07:52 – And now we have former UK PM Gordon Brown warning that the euro crisis may lead to Italy and France requiring bailouts. There’s not a whole lot of “may” about it. Italy and eventually France will require bailouts; only the timing is in question.
Much depends on the outcome of the Greek election tomorrow. If New Democracy and PASOK win enough votes to form a coalition government, that may delay the collapse for a few more weeks or even months. If the anti-austerity parties, led by Syriza, gain enough votes to form a coalition (which is unlikely, even if Syriza is the top vote-getter), things will go downhill faster. Regardless of the outcome, Monday morning is likely to be exciting on the markets.
If the anti-austerity parties win, that will be perceived by the markets and by the EU as a vote in favor of Greece abrogating the bailout terms and leaving the eurozone. If that happens, the markets will turn their focus to Italy, which could be forced to seek a bailout as early as next week. Of course, there’s no money available for such a bailout, which will simply increase the pressure on the ECB to inflate its way out of the problem, a fix that’s worse than the underlying disease. The EUrocrats have painted themselves into a corner from which there is no escape.
Everyone, including Obama and other world leaders, is demanding that Germany Do Something. Merkel, the only one in this group of “leaders” who has any clue, correctly points out that there’s nothing Germany can do, and that even if Germany did what is being demanded of it, it would have no beneficial effect and merely doom Germany along with the rest. At this point, there’s no doubt that Merkel is perfectly aware that the euro is going down. Her only concern is, as it should be, to minimize the effects of that collapse on Germany and German taxpayers.
The southern Euro tier by Christmas, then the northern tier by the middle or end of next year, followed by North America in 2014-2015. The Great Default cometh….
The USA depends on who is elected this fall and if Romney has the strength and convictions to go with Paul Ryan’s recommended budget. The entitlement society must go voluntarily or it may go forcefully. But I do not see a crisis point in the USA until the federal debt becomes $40 trillion or so. We are a LONG way from there.
If Romney chooses Paul Ryan as his running mate, that is a signal to me that Romney is serious about fixing the problem.
Canada is in good shape and getting better due to the oil exports. Of course, the USA is the biggest customer for Canada and …
Mexico is going to have a coup. Soon. The drug cartels will win no matter what.
Mexico is, as they say, a “failed state,” and the government there along with factions of our own government is in rollicking good times between the sheets with the biggest and most aggressive cartel.
Bishop Mittens talks out of both sides of his mouth and will say absolutely anything to get elected. Once he’s in there he will do about as much for us as Nosferatu II has done for his backers, supporters, and worshipers. And the wars and foreign adventuring will continue apace.
Forty trillion? Hell, they just dropped nearly a trillion on the big-farm agricultural subsidies; a trillion here and a trillion there…etc. Means nothing to these people. I have no trouble seeing the Fed debt rocketing up to that figure in the next few years, running mates be damned.
The whole house of cards cannot stand much longer and although Mittens tells Mrs. Mittens that although it is late (allegedly, according to her) it is not quite too late. I think it is too late, and given the caliber of our lords temporal and the supposed citizens of this land, I am very pessimistic about our outcome.
Things just go on and on. I run out of fingers to count on, even if I use binary and two hands enumerate 1023. However, what we really ought to do is reduce public expenditure by cutting police numbers. Simple tests – see who wants to be part of a police FORCE, and who wants to be part of an old-fashioned police service. Who wants to be a law enFORCEment officer, and who wants to be a peace officer. After all, I thought law enforcement was the job of the judiciary, not Judge Dredd, police officer with a licence to kill and no right of appeal. Decide whether we want to pay our money to our masters, or our servants. We don’t want SWAT teams breaking in with no warning, shooting family pets, throwing pregnant women against coffee tables, then saying “Oh, yes, here’s the warrant. Keep away from those children, you! And keep the kids away from the dead dog at the same time. What do you mean, there’s a difference between Place and Street? No, your name isn’t Armstrong, it’s Nkebele.”
