Posted on 05/04/2010 8:27:12 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
SINGAPORE (MarketWatch) -- Stock markets in New Zealand and Australia were sharply lower in Asian trade Wednesday, dragged by a tumble on Wall Street.
Investors were spooked by the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 2.0% fall Tuesday, its largest one-day drop since Feb. 4. The U.S. market was hurt by concerns that the euro zone would not be able to contain its debt crisis to Greece.
"People are looking around at global markets and wondering what is left for the Europeans to do to prevent this from snowballing. It feels like things are going to get worse before they get better," said Greg Gibbs, head of foreign exchange strategy with RBS in Sydney.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
It would seem to me that should Greece default on its debt, then the problem is localized. As the Eurozone pitches in to help, all partners put themselves at risk. They let go of cash that could be used to solve their own upcoming debt problem.
Gee, ya think? I've known this for over a year.
That, and if Germany has half a brain, they’ll dump the Euro and go back to their own currency before they get dragged under with the PIIGS.
Unless they signed some type of fealty oath, that would be the thing go do.
The Australian All Ordinaries has also been suffering for the past few days from the announcement of a proposed tax on mining income. Like Canada, Australia has quite a lot of stocks tied up in that business.
Most Asian markets are down, but the Nikkei is up for some reason.
PIGS??? I would suggest that the real PIGS in this are the Germans. They've been bailed out repeatedly even after having started two conflagrations.
AS for dumping the EURO - it's been an abject failure. Allowing Deutchbank and criminal investment houses like G-S to do back door deals with crony pol/pals in government is not what this “project” was supposed to be about... time for reflection and resolve: dump the EURO and damn the EU.
Meanwhile the European policy makers were thinking in terms of years while dealing with this crisis, pondering all the long-term implications of bailing out the Greeks, while the financial markets are thinking in terms of weeks to get a solution to this debt problem. The Europeans waiting way too long to bail out Greece and now the slide in bond prices and the euro is a strong established trend and has become emotional and self-sustaining at least for another couple of weeks or more. I hope people learn something from this mega-recession and get back to building strong businesses in the private sector instead of trying to build wealth through all this borrowing, lending, and speculating on stocks and real estate.
This review is from: The New Vichy Syndrome: Why European Intellectuals Surrender to Barbarism (Hardcover)
The thoughts presented in this book are interesting and logically-presented and this is quite apart from whether you will agree with them or not.
As another review mentioned, the focus is quite loose and really only offers thoughts around the subject matter suggested by the title and doesn’t really answer the “why?” in his subtitle conclusively. It is presented as a book but reads more like a collection of essays interspersed with shorter pieces of commentary. Admittedly, though, it is a very speculative subject and perhaps a loose response is more appropriate than a tight, definitive one. To obtain a meaningful version of the latter may be difficult. But, Dalrymple provides you a view from his educated and thoughtful perspective.
I am also not sure about the “barbarism” part, since this is not a “radicalization of Europe via changing demographics” argument like Mark Steyn’s “America Alone”. In fact, he seems to disagree with this idea. This book is more about how the mental environment in Europe is not conducive to success in an increasingly competitive global market: they reject values of their past and are afraid of formulating concrete statements of truth and fact that would allow them to construct a foundation for future progress.
One thing I like about Dalrymple’s style is that he doesn’t overdo the references. In books such as these, references can sometimes be a lazy way of making your point, but he uses a lot of thought experiments that you can often test for yourself to make a decision about whether or not he’s on the right track. He continues to use this approach here.
Finally, with Dalrymple being such an expert user of the English language, I was surprised to see a significant number of typographical errors throughout the text. His use of the language continues to be excellent, but the errors do break the spell a little bit.
It’s a concise book that will make you think.
Two things that occured that led to this, both with socialist/welfare state overtures. Within our borders, the CRA was signficantly strengthened in the mid '90s. In effect, it was the gov't telling people without the means that they could afford houses. Secondly was the formation of the EU. It took fiscal/monetary responsibility away from nations and placed it at a higher, more nebulous, level, creating a "safety in numbers" mentality.
Not to beat a dead horse, but the Reagan/Thatcher policies that influenced western civilization were responsible for 16 years of economic growth.
Wait until California fecal matter his the fan...lookout below!
Aren't they already at risk, by owning a lot of the Greek debt? Can the European banks handle a Greek default, or is it (short term) cheaper to throw bad money after worse in the hopes Greece can turn things around?
They let go of cash that could be used to solve their own upcoming debt problem.
Yeah, I suspect when they look back in a few years they'll wish they had.
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