The European House of Cards is About to Collapse

Gains, Pains & Capital ^ | 06 February 2013

[Lorianne]

This German concern has proven to be well founded, as the recent spate of French economic data has been truly horrific.

Auto sales for 2012 fell 13% from those of 2011. Sales of existing homes outside of Paris fell 20% year over year for the third quarter of 2012. New home sales fell 25%. Even the high-end real estate markets are collapsing with sales for apartments in Paris that cost over €2 million collapsing an incredible 42% in 2012.

Since the EU Crisis began in 2008, France and Germany have been the two key countries backstopping the implosion. The fact that France is now facing an economic implosion does not bode well for the future of the Euro or the EU.

The other sovereign backdrop for the EU, Germany, is also experiencing an economic slowdown.

The German economy was hit hard by the euro zone crisis in the final quarter of last year, shrinking more than at any point in nearly three years as traditionally strong exports and investment slowed, the Statistics Office said on Tuesday…

Gross domestic product shrank by 0.5 percent in the final three months of 2012, the worst quarterly performance since Germany fell into a recession during the global financial crisis in 2008/2009 and only the second contraction since it ended.

Thus, we find that Europe’s primary political market props (EU leaders including ECB head Mario Draghi) are coming unraveled at the precise time that EU banks are showing warning signs and the most important EU economies are heading sharply south.

2013 is going to be a very interesting year for Europe.

[Lorianne]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/15/us-germany-gdp-idUSBRE90E09Q20130115

[himno hero]

... by Obama messing with the hub of western man, he meets his Islamic objectives.

[GeronL]

[Buckeye McFrog]

high-end real estate markets are collapsing with sales for apartments in Paris that cost over €2 million collapsing an incredible 42% in 2012.

It's called an Affordable Housing Program...

[pabianice]

Please do not post advertisements.

[I want the USA back]

Germany and France have been pulling the weight for the rest of Europe. So if Germany has a slowdown, the basket cases of Europe will have a hard time.

Tough. The common currency for Europe was a stupid idea.

[Erik Latranyi]

The media continues the idiotic narrative that the economic downturn of 2008 ended in 2009.

Sorry, it continues unabated.

[muawiyah]

Europe had been subjected to a single currency only a couple of times in its history ~ from about the 2nd century AD to the 5th century AD (under Rome before the German takeover) and from about 1500 to 1700 when the Spanish milled dollar served the same purpose. BTW, you can still spend the Spanish milled dollar in the USA as legal currency ~ it's worth $1.00 in trade although its silver content is valued far higher than that.

The more recent attempt at a single currency isn't coming off so well because this isn't 1700.

[Lorianne]

???