I don't get it. There are millions -- tens of millions -- of people who wake up each morning in these two countries that are acting irrational in the extreme. Has our species gotten to the point where our survival instinct is degraded? If you are in Athens, of average intelligence and read a newspaper even once a week you know that there is a chance you will wake up some morning with your Euro deposit posted in Drachma worth 40% to 60% less than when you went to bed. Hello!! Is anybody home and worrying about the nest egg?
It is not just them if the PIIGS go down the contagion will be terrible. People will lose their pensions everywhere and money in banks will not be worth anything.
no, you just dont have a full picture about the situation. the wealthiest greeks have put their savings in safe heavens denominated in CHF, SGD or GBP. It is only Swiss National Bank who will wake up some morning with its EUR deposits worth less 10-20% vs other majors. The biggest losers are Germans, who sent 100s of billions of euros to Greece and Spain over the last 2 decades.
The run is electronic now. The joke in Spain is what is the name of the last spaniard to have their money in a Spanish bank.
Yeah and now they could lose their pensions too. Why did the bond traders buy PIIGS debt and the banks that owned PIIGS debt and why did people let them?
who is zooming whom? You're worried about a so called nest egg which is nothing more than a quarterly statement printed out (well now it's not even printed out, it's just a statement you call up on the internet) and they are worried about food, which is something that is real, that they can hold and grow. Any peasant can grow food, let's see you use your magical Central Bank formulas and grow a nest egg. What would you rather have, sunshine and a basket of food, a bottle of wine and a beautiful woman (and hopefully someday a family) or your computer printed nest egg?
Of course I get that the wealthiest and most savvy Europeans have repositioned their capital out of weak banks, nations and currencies. My question relates to the next few levels down in wealth and sophistication. At this point on the curve it does not take a whole lot of financial knowledge to see that keeping Euros in these banks is a high risk proposition for modest rewards. In earlier eras the masses seemed to get that and take action. Why not now?
If I am not insane about where I keep the next egg I can all of the below and the nest egg. Should I piss away the savings for no reason?
There was a huge withdrawal of capital from Greek banks but they prevented it from continuing and issued more reserves. Anyway people think that if the whinge enough they get what they want. This is the rule of the day.
I think you are missing the OWS point. There are more of us than there are of you. We just allow you to rule until you piss us off enough. It's all our money and we know it, and you can manage it until you screw it up too bad. When you ever get around to converting it into something of value, like food, clothing or shelter, let us know, and WE will tell you (not the FED) what the value of your nest egg is.