|
I want to issue a major warning to investors: the EU Crisis is going to get worse in
the coming months.
I realize that most investors and analysts believe that the EU Crisis
is over. They think that because the S&P 500 closing in on its all-time
highs shows that things are fine in the system. They are wrong.
The only item that held Europe together in 2012 was the credibility of
EU politicians and ECB President Mario Draghi.
Please note that nothing
fundamental improved for the EUs financial system: EU GDP has
since re-entered a recession and EU unemployment has a hit a new record.
Indeed, the only reason things even looked
better was because various Government engaged in massive interventions. In
the case of Spain, this included raiding 90% of their social security fund to
buy Spanish bonds so that yields would fall.
So
when you entire financial system is held together
by the credibility of the political class
corruption
scandals can implode the system.
MADRID Spains
governing Popular Party was drawn deeper into a web of corruption scandals
this past week, after the Swiss authorities informed the Spanish judiciary
that the partys
former treasurer had amassed as much as 22 million euros, or $29 million, in
Swiss bank accounts.
The treasurer, Luis Bárcenas, resigned from
his job in 2009, after being indicted in the early stages of an
investigation, which is still ongoing, into a scheme of kickbacks and illegal
payments allegedly involving other conservative party politicians
Nonetheless, the revelations have brought a fast-growing list of
corruption investigations, which have unspooled across Spain, to the doorstep
of the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy,
who has so far remained silent. About 300
Spanish politicians from across the party spectrum have been indicted or
charged in corruption investigations since the start of the financial crisis.
Few have been sentenced so far.
Source: NY Times
The above story illustrates some key elements that all investors need
to be aware of:
1) EU politicians are so corrupt they make their US
counterparts look clean by comparison.
2) Having been put off for years, investigations into
corruption are now reaching the point at which the rich and powerful are
actually at risk of serious consequences.
Note in the above story that former Spanish Treasurer Luis Bárcenas has been under investigation since before 2009. The fact that the real
smoking gun (his hidden Swiss bank account containing over $29 million) is
only just coming to light should give you an idea of how corrupt the system
in Europe has become (there is no way on earth it would take four years to
find this information).
That this information is coming out now also tells us that things are
getting so bad in Spain that heads are going to start to role. As we stated
earlier, corruption only works until the consequences outweigh the benefits
of being on the take. The above story tells us that we
have finally reached that point in Spain. Its taken five
years for this to happen (the Crisis begin in 2008). But the system has
finally reached the inflection point at which key players will face real
consequences for their corruption.
With that in mind we can expect more and more such cases to begin to
emerge in Europe. The fallout from this will be major both for the political
class and for the financial markets.
Indeed, later in the same story we find the following tidbit:
On Wednesday, amid another property investigation,
the president of Madrids
regional government, Ignacio González, revealed
that he and his wife purchased a penthouse last month in the holiday resort
of Marbella for 770,000 euros, or more than $1 million. Mr.
González, who earns 4,800 euros a month, about
$6,380, is denying any wrongdoing, as well as any link
between his acquisition and the property investigation undertaken by a local
judge.
A regional President, earning less than $80K a year just bought a $1
million penthouse in a country where youth unemployment is above 50%, workers
have gone over six months without being paid, and pharmacies are running out
of medicine due to having not been paid some 500 million by
the government.
The reason this is so important is because politics, not economics,
drives everything in Europe. Please note that the entire EU banking system
was pulled back from the brink of collapse last summer by Mario Draghi and other EU officials promising to do whatever it
takes to end the crisis.
Since that time, the economy has actually worsened in Europe. Unemployment has hit a new
record and the vast majority of the EU has re-entered recessionary territory.
Thus, it has been the credibility of various EU officials, not any fundamental
improvement in things that has made the whole system work
Now that major corruption scandals are breaking out regarding key EU
figures, its going to be increasingly difficult for the EU
political class to continue to convince the markets that the everything
is OK.
Indeed, it's time that we get really honest about things and state
that Europe is done. Finished.
The powers that be over there are rapidly losing control of the
system. Spain's banking system is collapsing at a rate worse than that of the
Asian nations during the Asian Contagion of the late '90s. Italy's bonds are
imploding. Germany is finding its economy teetering on the edge of a cliff.
And France is seeing auto sales and apartment deals collapse at a rate just as bad as that of 2008.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
The debt contagion has now spread to Spain, Italy, and even France:
all three of them are countries too big to be bailed out.
Which means... it's the End Game. No matter what, the defaults are coming
and the Euro will implode.
This is the reality for Europe. The whole system will be going down, it's only a matter of time. And when it does
collapse, it's going to make Lehman Brothers look like a joke.
I know the markets have yet to fully realize this...the S&P 500 is
approaching its all-time highs. But back in late 2007, the last time the
markets were at this level... did stocks get
what was coming then too? Nope. And by the time stocks "got it"
things moved VERY quickly.
Graham Summers
So if you have not already taken
steps to prepare for systemic failure, you NEED to do so NOW. We're literally
at most a few months, and very likely just a few weeks from Europe's banks
imploding, potentially taking down the financial system with them. Think I'm
joking? The Fed is pumping hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars into EU banks right now trying to stop this from happening.
We have produced a FREE Special
Report available to all investors titled What Europes Collapse Means For You and Your Savings.
This report features ten pages of
material outlining our independent analysis real debt situation in Europe
(numbers far worse than is publicly admitted), the true nature of the EU
banking system, and the systemic risks Europe poses to investors around the
world.
It also outlines a number of
investments to profit from this; investments that anyone can use to take
advantage of the European Debt Crisis.
Best of all, this report is 100%
FREE. You can pick up a copy today at:
http://gainspainscapital.com/eu-report/
Best,
Phoenix
Capital Research
|
