@ck9, sorry. I can't find a news in english, so here it is: "Spreads between german gov bonds and other eurozone countries bonds are now excessively wide" said Almunia "I hope that the stabilization of financial markets will enable a normal risk assessment by the market, instead of an exaggeration like the present one" and the previous link was broken http://borsaitaliana.it.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idITLT16072220081029 If you rely on you feelings, then you should hardwire in your guts and in your brain the features of fiat money, and the way the money masters use it to enforce their will. Did you know that ECB can print money and buy every italian government bond out there on the market ? Hey hedgies, go ahead, try and short them
Euro is going down, so the pressures to drop it are lower. Besides, the euro is a source of pride for europe. Europeans love to brag about how much the euro has surpassed the dollar (in exchange rate), even if they have much lower -and going even lower- standards of living compared to America.
There is no unified Europe which you speak of. Actually the germans have quite a lot of savings compared to negative savings in the US, this will be an important factor in 2009 considering the situation.
Agreed - they will throw everything they have at it to prevent a breakup. A break of the Euro would probably result in a breakup of the entire EU, and they have worked too hard to swindle Europe into it to give up now. But if it did break, there would be instant national-level bank runs on all the weaker countries, funds would flee to Germany or outside the EU. I'm not sure if the ECB could save them at that point - if not, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, etc. would implode.
I think you do not understand that the 90' years policy are fruit of the past: no EU large economy in these days can drop the euro without exposing the country to the higher costs in terms of debit financing and energy-related costs.
STFU, im posting from rome Anyway, i see this as a very very long shot at least for now. Maastricht treaty parameters have been relaxed a bit so we can continue to deficit spend freely. Also dont forget that all italian economic data is a bit distorted by the fact that almost 40% of the economy here is of the underground variety..
only if you measure standards of living in terms of LCD screen size -- I'd rather have free health care than 6 lane roads.
In this case, I get what higher bracket tax payers are paying for, and i wont complain a bit about it.
I hope euro members drop out. More fx pairs, bonds, libor rates to trade! It was nice in the 1990's with so many more things around.