Sleepwalking Towards Disaster
From Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph:
Europe is “sleepwalking towards disaster”, according to the 17 experts, who warned that over the past few weeks “the situation in the debtor countries has deteriorated dramatically”.
“The sense of a neverending crisis, with one domino falling after another, must be reversed. The last domino, Spain, is days away from a liquidity crisis,” said the economists. They include two members of Germany’s Council of Economic Experts and leading euro specialists at the London of School of Economics, all euro supporters.
“This dramatic situation is the result of a eurozone system which, as currently constructed, is thoroughly broken. The cause is a systemic failure. It is the responsibility of all European nations that were parties to its flawed design, construction and implementation to contribute to a solution. Absent this collective response, the euro will disintegrate,” they added in a co-signed report for the Institute for New Economic Thinking.
The article goes on to cite a workable solution, but it remains to be seen whether the member countries will avail themselves of it. However, once the reference entities have defaulted, the derivatives will begin to unwind and the entire world will be drawn into a hellish black hole of unimaginable destruction.
Today’s motto is: “There is only one thing worse than being in debt and that is doing without”. Austerity, anyone?
Debt isn’t the problem. Unregulated derivatives are the icebergs under the surface which will sink us. Too much austerity leads to extreme political movements.
Your point is well taken. As a result that is precisely WHY debt is A problem, not THE problem.
Think context.
Agreed. However, debt should be used effectively to bridge downturns in the economy.