"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
-~~Ludwig Von Mises
“Several brokerage houses tumbled; blue-sky investment companies formed during the happy bull market days went to smash, disclosing miserable tales of rascality; over a thousand banks caved in during 1930, as a result of marking down both of real estate and of securities; and in December occurred the largest bank failure in American financial history, the fall of the ill-named Bank of the United States in New York.”
~~"Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s" by Fredrick Lewis Allen
Eastern European Currencies Crumble As Fears of Debt Crisis Grow
Excerpt:
Currencies have crumbled across Eastern Europe on mounting fears of a debt crisis as foreign creditors withdraw from the region.The end of 2010 might be a good time to consider moving to Poland and paying cash for a house. Or to the Czech Republic or Hungary. Pay cash for a house on a fine house on the Danube River in Budapest. Lookie Here Travel will be dirt cheap in 2010.Hungary’s forint fell to an all-time low on Monday, and Poland’s zloty slumped to the lowest in five years on plunging industrial output. Half of all loans to the private sector in Poland are in foreign currencies so borrowers face a severe debt shock after the 40pc fall of the zloty against the euro since August. * * *
The mushrooming crisis has already started to spill over into Germany's debt markets, lifting credit default swaps on German five-year bonds to a record 70 basis points. The gap between French and German CDS spreads has narrowed abruptly for the first time since the credit crisis began.
“Investors are beginning to ask whether Germany is going to have to pay for the rescue of Eastern and Central Europe,” [one expert] said. * * *
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