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| Philip II the bankrupt - history repeats itself |
Spanish newspaper El Economista writes: Portugal will accept EU financial rescue in the upcoming weeks (in Spanish, found via La Barricada...)
Why not bankrupticy? This is my permanent question.
There is absolutely nothing (other than the trivial impossibility of further borrowing in the short term) that prevents a sovereign state like Portugal from declaring bankruptcy or even a softer version such as a moratorium... until the economy recovers or inflation erases the debt to payable terms.
Because while some indebtedness can be of occasional help, there is a moment when paying the debt back becomes impossible and an undesirable burdern for the nation, specially for the common people. In these cases bankruptcy is surely the way ahead and as such it is formally established for individuals and corporations in the laws of all modern states. After all bankers knew the risks when they made the loans.
And the person or state declaring bankruptcy knows what it means for its credit. But when the burden is too big there is no way around.
Right now Portugal is being forced to borrow at more than 7% interest (when banks get their credit from USA or EU at nearly 0%, please!) and EU is likely to impose conditions of circa 5% (that was the interest imposed to Ireland - let god protect me of my friends...)
Spain is already borrowing at more than 5% and the downgrading of Portugal is not helping, as most Portuguese debt is held by Spanish institutions, private or public. So it is likely that the Bourbon Kingdom will have to declare bankruptcy soon... because there is no rescue package big enough for Spain (and maybe better that way).
And I say maybe better that way because it is about time that a sovereign bankruptcy happens. How can we tolerate that public money is being given away to banks in form of hyper-cheap credits which pay off alone (as they have rates under inflation levels, discouraging investment risks) and instead allow public institutions, specially social services, being undermined by artificially high interest rates driven by the avarice of the minions that the bankster mafia has put in the ECB, the European Commission and even in the various states, including those being robbed of everything under these speculative maneuvers?!
A sovereign bankruptcy, which will happen sooner than later and will probably happen a few months from now in Madrid in fact, a city with a long tradition of such quitter tactics.
Maybe it is some bad karma. So much genocide, inquisition and fascism cannot be good for any spirit.
But sincerely, considering how the ECB and the Fed give away money to banks and do not give it to the states, the only logical thing to do is to put back the ball in their court by openly threatening with bankruptcy, something that should get the global banksters and Angela Merkel veggy negvous.
If you owe the bank $1000 and you cannot pay, you have a problem. If you owe the bank $1000000000,, they have a problem. That is the only reason I can think of why anyone would lend at 7% to Portugal.
ReplyDeleteIf the country going into default is able to live within its mean once the interest payments go away it would be easy.
IMO the problem is that the west has borrowed its way to a sense of prosperity that is an illusion.
That this illusory prosperity was not shared evenly and that the burden of the debt rests unevenly is unfortunately somewhat beside the point.
We are going to get poorer without all the borrowed money, and it will be worse when we start running our of oil.
Erm, Bank of America (just one example of so many bankrupt banks being subsidized with public money) is getting infinite loans at 0.25% even if it has not the power of taxation. Portugal, like any sovereign state, has the power of taxation and regulation, in fact owning all its own economy.
ReplyDeleteLending to Portugal is less crazy than lending to banks. But lending at 7% is calculated to bring the state to its knees and rob it even further. That's why I think that the only logical thing to do is to declare disobedience to the system and stop paying altogether.
Exactly as the Greek people is doing with the fiscal disobedience campaign "I won't pay".
In any case it's just absurd to be spending ECB's public money in lending to private banks at near zero interest when public institutions have no access to such borrowing. It should be the other way around and all economic problems would be solved (at the expense of some vampires' undue profits).