his kidney for their five-year-old son. If tests showed them to be compatible, an operation would be performed in a “third country” since such transactions are illegal in Europe.

“Apparently, there’s a waiting list of at least five years for a kidney in Germany,” he told a television programme, “but in five years the kid will be dead.”

Just to advertise a human organ for sale is illegal in Spain and other sellers sounded nervous when contacted last week on the telephone by The Sunday Times.

Read moreTransplant tourism: Jobless Spaniards sell kidneys

Flu Reaches 11 Countries, 331 Cases Confirmed by WHO


Inspectors for swine flu walk through a terminal at Narita International Airport in Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan on April 30, 2009. Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg News

May 1 (Bloomberg) — Flu reached 11 countries, as governments closed schools, planned for vaccine production and tapped emergency stockpiles of antiviral medicine.

Genetic tests have confirmed more than 331 people have the strain originally labeled swine flu, according to the World Health Organization’s Web site. Hundreds more cases are suspected in New York, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The WHO said thousands of samples from sick patients are backlogged for testing, and disease trackers are looking at whether an outbreak in Spain should trigger a declaration of a pandemic.

The Geneva-based health agency raised its six-tier alert to 5 on April 29 and said a move to the next and final level, for the world’s first influenza pandemic since 1968, may soon be made. The WHO urged countries to make final preparations against a disease that may sweep across the globe, preying on a world population that has no natural immunity to the new virus.

Read moreFlu Reaches 11 Countries, 331 Cases Confirmed by WHO

Spain’s unemployment rate leaps to record high


Owners of furnished properties on the Continent could get up to five years of tax back under a change in the rules

More than four million Spanish people are out of work. According to the country’s National Statistics Institute a record high figure of 17.4 per cent were unemployed in the first quarter of the year.

Unemployment leapt from 13.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008, the biggest quarterly jump since 1976. Joblessness in Spain has almost doubled in a year.

Read moreSpain’s unemployment rate leaps to record high

GM Europe seeks cash with 300,000 jobs at risk

The carmaker wants £3billion from European governments to keep factories open, with Belgian and German plants most at risk

The European operations of General Motors will run out of cash within weeks unless they get government support, the American carmaker said yesterday, adding that a collapse would put up to 300,000 jobs at risk.

Fritz Henderson, the chief operating officer of GM, said that the division, which includes Opel in Germany and Vauxhall in Britain, would hit liquidity problems early in the second quarter.

Read moreGM Europe seeks cash with 300,000 jobs at risk

Santander fund seeks to halt redemptions

Spanish bank Santander has sought regulatory permission to freeze payouts from its main real-estate fund after investors sought to withdraw 80 per cent of the vehicle’s capital at once.

The bank, the biggest in the eurozone by market value, said in a regulatory filing on Monday that the Santander Banif Inmobiliario FII fund, the country’s biggest, “currently lacks the necessary liquidity” to meet redemption demands worth €2.62bn ($3.35bn), or 80 per cent of the fund’s value at the end of January.

Santander is seeking authorisation to suspend full reimbursements from the fund for two years, while it “starts an orderly programme of disposals”.

The fund, which was 67 per cent invested in residential rental properties at the end of December, lost about 15 per cent of its value between the end of the third and fourth quarters last year as asset values were adjusted to reflect difficult market conditions.

This, coupled with investors’ need for cash, triggered a run on the fund during a two-week redemption window that closed on Friday.

Spain’s residential property bubble burst almost two years ago, leaving at least 1m new houses unsold.

Read moreSantander fund seeks to halt redemptions

Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

The unfolding debt drama in Russia, Ukraine, and the EU states of Eastern Europe has reached acute danger point.

If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Götterdämmerung.

Austria’s finance minister Josef Pröll made frantic efforts last week to put together a €150bn rescue for the ex-Soviet bloc. Well he might. His banks have lent €230bn to the region, equal to 70pc of Austria’s GDP.

