big European banks are actually bankrupt and "are making deals with governments in order to take their debts off their balance sheets

All the big banks in Europe are technically insolvent but they are doing deals with the government to take their bad debts off their balance sheets and in turn the governments are imposing austerity measures which in turn are forcing contraction in these economies.

The Bank of France warned on Wednesday that the European state is set to head toward recession in the third quarter of the current year as the eurozone continues to grapple with economic woes. 

The economy is still shrinking; GDP is still deteriorating. Look at the banking scandals that are coming every week now.... Nobody is doing anything to stop the banks. So it is very similar to what we saw in the late 20s and 1930s, the crash and then the global depression. So that is where we are in right now, a global financial economic depression