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Updated link: http://sg.churpchurp.com/AK71SG/share/bkwayofchicken
Old link: http://sg.churpchurp.com/AK71SG/share/bkchicken

Stakeholders should worry as credit is tightening.

Credit is the lifeblood of businesses and credit is tightening.

Banks in the eurozone are finding it harder to get funding and they have begun repatriating funds from overseas. These banks now refrain from lending and liquidity is drying up. Eurozone governments are also struggling to raise funds and even France was recently forced to pay higher interest rates on newly issued debt.

"The euro zone debt crisis is turning into a global liquidity crisis, and leading to a vicious cycle of intensifying funding tightness spurring dumping of risk assets," said Kazuto Uchida, an executive officer and general manager of the global markets division at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. Read article here.

Things could get a lot worse before they get better, it would seem.

I remember Margaret Thatcher, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, once saying that she did not believe in "artificially formed" countries. The breakdown of the former Yugoslavia is a good example of how such entities would not withstand the test of time. The EC and the eurozone although not a country could be current day examples of such an entity.

Some believe that the ECB has to take more definite steps to shore up confidence in the eurozone. This probably means buying up bonds in a massive exercise. Germany, however, believes that the ECB cannot be expected to solve the problems eurozone is now facing by buying up massive amount of bonds.

Of course, some people would argue that the weak Euro is actually good for Germany as its export driven economy continues to boom and some would further say that Germany's prosperity is now built on the misery of weaker members in the eurozone. Divisive? I think so.

In an earlier blog post, I asked a question:
"In order to stay optimistic about Singapore's economy, we have to be optimistic about the world economy and we have to stay optimistic that there will not be any significant credit tightening in the world banking system. Do you think it is easy to be optimistic about these?"

With differences aplenty, one wonders if the eurozone would see more stresslines forming and if it could withstand the test of time. Stakeholders should be worried.

Do you believe that we are immune to the problems in the eurozone? Do you think that we are not stakeholders because we are not part of the eurozone?

"MAS highlighted that key risks facing Singapore included a protracted global economic slowdown, financial contagion and pressures in the property market. It warned that a protracted global slowdown could weigh on the domestic economy, cause corporate earnings to fall, with knock-on effects on employment and wage growth." Read article here.

Think again.

Related post:
Further credit tightening is almost a given.