Euro to COLLAPSE – people rush to buy gold as trust in single currency DISAPPEARS
THE former head of the US federal reserve has warned the euro is on the verge of collapse saying he has "grave concerns" about its future.
Economist: Euro is largely to blame for Eurozone's struggles
And revered economist Alan Greenspan says it's time the European Central Bank (ECB) came clean about the state of the economy as the bank's chief Mario Draghi scrambles to save the flailing institution.
Mr Greenspan, 90, was the chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006, and predicted the scale of the US subprime mortgage scandal which precipitated the global financial collapse.
Now as investors turn to gold to try to stem their losses Mr Greenspan says it's only a matter of time before the eurozone collapses.
Related articles
I have grave concerns about the future of the Euro itself
He told Gold Investor magazine: "The European Central Bank (ECB) has greater problems than the Federal Reserve.
"The asset side of the ECB’s balance sheet is larger than ever before, having grown steadily since Mario Draghi said he would do whatever it took to preserve the euro.
"And I have grave concerns about the future of the Euro itself.
Yanis Varoufakis: Greece crisis is due to fault of Eurozone
"Northern Europe has, in effect, been funding the deficits of the South; that cannot continue indefinitely. The eurozone is not working."
The euro has been plagued with scandal after scandal with a stress test last year showing that many of the 19 countries which took on the currency from 2002 are facing unprecedented debts.
Greece is currently in the midst of yet another financial crisis with withdrawals from bank accounts indicating the public is prepping for a crash.
Meanwhile Europe's oldest bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, in Italy is on the verge of oblivion and needs a bail out to survive.
Even Germany's largest lender Deutsche Bank is facing a crisis of gargantuan proportions as it struggles with its shadowy assets book which is plagued with non performing loans (NPLs).
Mr Greenspan said Brexit is almost certainly set to trigger a collapse of the ECB despite the UK not having signed up to take on the currency.
However the EU is dependent on the UK for income as it tries to monopolise the arrangements of 28 members states.
He added: "Brexit is not the end of the set of problems, which I always thought were going to start with the euro because the euro is a very serious problem."
Mr Greenspan says that investors are back to safe havens including precious metals because there is no trust in the banking system.
And he said countries cannot continue to borrow in the way that they have been signalling that quantitative easing is not working.
He added: "I view gold as the primary global currency.
"Today, going back on to the gold standard would be perceived as an act of desperation.
"But if the gold standard were in place today we would not have reached the situation in which we now find ourselves.
"We cannot afford to spend on infrastructure in the way that we should."
