Korelin Economics Report

Interesting commentary from a listener.

About a month ago Herman Van Rumpuy stated that “we’ve turned a corner” (das Schlimmste ist ueberstanden).  He was referring to the European debt crisis which has since receded to the very back pages of the news papers.  Things aren’t perfect, but much better.  That seems to be the message.  Happy-talk is here again.  If we listen to the mainstream media, we might believe this spin.
But here comes the IMF (IWF) to spoil the party with an incredible statement, which of course, you won’t hear on the Tagesschau or Heute.
“Suddenly, a big shot from the IMF says, ‘There is a problem here, and there may be a breakup of the eurozone.  It could come sooner than you think.’
Say what?
The amazing thing is not what they are saying (the content of the statement is no surprise at all), but that they are saying it out loud.  Of course the Euro is in deep, deep trouble and, with it, the EU experiment, but no one of import is supposed to be saying this.
Nigel Farage, an outspoken member of the EU parliament from GB has given the following interview in response to the IMF statement.
In any case, the financial system, and especially that of the EU seems to be sitting on top of a rumbling volcano that’s just waiting to blow! Add to this the unpredictable scenarios that could unfold if Sarkozy looses in France next month.
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With escalating fears regarding the stability of the eurozone, today King World News interviewed former LBMA commodities broker and trader and current MEP Nigel Farage to get his take on the situation.  Farage had some very interesting comments regarding the Italians moving large quantities of gold to Switzerland, but when KWN asked about the chaos in Europe, Farage stated, “Well, so far, from all of the European officials and from the new IMF branch office in Washington, we’ve had unanimity that there was no prospect, at any stage, of the euro being under threat.”

Nigel Farage continues:

“Suddenly, a big shot from the IMF says, ‘There is a problem here, and there may be a breakup of the eurozone.  It could come sooner than you think.’  I see that as a bit of a crack in the dam.  They’ve always used the argument that the euro was inevitable and it was here to stay, and an individual from the IMF has just completely blown that out of the water.

(The breakup could be disorderly) because there have been no contingency plans.  This is what makes me so angry.  I’ve been saying to Barroso and that little Van Rumpuy character, ‘Come on, let’s have a Plan B.’  Let’s actually get ourselves ready in case it goes the other way.’  The point the IMF official made is that there have been no contingency plans whatsoever….

“Therefore, what is likely, is that, at some point, the markets will just overwhelm and engulf the whole thing, and short-term, that will lead to chaos.  The whole central banking, International Monetary Fund banking system, I mean it just begins to look more and more like the biggest Ponzi scheme we’ve ever seen on earth.

There are going to be some serious banking collapses and the impact of that, on some sovereign states, will be serious.  I’m afraid we’ve gotten to a point where we really can’t stop this now.  We’re beginning to reach a stage where however much false money you create, the problem becomes bigger than the people trying to solve it.  We are very close to that point.

When I talk about the threats and the risk that this thing could finish up in some kind of rebellion, some sort of awful social cataclysm, they (other European politicians) are now very worried indeed.  They will talk to you in private, but in public, nobody dares utter a word.

I think the deterioration, in the last two or three weeks, in the eurozone is very serious indeed.  It’s the bond spreads in Italy and Spain.  It’s the fact that youth unemployment is now over 50% in some of these Mediterranean countries.

It’s riot and disorder on the streets.  And yet a month ago I was here and there was Herman Van Rumpuy telling us, ‘We’ve turned the corner.  Everything is solved.  There are no more problems with the eurozone.’  What a pack of jokers they look like.”

Farage also had this to say about the Italian movement of gold:  “It was interesting to see massive bullion movements last month, out of Italian banks and into Swiss banks.  So, people who have purchased gold for protection and have kept the gold in Italian bank vaults, now their trust in Italian banks is so bad they have physically moved the bullion to Switzerland.  I’m still a believer, buy gold on dips.”
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I don’t know how close we are to this “cataclysm” Farage talks about, or if it will come about at all, but we should be prepared for anything.  Sometimes creaky, decrepit systems manage to stagger along for longer than anyone would have thought possible.  Maybe it will be this way with the EU.  What appears to be certain, however, is that truly fantastic amounts of money will have to be printed to keep this Titanic from sinking.  This is the best-case scenario I can see.

Be well,

Peter


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