Fortis "Collapse" Prediction A Hoax?

There's something that always struck us as odd about this never-officially-translated "prediction". Looks like it was probably a hoax. Unfortunately, the ones from Barclay's, BRS, Bill Fleckenstein, James Turk, and a smorgasbord of others are very real.

Our position at ML-Implode is that we don't need a sudden "collapse" to be in hot water. We all know the powers-that-be are working behind and in front of the scenes frantically to keep things from rapidly falling apart (the Fed/Bear Stearns incident being a prominent example). But certainly, growing financial and economic distress looks to be a feature we will have to reckon with for the forseeable future.