Free Republic

Confidence in Germany is crumbling. The ZEW investor confidence survey index plunged to 44.3 in August from 61.8 a month ago. This was much worse than the 54.0 expected by economists. To make things worse, the expectations index crashed to 8.6 from 27.1. This was the lowest reading since December 2012. Economists were expecting 17.0. "In one line: Grim, as slump in investor sentiment deepens," said Pantheon Economics' Claus Vistesen. "Given the recent sharp drawdown in equities, a drop in sentiment was expected, but the decline was larger than anticipated, reinforcing downside risk to the economy." Some of this deterioration...