Thread: Europe In Crisis: World In Danger?

Interesting insight into Europe's banking collapse and how it has effected Europe and the world in the past and possible future.

Europe in Crisis: World in Danger?

October 7, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

Germany and Europe’s history is a series of crises and Germany’s crucial reactions to them. That history is not over yet.

Robert Morley America’s banking crisis tore into Europe last week with shocking ferocity. Governments from London to Berlin are assessing the carnage and scrambling to prop up collapsing banks. With more failures expected, and unemployment rising, Europe may be facing its gravest crisis since the 1930s. And when Europe is faced with crisis, history says you had better beware: Earthshaking events often soon follow!

The global depression of the 1930s was not just an economic crisis; it was a political and social one too. That disaster sowed the seeds for the rise of radical nationalistic and totalitarian movements around the world. In Russia and elsewhere it emboldened communism. In Japan it led to the Cult of the Emperor. In Britain, it provided fertile ground for the Union of Fascists. In France, it was the Croix-de-Feu.

In Germany, it was the Nazis.

People were desperate, and leaders with radical solutions gained power.

The current global banking crisis is creating desperation in Europe again! We need to take notice: The last worldwide financial catastrophe left more than dead banks. The Great Depression only ended when the world went to war. That economic crisis ended in a global bloodbath!

Right now Europe is shaken. Shortly after Lehman fell in America, dominoes across the Continent began cascading. UK mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley came crashing down; so did Iceland’s third-largest bank, Blitnir Bank. In Germany, Hypo Real Estate Holdings, the largest commercial property domino in the nation, had to be propped up by the government in order to keep it from falling and taking a whole lot of people with it.

Then, the biggest shock to that date hit Europe. Fortis, the 300-year-old bastion of Flemish finance, narrowly avoided tumbling into oblivion by a Dutch and Belgian nationalization. But it didn’t stop there. The next day, Dexia, a financial company whose roots stretch back to 1860, was felled and hurriedly propped back up again by the French, Belgians and Luxembourgers. In Switzerland, banking giant ubs is teetering on the edge, and it is unclear whether even the Swiss government possesses the resources it would take to save it from falling. In Denmark, a whole host of smaller banks are ready to tip over, according to the Financial Times.

But European disasters and emergency rescues were all trumped by Ireland. The Telegraph called the Dublin government’s blanket guarantee of its largest lenders the “most radical bank bailoutâ€

THE BANKS WILL JUST HOARD THIS MONEY. GOVERNMENT BAILOUT MONEY SHOULD BE USED TO MAKE LOANS (TO THOSE WHO ARE CREDIT WORTHY). LIKE TO SMALL BUSINESSES AND SUCH. TO KEEP SOME MONEY FLOWING. THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD JUST SEIZE THE BANKS AND THEIR ASSETS. THEN THEY COULD MAKE APPROPRIATE LOANS.

Actually, if the government insisted upon throwing us in 11 trillion in debt; rather than 10 trillion in debt... they should have given 20,000. to every taxpaying AMERICAN rather than to a handful of elite bankers. Can you imagine what that would have done to the economy. People would have caught up their mortgage payments... bought a new car, gone on shopping sprees and felt much more confidence.

Rather a few elite bankers, who have donated wisely to our Lords and Masters known as King George and Queen Pelosi... took all the money and believe you me, they are not going to pour that money back into the economy.... we will never see it.