A certain complacency reigns over Europe, notwithstanding the possible exit of Greece from the European Union. UBS bank of Switzerland suggests that the complacency is completely misplaced:
The complacent suggest that while Greece continues to have significant fiscal problems, other member states in the Euro area have fewer significant fiscal problems (as reflected by bond prices), and thus a Greek exit from the Euro would not provoke a reaction in other bond markets…
This syllogism seems appealing, but it ignores the distorted nature of modern bond markets. Indeed it is a moot point as to whether a bond yield today contains any useful information about the real economy or the risks that surround it, given the consequences of financial repression acting in concert with quantitative policy…
Bond markets are unlikely to be the catalyst for a monetary union breakup, and probably not a terribly good signal of the threat. Investors should take little comfort from the current narrowness of bond spreads or the behaviour of Euro area government bond markets.
When examining the risk of contagion from any possible Greek exit from the Euro we come back again and again to the fact that in every monetary union collapse of the last century, the trigger for breakup was not the bond markets, current account positions, or political will, but banks. If ordinary bank depositors lose faith in the integrity of a monetary union they will hasten its demise by shifting their money out of their banks – either into physical cash, or into banks domiciled in areas of the monetary union that are perceived as “stronger”. Both of these traits were evident in the US monetary union breakup, and have been in evidence in more recent events this century. The contagion risk after a possible Greek exit arises if bank depositors elsewhere in the Euro area believe that a physical euro note held “under the mattress” at home today is worth more than a euro in a bank – because a euro in a bank might be forcibly converted into a national currency tomorrow. In a breakup scenario it is more likely that retail bank deposits withdrawn will end up as physical cash, owing to the difficulties of opening and using a bank account in a different country.
This is not a question of banking system solvency. Highly solvent banks will be subject to deposit flight if it is the value of the currency in that country that is uncertain…
The contagion story is serious. Even if a depositor thinks that there is only a 1% chance their country will exit the Euro, why take a 1% chance that your life savings are forcibly converted into a perceived worthless currency if by acting quickly (and withdrawing deposits) one can have 100% certainty that your life savings remain in Euros?
If Greece were to walk away from the Euro, then the policy makers of the Euro area would have to convince bank depositors across the Euro area that a Euro in their local banking system was worth the same as a Euro in another country’s banking system, and that the possibility of any other country exiting the Euro was nil. If that double guarantee was not utterly credible, then the risk of other countries joining Greece in exiting the Euro would be high.
This suggests that financial markets are treating the risks around Greek exit with too little regard for the probable dangers.