Very well said, Don (or is that Mr. Nkebele?). Have you copied that to every newspaper (that remains), TV stations, city, state and federal representatives and the Chief of Police?
I knew there was trouble way back when Congress did nothing about the downsizing of airline seats to midget proportions. Actually, I think I had some permanent damage done to my right knee when somebody in front of me whapped their seat back Kung-Fu fast and rammed my knees Nancy Kerrigan-style. That injury is one of the reasons I am almost always barefoot, as it completely relieves knee pain I get after that incident, even with flip-flops. I am under no illusion that, like common thieves, business would kill me in the process of extracting what is in my wallet and have no regrets, because—even if I am dead—there is another live one coming along in just a minute—just like worms for birds.
Our legislators aid and abet those compromising citizen safety and welfare. In fact, they are so complicit, one wonders if there is not some kind of union they belong to.
Don, that narrative is so real, it scares me out of my wits. One of the first video jobs I had upon returning to the States, related to a 20 year-old boy who was killed in a dawn SWAT raid on a home that turned out to be the wrong house. These mistakes happen repeatedly in Indianapolis alone. I am sure it happens elsewhere just as often.
Well, the good people of Indiana may have found a nice remedy for those sorts of things now. And many blessings be upon them, if even just a handful of blueshirt huckleberry thugs think twice about raiding an address and making sure they have the right one and maybe they don’t need to come on like the Waffen SS or the aforementioned Judge Dredd.
As for the airline seats, I am not optimistic, despite the burgeoning evidence before us now on how freaking huge most Americans are these days. I suffered many times, from my height and long legs alone, in airline, bus and train seats and there have been no changes that I know of in that regard. But I rarely travel now anyway so it’s all moot for me.
I almost always fly Economy (=”Coach”) because it’s so much cheaper. It’s annoying on domestic flights (usually less than two hours) but drives me nuts on 12 hour flights. But in 1993 or ’95 all the international airlines were having a price war on Business Class to Europe out of Adelaide, so I took advantage of the situation. It was wonderful not to be squashed up in all three dimensions, and to be able to have a shower on arrival in London. I just wish I could get that price all the time – Cattle Class drives me nuts, and I’m only 6’1″.
6’1″???
You midget!
I guess the average American height for males is what, now, 5’9″ or something? So 6’1″ is considered tall here. Average female height probably 5’4″ or 5’5″, I dunno. Mrs. OFD is 5’10” and daughter is six feet, while sonny boy is, like me, 6’5″ and on the north side of 260. None of us does airline seats very well. Or for that matter, the seating arrangements in restaurants. We have to be really careful getting up to leave to avoid crashing through the bunches of other people they stack up against us.
And no one gets the hell out of our way in the stores, either; you’d think they would, to avoid being jostled or trampled, but if anything the opposite occurs.
I am really getting so as I don’t go anywhere and don’t care to, other than work and home and the occasional grocery run at an odd hour when it’s less crowded.
Here in the US guys the height of OFD or me stand out in crowds. In the Netherlands, we’re above average height, but not enough so to be striking.
You wanna stand out in a crowd, try a village market in way rural Cambodia, circa 1974. Usual crowd noise, animals and birds, etc., and yours truly exits a vehicle and stands up. Dead silence. Must have been like Gulliver arriving in Lilliput. They’d never seen a farang before, let alone a human being my size. Created quite a stir at the time. Now I imagine farangs are all over the place, touristas, Anthony Bourdain groupies, and the like.
Sweden, too. The people there are big-boned giants, including women. I’m 6’0″ but looked up to almost everyone there. Just accidentally running into someone can hurt.
Chuck wrote:
“Just accidentally running into someone can hurt.”
Back in the Eighties when I played basketball the top ranked men and women in my club were having a mixed sex scratch match. A guy who was very very short ran into one of the girls who was very very tall (over 7 foot, IIRC). Luckily she was wearing knickers… 🙂