SPAIN is either Getting or Not Getting Promised Bailout Money

Note: The following was reported in Zerohedge.com and it is reprinted here but it’s accuracy has not been verified. See competing story below.  

 

Spain's Not Getting a Bailout... Neither is Italy... It's the END GAME Folks

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-07-07/spains-not-getting-bailout-neither-italy-its-end-game-folks

 

Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research on 07/07/2012 07:01 -0400

Spain got a “bailout” or so the media claimed. Because I cannot find any entity in Europe with the funds to actually bailout Spain (the EUFN is tapped out, the ESM has major political issues, and Germany is risking a credit downgrade and insolvency based on its backdoor EU props).

As one would expect in this situation, things are rapidly going into hyper-drive in Spain. The weekend before last the country implemented capital controls including:

• A minimum fine of  €10,000 for taxpayers who do not report their foreign accounts.

• Secondary fines of  €5,000 for each additional account

• No cash transactions greater than €2,500

• Cash transaction restrictions apply to individuals and businesses

Does this sound like the actions of an economy with a sound banking system?

On a related note, Italy is once again back on the brink: in the last 2 weeks Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti has said that the country is “flirting with economic disaster… [and] in a crisis.” He, like Spain’s PM Rajoy, has pushed for the ESM to buy sovereign bonds. He’s also asked the ECB to implement a mechanism through which it would buy Italian sovereign bonds whenever the spread between them and German bunds grows too large (a type of bailout).

Indeed, things are so desperate that he invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to an emergency meeting in Rome over the weekend. His goal was to convince EU leaders to allow Italy to receive funding directly from the EFSF and ESM.

The ECB and Germany have already rebuked this idea:

ECB Weidmann: Strongly Against Monti's Proposal For Unconditional Funding

European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann strongly opposed the proposal of Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti through which Italy could receive billions of euros from the European rescue umbrellas (EFSF and ESM) without meeting the assigned conditions of the aid, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported.

For Italy, the advantage of Mr. Monti's proposal is simply to avoid meeting the strict saving and reform requirements that are conditional to receive the aid. That in turn would create a unique funding path for Italy unlike what other European countries like Greece and Portugal had to accept to get bailed out.

Mr. Weidmann on the other hand considered that as a "detour" that would result in a state funding which is prohibited by the EU treaties and would undermine the regulatory framework of the monetary union. Besides, Italy already tried a similar method in the 1970s and failed, according to the report.

http://www.efxnews.com/story/13219/ecb-weidmann-strongly-against-montis-proposal-unconditional-funding?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Efxnews+%28eFXnews+%29

Eurozone rift deepens over debt crisis

Leaders of the eurozone’s four largest economies pledged on Friday to back a €130bn growth package and defend the common currency but remained divided over the credit crisis as Germany continued to resist proposals to issue common debt and use bailout funds to stabilise financial markets.

The meeting in Rome was intended to demonstrate a coming together ahead of next week’s EU summit, but ended in disagreement over the need for short-term intervention in the markets and how to achieve greater political and financial union.

At a joint press conference Angela Merkel, German chancellor, declined to endorse affirmations by all three of her co-heads of government – Italy’s Mario Monti, François Hollande of France and Spain’s Mariano Rajoy – of the need to use the eurozone’s bailout funds to “stabilise financial markets”…

Instead, Ms Merkel said Europe needed to respect existing rules and had to work towards common structures to regulate the euro rather than have policies emanating from “17 parliaments each with national sovereignty”.

“If I am giving money to Spanish banks … I am the German chancellor but I cannot say what these banks can do,” she said.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/579e2846-bc8d-11e1-a470-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ynyf6RJD

Merkel and Weidermann’s points here are crucial. There is no way that either can OK giving German funds (ultimately Germany is the real backstop for the EFSF and ESM) without conditions. Why should Germany risk its AAA status to prop up countries that have proven to be unwilling to implement any meaningful reforms and whom actually lie openly to Germany’s face time and again?

Remember, Italy is meant to contribute 18% of the ESM’s funding… so if Italy needs a bailout…

With that in mind,  if you’re not already taking steps to prepare for the coming collapse, you need to do so now. I recently published a report showing investors how to prepare for this. It’s called How to Play the Collapse of the European Banking System and it explains exactly how the coming Crisis will unfold as well as which investment (both direct and backdoor) you can make to profit from it.

This report is 100% FREE. You can pick up a copy today at: http://www.gainspainscapital.com

Good Investing!

Graham Summers

PS. We also feature numerous other reports ALL devoted to helping you protect yourself, your portfolio, and your loved ones from the Second Round of the Great Crisis. Whether it’s a US Debt Default, runaway inflation, or even food shortages and bank holidays, our reports cover how to get through these situations safely and profitably.

Spain bank could get bailout money within weeks - AP

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2018586220_apeuspainfinancialcrisis.html

Spain's ailing banks could get their rescue money within weeks as talks over the terms of their bailout from a European fund are moving swiftly, the economy minister said Tuesday.

MADRID —

Spain's ailing banks could get their rescue money within weeks as talks over the terms of their bailout from a European fund are moving swiftly, the economy minister said Tuesday.

Spain will have access to up to (EURO)100 billion ($126 billion) in rescue loans from the 17-country eurozone's bailout fund for its banks, many of which were stung by the collapse of a real estate bubble and left holding billions in bad loans and foreclosed property.

The terms - including the amounts and interest rates - are still subject to negotiation, however, and will be announced July 9 at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

The Spanish government will take the rescue money and feed it to the banks gradually, rather than in a lump sum, and banks will get different terms depending on their financial condition, Luis de Guindos told a breakfast gathering of business leaders and media.

He said the overall loan, which the government will ultimately be responsible for repaying, will carry favorable interest rates and and repayment schedule.

At first, the money will come from the soon-to-be launched permanent bailout fund, called the ESM, and count as government debt. Eventually, once a single European banking supervisory body is created as agreed at a summit last week, the rescue money will go directly to the banks for recapitalization, not adding to the government's debt load.

De Guindos also had cautious praise for an economic statistics that came out Tuesday: the number of people registered as unemployed in Spain went down sharply in June as employers embarked on a hiring spree to prepare for the country's busy summer tourism season.

Spain's Labor Ministry said the number fell by nearly 99,000 to 4.6 million people. It was the third straight monthly decline.

The ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the decline was the largest drop for June ever recorded.

De Guindos called the number good and said "let's hope it consolidates."

The nation's unemployment rate is released separately and quarterly. It stood at 24.4 percent at the end of March - the highest rate among the 17 nations that use the euro. Spain's jobless rate is 52 percent for those under age 25.

The economy was hit hard by the implosion of a real estate bubble in 2008. That caused property prices to plummet and unemployment to spike as construction jobs dried up.

As concern grew that Spain's public finances may be overwhelmed by the cost of rescuing banks - its budget deficit is almost 9 percent, about three times the EU limit - the government was forced to make painful austerity cuts, such as public sector job cuts. That has helped pushed the economy into its second recession in two years.