Who will supply us with the delicious chocolate that we all need and crave? Myanmar (was Burma)? Istanbul (was Constantinople)?
Eastern Europe is 2009's version of the 1997-98 Asia crisis. Classic symptoms - foreign currency mortgages amongst the public, high debt to GDP ratios, real estate bubble, and no means to pay it all off. This one is only part way through, plenty more pain to come. Do not cover shorts, let alone buy, until you see blood in the streets - literally.
This makes no sense because the currency being the Swiss franc is not the crux of the problem. It's where the lending banks are domiciled that matters because those over-extended banks become a burden of the state (country). Also, Central and East European (CEE) countries have borrowed as much in euro as they have in swissies. Eastern European countries borrowing in foreign currencies i.e. "external debt" is a problem to both the borrowers and the lenders as the currencies move dramatically as they have (against the forint and the leu etc) The big ticking time bomb in this regard is Austria who has 75% of its GDP lent out to CEE countries like Hungary, Latvia and so on. It lends in euros and that's a problem for the eurozone including its anchor: Germany. My point is not to be misled by the fact that a lot of borrowing was in swissies since currencies cross borders, banks are regulated within borders. By the way I agree the Switzerland is in deep trouble but that's more to do with UBS's toxic loan book and US IRS issues then loans to CEE countries. Just my 2 francs
I told everyone here the Swiss were bust several days ago, along with Britain and Japan, and a few members chose not to believe me. Switzerland is completely caught with its pants down in a financial shit storm where financials are the reason for the crisis.