Hang Them All.
The sensationally-named hung Parliament that follows the confused and haste-makes-waste British General Elections delivers a teaching moment for Europe. Can Reuters and the Beeb handle two crises at once? Greece Burns While London Fiddles? It is hard for a grown man not to break down laughing at the spectacle of the three British pols, Brown, Cameron and Clegg, with their solid pastel silk ties and bespoke suits, striding here and there through doorways as if something is going to happen. The best advice is Rahm Emanuel's now-immortal bons mots at the start of the Obama administration: "Never waste a good crisis." David Cameron must draw out the decisionmaking as he dances around the puny Lib Dems and their 55 seats; while Nick Clegg must act the high-minded truth-seeker as he ponders a Cabinet post and the price of power.
The Trouble with Greece.
Nothing about the market close in NYSE suggests that the turmoil that started in Europe over these last weeks will end soon. Spoke Ben West, Stratfor.com, to learn that Greece has a firm tradition of murderous anarchy bands, led by a shadowy group of sophisticated rebels called Revolutionary Struggle. The bank attack on May 5 was not an organized effort. Revolutionary Struggle delivered a VBIED at the Athens Stock Exchange in the fall of 2009. It has been depleted by April raids, but it is hydra-headed. Also, the two political parties in Greece, the center-left Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement now in power, the New Democracy Party that it replaced after the failures of leadership during the forest fires of 2007 and 2009, are now both disregarded and ignored by an alienated, willful, petulant populace of youth and tax-cheats. Add the Greek model of spontaneous self-destruction to the EU model of pompous dithering while the credit markets choke and suffocate, what we have is a crisis that cannot stop itself. They call it a virus. Sure. Fevers in Lisbon and Madrid and Dublin. Soon in Rome and London. The center is not holding. EU keeps using the word "crisis" as an explanation. All panics come down to bank runs. There is a bank run in Europe. Jimmy Rogers joins Marc Faber and other voices in Asia to say that it is time to lighten up on exposure. Others are betting and re-betting against the euro. Pick your brand of poison:
"The Markit iTraxx Financial Index of credit-default swaps on 25 banks and insurers soared as much as 40 basis points to 223, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The index closed at 212 basis points March 9, 2009. Swaps on Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy rose to or near all-time high levels."
looks almost like a berkeley frat party.
let's have a riot.
chicks dig the "barricade warrior" look
vision of the future that could be cali, ny, michigan coming soon to a public square near you.
this is not "the greek crisis spreading"
it is the credit markets waking up and smelling the coffee.
jewels have their 4 c's - color, cut, carat and clarity.
credit has 4 c's too - covenants, coverage, collateral and .... character
atm there is no appropriate interest rate for greek debt
not at any price.
this should serve as a cold shower to the group hug folks.
but it won't.
yesterday the athenian mob burned three wicked bank tellers to death.
i hope socrates greeted them at peter's gates.
greece should be allowed to default.
make them stand in the corner til they figure out how to solve their mess.
they deserve shame.
no germans. no imf.
give the mob the keys.
I'd like to hear JB ask the following question of financial/political roundtable:
How can anyone say with a straight face that the decision not to audit the Fed was done because the Fed must be politically independent, when it was political intervention by the Fed that got the audit requirement removed?
In theory, we elect politicians to remove impediments that would keep us from living safe, happy and productive lives. In practice, however, politicians have found it is not in their best interests to solve problems – so much better to exploit these for all they’re worth and give them plenty of lip service; to then, on the strength of empty promises, be able to propel would-be kings to victory in the ever ubiquitous next election cycle. It is a clear conflict of interest that is inherent in the system that has now hit the wall, pitting the political class in direct opposition of the expectations of the electorate.
It has also become evident that the electorate has not been holding their elected representatives’ feet to the fire. At the same time, serious concerns have accrued to the point where there is no longer any margin to add additional grievances to the list of already well-established concerns. Especially, ever changing financial realities along with immigration and terrorism are routinely crowded out and left languishing. It is often said that anything done at this point will only make matters worse. Trust in our leadership has seriously eroded.
Elections are the mechanism designed to fix this. Unfortunately, the people from which we are asked to choose invariably come from within the political class which itself is hamstrung by the need to preserve itself.
In America there has been a huge awakening. This is not to say that we now fully understand exactly what and how much is at stake. Unlike the British parliamentary system in which a multitude of parties participate, we only have two. We’ve tried putting Republicans in charge; we’ve tried Democrats. Neither party has particularly impressed us. What now?
We have to get over the notion that the men and women we have been electing to represent us actually do. We have to face up to the fact that they have come primarily only to promote themselves. The most cynical among us understand this. What we don’t yet seem to grasp is that there’s a difference; that elections have consequences. We have to re-learn our civic lessons; we have to re-read our history books. We can do it. When we see a dog, we can easily agree it’s a dog. Yet, when we see a socialist, we’re somehow incapable of saying, “He’s a socialist.” Instead…
In the 50’s there was a TV show entitled, “Queen for a Day”. It followed a simple game format in which the winner was wined and dined and given pretty clothes to wear for 24 hours. That’s basically what we have been doing when electing our officials. We do it on the basis of their being capable of shining in the glare of the media hype. In our time, a man like Lincoln would be a complete washout. We look to poise, sex appeal, skin color and the like. We have become too lazy to examine complex issues.
Suddenly, we find that they have robbed us of our nest egg. Our security hangs by a thread. How could this have happened? Ironically, we may still not have learned our lesson as we seek out Adonis-like faces to match our Gucci accessories.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
"Greece has a firm tradition of murderous anarchy bands, led by a shadowy group of sophisticated rebels called Revolutionary Struggle. The bank attack on May 5 was not an organized effort. Revolutionary Struggle delivered a VBIED at the Athens Stock Exchange in the fall 2009. It has been depleted by April raids, but it is hydra-headed."
Sounds like a great gateway for Al-Qaeda/Iran. Barbarians inside the gates; barbarians outside the gates. What's not to love about this situation?
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."- Margaret Thatcher.
"In the 50’s there was a TV show entitled, “Queen for a Day”. It followed a simple game format in which the winner was wined and dined and given pretty clothes to wear for 24 hours."
Peter,
Remember that the reward was bestowed to the winner of the best sob-story, as judged by the audience. The concept was so appealling it was adopted by Congress in the 60s as national social policy.
I thought NPR captured the essence of post-election manuvering between Cameron and Clegg perfectly. Boiled down, their report from London said "Cameron and Clegg held a meeting to decide to meet again."
The crux of diplomacy.