Dec 10, 2011

Eurozone Bank trouble and a US General warns of unrest - Washington think-tank: "The eurozone is at great risk."

Telegraph UK - The eurozone banking system is on the edge of collapse as major lenders begin to run out of the assets they need to keep vital funding lines open.

Senior analysts and traders warned of impending bank failures as a summit intended to solve the European crisis failed to deliver a solution that eased concerns over bank funding.

The European Central Bank admitted it had held meetings about providing emergency funding to the region's struggling banks, however City figures said a "collateral crunch" was looming.


Alastair Ryan, a banks analyst at UBS, said there would be "no Lehman moment" – or single catastrophic event – for the European banking sytem, but added that without a full backstop of bank liabilities by governments the system would "struggle to finance itself in the next year in a durable way".

"The system at the moment hasn't got funding of a duration that allows it to function, so it's failing," he said.

Others think the eurozone banks are heading for a catastrophe and the worry is growing that a major bank could collapse within weeks.


BBC News - The top US military commander, Gen Martin Dempsey, says he is concerned about "the potential for civil unrest" as Europe's financial crisis unfolds.

Gen Dempsey said it was unclear the latest steps taken by EU leaders would be enough to hold the eurozone together, adding that a break-up could have consequences for the Pentagon.

Gen Dempsey, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an event hosted by the Atlantic Council, a Washington think-tank: "The eurozone is at great risk."


Forbes Don Martin - American investors need to be aware that problems in the Eurozone will lead to global financial contagion,a worldwide recession and a possible repeat of a crisis like the one that followed the 2008 Lehman bankruptcy.

All that would inevitable do some serious damage to U.S. stocks.