Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 11:21 trotsky (European stock markets) ID#377387: Copyright © 2002 trotsky/Kitco Inc. All rights reserved this is now a total collapse...same thing in Japan, where the Nikkei has finally plunged even BELOW my ultra-bearish 8,000 target ( remember how i got ridiculed here by Horace Shmorace when i mentioned this target for the Nikkei when it was trading at 12K? ) . anyway, what's happening in the European markets is extremely alarming. first of all it seems now likely that scores of banks and insurers will go splat, and secondly it's a sign that the recession is indeed about to turn into a depression. Germany's unemployment ( the data are of course doctored, but not as extensively as the US data ) now stands at an official 12%, i.e. it's approximately 15-16% in reality. i fear that once it gets worse, the social fabric may be rent asunder...at the moment, people are still civil. but they're all faced with losing their retirement nest eggs, and those supposed to pay for the 'pay-as-you-go' state pension schemes can't find a job anymore. one only needs to look at past depressions to see what might happen...it's only a very small step from a staid, civil society to widespread unrest and the rise of fanatical extremist politicians to power. and we can thank the central banksters and their counterfeit money system for what's happening now. they allowed the biggest financial asset bubble in history to form, and after it has burst are actively encouraging ANOTHER bubble ( housing and mortgage credit ) to grow to the sky, thus ensuring that what remains of household wealth will be destroyed as well. over 50 years of peace and prosperity utterly destroyed by a gaggle of bureaucrats whom unwitting outsiders have elevated to the status of gods ( see Woodward's "Maestro" ) . Argentina's collapse has shown the way - it has proven beyond doubt that a fractional reserve fiat system is ultimately doomed to collapse. of course, anyone with even a shred of common sense knows this anyway. you can't cheat the market forever - and historically, every such system has collapsed, because it is inherently prone to excess and depends entirely on confidence ( i.e., it is a con game ) . this confidence is now shredded to bits all over the world. similar to communism, there is no 'proper way' of implementing a fiat system successfully ( i.e. in a manner that ensures that it will last ) . the system is faulty PER SE. |