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Originally Posted by Maggy J
There is a real danger of this Chicken Little behaviour of running around and screaming the sky is falling.You infect everyone else and soon everyone else is doing it.
Start shouting about financial institutions in the same manner and before long you have a panic and what was possible becomes inevitable and there are long queues outside banks.
I think we have a real chance of talking ourselves into a financial meltdown.  |
Markets hate uncertainty and so do investors both large and small. Confidence (often misplaced) is what fuels booms and a lack thereof coupled with the tiresome financial realities of life is what leads to the inevitable bust. As we are seeing with a relatively small economy in Greece, it doesn't take much to rock the foundations of the EU's house of cards. The Eurozone bigwigs' failure to act decisively in sorting out the crisis is what's increasingly spooking everyone and Merkel isn't too keen on staking more German money underwriting EU debt via common Eurobonds without getting something in return. We had plenty of talking and hot air from Europe before and during the Balkans conflict and little seems to have changed. These people love having meetings but don't seem to have a plan B and that's what's really worrying. Yes it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy and many would argue that the difficulty of achieving concensus within such a group of nations was one of the EU's fundamental flaws from the outset. Of course anyone who dared point that out was called a little Englander or something equally derogatory. Right now I reckon the EU is trying to control the spread of a forest fire with a garden hose and I'm certain that Merkel's 'solution' will involve yet more 'integration' and, therefore, German influence within the EU. I didn't think anyone should doubt how high the stakes in this 'game' are.
---------- Post added at 10:03 ---------- Previous post was at 09:40 ----------
Meanwhile, clearly not at all concerned about the potential for chaos in Europe, Teresa May is apparently making plans to restrict EU immigration in the event of a crisis. I understand there are provisions in EU law to allow member states to do this in times of emergency, but what's the betting their definition of an 'emergency' won't be quite the same as ours?...
Quote:
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The Government is drawing up plans for emergency immigration controls to curb an influx of Greeks and other European Union residents if the euro collapses, the Home Secretary discloses today.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...collapses.html