Italien – in einem Chart
Zunächst die Abbildung, die alles sagt:
Quelle: Zero Hegde
Ohne die EZB wäre Italien pleite und der Euro Geschichte – allerdings, wie wir am Montag gesehen haben, nur deshalb, weil die Politiker in ihrer Genialität aus einer Schulden- und Bankenkrise eine Währungskrise gemacht haben, die zunehmend die EU zerstört.
Dazu garniert Zero Hedge dann noch die altbekannten Fakten:
- “The economy today is 10% smaller than it was before its peak prior to the 2008 financial crisis. More than 25% of Italy’s industry has been lost since then.”
- “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts it will take at least until 2025 for the Italian economy to return to its 2008 peak. Since nobody can accurately predict what’s going to happen next year, let alone nine years from now, the IMF is basically saying it has no idea how or when the Italian economy could ever recover.”
- “Italy’s populist Five Star Movement is now the country’s most popular political party. M5S blames Italy’s economic malaise squarely on the euro. I’d say a large plurality of Italians agree, and they have a point. They claim that, under the euro, Italian industry and exports have become uncompetitive. M5S believes a return to the lira could be the remedy.”
- “Because of Italy’s structural economic problems, it should have a significantly weaker currency. But since Italy is wrapped in the euro straightjacket, it gets monetary conditions that are far too tight than appropriate for the country.”
- “Italian banks combined have a staggering $400 billion-plus worth of loans that are 90 days past due and unlikely to be repaid in full. These nonperforming loans (NPLs) account for over 18% of all outstanding bank loans and add up to over 20% of the Italian GDP.”
- “Making the problem worse with Italian banks is their financially incestuous relationship with the Italian government and its debt. Italy’s government has borrowed over $2.4 trillion. Its debt-to-GDP ratio is north of 130%, one of the highest in the world. In Europe, only Greece has a higher ratio.”
- “Despite this, Italian government bonds are trading at record-low yields. It’s a bizarre and perverse situation. This is because the European Central Bank (ECB) is intervening in the market through a money-printing program, though the financial media prefers to euphemistically call it “quantitative easing.“
- “Around $1.6 trillion of Italian bonds actually have negative yields. It’s completely insane. It shows the enormous degree to which the ECB has distorted the sovereign bond market. It’s a financial Alice in Wonderland.”
“The only way bankrupt European governments like Italy’s are able to service their mountains of debt is with artificially low interest rates. The situation is so dangerous that even raising rates by a token amount could make paying the interest for the debt impossible. It would collapse the entire system.”
→ Zerohedge.com: “A Mile-High House Of Cards”, 9. Oktober 2016