Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Eurozone Retail Sales Crash : Record Declines In France And Italy, Overall Revenues Drop At Near Record Pace – 31 May 2012

Retail sales in France, Italy, and the eurozone as a whole hit the skids according to Markit. Retail sales in Germany were positive, but barely.

Steepest Decline in French History

Further sharp fall in French retail sales during May

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Spain Plans To Merge All Nationalized Banks Into Gigantic Bad Bank; Merging Small Cesspools Creates Bigger Deeper, Smellier Cesspools – 24 May 2012

After repeated denials of the creation of a combined “bad bank”, Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos is discussing creation a public body merging all the smaller bad banks into one gigantic bad bank, equivalent to 20% of the entire Spanish banking sector.

Courtesy of Google Translate from Libre Mercado, please consider large public bank under state control.

Mish/ Mike Shedlock – Italy Deploys 20.000 Law Enforcement Officers To Protect Individuals And Sensitive Sites; Anecdotes From Italy Via Canada: Taxed Out Of House And Home – 19 May 2012

Italy Deploys 20,000 Law Enforcement Officers to Protect Individuals and Sensitive Sites

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Italy deploys 20,000 to protect sensitive targets

Italy increased security Thursday at 14,000 sites, and assigned bodyguards to protect 550 individuals after a nuclear energy company official was shot and letter bombs directed to the tax collection agency.