Deutsche Bank has fallen facedown, but this time, no one’s there to pick it up.
Working to avoid the mistakes of 2008’s financial crisis, German lawmakers have stated that should Deutsche Bank and other major players in the financial arena go under, bailouts will not be delivered post-haste.
The bank has been traveling through dark waters for some time. As far back as July, analysts have been predicting a financial meltdown of sorts, and despite the bank’s best efforts to cut costs and relieve its mounting monetary burdens, net profits dropped by nearly 98 percent in just the last two months alone. Now the company is looking to reach a much-needed settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is imposing a hefty $14 billion fine on the bank’s head. Executives are also pushing a plan that could see up to 1,000 employees jobless by the end of the year.
In another case where fiat currency has come crashing down, many are looking at bitcoin as a potential solution. Naturally, there are opponents to this argument. General sentiment within the EU is that bitcoin and similar currencies are used to fund terrorism, and regulators have since sworn to crack down on anonymous bitcoin trading in the hopes that terrorism can be averted.
Problems have been running rampant in Europe’s financial sector since the Brexit vote, but bitcoin has obviously proven popular in the UK ever since. With the fall of the British pound, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said that he saw heavy increases in bitcoin trading via the company’s platform within 24 hours of the vote, and many of the rules that once applied to anonymous trading have since reverted. It’s probably safe to say that bitcoin has earned its place in British society and proven beneficial.
So the time may be here when Germany looks upon bitcoin through a similar lens, but until limiting trading regulations are removed, it’s hard to know if any sudden outcomes will prove victorious.
