Friday, February 12, 2010

The UK is very much involved in the Greek Debt Tragedy

The spin line from Brown and Darling is that the UK is not going to have to pay for the Greek rescue - that'll be the Euro countries.

The BBC is of course quite happy to swallow that one whole.

But its not true.

Our banks are some of the largest lenders to Greece, and our banks are underwritten by the UK taxpayer and the Scottish ones next to Brown and Darling's constituencies are owned by us.

If Greece default - Britain will be stung, and stung hard.

By £7.8 billion for the Greek economy;

and if the contagion spread, which it mostly likely would,

£15.6 billion to the Portuguese Economy; and,
and £76.2 billion to the Spanish Economy.

So its not just a Euro zone affair, and Berlin isn't just thinking of running Athens, but also saving of a wide spread collapse. ( The Germans have the money, but because of historical sensitivities , see right, need the French to make it look European. ) And the UK will be expected to cough up. Knowing Brown it will be in the small print in his usual cowards stealth approach which is the standard deceit by which he tries to control the media.

PS I though it was ominous when one of my recent statements from HSBC had a reassurance across it that this account was covered by the deposit protection scheme, especially as HSBC had performed so well in the crisis.

Now I have an unhappy feeling they are just preparing the ground for the next wave a financial shocks they can see coming.

Update: Catch the New Satesman as the lefties finally wake up to the soveriegnty issue and the Euro here.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

My Business Account is with HSBC and I have also received such an assurance about Deposits being protected.

I hadn't made the connection myself, but I suspect you're right.

The trouble is that it really isn't clear what are the best personal financial approaches to be taking. I feel like a rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming car. :-(

Incidentally, I don't trust Gold because we already know that the Central Banks manipulate the gold price and Gold Carry Trade. Then there's the mystery about supposedly Gold Bars turning out as having tungsten cores, (tungsten being very close to gold with respect to mass per density).

If I remember correctly, it took shares about 30 years to recover to their previous value at the time of the 1929 crash.

Property? They're trying to re-inflate the bubble but it could still tank all over again.

And just how safe are cash deposits earning an interest rate lower than the inflation rate?

Welcome to our World, where countries (such as Greece) can go bust but the Banks aren't allowed to.

And the people are just grist to the mill of the Financial Elites who have bought our Political Classes lock, stock & barrel.

Man in a Shed said...

The problem is that our economy and society are built on the assumption of shared values about honesty and decency that people expect to get reciprocated.

The political class have made their careers out of trading on the back of these assumptions.

But now that trust has gone the consequences could be massive.

Remember we came within hours of all of the banks in the UK being shut.

What happens in a sovereign debt crisis where there is no trust in the government.

My guess is revolution is likely.

Demetrius said...

Too true, this is going to be very messy and we are deep in it.

James Higham said...

PiƱata time.

Grumpy Old Liberal said...

Don't you think your choice of photo is pretty tasteless?

Man in a Shed said...

Dear Grumpy,

Not really - its shows the last time Greece lost its sovereignty, and that's what's happening now.

That's what debt does to you.

Its provocative - but that's kind of the point.

It also very relevant - as it shows why Germany has to act with France and under the EU banner.

Anonymous said...

Mr Man in a shed, I do not think the photo is tasteless, but shows us where the logical conclusion of the EU will lead us to. The Greeks are being told to apply massive cuts (to their generous public state apparatus, e.g. you can retire at 58 and the proposal is to raise that to 65!) and the EU (led by Germany) wants to monitor (enforce) this. How will they do it, other than force?

Also, I would humbly suggest you under state the British exposure to Greece. Britain as a whole owns 23% of Greek Debt, viz Germany's 9%and the Greeks themselves at 30%. This is out of a total debt pile of 300 billion euros. Ergo 69 billion euros (£58 billion).

When Spain and Portugal crash it will be even worse. Just think Banco Santander own a large proportion of our banks, plus another Spanish company owns out airports.

We will end up paying the price for the lunacy of the political imperatives of the Euro, even though we are not in it.

We should get out of this madness before it totally destroys us. The EU and the socialist government will have this country on her knees before very long.