Financial Armageddon Inches Closer and Closer

End of the World We Know
Mark Sircus 
Dr. Sircus' Blog

As everyone is well aware, Europe is an absolute mess. The gravity of the global debt crisis is getting worse and for sure it’s the end of the world as we have known it. EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht recently said, “The endgame has begun, and how it will finish I do not know.” There is an implosion happening in Greece, and Spain is not far behind with Portugal and Ireland running neck and neck into the full embrace of depression and life-shattering bank runs.

Greece is a big deal and Spain is even bigger. Right now the European Central Bank (ECB) is starting to cut off funds from several Greek banks and there is a run going on at the same time. Those banks are going down the toilet into a black hole and there will be a loud sucking sound as these banks pull hard on other banks. The Titanic is going down at the bow and just because you are at the stern (in the United States), not in Spain or Greece, it does not mean the cold waters of economic calamity are not going to come to the shores of your life.

ECB, Commission Working On Greek Exit Plans

The European Commission and the European Central Bank are drawing up plans should Greece abandon the euro, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in an interview published Friday, the first time a senior official in the European Union executive has acknowledged such preparations.

The ECB and the commission are "working on emergency scenarios in case Greece does not make it," De Gucht said in an interview with the Flemish newspaper De Standaard. Phone calls to and messages left from Dow Jones Newswires to De Gucht's office were not returned.

A commission spokeswoman denied that contingency plans for a Greek exit were under way. An ECB spokesman said in an e-mail the bank doesn't "engage in any speculations about any emergency plans or possible scenarios and therefore do not comment Commissioner De Gucht's statement." The "immutable preference" is for Greece to stay in the currency bloc, he said, echoing comments Wednesday from ECB President Mario Draghi. More...