Something to think about before I go out and party for the 4th of July. The Euro is in trouble. Portugal interest rates have jumped to 8% and will move higher. Austria has closed 25% of all the branches of their bank in crisis, and I expect the first German banks to begin to fail soon. The EU Commission is waiting for the German Elections and will thereafter begin to look at issuing Euro-Bills to cover debts for the Union. But this is likely to be too little too late. Portugal is at great risk of just being forced into outright default and may be unable to wait for the German elections. There is really little hope of saving Europe unless a big change happens. As long as the politicians continue to think they are in charge, nothing is going to work. The cost of living in Europe is so high compared to America, there can never be any job recovery in Europe in the near future. The euro simply must just sink further down until the politicians wake up, or are forced out of office. In 2014, there will be important elections in Europe and that will have a large impact upon the future. Meanwhile, the policies are just nonsense. This is all about retaining power and control – nothing more. The standard of living is drastically lower. A Starbucks Lattie at $7.12 in Zurich, Athens $5.84, Frankfurt $5.53, Paris $5.18, Madrid $4.65, New York City at $4.30 and and $3.55 in San Francisco. This illustrates the taxation and how the cost of living is impacted by that development. The cost of dinner in Europe is often double the price of that in the USA. So exactly where has life been made better with unemployment among the youth at 50%
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 01:12:29 +0000