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[albitz]

Markets all over the world are in freefall. Wheres it going to end ?
Can Europe afford to bail out Italy, and then Greece again,Republic of Ireland,Portugal, Spain..........??
Meanwhile the U.S. has bought itself a little time, but thats probably all it has done.
We could do with some little green men from Mars landing and giving us the benifit of their wisdom.

[jereboam]

If I had any investments or savings, I might be a bit worried.  But skint is skint, whatever the markets are doing.

But it may not really be a problem.  The financial (not to mention business and media) worlds seem to revolve around Robert Peston these days.  Could be he just got out of bed the wrong side this morning.

[albitz]

He does seem to have developed a persona which grants him "master of the universe" status.
A brave (or very foolish?) man would be thinking of remortaging and buying lots of shares in the near future.

[Varche]

It isn't looking good.

This is where folk who live a simple life without debt can breath a sigh of relief.

Those who have been swept along by the con men sorry freaking bankers and other gamblers and have heavy exposure to debt...Grim times.................

What gets me is that no sensible person would run their household like the governments run countries - borrowing more just to pay the borrowings of last year to pay for the previous years borowings............ 

[Nickbat]

There is just so much twaddle being said about this. Most commentators on the knowledgeable blogs (like zero hedge) have long been saying this was bound to happen. It was only utter fools like Barroso and Van Rompuy who thought they could fix the contagion by throwing more money at Greece.

The root cause is not the banks, but excessive government expenditure and public borrowing, combined with a fall in manufacturing and higher energy costs (much of which is self-inflicted). It's been known for sometime that the PIGS have been overstretched and, in the case of Ireland and Greece, tied by their membership of the euro, to an unworkable mechanism of fixed interest rates. It's become a political game where the simple answer for the affected countries is to default, decouple from the euro and devalue. However, the EU federalists can't bear to see their pet project go South and will try and chuck more money at the problem, in the hope it will go away. It won't.   

[Marks DTM Calib]

I was very impressed with Digby Jones and his comments regarding the Greek debt and issues last month:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14232423

I like the way he puts things into perspective a bit and in language most can understand

[Varche]

There is just so much twaddle being said about this. Most commentators on the knowledgeable blogs (like zero hedge) have long been saying this was bound to happen. It was only utter fools like Barroso and Van Rompuy who thought they could fix the contagion by throwing more money at Greece.

The root cause is not the banks, but excessive government expenditure and public borrowing, combined with a fall in manufacturing and higher energy costs (much of which is self-inflicted). It's been known for sometime that the PIGS have been overstretched and, in the case of Ireland and Greece, tied by their membership of the euro, to an unworkable mechanism of fixed interest rates. It's become a political game where the simple answer for the affected countries is to default, decouple from the euro and devalue. However, the EU federalists can't bear to see their pet project go South and will try and chuck more money at the problem, in the hope it will go away. It won't.   

Exactly. And that is bank rolled by what I simplistically call banks and gamblers. They are in actual fact a lot more sophisticated but still instrumental in getting us where we are now? I wonder how countries that live without charging interest get on?

[smoothomega]

I personally think the Germans need to reach deep into their pockets to help prop up the other Euro countries, after all, if the Euro fails then Germany stand to loose more than most at the end of it all, it's all well and good having a strong manufacturing base but if the Euro becomes worthless where does that leave them  :-/

[Marks DTM Calib]

I personally think the Germans need to reach deep into their pockets to help prop up the other Euro countries, after all, if the Euro fails then Germany stand to loose more than most at the end of it all, it's all well and good having a strong manufacturing base but if the Euro becomes worthless where does that leave them  :-/

As per the above interview though, given there is an election in Germany looming, how do you go to th Germans and say 'give us more money for Greece where they retire at 55 and pay tax only if they can be arsed'

[smoothomega]

I personally think the Germans need to reach deep into their pockets to help prop up the other Euro countries, after all, if the Euro fails then Germany stand to loose more than most at the end of it all, it's all well and good having a strong manufacturing base but if the Euro becomes worthless where does that leave them  :-/

As per the above interview though, given there is an election in Germany looming, how do you go to th Germans and say 'give us more money for Greece where they retire at 55 and pay tax only if they can be arsed'

I agree totally with that argument, the same as i feel strongly to ever increasing taxes here to pay for those who have no intentions of ever working or indeed for the open floodgates letting so many people in to a country who no longer have the jobs to go round but, we do it though through gritted teeth so the country doesn't sink, well doesn't sink as fast anyway i do however still think Germany will have the most to loose, just my opinion of course 

[Kevin Wood]

I personally think the Germans need to reach deep into their pockets to help prop up the other Euro countries, after all, if the Euro fails then Germany stand to loose more than most at the end of it all, it's all well and good having a strong manufacturing base but if the Euro becomes worthless where does that leave them  :-/

As per the above interview though, given there is an election in Germany looming, how do you go to th Germans and say 'give us more money for Greece where they retire at 55 and pay tax only if they can be arsed'

Something Germany would have done well to consider a decade ago.

I travel to Germany a great deal and back then I couldn't open my mouth nor pay a hotel bill, exposing pound notes in my wallet, without someone telling me how screwed the UK would be soon, having chosen not to join the Euro bandwagon.

Well, the shoe's on the other foot now. We have a number of completely incompatible cultures with incompatible fiscal policies at different phases of the economic cycle being locked to a currency that's run largely for the benefit of the German economy.

Something has to give. Either the currency is managed in such a way as to give them a chance, and countries such as Germany suffer, or countries such as Germany bail them out endlessly.

Oh, and what did they keep telling us? This wagon has no reverse gear. Shame, that. It would have come in rather handy about now.

[pscocoa]

now's the time to invest more - it will bounce back very soon... been there many times.