At this time, banking analysts are starting to see significant deterioration in the condition of the banks.

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Who knew what the financial condition of these banks were?

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This is when banks go on life support, and it accurately describes the parlous condition of a large number of banks in Spain and others scattered throughout the eurozone.

BBC: Business

European rescuers could demand reforms as a condition of putting cash into banks, much as if they were lending to the Spanish government.

ECONOMIST: The euro crisis

Recapitalising the banks is a condition of Greece receiving support from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

BBC: Greek cash machine

If one wanted to be downbeat (which we do not) it would be easy to draw an analogy the condition of financial institutions in Japan, banks, securities firm, and insurance companies, and the society in general: aging, increasingly frail and infirm, and shrinking at a painfully slow pace.

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Recently, deterioration in the financial condition of some bond insurers has led some commercial and investment banks to take further markdowns and has added to strains in the financial markets.

NPR: Economic Swoon to Continue, Bernanke Says

Spain is likely, in our view, to be pushed into a troika (EC, ECB, IMF) programme of some kind during 2012, possibly by losing access to market funding on affordable terms, but more likely by the ECB making a programme for the Spanish sovereign a condition for continued willingness to fund the Spanish banks, which are currently the main buyers of newly issued Spanish sovereign debt.

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