PRESS RELEASE

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Spain May Sink the Euro,
Says Wall Street Journal;
Barclays Downgrades Banco Santander

Feb 25, 2010 (EIRNS)—"Greece set off the crisis rattling the euro zone," the Wall Street Journal reported this morning. "Spain could determine whether the 16-nation currency stands or falls."

Meanwhile, Barclays downgraded both Banco Santander and the second biggest Spanish bank, BBVA. This may have caused the major drop in the stocks of both banks seen since about Feb 21.

Barclays particularly exposed the fraud of the way in which Santander, especially, takes direct possession of the real-estate collateral, as a pretext in order to keep the reality of its many bad mortgages and bad loans off its books. Barclays estimates that ALL of Santander's 4.3 billion euros of property holdings actually represent non-performing loans, and that, were it to give up this fraud, the percentage of non-performing assets on Santander's books would skyrocket from the present admitted level of 7.9%, all the way up to 28.9% of its assets. See this report.

Lyndon LaRouche noted sardonically that Banco Santander would be pleased to learn that Barclays was saying these things about it behind its back.