The Death Of The Euro
Posted by Wealth Wire - Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Today, the euro fell to an 11-month low against the U.S. dollar. As I write this, the EUR/USD is at 1.2983. Back in July, the EUR/USD was over 1.45. As panic has swept the financial markets, the euro has lost more than 3 percent over the past three days. But this is just the beginning...
When the euro drops below 1.20, analysts will talk about the collapse of the euro. When the euro falls toward parity with the dollar, headlines around the world will scream about the death of the euro. But when the European financial system finally collapses, we may very well actually see the end of the euro. Yes, it actually could happen. The eurozone, as it is currently constructed, simply does not work. You just can't take 17 different nations that have 17 different fiscal policies, 17 different tax policies and 17 different economic agendas and cram them all into a single currency and expect the thing to work.
The euro is a doomed currency, and if a big nation like Germany decides to walk away at some point the game is going to be over.
It is not as if the euro is just having a bad week. Just check out this chart that shows what the euro has done relative to the U.S. dollar over the past 6 months.
The truth is that a collapse of the euro has already begun.
And a whole lot of investors expect it to continue. Right now, huge amounts of money are being poured into bets that the euro is going to go even lower.
All over the world, financial professionals are speculating about how far the euro will eventually fall. Scott Mather, the head of global bond portfolio management at PIMCO, says that he believes that the euro is going to go much, much lower....
"Parity with the dollar next year is not out of the question"
Of course the central banks of the world could step in at some point with coordinated action to help support the value of the euro. This kind of thing has happened before. But such support would only be temporary.
Central banks can manipulate the markets for a while, but in the end the long-term trends are going to prevail. Just look at what is happening with European bond yields.
European bond yields are rising once again even though the European Central Bank has already spent over 274 billion dollars buying up European government bonds.
There will be more efforts to try to prevent the death of the euro, but those efforts will be kind of like spitting into the wind.
A recent article posted on Crackerjack Finance talked about some of the fundamental problems that make the euro such a flawed currency....
The problems of the Eurozone’s flawed construct are now completely exposed. A block of 17 sovereign nations have adopted a common currency and outsourced monetary policy to a common central bank. Yet each of the 17 sovereign nations have different comparative advantages, industries, debt levels, interest rates, budget deficits, labor market rules, and tax policies. Reflecting on all the differences, it is amazing that the Eurozone has survived in the current construct for over a decade.
As this crisis spreads throughout the rest of Europe , it is going to put an incredible amount of stress on the European financial system. Many now believe that the euro may not be able to make it through the tough times that are ahead.
The following comes from a report recently produced by Credit Suisse's Fixed Income Research unit....
"We seem to have entered the last days of the euro as we currently know it. That doesn’t make a break-up very likely, but it does mean some extraordinary things will almost certainly need to happen – probably by mid-January – to prevent the progressive closure of all the euro zone sovereign bond markets, potentially accompanied by escalating runs on even the strongest banks."
So will we actually see the end of the euro?
Only time will tell.
But one thing is for sure - the situation in Europe is rapidly getting worse.
In Greece , approximately 20 percent of all bank deposits have been withdrawn since the start of 2011.
If you still have money in a Greek bank, you might want to do something about it before the run on the banks gets even worse.
In fact, if you still have money in any European bank, you might want to consider your options.
Today it was revealed that Germany 's second largest bank is going to need a bailout.
The following comes from a Sky News report....
Germany's second largest bank, Commerzbank, is reportedly in discussions with the German government about a bailout after regulators said it needed to raise more money to cope with a potential default on its loans to governments.
"Intense talks" have been going on for several days, according to sources who spoke to the news agency Reuters.
Let the bailouts begin!
European governments are going to save the banks that they want to save, and the rest they are going to let fail.
So who will live and who will die?
We just don't know.
But without a doubt, a whole lot of European banks are in trouble. In fact, Fitch Ratings downgraded the credit ratings of five more major European banks on Wednesday.
The eurozone worked well for a while, but now the flaws in the system are becoming appallingly evident. To get an idea of just how badly the European financial system is unraveling, just check out this chart. European bond yields are not supposed to be acting like that.
In the end, someone is going to leave the euro. There has been a lot of talk about Greece or Italy leaving the euro, but the truth is that it is probably more likely that a strong nation such as Germany will be the first to make a move.
If Germany leaves the euro, will they start printing up new German currency?
No, I believe in that case that Germany would seek to establish an entirely new European currency for an entirely new European financial system. Germany is very committed to the idea of a "European superstate", and just because the euro is a failure does not mean that they are ready to give up on the idea.
But time will tell who is right and who is wrong.
As I have written about previously, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what is happening in Europe . The equation is simple....
Brutal austerity + toxic levels of government debt + rising bond yields + a lack of confidence in the financial system + banks that are massively overleveraged + a massive credit crunch = A financial implosion of historic proportions
Unfortunately, the United States is not going to escape all of this chaos unscathed either.
The financial systems of the United States and Europe are more deeply tied together than ever before. When the financial crisis in Europe fully erupts, we are going to see lots of banks in the United States fail too.
The U.S. economy never recovered from the financial crisis of 2008, and this next financial crisis could send us into a huge tailspin.
2012 is going to be a very interesting year for the financial world. I hope that you all are ready for what is about to happen.
50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don't make dramatic changes immediately. If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just "tweaking" things here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.
At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse.
The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....
#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.
#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.
#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.
#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.
#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.
#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.
#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.
#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.
#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.
#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.
#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.
#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percentof all U.S. adults were married.
#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.
#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.
#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.
#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.
#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.
#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States .
#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America 's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.
#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.
