Signs emerged on Friday that European governments are working on recapitalising vulnerable banks, with France’s top market regulator saying 15 to 20 banks needed extra capital, although no French ones “at this stage”.
A statement issued after G20 talks in Washington said the 17-nation euro zone would implement “actions to increase the flexibility of the EFSF and to maximise its impact” by mid-October.
And so whereas efforts some months ago were aimed at preventing Greece defaulting, the Eurozone, and its G20 colleagues from the world’s biggest economies, are instead making secret plans to build a firewall protecting European economies such as Spain and Italy from the prospect of a buyers’ strike.
Here’s what ministers are currently thinking: Greece is, in sovereign debt terms at least, a lost cause.
Portugal and Ireland may be salvageable – unlike Greece their austerity plans and bail-outs are yielding at least some results, albeit at the cost of some severe pain.
A collapse in confidence in the debt of Italy or Spain would be disastrous and unaffordable.
A Greek default would send an instant financial shockwave through the euro area, since so many banks – particularly in France and Germany – hold its debt.
Nonetheless, the first priority ministers have already openly agreed on is to pump more capital into their banks to ensure their balance sheets are healthy enough to withstand it when those Greek debts suddenly become worth half their previous value.
The IMF said just this week that European banks are undercapitalised to the extent of 200 billion to 300 billion euros. The assumption is that not all the money can be raised from the beleaguered private sector.
So it is hoped that the euro members could use cash from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), a bailout facility worth around 440 billion euros – to help shore up these bank balance sheets.
There is talk about using some kind of leverage to increase the EFSF by five times.
(1) Inject more capital into the European banking system. (200-300 billion euro) 4 in 5 odds
(2) Get an [orderly] Greek default done. Let Greece writedown 50% and have a credible plan to protect Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. 3 in 5 odds
(3) More stimulus. 4 in 5 odds
(4) Less austerity. 2 in 5 odds
(5) Loosen the China yuan exchange. 1 in 5 odds
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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