Posted on 09/22/2015 1:47:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Is something about to happen in Germany that will shake the entire world? According to disturbing new intel that I have received, a major financial event in Germany could be imminent. Now when I say imminent, I do not mean to suggest that it will happen tomorrow. But I do believe that we have entered a season of time when another “Lehman Brothers moment” may occur. Most observers tend to regard Germany as the strong hub that is holding the rest of Europe together economically, but the truth is that serious trouble is brewing under the surface. As I write this, the German DAX stock index is down close to 20 percent from the all-time high that was set back in April, and there are lots of signs of turmoil at Germany’s largest bank. There are very few banks in the world that are more prestigious or more influential than Deutsche Bank, and it has been making headlines for all of the wrong reasons recently.
Just like we saw with Lehman Brothers, banks that are “too big to fail” don’t suddenly collapse overnight. The truth is that there are always warning signs in advance if you look closely enough.
In early 2014, shares of Deutsche Bank were trading above 50 dollars a share. Since that time, they have fallen by more than 40 percent, and they are now trading below 29 dollars a share.
It is common knowledge that the corporate culture at Deutsche Bank is deeply corrupt, and the bank has been exceedingly reckless in recent years.
If you are exceedingly reckless and you win all the time, that is okay. Unfortunately for Deutsche Bank, they have increasingly been on the losing end of things.
Prior to the “sudden collapse” of Lehman Brothers on September 15th, 2008, there had been media reports of mass layoffs at the firm. To give you just a couple of examples, CNBC reported on this on March 10th, 2008 and the New York Times reported on this on August 28th, 2008.
When big banks start getting into serious trouble, this is what they do. They start getting rid of staff. That is why the massive job cuts that Deutsche Bank just announced are so troubling…
Deutsche Bank aims to cut roughly 23,000 jobs, or about one quarter of total staff, through layoffs mainly in technology activities and by spinning off its PostBank division, financial sources said on Monday.
That would bring the group’s workforce down to around 75,000 full-time positions under a reorganization being finalised by new Chief Executive John Cryan, who took control of Germany’s biggest bank in July with the promise to cut costs.
Cryan presented preliminary details of the plan to members of the supervisory board at the weekend. A spokesman for the bank declined comment.
Deutsche Bank has also been facing mounting legal troubles. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent Zero Hedge article…
The bank, which has paid out more than $9 billion over the past three years alone to settle legacy litigation, has become something of a poster child for corrupt corporate culture.
In April, Deutsche settled rate rigging charges with the DoJ for $2.5 billion (or about $25,474 per employee) and subsequently paid $55 million to the SEC (an agency that’s been run by former Deutsche Bank employees and their close associates for years) in connection with allegations it deliberately mismarked its crisis-era LSS book to the tune of at least $5 billion.
But it was out of the frying pan and into the fire so to speak, because early last month, the DoJ announced it would seek to extract a fresh round of MBS-related settlements from banks that knowingly packaged and sold shoddy CDOs in the lead up to the crisis. JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Citi settled MBS probes when the DoJ was operating under the incomparable (and we mean that in a derisive way) Eric Holder but now, emboldened by her pyrrhic victory over Wall Street’s FX manipulators, new Attorney General Loretta Lynch is set to go after Barclays PLC, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC,UBS AG and Wells Fargo & Co.
Of course the legal troubles are just the tip of the iceberg of what has been going on over at Deutsche Bank over the past couple of years. The following is a pretty good timeline of some of the major events that have hit Deutsche Bank since the beginning of last year. It comes from a NotQuant article that was published back in June entitled “Is Deutsche Bank the next Lehman?“…
Are you starting to get the picture? These are not signs of a healthy bank.
What makes things even worse is how recklessly Deutsche Bank has been behaving. At one point, it was estimated that Deutsche Bank had a staggering 75 trillion dollars worth of exposure to derivatives. Keep in mind that German GDP for an entire year is only about 4 trillion dollars. So when Deutsche Bank finally collapses, there won’t be enough money in Europe (or anywhere else for that matter) to clean up the mess. This is a perfect example of why I am constantly hammering on the danger of these “weapons of financial mass destruction”.
If Deutsche Bank were to totally collapse, it would be a financial disaster far worse than Lehman Brothers. It would literally take down the entire European financial system and cause global financial panic on a scale that none of us have ever seen before.
On a personal note, I apologize for not posting anything last week. I traveled to two very important conferences and was living out of a suitcase for about eight days.
There has been a bit of a lull in the action over the past couple of weeks, but I expect that to end very shortly. I believe that the rest of 2015 is going to be incredibly chaotic, and we are going to see some things happen that most people could not even conceive of right now.
In the days that are directly ahead, I encourage people to keep a close eye on both Germany and Japan.
Big things are about to happen, and millions are about to be totally shaken out of their complacency.
I’m still trying to get my head around the Volkswagen scandal.
Now this?
Another consequence of central banking, particularly the present policies of our own Federal Reserve.
Yeah, that was/is nuts!
Muslim “migrants” scamper out of financially- shocked Germany looking for better bennies elsewhere.
Film at eleven.
DB has been in trouble for a while.
Not sure it’s the end of the world. But it would be disruptive.
And keep in mind, the money doesn’t just disappear, for every buyer there is a seller.
No wonder Germany wants its gold back....
I’d have thought that bank would have had more employees than that.
Global economy
more concerned about fiance and my 401Ks.
gave back ten percent last quarter.
I was itching to flee to safety after 18000 didn’t hold over and over, but one never knows what to do.
Now fiance laid off. We’ll be ok with my salary.
trying to push her out the door quickly for another job and bank the severance :)
In NY/USSR you dont get unemployment if you get a package from your company. A package you earned over many years WHILE you paid unemployment insurance.
They have cracked down big time on the unemployed in New York with many new rules because everyone was just collecting forever.
Dont know how i feel about unemployment in general, but it does exist and my fiance’s package should not affect it. Or maybe i’m wrong.
One time i wish i lived in CA lol
“No wonder Germany wants its gold back....”
What gold (and I mean that literally). It’s not there.
Then ship them some gold plated Wolfram.....
Might as well take her time, really exploring options. Can you take a nice long vacation, maybe see some of the world during this break?
theeconomiccollapseblog
What happens when EVERYONE wants their gold back?
Geez you mean the 800,000 Syrian refufgees didn’t help?
” the center cannot hold”
People that want to trade their paper certificates for real metal are in for a shock .... They just better hope the ponzi scheme continues
What about people who have gold and silver IRAs "in safe keeping"? You can't fix stupid.
I read somewhere today (actually an ad from one of those companies that like to prey on Seniors) that sale of Silver Eagles was halted, again, because of demand that can't be met. Is that true? And when I checked, the per ounce price of silver is down, even though the cost over spot is going up from most sources. One company wasn't selling silver eagles today, but had the equivalent from some other countries. Does any of it make any sense? (rhetorical question)
NY will pay unemployment as soon as the severance payments end. If she is lump summed that could be as quick as two weeks after separation. You may even be able to collect while receiving severance provided you have a letter stating there is no chance of being rehired.
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