“A failure rate of 10pc would lead to the collapse of the Austrian financial sector,” reported Der Standard in Vienna. Unfortunately, that is about to happen.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says bad debts will top 10pc and may reach 20pc. The Vienna press said Bank Austria and its Italian owner Unicredit face a “monetary Stalingrad” in the East.

Mr Pröll tried to drum up support for his rescue package from EU finance ministers in Brussels last week. The idea was scotched by Germany’s Peer Steinbrück. Not our problem, he said. We’ll see about that.

Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, said Eastern Europe has borrowed $1.7 trillion abroad, much on short-term maturities. It must repay – or roll over – $400bn this year, equal to a third of the region’s GDP. Good luck. The credit window has slammed shut.

Not even Russia can easily cover the $500bn dollar debts of its oligarchs while oil remains near $33 a barrel. The budget is based on Urals crude at $95. Russia has bled 36pc of its foreign reserves since August defending the rouble.

“This is the largest run on a currency in history,” said Mr Jen.

Read moreFailure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

Spain’s downward spiral spooks bond investors


Spain lost almost 200,000 jobs in January in the worst one-month rise since records began, lifting the unemployment rate to 14.4pc and inflicting further damage on the credibility of the Spanish government.

The ferocity of the downturn has led to a sharp jump in borrowing costs for the Spanish state, which lost its AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s last month.

A €7bn treasury auction of 10-year Spanish bond on Tuesday saw yields jump to 137 basis points above German Bunds, a post-EMU high. Foreign investors were conspicuously absent, leaving Spanish banks to soak up the debt.

“This is a national emergency. The government is being overwhelmed by events,” said Mariano Rajoy, the opposition leader. The mood has changed dramatically in recent weeks as debtors launch hunger strikes and one builder threatened to set himself on fire to protest the credit crunch.

Maravillas Rojo, the labour secretary, said four million people may be out of work by end of the year – up from 3.3m now. “We’re suffering from a grave international financial crisis, lack of liquidity, and falling consumption,” she said.

Spain is losing jobs at three times the rate of the US, in proportionate terms. Over one million Spanish men under thirty are unemployed, leading to a surge in applications to join the armed forces. Three quarters of the army candidates are being turned away.

Read moreSpain’s downward spiral spooks bond investors

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating


U.S. President-elect Barack Obama waves after speaking during the “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial” event in Washington on Jan. 18, 2009. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

Obama Issues Call to Service to Help Repair Nation (Bloomberg):
Obama is using the latest state of the art manipulating techniques. Don’t fall for this puppet of the elite, rather listen to some of the few people – like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, Marc Faber and Jim Rogers – that are telling you the truth:
Paul Craig Roberts On The U.S. Leadership: “They Are Criminals” – The Potential Here Is Far Worse Than The Great Depression or Peter Schiff: We are the United States of Madoff

More change: Obama Reaches Out for McCain’s Counsel (New York Times)

California Finds Public-Works Spending No Unemployment Cure-All (Bloomberg):
“What infrastructure spending can do is bolster employment in a group of industries, like construction, with workers who are ready to go,” said Brad Kemp, director of regional research at Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. “What it can’t do is stop the unemployment rate from rising currently because there are a lot of forces coming at consumers, who are holding back on spending.” California is totally broke: Here

– ! Bonds tumble as Government admits no cap on taxpayer risk (Telegraph)

Brazil Cut Record 654946 Registered Jobs in December (Bloomberg)

Brussels sees Eurozone economy shrink 1.9% (Financial Times)

Taxpayers are spending over $1 billion to send refined fuel to the Israeli military — at a time when Israel doesn’t need it and America does (Salon)

Spain Downgraded by S&P as Slump Swells Budget Gap (Bloomberg):
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — Spain had its AAA sovereign credit rating removed by Standard & Poor’s in the second downgrade of a euro-region government in five days, as the country’s first recession in 15 years swelled the budget deficit.