#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center , the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.
#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.
#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.
#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America . According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.
#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit ofnearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.
#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.
#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.
#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.
#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape. The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based. That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America .
During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go.
Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.
The Collapse Of The Euro, The Death Of The Euro And The End Of The Euro
The euro was a doomed project from the start, and now we are starting to see the endgame play out. Today, the euro fell to an 11-month low against the U.S. dollar. As I write this, the EUR/USD is at 1.2983. Back in July, the EUR/USD was over 1.45. As panic has swept the financial markets, the euro has lost more than 3 percent over the past three days. But this is just the beginning. When the euro drops below 1.20, analysts will talk about the collapse of the euro. When the euro falls toward parity with the dollar, headlines around the world will scream about the death of the euro. But when the European financial system finally collapses, we may very well actually see the end of the euro. Yes, it actually could happen. The eurozone, as it is currently constructed, simply does not work. You just can't take 17 different nations that have 17 different fiscal policies, 17 different tax policies and 17 different economic agendas and cram them all into a single currency and expect the thing to work. The euro is a doomed currency, and if a big nation like Germany decides to walk away at some point the game is going to be over.
It is not as if the euro is just having a bad week. Just check out this chart that shows what the euro has done relative to the U.S. dollar over the past 6 months.
The truth is that a collapse of the euro has already begun.
And a whole lot of investors expect it to continue. Right now, huge amounts of money are being poured into bets that the euro is going to go even lower.
All over the world, financial professionals are speculating about how far the euro will eventually fall. Scott Mather, the head of global bond portfolio management at PIMCO, says that he believes that the euro is going to go much, much lower....
"Parity with the dollar next year is not out of the question"
Of course the central banks of the world could step in at some point with coordinated action to help support the value of the euro. This kind of thing has happened before. But such support would only be temporary.
Central banks can manipulate the markets for a while, but in the end the long-term trends are going to prevail. Just look at what is happening with European bond yields.
European bond yields are rising once again even though the European Central Bank has already spent over 274 billion dollars buying up European government bonds.
There will be more efforts to try to prevent the death of the euro, but those efforts will be kind of like spitting into the wind.
A recent article posted on Crackerjack Finance talked about some of the fundamental problems that make the euro such a flawed currency....
The problems of the Eurozone’s flawed construct are now completely exposed. A block of 17 sovereign nations have adopted a common currency and outsourced monetary policy to a common central bank.
Yet each of the 17 sovereign nations have different comparative advantages, industries, debt levels, interest rates, budget deficits, labor market rules, and tax policies. Reflecting on all the differences, it is amazing that the Eurozone has survived in the current construct for over a decade.
As this crisis spreads throughout the rest of Europe , it is going to put an incredible amount of stress on the European financial system. Many now believe that the euro may not be able to make it through the tough times that are ahead.
The following comes from a report recently produced by Credit Suisse's Fixed Income Research unit....
"We seem to have entered the last days of the euro as we currently know it. That doesn’t make a break-up very likely, but it does mean some extraordinary things will almost certainly need to happen – probably by mid-January – to prevent the progressive closure of all the euro zone sovereign bond markets, potentially accompanied by escalating runs on even the strongest banks."
So will we actually see the end of the euro?
Only time will tell.
But one thing is for sure - the situation in Europe is rapidly getting worse.
In Greece , approximately 20 percent of all bank deposits have been withdrawn since the start of 2011.
If you still have money in a Greek bank, you might want to do something about it before the run on the banks gets even worse.
In fact, if you still have money in any European bank, you might want to consider your options.
Today it was revealed that Germany 's second largest bank is going to need a bailout.
The following comes from a Sky News report....
Germany's second largest bank, Commerzbank, is reportedly in discussions with the German government about a bailout after regulators said it needed to raise more money to cope with a potential default on its loans to governments.
"Intense talks" have been going on for several days, according to sources who spoke to the news agency Reuters.
Let the bailouts begin!
European governments are going to save the banks that they want to save, and the rest they are going to let fail.
So who will live and who will die?
We just don't know.
But without a doubt, a whole lot of European banks are in trouble. In fact, Fitch Ratings downgraded the credit ratings of five more major European banks on Wednesday.
The eurozone worked well for a while, but now the flaws in the system are becoming appallingly evident. To get an idea of just how badly the European financial system is unraveling, just check out this chart. European bond yields are not supposed to be acting like that.
In the end, someone is going to leave the euro. There has been a lot of talk about Greece or Italy leaving the euro, but the truth is that it is probably more likely that a strong nation such as Germany will be the first to make a move.
If Germany leaves the euro, will they start printing up new German currency?
No, I believe in that case that Germany would seek to establish an entirely new European currency for an entirely new European financial system. Germany is very committed to the idea of a "European superstate", and just because the euro is a failure does not mean that they are ready to give up on the idea.
But time will tell who is right and who is wrong.
For much more on why we are on the verge of a massive financial collapse in Europe , please check out these articles....
As I have written about previously, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what is happening in Europe . The equation is simple....
Brutal austerity + toxic levels of government debt + rising bond yields + a lack of confidence in the financial system + banks that are massively overleveraged + a massive credit crunch = A financial implosion of historic proportions
Unfortunately, the United States is not going to escape all of this chaos unscathed either.
The financial systems of the United States and Europe are more deeply tied together than ever before. When the financial crisis in Europe fully erupts, we are going to see lots of banks in the United States fail too.
The U.S. economy never recovered from the financial crisis of 2008, and this next financial crisis could send us into a huge tailspin.
2012 is going to be a very interesting year for the financial world. I hope that you all are ready for what is about to happen.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar