Greece and Spain: a pain in the banks.

There is a revealing article on the Greek banks in Seeking Alpha:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1097711-massive-dilution-coming-for-national-bank-of-greece-shareholders?source=email_the_daily_dispatch&ifp=0

To make this short and comprehensible, this is the situation: National Bank of Greece has a negative value. It is broke in simple terms. It has been ordered to raise capital. Printing more shares will reduce he value of shares by nearly 50%. Meanwhile, this bank will be acquired by Eurobank which has an even worse balance sheet. This is not the only Greek bank that is broke and they, too will have to be recapitalized.

The Spanish banks are just as bad. Problem banks had been reorganized into one bank (Bankia), which is also broke and needs recapitalization.