China GDP Growth May Cool to Slowest Pace in 7 Years (Bloomberg)

Ruble Drops to Pre-1998 Crisis Low on 6th Devaluation This Year (Bloomberg):
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — The ruble fell below the weakest level seen in the 1998 Russian crisis after the central bank devalued for the sixth time in seven days to protect reserves.

Fifty jobseekers chasing every vacancy in some parts of the country (Telegraph)

Treasury Yields Flattened as Fed Fights to Cut Mortgage Rates (Bloomberg):
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke helped spark a rally by reiterating Jan. 13 at the London School of Economics that he’s considering buying long-term Treasuries to reduce borrowing rates as the recession deepens.
(Bernanke helped to create the ultimate Bond Bubble: Here, here and here.)

Bonds no safer than houses (The Financial Standard)

Denmark agrees on 13.4-bln-euro line of credit to banks: govt (AFP)

How the Treasury Bubble Will Burst and Why (Seeking Alpha)

Investor puts pressure on HSBC to let US sub-prime unit go bankrupt (Times)

Tory chief’s firm cost councils £470m (Independent)

RBS on the brink as shares plummet by 69% and City is warned: ‘You’re about to become
Iceland-on-Thames’
(Mail Online)

RBS ready to write off £1bn loan to Russian oligarch (Scotsman)

RBS Plummets Amid Concern Bank May Be Nationalized (Bloomberg)

RBS shares dive 70% on mounting debt fears (Times Online)

Tax rise for rich won’t make society fair, says Mandelson (Guardian)

More Americans Joining Military as Jobs Dwindle (New York Times)

Circuit City to close remaining 567 stores in US (Los Angeles Times):
The failure of the No. 2 electronics retailer means the loss of 34,000 jobs.

BASF warns of possible job and production cuts (Houston Chronicle)

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

UK jobless rise of 40000 in a week just ‘tip of the iceberg’ (Telegraph)

Schwarzenegger Says Deficit has ‘Incapacitated’ State (Bloomberg):
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said California has been so “incapacitated” by a fiscal crisis that threatens to leave it unable to pay bills within weeks that the only issue he and lawmakers must consider is how to fix it.

Charter misses $74 mln in debt interest payments (Reuters):
NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Charter Communications, the fourth largest U.S. cable operator, said on Thursday it missed interest payments of $73.7 million as it continues to negotiate a debt restructuring with bondholders.
The company said it has until Feb. 15 to make the payment and avoid default, which could push it into bankruptcy.

ECB cuts rates by 50 points to 2% (Financial Times):
Eurozone interest rates fell by half a percentage point to their lowest in more than three years on Thursday as the European Central Bank said that it expected the recession to deepen and signalled that borrowing costs could fall further.
Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, warned that growth forecasts published only last month would have to be revised downwards in a sign of the ferocity of the downturn.

Pfizer May Fire 2,400, One-Third of U.S. Sales Force (Bloomberg):
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, may fire almost a third of its U.S. sales force, or as many as 2,400 workers, in a plan under consideration by senior management, people familiar with the discussions said.h the discussions said.

JPMorgan chief says 2009 will be bleak (Financial Times):
The US financial and economic crisis will worsen this year as hard-hit consumers default on credit cards and other loans, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has predicted in an interview with the Financial Times.

JPMorgan Profit Drops 76 Percent on Asset Writedowns (Bloomberg)

Yet another blow to the US newspaper industry (Guardian)

Aircraft industry shocked by view from ground (Financial Times)

Airbus forecasts ‘very challenging’ year (Financial Times):
Airbus on Thursday said its new commercial aircraft orders had fallen sharply last year, as the European aerospace group forecast “a very challenging year” for the industry in 2009. Net new orders fell by 42 per cent last year to 777, from a record 1,341 won in 2007.

Irish government fears IMF intervention (Guardian)

Ireland plans drastic cuts to prevent debt crisis (Telegraph):
Ireland is to demand pay cuts for civil servants and public employees to prevent the budget deficit soaring to 12pc of gross domestic product by next year – becoming the first country in the eurozone to resort to 1930s-style wage deflation to claw back competitiveness.

