deflation? Depends what your perspective is I guess. So many generic products are all produced in china now that it would make sense that deflation would become more of an issue since the western world is so dependent on China for all the material carp we consume. Cars are clearly in deflation mode. Homes...etc. Somehow it still feals like the cost of living is always going up. Kind of going off the topic a little there, but I am really curious how this will all turn out. They used stagflation in that article to justify deflation? That makes no sense. If anything it shows that even these "specialists" don't know how this will all turn out. "Now, if you put all of the various inputs together, Hoisington and Hunt show that theory suggests we will soon be dealing with deflation. It's counter- intuitive to what we hear today, which is why the Bank for International Settlements used the stagflation word in a recent report." Another thing about the USD being artificially strong. USD is king in world trade so it's always going to be in demand for transactions. I'm thinking theres also still a lot of big money sitting on the sidelines in money markets.
I have. I found this paragraph in the lead: "But European banks had huge exposure to U.S. mortgage backed securities and now there is growing concern about exposure to emerging markets, where there has been $4.3 trillion of international bank lending, $3.7 trillion of which belongs to European banks compared with just $675 billion for U.S. banks, Crooks says." Russia's GDP is around 1 trillion. Austria and Poland are 350 billion. Czech Republic 150 billion. Romania 120, Hungary 110, Ukraine 100, Slovakia 50, Slovenia 40, Bulgaria 30, etc. All together less than 2.5 trillion. Yeah, 4.7 trillion lent to Eastern Europe is a HUGE exaggeration... And the 3.7 trillion to emerging markets is not the same as 3.7 trillion to Eastern Europe... Also, European banks include Eastern European (EU nations) banks as well.
Against what though, all the G7 economies are in the same boat as far as I can see. Are you thinking that the US will recover first?
USD is good for 60% of world currency reserves. Euro about 25%? If one of them truly totally collapses and keeping in mind Euro zone and US are trading partners n1 the only asset for capital preservation will be precious metals. 1 Euro = 4 dollars or vice versa will never happen ever ever.