...Worries about a run on Greek banks have rattled Athens this week, after savers withdrew at least 700 million euros on Monday alone, according to minutes of Papoulias’s comments to political leaders posted on the presidency’s website.
It is not only Greeks who are worried about their savings. Data shows depositors have also taken flight from banks in Belgium, France and Italy. And on Thursday, Spain’s Bankia was reported to have seen more than 1 billion euros drained by its customers in the past week.
Greeks are afraid they could be hit by rapid devaluation if the country leaves the European single currency, while customers at Bankia have been rattled by the government’s takeover of the recently floated bank on May 9 and growing uncertainty about the final cost of Spain’s banking reforms... “The entire Greek banking system is in danger: The banks are now facing the worst of all outcomes, deposit flight,” said Arnaud Poutier, deputy CEO of IG Markets France.
...Greece’s banks have lost 72 billion euros in deposits since the start of 2010, or about 30 percent, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Five of Greece’s top banks saw 37 billion euros taken out last year, including 12 billion from EFG Eurobank and 8-9 billion apiece at National Bank of Greece, Piraeus and Alpha Bank.
...Savers have shifted to property, gold and other banks, or stashed it privately. In Greece, this slow-speed run on deposits has not caused panic. But that could quickly change if there is a sudden loss of confidence in the banks.
Savers lost faith in Britain’s Northern Rock overnight in September 2008, queuing for hours in the days that followed to take out their cash, despite a guarantee safeguarding most deposits. The British government ended up nationalizing the bank.
...Cash flooded into Britain; more than 140 billion euros was deposited in four big banks alone. The U.K. benefits from its position outside the eurozone and its Asia-focused banks HSBC and Standard Chartered are seen as safe havens.
Other banks to see big inflows included Barclays, Germany’s Deutsche Bank, Switzerland’s Credit Suisse and UBS and Russia’s Sberbank and VTB.
All of these repudiations to collectivist policies should -- but won't -- serve as an object lesson to Democrats. That's because the modern Democrat Party is immune to introspection and unwilling to examine facts, logic, history and reason.
Which is why it must be politically obliterated in November -- before it's too late to save this precious Republic.
1 comment:
Some believe Greece could be returning to the Drachma soon, how this will effect the Euro is anyone's guess. But things are not looking good over there with stories of riots and now bank runs in the newspapers almost daily.
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