If anyone doubted scale of crisis, work even halts in Dubai on world’s tallest tower (Scotsman)

Hedge funds ‘encourage bankruptcies’ for profit (Guardian)

Spain’s Debt Costs Rise at Bond Sale After S&P Alert (Bloomberg)

Banks gird for commercial property collapse (FinancialWeek):
Some of the biggest financial institutions have huge, potentially troublesome commercial real estate stakes, Standard & Poors data shows. Based on information in their most recent financial reports, Citigroup and Barclays each had more than $20 billion worth of commercial mortgage-related investments. Merrill Lynch, acquired by Bank of America last year, had some $19.7 billion in such investments, according to S&P.

Standard & Poor’s said it may cut Spain’s credit rating; Euro Weakens to One-Month Low on ECB Outlook

The following picture depicts the future Euro/US$ exchange rate.
The US dollar will be destroyed.



A euro banknote is arranged for a photograph atop U.S. bills, in New York, Dec. 30, 2008. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) — The euro weakened for a third day versus the dollar, reaching a one-month low, as traders added to bets the European Central Bank will reduce interest rates, decreasing the appeal of the region’s assets.

The 16-nation currency also declined to the lowest level in more than a month against the yen after Standard & Poor’s said it may cut Spain’s credit rating. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition said yesterday it will spend 50 billion euros ($66.6 billion) to support Europe’s largest economy. New Zealand’s dollar fell to a four-week low after S&P said it may cut the country’s foreign-currency credit rating.

Related article: New Zealand’s AA+ Credit Rating May Be Cut, S&P Says (Bloomberg)

“There is more than enough room for the euro to fall further,” said Hideki Amikura, deputy general manager of foreign exchange in Tokyo at Nomura Trust and Banking Co., a unit of Japan’s largest brokerage. “The focus of the currency market is how far rates will fall in Europe, because the ECB is behind the curve compared with other central banks.”

Read moreStandard & Poor’s said it may cut Spain’s credit rating; Euro Weakens to One-Month Low on ECB Outlook

Heavy Snowstorm brings chaos to Madrid

MADRID, Spain (CNN) — A heavy snowstorm caused chaos Friday at Madrid’s Barajas Airport, where flights were suspended for hours before Europe’s fourth-busiest airport reopened in the late afternoon.

A woman enjoys the snow in Madrid, where the airport suspended flights because of the weather.
A woman enjoys the snow in Madrid, where the airport suspended flights because of the weather.

Planes were flying again at 4:40 p.m. (10:40 am ET).

“It’s a huge snowstorm. You don’t see this in Madrid often,” an airport spokeswoman said.

Related articles:
Cold snap in Europe takes its toll (AFP)
12 deaths blamed on snow and cold across Europe (AP)
Central Europe, France, UK, Italy Hit by Cold Air
(Bloomberg)
Thousands shiver in Europe’s big chill
(Reuters)

The airport has 1,205 daily inbound and outbound flights. But for the first time, the airport halted operations due to a weather problem, the spokeswoman said.

Read moreHeavy Snowstorm brings chaos to Madrid

World faces “total” financial meltdown: Bank of Spain chief

Remember?!
Fortis Bank Predicts US Financial Market Meltdown Within Weeks
(28 Jun 08)


Source: Bye bye dollar, bye bye Treasuries…

Deflation? “Sure!” Just wait and see.
The Neo-Alchemy of the Federal Reserve by Ron Paul
Interview: Peter Schiff still grim on future
Interview with Peter Schiff (12/13/08)

This is ‘the worst financial crisis‘ because every institution is doing its best to make it worse.



Bank of Spain governor Miguel Fernandez Ordonez

MADRID (AFP) – The governor of the Bank of Spain on Sunday issued a bleak assessment of the economic crisis, warning that the world faced a “total” financial meltdown unseen since the Great Depression.

“The lack of confidence is total,” Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said in an interview with Spain’s El Pais daily.

