Why the EU Stress Test is a Farce And The Eurozone is Set to IMPLODE, Writes Paolo Barnard

• Why the EU Stress Test is a Farce And The Eurozone is Set to IMPLODE, Writes Paolo Barnard
  by PAOLO BARNARD, http://www.express.co.uk/ 
  “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!”. After the results of the European banks’ stress test I want to cry: “A Brexit passport! a Brexit passport! My house for a Brexit passport!”
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  And I’m not joking. 
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  The much expected results of the 2016 EBA’s stress test of the main EU lenders is a farce, and it’s not funny, because the lives of millions could be jeopardised by it. The desperate EU regulators rigged the test to the point of ridicule: first it did not examine lenders from Greece or Portugal, where banks’ balance sheets are akin to a warzone. 
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  Second, the test lacked a pass/fail mark. Then EU regulators pretended that the catastrophic NIRP factor (negative interest rates set mainly by the ECB) didn’t exist.
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  Well, if they had, Deutsche Bank would have exploded the test, as NIRP is the reason why Deutsche is falling to bits recently (not to mention that the German juggernaut harbours explosive derivatives to the tune of twenty times the German GDP). 
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  But the rigging yesterday went on. EU lenders have amassed some 1.7 trillion euros in Non Performing Loans (NPLs), with Italian banks accounted for 360billion euros of that nightmare. How did Unicredit and Intesa come clean yesterday with 84 and 63 billion euros in rotten loans respectively?  
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