Saturday 18 June 2011

Greek Bank Run

Greece, has according to CNN, had a fully fledged bank run in the last 6 months, and now the Telegraph reports that UK banks are reducing their exposure to the very predictable Greek default - in effect abandoning the Euro:

Senior sources have revealed that leading banks, including Barclays and Standard Chartered, have radically reduced the amount of unsecured lending they are prepared to make available to eurozone banks, raising the prospect of a new credit crunch for the European banking system.

Standard Chartered is understood to have withdrawn tens of billions of pounds from the eurozone inter-bank lending market in recent months and cut its overall exposure by two-thirds in the past few weeks as it has become increasingly worried about the finances of other European banks.

Barclays has also cut its exposure in recent months as senior managers have become increasingly concerned about developments among banks with large exposures to the troubled European countries Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Portugal.

And the Telegraph goes further in arguing that German must quit the Euro:
However there is another eurozone member that sticks out like a sore thumb. It has run its economy just as, if not even more, recklessly than the Mediterranean brothers, has single-handedly destabilised the euro area for the best part of a decade and is one of the biggest road-blocks to its ultimate recovery. That country is Germany.
All of this is entirely inevitable but no fear Cameron has more important issues on his mind.

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