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German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

bloomberg.com

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Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#171

Post by aianus »

jacquesm wrote: post #144
timlin wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm genuinely curious. Do you need to go to a physical bank location to do this? How do you buy a car in the evening or a Saturday afternoon, when a bank is closed?

Direct account-to-account transfer is supported between all major EU banks. It takes a couple of seconds at most, and it's free.

Are they irreversible?

I've always bought and sold vehicles (or anything private sale) in cash in Canada because I am extremely leery of reversible payment methods where the payment account owner can claim 'fraud' and I'm out the item and the money.

Craigslist and Kijiji (the most popular online classifieds platforms) explicitly warn people to deal only in cash because of this problem.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#172

Post by mamon »

luckylion wrote: post #124
mamon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU isn't really subisidizing anyone - the actual flow of money is from poor towards the wealthy: https://www.politico.eu/article/what-rich-countries-get-wron...

This confuses public subsidies with private money flows.

Not confuses, just gives fuller picture - the whole deal between old and new EU members was: open up your markets, and we'll give you access to our "cohesion funds" from EU budget. Now you can see who won and who lost on this deal.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#173

Post by eecc »

aazaa wrote: post #23
Despegar wrote: post #3

The crazy thing is that Germany is killing their own banks. They refuse to run fiscal deficits while at the same time they criticize the ECB for lowering rates and hurting the German Saver, when the German Saver is who would benefit if they decided tomorrow to run deficits for the next 10 years.

> ... when the German Saver is who would benefit if they decided tomorrow to run deficits for the next 10 years. The German Saver knows better than most that inflation destroys savings. Inflation benefits debtors by allowing them to pay back their loans in depreciated currency. Germany isn't exactly a nation of debtors, although most of Europe is. This is a looming political issue that's only just beginning.

Exactly. It seems that we have unfortunately fixated on over-protecting winners, those that can take their rewards and reinvest them in something that is increasingly reducing to a financial scheme, debt in fact; over-protected, “low risk” and ethically enshrined.

Which is metaphorically like rewarding couch-potatoes.

Rather that letting the winners enjoy their success, while wiping it out in the long term if it’s not funneled towards material investments that can benefit also the “non winners”, with jobs and quality of life improvement.

Seems like the narcissistic Randians are at the steering wheel, and no stepping down in sight

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#174

Post by kjaftaedi »

kgwgk wrote: post #158
jacquesm wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct account-to-account transfer is supported between all major EU banks. It takes a couple of seconds at most, and it's free.

If you mean SEPA instant credit transfers I think they are available only in some countries and they are not free in my experience.

In my country bank to bank transfers are free and instant.

It's extremely convenient to be able to pay anyone any amount at any time with nothing more than your phone.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#175

Post by kjaftaedi »

redis_mlc wrote: post #133
espinchi wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a thing in (most countries of) Europe any more. I was shocked when I came to the US and saw that checks are still in use

Check and cashier's check are different things. A cashier's check is like a domestic SWIFT.

The point the person you are replying to is making is that to Europeans, checks are a thing that only exist in Hollywood movies.

It's difficult to imagine in a modern world, people or institutions writing or printing something on a piece of paper, and saying, "here, this is money".

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#176

Post by tinus_hn »

Mirioron wrote: post #128
tinus_hn wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most forged notes are the smaller ones because everyone checks the large notes. You can just hand people a photocopy of a €20 euro bill with a hologram sticker and if it’s in a dark bar you’ll probably get to keep the change.

Don't they run all the notes through the checker?

No, that takes way too much time. If you check using a UV light you’ll notice most simple forgeries but I guess most people just don’t expect small bills to be forged.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#177

Post by Fishysoup »

pergadad wrote: post #164
Fishysoup wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany is obsessed with keeping the value of the Euro low to maximize their exports. That's one of the reasons they've been pushing austerity after the economic crisis, as keeping countries like Greece, Portugal etc. in a rut depreciates the currency (the other reason is a weird sense that countries in debt have committed some moral failing and should be punished). Their trade surplus has been a subject of intense c…

That's nonsense. The reason for low interest rates is so that Italy won't collapse. It's widely hated in Germany as bank accounts have basically zero interest nowadays.

They also blamed Greece for the bailout, which was a bailout of German banks. Yes the situation obviously isn't completely one-sided and there's more than one actor here, but don't pretend Germany is doing everything out of the goodness of its heart and to protect the EU. They're as selfish as any other country.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#178

Post by ryanlol »

corford wrote: post #147
ur-whale wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying a car in Europe is a complicated affair, and certainly not something that can be concluded in an afternoon.

What? You go to a car dealer, sign, pay and drive away.

The “pay” part really depends on the value of the car and if you have a big pile of cash handy.

Recently instant SEPA transfers have made this easier, but not available between all banks.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#179

Post by ryanlol »

kgwgk wrote: post #168
petschge wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting insurance can be done online in about 5 minutes and the registration at the DMV equivalent is your problem (as the buyer) afterwards and can be done anytime in the next 2 weeks.

I can see that happening for second-hand cars but not for new cars that have to be issued new plates. But maybe things work differently in other countries. “Europe” is not really one place.

You can usually immediately get temporary transfer plates that’ll be valid for a month everywhere(?) in the EU.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#180

Post by njarboe »

reaperducer wrote: post #153
njarboe wrote: post #2

This problem has probably been exacerbated by the fact the the $500 euro note has not been issued since 27 April 2019[1]. I wonder if making storing euros in cash 2.5 times harder (500 versus 200 euro notes) was part of the reason the 500 euro was retired. [Edit] The legal storing of cash. The stated reason was the criminal use of cash. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_euro_note

This problem has probably been exacerbated by the fact the the $500 euro note has not been issued since 27 April 2019 The United States used to print $100,000 notes. They were only available to banks for moving from bank to bank, I believe, and so were useful for reducing the number of notes that needed to be stored by banks, while keeping them out of the hands of criminals.

The US also had lower denomination bills like the $500 and $1000 until 1969. They were not in much use then but I think that they could have useful legal uses today considering all of the inflation that happened since 1969. The $500 now would be about like $75 in the 1960's.
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