Lloyd's of London preparing for euro collapse

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Sunday Telegraph

The chief executive of the multi-billion pound Lloyd's of London has publicly admitted that the world's leading insurance market is prepared for a collapse in the single currency and has reduced its exposure "as much as possible" to the crisis-ridden continent.

Richard Ward said the London market had put in place a contingency plan to switch euro underwriting to multi-currency settlement if Greece abandoned the euro.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph he also revealed that Lloyd's could have to take writedowns on its £58.9bn investment portfolio if the eurozone collapses.

Europe accounts for 18pc of Lloyd's £23.5bn of gross written premiums, mostly in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The market also has a fledgling operation in Poland.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9292511/Lloyds-of-London-preparing-for-euro-collapse.html

[Mnemosyne]

1. Will this create a domino effect worldwide?

Thanks for any answers, trying to learn and understand.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. I think so. I think it very well could be worse than 2008.

[Mnemosyne]

27. Not good. Thanks, DI! nt

[cstanleytech]

5. Yes. How big is the real unknown though.

[Mnemosyne]

28. Any thoughts on how to prepare for collapse if very widespread? Would

having cash at home help at all?

Thanks cstanley!

[pscot]

33. Buy Deutschmarks

and short the Drachma.

[cstanleytech]

36. Couldnt hurt I guess, I'm not doing it but then thats because I dont have the cash.

Now worst case scenario? Cash wouldnt help.
Gold, silver are usually the best bet if that happens and if you can afford them and no I dont advocate buying gold and silver because I dont personally believe it will get that bad but I am just saying worst case scenario.
Most likely you might see some of the bigger banks go under but someone with the resources will buy their dead rotting corpses so in that area I wouldnt worry to much.
In the end life will go on.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. We need to stop the Euro collapsing now!

so short-sighted.

[cstanleytech]

6. Agree however with the republicans in power in congress I wouldnt count on it. nt

[harun]

7. We? Whether or not the Euro stays or goes will be decided by Europe.

[Drunken Irishman]

8. 'We' can do our best to help considering a collapse there will kill our economy.

And probably ouster our President in the process.

[harun]

11. I stand by the will of the people of Europe. Expressed in the votes in France and Greece, DOWN

WITH AUSTERITY!!!!!

[tabasco]

12. LOL

[rayofreason]

18. Great! Let's use your money first! n/t

[riderinthestorm]

20. You seem to be operating under the delusion that the people matter to the banksters

or that the financial elite aren't already colluding globally on the euro. The US absolutely is involved in the decision making going on right now. Deeply involved. And the Europeans would be fools not to involve the world in solving this problem.

Don't get me wrong - austerity is the wrong solution for sure. But if the powers-that-be turn away from austerity it won't have jack shit to do with what the people want.

[harun]

39. Does anyone on DU ever turn off Fox News anymore?

and listen to the leading minds of the left instead of RW BS all day? Me getting three replies of what I did is horrifically depressing.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/06/paul-krugman-austerity-is-so-wrong.html

All three of you misinformed and embarrassingly so.

[riderinthestorm]

42. I don't have teevee. I'll read any credible POV and make up my own mind

I don't limit myself to just the "left" leaning minds, I read a wide variety of people I trust and come to my own conclusions. FWIW, I've never watched or read anything on Faux news.

I'd suggest you get out of your own narrow focus and try to broaden your own exposure.

Thanks for the gratuitous slam however on those who have come to a different conclusion. That promotes such pleasant (non)discussion....

[Mosaic]

45. Why waste time reading anything on the wrong wing

That is the problem with too many. Stay on the left or form your own centrist forum.

[riderinthestorm]

46. Contrary to popular DU belief there are some excellent voices on the right like Andrew Sullivan

I don't often agree with them but they are thoughtful.

I'm about as lefty-Dem as you can get but I don't think its a problem to read informed right wing commentary. Of course I don't waste a single second on dittoheads, Hannity, Faux, Coulter etc.

FWIW, I don't think positing that there is a group of elite financiers globally who collude for their own benefit (without caring one whit about the common man, riots, looting or protest marches) is a particularly right wing position. YMMV

[tralala]

49. Paul Krugman isn't a leading mind of the left though

[harun]

50. Being right about everything that was going to happen with interest rates to this economy

Last edited Wed May 30, 2012, 06:15 AM - Edit history (1)

when all the other "leading minds" on both sides were wrong makes him by default a leading mind of the Left to me.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

30. Exactly!

[Psephos]

14. There is no way to prevent its collapse.

A true bailout would require actual hard money, backed by tangible assets, not this fake fiat stuff that the Treasury and Fed concoct from thin air by pushing buttons on their keyboards. The European Central Bank does the same thing.

You and I work for money - it's backed by our sweat and responsibility. Their money (like that of all fiat currency governments) is backed by nothing except IOUs that people of the future have been drafted to pay. It's the ultimate form of theft.

The Euro collapse is due to a long run of spending in the present financed by using the future's money. There is no instance in world history where fiat currency-financed deficit economies did not eventually produce a debt bubble followed by a currency collapse. The current fiasco will not be the end of the world, but it will be the end of fake money and debt-driven consumerism. For that I will be thankful. For the rest of the grief and chaos, I will not.

[tcaudilllg]

26. The problem is not the euro.

The problem is speculative currency valuation.

