Belgium and France stepped in to help Dexia with a capital injection and Ireland pledged upto 400 billion euros to guarantee bank deposits as the rejection of a $700 billion U.S. rescue plan sent shockwaves through financial markets on Tuesday. ... "The domino effect of bank failures has started and is now spreading to Europe, just look at Fortis and Dexia," said Sebastien Barthelemi, analyst at Louis Capital Markets in Paris. "For a long time, we feared the systemic risks, now we're watching the dominos collapse one after another. It's scary," he said. ... "The failure of the U.S. Congress to approve the Paulson plan was not in the script," said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered. "A deep and long U.S. recession should not be ruled out." ... "There is no reason to be frightened and to give in to panic," European Central Bank council member Christian Noyer said on RTL radio, following talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy is due to meet the heads of the main French banks and has arranged a meeting in Paris this week with Britain, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet to discuss Europe's response to the crisis.
...
"The domino effect of bank failures has started and is now spreading to Europe, just look at Fortis and Dexia," said Sebastien Barthelemi, analyst at Louis Capital Markets in Paris.
"For a long time, we feared the systemic risks, now we're watching the dominos collapse one after another. It's scary," he said.
"The failure of the U.S. Congress to approve the Paulson plan was not in the script," said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered. "A deep and long U.S. recession should not be ruled out."
"There is no reason to be frightened and to give in to panic," European Central Bank council member Christian Noyer said on RTL radio, following talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sarkozy is due to meet the heads of the main French banks and has arranged a meeting in Paris this week with Britain, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet to discuss Europe's response to the crisis.
I doubt the banks have any remaining cash flow before the bailout (hence the bailout), so they are not going to pay gov't that 7% of GDP for the guarantee. It will obviously be underpriced.
And it will not prevent the collapse of interbank/securitized/bond funding for these banks anyway (nobody in their right mind would trust the gov't to live up to its promise, at least among the educated global finance guys). This leaves the irish banks with their sole depositors as funding, when the irish GDP has already started contracting. Recession will accelerate, house prices fall further, Irish household will default en masse, and the banks will default on tens of B€.
Irish gov't will be left holding a bag that could end up just as big as the GDP, itself down around 100 B€, a couple of years down the road. Lucky, the public debt is presently just 25% of GDP, but still, it's a commitment to make it over 100% almost overnight.
Puzzle #1: how long will it take for the Irish "mass affluent" market segment to realize this and move it's saving to any other bank in the eurozone ?
Puzzle #2: faced with the prospect of 100 B€ or more of capital flight (and more losses for the banks it guaranteed), how long do you think Ireland can remain in the EMU/have free capital flows ?
Absent some quick explosion from the Spanish Cajas (a very bad situation that keeps developing pretty much under the radar), I think we have winner here: I introduce to you the leading country in the race to the currency bottom and to fall out of the euro ... Ireland ! Pierre
Are these global finance guys the ones who were shorting Anglo-Irish to the tune of €800 million just last week, or are they the ones now responsible for the surge in it's share-price today?
If paper matures within the guarantee (2 years, what a joke, like you could put heroin in your veins for 2 years straight and give up overnight ... the Irish gov't is in this forever), any cautious bond manager will get his principal back guaranteed, and not subscribe in the new bond offerings at any rate. Then he puts the money in bunds and gold.
This pretty much guarantees that the gov will have to pay for the shortfall at the roll, since bank assets will be unsellable non-performing mortgages. Taxpayers would be in it for exactly the amount they defaulted on wih the mortgages in the first place, that is an amount they can't repay even if the tax collector put a gun in their mouth. The only two ways the country can get through this is:
