IMF adviser: The global economy could collapse ‘in two to three weeks’

[Mosaic]

In an interview on BBC yesterday, International Monetary Fund (IMF) adviser Robert Shapiro said something quite alarming: without a plan to save the Euro, the global economy will collapse “in two to three weeks.”

Speaking about European leaders, Shapiro said: “If they can not address in a credible way I believe within perhaps two to three weeks we will have a meltdown in sovereign debt which will produce a meltdown across the European banking system.

“We are not just talking about a relatively small Belgian bank, we are talking about the largest banks in the world, the largest banks in Germany, the largest banks in France, that will spread to the United Kingdom, it will spread everywhere because the global financial system is so interconnected. All those banks are counterparties to every significant bank in the United States, and in Britain, and in Japan, and around the world.

Read more http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/07/imf-adviser-the-global-economy-could-collapse-in-two-to-three-weeks/

[bemildred]

1. These guys have a truly lousy record of incorrect predictions.

And spreading fear is their basic MO. Just saying.

[dkf]

6. These dire predictions are incorrect because they galvanize governments to prevent it.

[bemildred]

7. Indeed.

Fear makes you stupid.

[dkf]

10. If you have nothing to lose you have nothing to fear. They have something to lose.

[bemildred]

11. You won't find me arguing they are not dumb.

But they can be clever. The problem is, bullshit will only take you so far, at some point the real world starts to intrude, and they have been insulated from it for so long that they don't know what to do anymore, or the mercenaries decide to cut out the middle man, or things fall apart and everybody left wanders away looking for better forage.

[dkf]

12. The Chinese know they have to keep the whole thing spinning or it falls apart.

Most pols know this.

[bemildred]

13. Yeah, that's why it has not fallen already.

Nobody with power really has that much of an an interest in bringing it down. Everybody wants to keep the old game alive.

[elleng]

14. Problem is, no one really knows how to prevent it,

SO the 'new' evil empire, China, will rule, imo.

[bemildred]

15. I dunno if anybody is going to "rule" this time.

One could draw the lesson from the period since WWII that global domination is difficult or impossible to achieve, and unstable once you have managed it. The last century has not been kind to empires.

But definitely not us.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. Time for another bailout, I see.

As long as no one is held accountable for these actions, the financial terrorism will continue.

[anamandujano]

3. Yup.

Last time around I hadn't been reading here so they had me convinced it was the only way. Now I know better.

They get away with it because of the brain washing.

[Mojorabbit]

4. I am amazed at the gall they have to ask for more bank

bailouts while pushing austerity of the population.

[jwirr]

8. That is what I was thinking - I wonder if they have the corporations

lined up to start buying up the failed economies assets? It is what they did to all the other countries they pushed into austerity.

[saras]

5. Bring it on. Get it over with. Show us once and for all that we don't need you. Otherwise shut up

[bhikkhu]

9. If nobody gets out of bed Monday morning, it could happen sooner

...equally silly. Of course it could collapse - it could always collapse, and the dire end has been predicted over and over again as long as I've been around and reading, since the seventies.

The key is that economies act in their best interests, most of the time, and there are no immovable obstacles to "saving the Euro". Not to be too confident, but betting on them to fall on their faces and screw it up isn't too likely.