“The inter-bank (lending) market is not functioning and this is generating vicious cycles: consumers are not consuming, businessmen are not taking on workers, investors are not investing and the banks are not lending.

“There is an almost total paralysis from which no-one is escaping,” he said, adding that any recovery — pencilled in by optimists for the end of 2009 and the start of 2010 — could be delayed if confidence is not restored.

Ordonez recognised that falling oil prices and lower taxes could kick-start a faster-than-anticipated recovery, but warned that a deepening cycle of falling consumer demand, rising unemployment and an ongoing lending squeeze could not be ruled out.

“This is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression” of 1929, he added.

Read moreWorld faces “total” financial meltdown: Bank of Spain chief

Spain’s Building Product Makers May Cut 75,000 Jobs This Year

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Spanish building materials producers spanning cement to steel may cut twice as many jobs this year as forecast earlier and face “catastrophe” if cash flow doesn’t improve, an industry group said.

Companies may fire 75,000 workers, or 15 percent of the total, compared with an April figure of 35,000, Rafael Fernandez, chairman of construction products trade group CEPCO, said in an interview in Madrid today. Annual sales may fall by as much as 25 percent from 46 billion euros ($63 billion) in 2007.

“We knew there was going to be a drop in activity, but it’s been steeper than expected,” Fernandez said at CEPCO’s offices. “The whole credit structure has seized up. Cash-flow is our members’ main anxiety and if measures aren’t taken to resolve that, we’re headed for catastrophe.”

Read moreSpain’s Building Product Makers May Cut 75,000 Jobs This Year

Company crashes set to hit record next year

Record numbers of companies will go bankrupt next year with 200,000 insolvencies in Europe alone and “an explosion” of failed businesses in the US, according to the world’s largest credit insurer.

The US will see 62,000 companies go bust next year, compared with 42,000 this year and 28,000 last year, says a report by Euler Hermes, part of German insurer Allianz.

The absolute numbers, however, pale in comparison with the figures from western Europe, where the larger number of small companies mean insolvencies are expected to rise by a third from 149,000 last year to 197,000 next.

“The financial crisis will increase the risk of bankruptcy dramatically, particularly next year,” said Romeo Grill, chief economist at Euler Hermes. “There will be an explosion in the US but also big rises in Europe and especially the UK.”

Mr Grill said he expected most company failures in Europe to be focused around the struggling car, retail and textile sectors as well as logistics.

The country with the highest number of insolvencies expected for next year is France with 63,000. But in Europe, Spain, Ireland and the UK are forecast to see the most dramatic rises.

Nearly four times as many Spanish companies will go bust next year as in 2007 while it will be nearly double in Ireland and the UK with 640 and 38,000 businesses respectively.

Read moreCompany crashes set to hit record next year

Economic clouds gather as Spain faces recession


A demonstrator burns a note during a protest in downtown Madrid as Spain’s economic miracle threatens to unravel

For years, it has been a staple of daytime television, alongside the inane chat, creaky old movies and decorating do’s and don’ts – the “let’s-go-live-in-the-sun” show, in which Stoke and Stoke Newington are swapped for, much more often than not, Spain.

But now it has an evil twin. You may have seen it. The we’re-not-celebrities-but-please-get-us-out-of-here show, in which the dream has gone horribly wrong. And it is symptomatic of the wider malaise that has gripped what was once a land of boom and money.

After a decade in which per capita income doubled – and household debt tripled – the Spanish economic fiesta is well and truly over. More than 40,000 workers are losing their jobs each week, a far higher rate than elsewhere in Europe. Unemployment is at 2.99 million, a 12-year record of 12.8 per cent of the workforce and the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone.

And there is no respite in sight. According to Pedro Solbes, the Economy Minister: “There is a risk the unemployment rates will be worse next year.”

In November, the grim jobless figures were compounded by a further decline in the services sector as activity, new orders and employment plunged to a record low.

The Markit Purchasing Market Index, which covers service companies ranging from hotels to insurance brokers, dropped to 28.2 in November from 32.2 in October, the sharpest monthly decline since figures were first collected in 1999. The figure is drastically below the 50 level where growth begins.

