MARKET CURRENTS
real-time news and commentary for investors
- Friday, February 3, 3:53 PM All 3 ruling coalition leaders in Greece oppose new austerity measures being demanded by the country's creditors as a condition of the new €130B bailout. A €14.5B bond comes due on March 20, and German bankers are known for their brinksmanship in debt restructurings. The clock ticks. (see also)
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This news story has 9 comments:
You have the markets going nuts on nothing! 1.2 million people get throw off the 99 weeks of unemployment, the U/E number drops to 8.3 and we get this little bump? Short this thing now!
Where is the more prudent speculator?
He is selling very quietly and raising cash to deploy when this balloon goes pop! The Euro zone is a bonfire that is about to go 5 alarm!
This is a smoke screen and wait until we get any small hiccup, then we will see the bot's drive this thing right down to the lower end of the trading range!
Insanity met with more insanity is a recipe for a face tearing. Don't loose your head here!
Jerry
I'm not sophisticated enough to deal with puts and spreads and whatnot... but I am keeping those stop sell orders *tight*!
Everyone has to look like the tough guy right now, but when the time comes to get serious, they'll just kick the can again.
We all know that: Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Belgium, Hungary, France, Italy, Japan, USA are bankrupt!!
And the USA is not done!! We will print trillions more to make sure that we embarass our founding fathers (who warned us about the banks back in 1776) and bankrupt us on a world class level!!
So all my little chipmunks, store your real nuts until all hell breaks loose and then short the SH*T out of this market once humpty dumpty falls off the wall.
How much potential upside risk can there possibly be when we know all the land mines that are in the path of the world.
On a side note, the most unreasonable ones seem like the greediest as usual. That means the hedge funds. If they refuse the deal just let them keep their bonds and be put on the last of the payout list. That probably means never getting paid. It would sort of serve them right, not that they would care save not getting a fat bonus check. After all, its the investor's money not theirs. That's why they can play hardball.
There should be a rule about hedge funds, investors should demand that at least 50% of the assets of those that start, run, or manage them should be invested in them. And all bonuses should be paid in hedge fund shares and not paid out for 5 years. That would make them think twice about fraud, gambling with the money, or putting investors in harm's way. It's called mandatory skin in the game. It probably should apply to banks and financial institutions too, but there is 0% chance any of them would agree to it. Why should they when they can gamble with other people's money, get federal bailouts, and go bankrupt without any personal risk?
Perhaps you Mean, Bankers with Hedge fund envy, behaving like Hedge funds?
"We all know that: Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Belgium, Hungary, France, Italy, Japan, USA are bankrupt!!"
Well, we can agree that all have debts approaching 100% of GDP or more, and that is a problem for each country. We know too that taxes have to rise if they are not going to increase debt over the next few years. Taxes will have to rise more if strong growth is not seen as a possibility.
What is missing is a plan to address the problem. Most of these countries are still looking for ways to decrease taxes. Many are still providing (free) guarantees for banks either officially or unofficially.
There is some budget fiddling to cut the cost of ballpoint pens but a mild rise in unemployment will consume any savings, real quick.
Isn't it reasonable to expect that this problem will generally get worse? Does anyone think it will get better?