The Euro is just a control mechanism for the German Right. Someone needs to hunt down the bankers responsible for all this fiscal chaos, and dispatch them (it's not safe to imprison them... their money would buy their rescue). The return of justice is the first step.

[pampango]

29. It's largely the right (particularly the far-right) that wants to get rid of the euro (and the EU).

My guess is the French National Front will be quite happy if the eurozone falls apart (with the EU dissolving next in their dreams).

[Rosa Luxemburg]

31. probably US bankers?

[pscot]

34. We'd love to hear your plan.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

37. Rude

[GliderGuider]

44. Well, a bunch of us out here are convinced there is no way to keep it from collapsing.

Certainly not over the long haul, and the more short-sighted band-aids we plaster on the sucking chest wound that is the global financial system, the more horrific the eventual implosion will be.

My preference is to let things fall apart naturally, which they seem to be in the process of doing anyway. That seems to me the least damaging approach to the inevitable unraveling.

But if you have some ideas about how to keep the Euro chugging along for the next few hundred years, and keep the vampire squids from sucking the foundations out from under it in the next decade, now is the time to bring them out for inspection.

[riderinthestorm]

3. A scared K & R. Really bad news... nt

[happerbolic]

9. Haven't heard much about Lloyds for a long while...

...wasn't to sure if they were still around. I remember a buddy of mine in grade school back in '82 and a couple of his buddies (also acquaintences) took it upon themselves to hack into their systems for the fun of it and mess things up a little, just for the challenge.

ha! didn't find out 'til late last year that this classmate had made a whallop selling off his MySpace company.

[may3rd]

43. The euro was supposed to be the base currency for those that predicted

a NWO.
How does this affect the NWO predictions ?

[jwirr]

10. Is Lloyd's of London the AIG of the EU?

[grantcart]

38. No.

Lloyd's of London is a trading market.

If you have enough money you can be appointed a trader.

It started in Lloyd's tavern where ships being put out to sea would have an insurance contract and pin it to the wall of the tavern and interested parties could sign for a percentage of the insurance contract by writing their names under the final line of the contract. That is how the word 'underwriter' came to be.

[jwirr]

40. I always thought it was an insurance company.

[dipsydoodle]

41. Lloyd's, is a British insurance and reinsurance market

Lloyd's of London, styled simply as Lloyd's, is a British insurance and reinsurance market.[1] It serves as a partially mutualised marketplace where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members, whether individuals (traditionally known as Names) or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk. Unlike most of its competitors in the insurance and reinsurance industry, it is not a company, but it is a corporate body under the Lloyd's Act 1871 of the British Parliament. Uberrimae fidei (Latin for "of the utmost good faith&quot is the motto of Lloyd's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd%27s_of_London

[jwirr]

47. Okay thank you. It is my understanding the that is what AIG was doing here in the US and that is

why they were bailed out along with the banksters.

[dipsydoodle]

48. In the case of AIG

they had a liquidity crisis and were provided with an extensive credit line by the Fed in return for 79.9% of their equity.

Not sure what the situation is now - Wike for details. Lloyds is in effect privately funded and I would doubt they would be bailed out. The steps they have taken are to reduce their exposure accordingly.

[DearAbby]

13. I wonder how much the big guys will take out of this

Since they seem to be the ones who do make money even during a crash, It's people like us who will suffer. Bust or Boon it seems these guys know just when to put it in, and take it out.

Austerity to me: We have it all, and we don't want to give it up for the likes of you.

[jerseyjack]

17. some of the big guys are taking haircuts. They own Greek debt.

Our biggest concern is that U.S. banks also own Greek, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Irish debt....and they own it with depositors' money.

But don't worry. They will be bailed out again.

[pscot]

35. On the positive side

you'll be able to buy retsina for a buck a gallon.

[Scairp]

15. Not such a big surprise

I never thought the single currency would work out.

[Javaman]

16. and the rats begin to leave the ship.

won't be long now.

[shimonitanegi]

19. If Grexit happens,

then I think Spain will go under...
A massive domino effect will ensue...

[Kablooie]

21. I thought the fourth turning was here but it may just be beginning now.

[cstanleytech]

22. I wonder what impact this will have on the US dollar though especially seeing

as some governments like Iran tried with switching their oil sales to the euro.

[JDPriestly]

23. That means that the wealthy elite want to ruin European democratic socialism and

make themselves lords and masters of the European masses.

[OVERPAID01]

24. Lloyd's of London is

An investor, my bank handles their investments (i work in the trade industry). Don't hold it against me, I haven't seen a raise or bonus in eight years. My bank has been advising and assisting all the investors to pull out of Greece. BofA has over 32 billion U.S. dollars worth of investments that are stuck with. FAIR WARNING, this is no joke, BofA is using their customer's bank accounts as collateral to cover their losses...

[CountAllVotes]

25. BofA is using their customer's bank accounts as collateral to cover their losses

So, what else is new with Bank of America? This is no surprise to me at all. Of course the USA has money, and lots of it, invested in the Eurozone. Remember when the talk was a collapse of the dollar and the emergence of the Amero?

As for Bank of America, only a fool would bank with them IMO.

If the Euro collapses, its fall will not only effect the EU, it will have an effect on the entire world. Can you hear that crashing sound yet?

So, the UK needs to suck it up and realize that if the Euro collapses, their fall won't be far behind IMO.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

32. and using the US government too