Just days ago german minister of finance Steinbrück and several of his EU collegues ruled out a billion Euros package to bail out European banks from the impact of the crisis in the US would be necessary. But they have been proven wrong. In Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg governements had to step in to save some of the countries major banks from collapsing and an end is not foreseeable.......

The Credit Crunch: Banking Crisis Leaves Europeans with Bill in the Billions - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The European markets are still holding strong for the mean time, a 3 or 4% loss for the week would be miraculous but its unlikely to be the case.

Though European banks as a whole are probably still safer than our banks, i would say Santander is the strongest, most financially sound bank or financial institution in the world right now.

I got this in my email today. Our minister of finance has said he wants to finance his part of the Benelux (Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg) Fortis bailout with private players. He was already fiercly criticized last month for his bad 2009 budget and the lack of labor market reforms and if it now turns out there will be no surplus any more but a deficit the opposition will pull out the champagne.

Also, Fortis cancelled their PR campaign "Here today? there tomorrow!". It appears some people were making creative pictures to go with the slogan.

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Terrornoia: how the propa-ugandists used the omni-territorialization of terror for the fundamen-talismanization of criminal law in a multi-cultus-ritualistic society

Nice to see the 'European Union' standing together at this time of crisis.....

First the Irish, then the French, the Germans, etc etc etc have said "Fuck the Union, it's every man for himself"! Serves them right for forcing a 'union' that no one one (apart from a couple of brave countries) have balloted their citizens on. Do the ordinary Europeans want this Union? Hell no! That's why their politicians don't give them a vote.

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"On my signal, unleash hell."

At some point i think the EU will have to come out a concrete united proposal. Though its not the people who are apposed to it this time but actually the governments because they use slightly different systems and all want something different out of this.

But in what the individual governments have done i am impressed with Ireland, they stood up and lead from the front, very very fast to react.

Silvio said that Brussels may get something done this week but the rest like you said are all over the place. Brown has got to get his act together, he said he wanted 12 Billion pounds as an emergency fund which wouldn't ever cover one small building society, and he already has the power through the Treasury and not the CotE to pump whatever money he needs to into the market. Him and Darling are the biggest idiots i've ever seen in my life.

The Germans have waffled some too with agreeing to guarantee everyone's money and then backpeddalling, that was pathetic. The Cac and Dax suffered today and while ttraders were corageous it won't last forever, the EU has got to come together and do something.

Maybe you should read a little about the European Union and talk to people who actually live here.

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"I think that gay marriage should be allowed."
- John McCain on an episode of Hardball, 2006, before the commercial break

"I do not believe that gay marriage should be legal."
- John McCain on the same episode of Hardball, after the commercial break

"John McCain does not speak for the John McCain campaign."
- Tucker Bounds, Spokesman of the John McCain presidential campaign.

The straight talk express. You gotta love it.

The financial crisis reached me decades ago. I'm very happy that someone now is reporting about. But I will change it and I'm thinking about to found a bank and to do a very bad business so that all states of the world have to give me billions of Euros and/or Dollars. Isn't it a good idea to do so? Okay - if someeon doesn't like to give me money I'm also taking some thousand tons of gold - I'm a moderate man.

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Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt, quia ignoratio causae destituit effectum
Sir Francis Bacon

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The best joke I heard since a long time now. Our government is guaranteing us that we are allowed to pay the taxes so we are able to pay to ourselves the money we are loosing because some criminals ... What about death penalty for idiotic statements of governments?

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Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt, quia ignoratio causae destituit effectum
Sir Francis Bacon

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The way you worded it, it does sound funny!

Luckily thats not up to some Californian to decide, even though your governor has the right to vote in the Austrian and European elections but thats another story

While the EU does not win popularity contests you hardly find majorities in any country (maybe the sole exception being the UK) for leaving the EU. We have just seen during the Caucasus crises that its more important than ever to stay united in the Union. The same is the case now during the financial crises, not too much integration is now the problem, its too little. The ECB as sole united institution which is respected all around the world is too little for the EU. In a tightly connected financial world we need mechanisms that allow Europe to react swiftly on financial crises. As we don't have that so far I can only hope that our politicians rather sooner than later start doing something that really matters and which shows the market that Europe can handle these problematic times.

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When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

Yeah i don't agree with CG's view on it at all, but hopefully this thread won't turn into an argument about the problems with EU refferendums and member states etc.

The latest UK bank to find itself in trouble is RBS, shares have fallen 30%+ today, hitting a 30 year low.

Other than the banks under Sanatander, and HSBC and the black knight all UK banks are in talks with the treasury over bailouts atm. It is believed they're looking at a figure close to 400 Billion pounds altogether.

RBS is down the furthest, Barclays and HBOS are struggling. They are denying wanting money from the Treasury but because of the ass backward system in the UK of keeping the Treasury seperate from what the role of the CotE is, they got caught out because senior bank executives were all outed as the cabinet have to disclose who they meet with. They met last night.

The Netherlands has taken a courageous step forward and tripled what it will guarantee from 35 000 in savings to 100 000 Euroes, kudos!

My understanding is there is no central EU bank, there is a council….etc…so coordinating this across nations may be tricky, if the UK does one thing on their onw hook refusing to wait for say Germany or Spain, how will it affect Germany etc etc..

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor