CNBC reports Greece Austerity Strike Will Hurt GDP Further even as Cyprus Expects Bailout as S&P Cuts Ratings to Junk:

Cyprus said on Wednesday it expected talks to start with lenders on badly needed aid next week, as ratings agency Standard & Poor's pushed it deeper into junk territory, implying domestic political expediency lay behind a delay in clinching a deal. One of the smallest nations in the euro zone, Cyprus sought European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid in June after its two largest banks suffered huge losses due to a write-down of Greek debt.

Well, our Contagion Model showed clear paths of the knock on effects of Greek infection, and we haven't even gotten started with the economic pathogen party yet!

Of course, where there is a loser, there's always a winner as well - sometimes hidden beneath all of their spoils... On Friday, 04 May 2012 I penned The BoomBustBlog Pan-European Distressed Asset Acquisition Initiative, which clearly outlined the investment opportunities forthcoming in the tiny nation state known as Cyprus, as excerpted:

Asset sale by sovereigns is can be seen in the sale of stakes in government owned infrastructure assets and corporations. However, the approach adopted to dispose of these assets is to make partial sales in tranches in order to participate in any benefits of valuation recovery.

Professional and institutional subscribers should download the full version of this document ( The BoomBustBlog Pan-European Distressed Asset Acquisition Initiative) which outlines investment opportunities in the following nation/banks: UK, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland and Spain.  Our initiative runs the gamut from whole companies and equities, to real estate, infrastructure assets, rare earth and hard tangible assets to IP.

Dispositions by Europeans banks have consisted mostly of foreign assets outside of Europe. Most of these assets had the potential for high returns but are being offered at prices reflecting the perception that future investment performance would be robust. This is why there is so much interest in the private equity and asset management space in scanning for strong deals among those assets. However, the competition among these entities to buy quality assets at reasonable valuations has created a micro bubble of sorts, the type that make profitable vulture investing a very difficult proposition.

Over the next week I will lead readers and paid subscribers through a journey of distressed assets being disgorged by banks and sovereigns that are poised to give those who are perceptive enough out-sized returns. I find this research and foresight to be invaluable, and I believe many institutions, asset managers and UHNWers will as well. Of course, the potential winners may be those who aren't among the usual suspects, and I feel TPTB amongst the EU clan may feel downright intimidated.

Yes, Spain will contribute to this vulture-fest, as will those still hooked into Greece, et. al.

• The Embarrassingly Ugly Truth About Spain: The IMF, EC and ALL Major Rating Agencies Are LYING!!!
• European Bank Run Watch: Spaniard Edition
• And confirming opinion from ZeroHedge: Chart Of The Day: Spanish Bad Loans Hit New Parabolic Record
  • Last month we reported that Spanish bad loans jumped by the most ever, rising by over 1%
    to just under 10%. Today, last month's number was revised even higher to 10.1%.
    But the worst news is that the August bad loan total just hit a fresh
    record of €178.6 billion, or 10.5% of the total €1,698.7 billion in bank
    loans. Making things worse is that the primary bank funding lifeline -
    deposits - continues to flow out. That both Spain, and its banking sector are
    utterly insolvent, is clear to anyone but Oliver Wyman and those who have bought
    SPGBs (although granted the latter are merely hoping for a quick flip). And the
    ECB of course. Indicatively, as a % of GDP, this would be equivalent to roughly
    $2.7 trillion in US bank loans going sour (for more on the collapse of Spanish
    banking, and the laughable stress test whose worst case has already become the
    baseline, read
    here). The chart summarizing this staggering statistic is below.
  • 
• This Time Is Different As Icarus Blows Up & Burns The Birds Along The Way - Greece Is About To Default AGAIN!

Stay tuned, and follow me!