The French like to denounce American capitalism and mock its excesses and instability, especially in the financial sector. Nevertheless, when one looks at the data from the large banks on both sides of the Atlantic, it becomes clear that the most risk is actually with France.

The ECB wants to prevent bank runs by allowing banks to block deposits and authorise limited withdrawals, like they did in Cyprus in March, 2013. According to the institution, the deposit protection scheme is no longer necessary.

With Bitcoin, more and more people are questioning what real money is and, slowly, the whole world will jump in, and gold will benefit from it. And that is good news.

Stuck in its own petard, the ECB doesn’t believe in a vigorous and durable economic recovery anymore – the only thing that would allow it, as well as over-indebted countries, to fall back on their feet.

“Europe’s bank sector has grown too big and may need to shrink, possibly through mergers or failures (...) many banks in the euro area do not earn their cost of capital.” In other words, they are zombie banks, bankrupt and only kept alive by the liquidity flowing from the ECB.

We seldom hear about the risk of a major financial crisis if rates were to rise – almost never within the official networks and mainstream media. One has to listen to independent “marginal” economists outside the banks or universities, such as our own Egon von Greyerz, or Olivier Delamarche, Bill Bo...

Getting one’s money out of the bank – at least a large portion of it – is one thing, but what is one to do with it? The preferred investment, the most reassuring, according to observations and some polls, is real estate.

A new nail should be driven in the savers’ coffins, according to the very serious Reuters press agency: the freezing of bank accounts in order to avoid any bank run.

The trillions of dollars, euro, yens, Yuan etc. created by the central banks since the 2008 crisis haven’t triggered any wave of inflation, contrary to what history has been teaching thus far. But should we underestimate the risk? Of course not.

According to Goldman Sachs, central banks now hold a full third of the world’s bond market.

Let’s ask for ECBexit! Not to get out of the euro (and get back to manipulated national currencies... no, thanks!), but to drastically reduce the power of the European Central Bank.

Banks are definitely no longer the sanctuaries they once were. Following the threats of draining bank accounts (BRRD, Sapin Law 2), cyber threats will make headlines in the years to come.

Savers are often quite confused about gold and real estate.

The “Japanisation” of banks is the new illness of contemporary finance. Stemming from Japan, it is expanding progressively, especially in Europe. How does this disorder translate?

For real estate investors, prudence might dictate that they start considering physical gold, in order to avoid serious pitfalls.

The coming French presidential elections are increasing the uncertainty surrounding the euro.

In order to understand the world of finance today – post-gold standard-, post- 2008 crisis-, zero rates- and QE- finance – it makes sense, sometimes, to turn to others than economists.

Zero rates are hitting European banks at the core of their activity, and we must add to that their bad loans, especially in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus

The money created without any counterparty artificially inflates the value of assets, until they reach a breaking point – sooner or later.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) just called for urgent action to be taken in regards to European banks’ bad loans.