What seems to be happening is bank ‘funding needs’ are become funding needs of Germany itself.
While this adds to Germany’s funding pressures, this process can go on indefinitely unless/until germany cannot somehow fund itself.
Not long ago the finance ministers announced they had a contingency plan for that possibility but wouldn’t say what that plan was leaving open the possibility they were bluffing. The CDS markets could be the best leading indicators of real trouble. With the US ‘recovery’ hitting a ‘soft patch’ of very low and very flat gdp and unemployment rising with productivity gains, an export dependent Eurozone looks like it will continue to struggle.
It just dawned on me that the Bush recovery got help from the fraudulent sub prime lending while it lasted, as the Clinton expansion got an assist from the pie in the sky valuations of the dot com boom, as the Reagan boom was assisted by the fraudulent S and L lending while that lasted. Without that kind of supplemental dose of aggregate demand, the automatic stabilizers alone while braking the decline probably do not produce all that robust of a recovery.
And if we follow the lead of Japan and tighten fiscal with every green shoot we wind up with the same results.
DJ WestLB Was Close To Being Shut Down Over Weekend
June 8 (Dow Jones) — German state-controlled bank WestLB AG was
close to being shut down over the weekend, people familiar with the
situation told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.
Bundesbank President Axel Weber and President of Germany’s BaFin
financial regulator Jochen Sanio threatened to close down the state bank
at crisis talks held over the weekend, the people familiar with the
talks said. It was only after this threat that savings banks agreed to
raise the guarantee framework for the debt-laden bank, the people said.
Late Sunday, WestLB owners said they raised their guarantee
framework for the bank by another EUR4 billion. The people familiar with
the situation said the savings bank agreed to extend the guarantee
umbrella after it was ensured that a solution wouldn’t hamper the spin
off of toxic assets into a so-called “bad”
German bank.
Regional banking associations WLSGV and RSGV together hold more than
50% of the shares, while the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has a 17.5%
stake and NRW.BANK holds 31.1%. NRW.BANK’s owners are the state of North
Rhine-Westphalia with 64.7% and WLSGV and RSGV with 17.6% each.
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