And underpinning it all is the Spanish construction industry, which accounts for 9 per cent of GDP. It has collapsed. After those years of boom, more than 150 property companies have gone bust so far this year, going into administration as debts mounted and they were unable to pay back creditors.

Read moreEconomic clouds gather as Spain faces recession

IMF urges radical action to fight global recession

The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecast for the world economy next year, predicting outright contraction for the rich economies of North America, Europe, and Japan for the first time since the Second World War.


Taxi driving through Tokyo at night. Photo: GETTY

“Prospects for global growth have deteriorated over the past month. The financial crisis remains virulent. Markets have entered a vicious cycle of asset deleveraging,” said the fund yesterday.

Britain’s economy will suffer and will see the steepest decline in G7 club of leading powers, shrinking 1.3pc as the crunch in the City of London leads to more job losses. Germany will decline by 0.8pc, The US and Spain by 0.7pc.

Sending shivers through stockmarkets everwhere, the Fund cut its world outlook next year to just 2.2pc, down from 3pc just a month ago. This is a global recession under the IMF’s 3pc rule-of-thumb.

“Financial stress is likely to be deeper and more protracted than envisaged in October. Markets are pricing in expectations of much higher corporate default rates, as well as higher losses on securities and loans,” it said.

“Activity is increasingly being held back by slumping confidence. As the financial crisis has become more entrenched, households and firms are increasingly anticipating a prolonged period of poor prospects for jobs and profits. As a result, they are cutting back.”

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist, called on authorities around the world to respond rapidly with combined monetary and fiscal stimulus, saying risk on an inflationary surge had subsided as commodities prices slump.

Read moreIMF urges radical action to fight global recession

Europe on the brink of currency crisis meltdown

The crisis in Hungary recalls the heady days of the UK’s expulsion from the ERM.

The financial crisis spreading like wildfire across the former Soviet bloc threatens to set off a second and more dangerous banking crisis in Western Europe, tipping the whole Continent into a fully-fledged economic slump.

Currency pegs are being tested to destruction on the fringes of Europe’s monetary union in a traumatic upheaval that recalls the collapse of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.

“This is the biggest currency crisis the world has ever seen,” said Neil Mellor, a strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

Experts fear the mayhem may soon trigger a chain reaction within the eurozone itself. The risk is a surge in capital flight from Austria – the country, as it happens, that set off the global banking collapse of May 1931 when Credit-Anstalt went down – and from a string of Club Med countries that rely on foreign funding to cover huge current account deficits.

The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that Western European banks hold almost all the exposure to the emerging market bubble, now busting with spectacular effect.

They account for three-quarters of the total $4.7 trillion £2.96 trillion) in cross-border bank loans to Eastern Europe, Latin America and emerging Asia extended during the global credit boom – a sum that vastly exceeds the scale of both the US sub-prime and Alt-A debacles.

Read moreEurope on the brink of currency crisis meltdown

German banks lent most to Iceland borrowers: BIS

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German banks lent the most to Icelandic borrowers and were owed $21 billion before the recent financial storm swept markets, according to figures released by the Bank for International Settlements.

The research shows that German banks, as well as handing out almost one third of loans in the Nordic outpost, are the most exposed to some of Europe’s fragile economies, such as Spain and Ireland.

In a snapshot taken at the end of June, Germany’s banks lent far more in crisis-stricken Iceland than had rivals in Britain, who were owed just $4 billion, or Iceland’s neighbor Sweden with less than $400 million.

Despite being Europe’s biggest economy, Germany’s levels of lending to countries such as Iceland are disproportionately high.

And in the week that Berlin launched a rescue plan for its banks, the first signs were emerging that lending at the height of the Icelandic bubble had come back to haunt Germany.

BayernLB, a state-backed regional lender that was the first to seek government help this week, said it expected to write off 800 million euros ($1.03 billion) of its 1.5 billion euro exposure to the tiny island state.

Read moreGerman banks lent most to Iceland borrowers: BIS

EU Nations Commit 1.3 Trillion Euros to Bank Bailouts

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria committed 1.3 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion) to guarantee bank loans and take stakes in lenders, racing to prevent the collapse of the financial system.

The announcements came as Britain took majority stakes today in Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and HBOS Plc. The coordinated steps followed a pledge yesterday by European leaders to bolster market confidence as the global economy slides toward recession.

“What it should do is stabilize the banking system,” said Peter Hahn, a fellow at London’s Cass Business School and former managing director at Citigroup Inc. “Will it stop us from having a recession? No, nothing is going to stop us from having a recession.”

Read moreEU Nations Commit 1.3 Trillion Euros to Bank Bailouts

Financial crisis: Stock market suffers its worst fall in history

The UK stock market has suffered its worst one-day fall in history as the banking crisis intensified.

The FTSE-100 index of Britain’s biggest companies dropped by 391.06 points – its steepest ever fall – to end the day down 7.9 per cent.

The FTSE’s tumble was mirrored across Europe, as markets in France, Germany, Italy and Spain all recorded heavy falls.

On Wall Street, the panic drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average down through the 10,000 level for the first time in four years. The Dow was off 4.6 per cent at 9580.68 by lunchtime in New York as the Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 5 per cent. The mild euphoria that greeted the passage of the $700bn bail-out of Wall Street on Friday evaporated as traders digested the more bad news from Europe.

A statement by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, to Parliament failed to calm nerves with the stock market taking a further dive as he spoke.

The Chancellor refused to outline firm plans to deal with the crisis – however, he confirmed the Government was working on a radical scheme which could be implemented in the coming weeks.

Read moreFinancial crisis: Stock market suffers its worst fall in history

Recession forecast for Germany, Spain and UK

Germany, the UK and Spain all face recessions this year, the European Commission forecast yesterday, dashing finally any remaining hopes that Europe would avoid a sharp economic downturn. France and Italy would fare little better, it said.

The steep downward revisions in growth forecasts by the European Union’s executive arm showed it had accepted that tumbling business and consumer confidence was hitting economic activity – even though the European economy had been “generally sound” prior to the credit crisis .

Joaquin Almunia, economics and monetary affairs commissioner, described the environment as “difficult and uncertain”. As well as financial turmoil and a near doubling of oil prices over the past year, significant housing market corrections in some countries were taking their toll, he said.

Read moreRecession forecast for Germany, Spain and UK

Military help for Georgia is a ‘declaration of war’, says Moscow in extraordinary warning to the West

Moscow has issued an extraordinary warning to the West that military assistance to Georgia for use against South Ossetia or Abkhazia would be viewed as a “declaration of war” by Russia.

The extreme rhetoric from the Kremlin’s envoy to NATO came as President Dmitry Medvedev stressed he will make a military response to US missile defence installations in eastern Europe, sending new shudders across countries whose people were once blighted by the Iron Curtain.

And Moscow also emphasised it was closely monitoring what it claims is a build-up of NATO firepower in the Black Sea.


Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin – the ‘real architect’ of the Georgia conflict – and the Security Council (unseen) in Sochi yesterday

The incendiary warning on Western military involvement in Georgia – where NATO nations have long played a role in training and equipping the small state – came in an interview with Dmitry Rogozin, a former nationalist politician who is now ambassador to the North Atlantic Alliance.

“If NATO suddenly takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia,” he stated.

Read moreMilitary help for Georgia is a ‘declaration of war’, says Moscow in extraordinary warning to the West

NATO sends more ships into Black Sea

INSTANBUL/MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) – NATO has sent a Polish frigate and a U.S. destroyer through the Bosporus to boost its presence in the Black Sea, where it is delivering humanitarian cargoes to Georgia, a source in the Turkish navy said.

“Two more NATO ships passed through the strait and entered the Black Sea on Friday evening,” the source told RIA Novosti.

Read moreNATO sends more ships into Black Sea