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Monday, May 21, 2012

Bank runs: Corralitos coming to Greece and Spain?

Greeks are running to the banks to get their money out and an eventual “corralito”, freezing all accounts is very much unavoidable. € 800 million left Greece last week and most companies already took their money abroad long time ago. The economy in Greece is beyond repair at his point and it will eventually leave the Euro and go back to the Drachma and Spain will probably follow some time later. While this will be a huge blow to the EU, it is the first step towards independence. The problem is that with the Euro to Drachma or Peseta conversions people will lose a significant amount of their purchasing power. Its clearly better to have Euros under the mattress now and change them later for a favorable exchange rate. Eventually it will become a double standard economy, with real estate, importations and cars being priced in Euros but people earning in Drachmas.
This article from The Economist draws the obvious comparisons between Greece and the Argentine economic collapse.
In this video I explain Corralitos a bit, what they are, what’s happening now in Greece and what are some of your options for protecting your savings.

FerFAL

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This gets me a little worried because the US is starting a big push to track foreign bank accounts and even asked on the tax form if you owned foreign property. They already had in Ocare which was a part that was repealed a way to track the precious metals. Those are 3 ways you said you can protect yourself. Wonder if they are preparing for something?

Burke said...

The way the politicians are talking now, you might be better off going the way of precious metals. The "growth strategy" they keep repeating is nothing but more money printing.

The time is coming when you won't be able to trust any banks anywhere or any country's currency, I believe. Even Switzerland is devaluing the Franc so their exporters will be able to compete.

Anonymous said...

Ferfal, Do you think there will ever be a corralito in the U.S.?

Why or why not?

Kuba said...

"The economy in Greece is beyond repair at his point and it will eventually leave the Euro and go back to the Drachma and Spain will probably follow some time later. While this will be a huge blow to the EU, it is the first step towards independence."

I fear that won't be the case. The fate of Greece is sealed more or less. The new loans, financed to a large extent by Germany have significant collateral: Pyrrheus Airport, numerous harbours and highways. Greece has no other way out but to default (there is no other way out from this kind of a debt spiral) and as an effect this collateral will shift ownership to Germany. This is the modern way to conquer countries. It may seem more humane - without bombs and guns, and is way more effective. After all is done Greece will be a foreign colony, all but independent.