I'm in London at the moment, and I'm paying for things in Pound Sterling, not Euros. Could I please have some of what you are smoking?
What I'm referring to is the extent of law making that is made in Brussels for the UK, not the currency we use, you Smart Alec. The UK is part of the EU, just not the Eurozone. There are limitations as a member of the EU, for example the MINIMUM VAT rate (US=sales tax) we can charge our citizens is 15%. Our elected leaders cannot just get rid of it. Many other rules... Of course the idea of a financial transaction tax - which Merkel and Sarkozy love - is one that they would like implemented across the EU, not just the Eurozone. That great idea - they weren't just planning for themselves - we get to join in the fun too. Yes, we don't have the currency, but the other BS we do get.
Yes, but I think our current discussion is not about the EU, but rather the Eurozone and the EMU. More specifically, the latter. For our purposes, the UK has nothing to do with the Eurowoes, precisely because it has its own ccy.
french and italian banks are a toast. greece will never, ever get itself out of debt. let the euro rise with joy and confetti. full blown party, it cannot get any worse!
Anyone know the reason behind the huge drop in Greek CDS today? 5yr swap rates down almost 99% ???? http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GRCD5
As I keep saying, Greek sov CDS is worth exactly 0, which is where it should drop. However, in this case, it's just a bad CNBC feed. The mkt is still 58/64 (that's in points).
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=CGGB1U5:IND but if you look at the drop on the 5 yr. Greece CDS, it looks like the market has priced in Greece will get that 10.8 billion
LOL. Yeah, and I want a massage from Jamie Lee Curtis and her twin sister. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...markets-calm-europe-next-storm-171902771.html
You have to look thru all the 'moving peas around a plate' plans to leverage an overleveraged problem. It is an inescapable truth that you cannot solve a debt problem with debt; you can only solve a debt problem with income. All these mechanations and schemes presented as solving a the problem are hopeless. They only serve to obscure who is going to take the hit in the inevitable default. All these plans are trying to push a lot of the hit to the northern european tax payers. They make it complicated for two reasons: one, in the hopes that the taxpayers will not understand and two, because they must torture the law to deny democratic process that would require explaining how they are screwing the taxpayers in favor of the creditors. The whole scheme will collapse as some of the many parties will realize that Greece can't possibly pay the debt service and the Greek government cannot survive the austerity. Another inescapable truth is that when you do not have enough income to pay your debt, you don't pay your debt. The income required for a real solution can only come from growth. No one is talking about growth and there is no growth plan. Austerity is not a strategy; it is a result of the falure to grow in the face of unsustainable accrued debt. People who promote austerity as a solution while ignoring a growth strategy don't know what they are doing ( I know this includes the IMF, ECB, EFSF, EC and Tim Geitner and most Republicans). Sell the rally.