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I hope (and suspect) that the ECB (and Europe as a whole) will financially stand behind Italy, no questions asked (I'm a fellow European).
by paganel 7y ago
I hope (and suspect) that the ECB (and Europe as a whole) will financially stand behind Italy, no questions asked (I'm a fellow European).
- tanilama 7y agoI am not European, but I hope EU can act jointly to handle this. Otherwise, EU's future is jeopardy.
- PeterStuer 7y agoYou seem to forget that the ECB is there for the banks, not for the people or their countries.
- ohazi 7y agoThe financial stakeholders in these banks and in Europe as a whole have a powerful motivation to contain this pandemic.
- kspacewalk2 7y agoYou seem to forget that [ insert deeply ideological sloganeering / extremely arguable value judgment ].
- andrei_says_ 7y agoI wish everyone was addressing trolling face on, like you. Thank you.
- nutjob2 7y agoYes, the ECB is there to support and regulate the banks, that is its job. There is a very good reason for this: if you don't have stable and healthy banks you don't have a functioning economy. People of your ideological ilk see this as some sort of negative but it's absolutely vital. You may think of banks as evil and having a lot of money, but that money is not theirs but "the people's."
- zelphirkalt 7y agoMany banks certainly don't tend to act like it is the people's money.
- dx034 7y agoThe ECB can (and has in the past) given out cheap money under the condition that this is used for loans. They could do that again easily.
- PeterStuer 7y agoLoans to companies to buy back their own stock. XD
- wolco 7y agoWhat happens when France and Germany and Spain reach Italy totals? Who will be left to help out?
- paganel 7y agoGood question, I'm thinking that the EU (because at that point this will have become a political issue) will have to put all its geo-political weight to good use and force a debt moratorium, I don't think that just plain old QE (or whatever else they'll decide to call it) will work anymore. That could at least relieve some pressure off Italy, which has one of the highest debts to service from the OECD group.
- koheripbal 7y agoI believe Turkey is sending people to help...
- nutjob2 7y agoThe ECB, of course. It can create an unlimited money and use it to support the stability of banks that are the largest holders of sovereign debt. It's done this before and it will do it again.
- sparkling 7y agoA full-scale failiure of the Italian economy and/or failing of any major Italian bank is "game over" for the Euro. The Greece bailout already had the Eurozone down on its knees, but this is a different dimension.
- luckydata 7y agoAllow me to doubt this until I see it become reality. The European government has been less than helpful to Italy throughout its history.
- zelphirkalt 7y agoAs the EU is mostly only its parts and everyone now in alert, I highly doubt it. Everyone is keeping their medical items to themselves now, because there is not even sufficient for their own country. EU will mostly be talk.
- dx034 7y agoThey are mostly talk because the EU has little actual power. Giving debt relief to Italy has to be decided by head of states. I'm pretty certain that there's a lot of public support across the EU to help Italy if they need to. If Italy cannot refinance, issuing debt backed by several countries would be an easy option. You wouldn't even need support by all EU countries, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France backing it would be more than enough. And those would certainly be sympathetic to do that, a collapsing Euro would hit all of those states harder. But so far, debt markets are still open and there's no reason to panic. Therefore governments focus on more pressing problems for now.