A hectic week ends with disappointing news from Europe and, of course, a stock market rally. 1. Blithering Idiots Today was do-or-die day for the European Union. They had to accomplish something – or at least announce that the major players were in agreement on the major points. They couldn’t, and Britain rightly walked away. [...]
Felix Salmon explains nicely why Italy is a problem now, as it’s bond yields top 7%: If you die, the proximate cause of death is always the fact that blood has stopped flowing to the brain. Similarly, if you’re in a crisis, the proximate cause of the crisis is liquidity, or rather the lack of [...]
Guest Post: Just as only four short years ago it was All Subprime, All the Time, and then it was the Credit Crisis, now it is Europe. (When) will Greece default and which banks will implode as a result? Is there another banking crisis in our future? I just came back from a whirlwind four-country [...]
His prognosis is pretty much the worst-case scenario, and one that readers here should know is possible. But what’s really amazing about this video is the brutal honesty of this guy. Wow. Watch, and share. “It’s gonna crash…and it’s gonna fall hard.”
Greece, as it turns out, was the Eurozone’s canary. The canary was resuscitated and a small rescue mechanism was set up to revive a further canary or two – but beyond this the warning was ignored. The miners kept on working. They convinced themselves that this was the canary’s problem.
About the only thing there was seeming consensus on in Europe was that Greece will eventually default. The question is when. European leaders, along with the IMF, have caved and will give Greece €12 billion to tide them over while they debate on finding €70-100 sometime late next month.
In the last 48 hours, so much news has come out of Europe that has me frankly shaking my head. It is a strange game of brinksmanship they are playing, and it is one we should be paying attention to (as if the brinkmanship played by US politicians over the debt ceiling is not enough). This week we look at what seems to be European leaders taking random walks through the minefield at the very heart of the European Experiment.
