Need a Good Laugh? Check Out This Bank’s “Solution” for Athens’ Debt Problem!

搞咁多野, 全是為咗搶奪世上黃金 !

www.silverdoctors.com

In the 59th minute of the 11th hour, having utterly helped to hasten the crippling of the Greek banking system, a German bank comes out and offers perhaps the most ridiculous idea to Athens yet, on how to make their June IMF payments and “Solve” the Greek debt problem…
Waaait for it!…

Submitted by The Wealth Watchman:

Spreading Panic

As things continue to spiral in Greece, markets have begun to really take notice as of late.  With the government in Athens continuing to hold the line on not cutting into Greek pensions(at least, so far), it seems that the Troika has seriously upped its threats to the tiny country.

For those who’ve been keeping up with the blow by blow reports in the debt negotiations though, if you’ve thought throughout all this, that it seemed as if the European banks were trying to start bank runs throughout Greece, you may very well be right.

Yet, now, in the 59th minute of the 11th hour, having utterly helped to hasten the crippling of the Greek banking system, a German bank comes out and offers perhaps the most ridiculous idea to Athens yet, on how to make their June IMF payments…Waaait for it!

“Commerzbank Suggests Greece Could Sell Gold Reserves to Make Payment”

Yes!  Genius!  Why, Athens could simply hock off their remaining generational treasures, to simply make a few interest payments to DC’s imperial banking bourse, the IMF!  Why didn’t Greece think of this before?

Well, I’m no rocket scientist, but maybe they haven’t mentioned doing this, because it’s the dumbest thing anyone has uttered yet!  However, lest any of you think this is just some cruel joke, I assure you, they’re quite serious. Commerzbank said:

“According to the latest [International Monetary Fund] statistics, the Greek central bank holds 112.5 tons of gold, worth €3.8 billion at current market prices…Greece could in theory meet the €1.5 billion payment due to the IMF at the end of the month by selling 47 tons of gold from its reserves, if no agreement is reached with international creditors on the payment of bailout funds.”

Cute huh?  Yes, “in theory”!  While we’re all taking a frolic down the bizarre lane of the suppositional here, let’s run another scenario.

What if I held a press conference, and told all the poor, college students across the US(awash in crushing debt) that I had plan to help them pay off their tuition? Then, after I had amassed thousands of those desperate students in front of me, who hung on my every word, I finally said,
“Guys, trust me on this one, all that each of you has to do(in theory) in order to come up with the needed cash to make your next semester’s tuition payment…
Is to sell both of your kidneys on the black market!”

Well, friend, do you think I’d have many takers?  Or do you think those same students would chase me down with sharp, pointy objects for offering such a hopelessly cynical and heartless idea?

Yes, while it’s true that if Greece sold half its gold reserves, it could keep the agonizing farce in Greece continuing for perhaps another 2 months….why on earth would they want to do that?

Why continue to play this impossible bankers’ game for even a day longer than necessary here? Especially when you consider that even the bank who offered this mind-numbing “solution”, admits that it will probably make things worse! Read on!

“One European Bank said that the beleaguered nation has one more Hail-Mary shot, but it’s only a short-term solution and could exacerbate the situation.”

No fooling!

After all, remember what happened to Venezuela after it caved and sold some of their gold to the “Black Market Dealers” in London?  Did it help re-establish confidence in their beleaguered country?  Well, just check out this headline:

“Venezuela’s Inflation Rate Is 200% and Credit Card Companies Are Cashing In”

You read that right.  Not only did the “solution” of selling gold to the DC/London loan sharks result in hyperinflation, but the desperate Venezuelan citizens are now being preyed upon by carnivorous credit card companies, who’re carving up what’s left of their country!

Yes, brilliant, excellent suggestion banksters!  Spoken like a true psycho, “Sell us your gold, at 5 year lows, so you can use the meager proceeds to pay us again!”

Oh, but if you thought that Commerzbank’s “helpful” suggestion to Greece was an asinine remark, just wait!  I assure you, they saved the best, most disgusting statement for last!

Rubbing Salt in the Wound

Yes, the pièce de résistance in the entire 4 course meal of goofiness, was in the article’s last statement:

“They(Commerzbank) also noted that this scenario, an emergency sale of Greece’s gold, could be one reason why gold hasn’t benefited from increased risk aversion sentiment.”

Hilarious!

Yes, my fellow stackers, not only did Commerzbank suggest that Greece sell 66% of their sovereign reserves(equaling just 1% of their country’s debts), they then had the unmitigated gall to state that the real reason gold’s price is stagnant is due to market apprehension that Greece might just sell 47 tonnes of gold! 

Who are these clowns kidding?  Just take a look at this chart!



Brothers, 46 more tonnes of gold were just bought in Shanghai!  That’s not all though, if you combine that 46 tonnes with the amount of gold that Hong Kong bought during that same week…you get a combined total of 76 tonnes of gold, in 7 days!

So, let’s get this straight: we’re to believe that the mere possibility of a sale of a tiny 47 tonnes of gold(which the bank already admits is unlikely), is the real reason why gold continues to languish around $1,200?  Seriously?

Shanghai bought that much gold…in one week!   Year to date stacking in Shanghai is now 1,061 tonnes, which is 20% higher than it was this same time last year!  The audacity of these crooks is just unreal.

Sadly for them though, their plans to threat and cajole Athens into caving hasn’t worked, as it has just come out that Greek officials’ new plan still isn’t offering Brussels what it really wants…

Tsipras’ New Offer

For the news has hit the wire, that Tispras and Syriza have tabled what is likely their final offer before things get extremely dicey.  However, that deal does not include cuts to pensions, as the Troika has insisted upon:

“The new plan includes elimination of early retirement options as of next year, an increase on tax surcharges that middle- and high-income earners pay, as well as a levy on companies with annual net income of more than 500,000 euros, a Greek government official said earlier Sunday.”

So, while early retirement will be nixed, and other taxes will be implemented, both the VAT hikes, and the pension promises themselves will(at least not yet) be defaulted on.  To be honest, the plan seems half-hearted and tepid at best, but as I’ve said before:

I don’t believe that Athens really wants a solution to be reached.  Rather, I think they’d much rather just rip this band-aid off, and be done with it.  However, throughout this process, they also can’t be seen as the cause of what will inevitably occur, once a “Grefault” has happened.

If this is to be the final olive branch offered before capital controls and bank runs, then Syriza did manage, miraculously, to keep their promise of leaving direct pension cuts off the table.  Now, we’ll have to see how the offer is received by Europe’s heads of state.

Conclusion

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the real reason Syriza has seemed confident from day one in this whole debt saga, is that they have two crucial things they need to hold the line:

1)A mandate from their constituents to tell the Troika where to “stick it”, and
2)The BRICS backstopping them with a better, more viable array of future options.