2012-02-26

Obama admin won't help Europe; European state run healthcare systems completely bankrupt; debt crisis getting worse

President Obama and his administration are frequently accused by the right of wanting to make the United States more like Europe. Much of the opposition to financial bailouts comes from the right, especially when money goes overseas to the IMF, foreign banks or foreign governments. Yet the Obama administration isn't interested in helping either.

Geithner, Schaeuble Spar Over Debt Crisis
The U.S.’s refusal to join that effort is hampering a drive to raise funds from other nations, Paulo Nogueira Batista, Brazil’s representative to the Washington-based lender, said in an interview. G-20 nations including Japan and China pledged to help Europe through the IMF, as long as Europe increases its financial backstop, or firewall, to contain the crisis.

“The reluctance or skepticism of a country the size of the U.S. is a handicap, especially if you consider that the G-20 is a consensus mechanism,” Nogueira Batista said.
The Brazilian government has the same opinion as the U.S. though, unless they get something in the deal:
Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega, after a meeting with his counterparts from Russia India, China and South Africa -- the so-called BRICS group of major emerging markets -- sided with the U.S. view that Europe needs to take more action. Developing nations will only contribute more funding to help Europe if the region’s leaders follow “precisely to the letter” a 2010 agreement to give them a bigger say in how the IMF is run.
The big talk over this weekend is of firewalls: act boldly to prevent a default from spreading across global markets.
Even so, the ECB’s offer “isn’t a substitute for the firewall,” Gurria said in a panel discussion in Mexico City. “We still have to build the mother of all firewalls.”
A firewall is possible, but due the politicians understand social mood? They do not anticipate further declines in social mood, therefore even if a firewall were possible, it would be overwhelmed by the fire. Furthermore, the negative social mood means there will not be cooperation or at least not enough to solve the problem. Instead of coming together on a deal and thinking of how everyone benefits, the politicians are thinking of all the costs and want side deals at other nations' expense.

Elsewhere, in On PIGS on Drugs, Bruce Krasting informs us that Recession-hit nations owe pharma firms billions
As austerity measures across Europe lead to healthcare spending cuts, hospitals in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain are delaying paying for drugs by up to three years.
There's a lot of good info in the Krasting post, such as the following:
Note #1

I was part of the problem (and part of the solution) for the Latin American debt crisis of the 80’s. I had a front row seat with each central bank as they went bust. Every effort was made to kick the financial can down the road. In the end, it all blew up.

For every country, the death march was the same. When big trade creditors finally balked, and said, “No mas IOU”, debt default followed within weeks.

Note #2

Novartis and Roche have the PIG “trade receivables” and those Greek “Zeros” on the books at 100% of par. The other global drug companies who are sitting on the rest of the $20b of IOUs have it booked the same. These debts are not worth par. One day these drug companies will have to write them off. I do wonder what other big EU companies are sitting on chunky IOU’s from PIGS. None of this is “money good”.
Some firewall. The Greek debt crisis is metastasizing; people were worried about the European banking system, but it turns out many non-financial firms are holding Greek debt. In spite of the bailouts, the crisis is growing worse, the debt is growing larger and very few people know non-financial companies are holding Greek bonds. It's a recipe for disaster.

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