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Strategies & Market Trends : Ride the Tiger with CD -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Louis V. Lambrecht who wrote (19248)	11/9/2004 11:00:11 PM
From: Bearcatbob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 312466

".. I believe less than 3%. I believe both Germany and France have exceeded that. Half of the countries did exceeded the 3% line. ROFL. Sickos hey? Btw, US is somewhere between 4 and 5%, haven't the last figures." EC chief warns French PM of budget deficit concern 10/09/2003 European Commission president Romano Prodi told French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin Wednesday of his "preoccupation" at France's ballooning budget deficit. Prodi said he telephoned Raffarin to "express his preoccupation with recent press statements on the forthcoming French budget (for 2004)". In a statement, the head of the European Union's executive arm called on France to rectify its finances "within the rules of the (EU) treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact". France is on course to overshoot the pact's ceiling for budget deficits in the 12-nation euro zone -- 3.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) -- for the third year running in 2004. But Raffarin is pressing ahead with tax-cutting plans that could push the French deficit to 4.0 percent of GDP next year. "My task is to make sure there are jobs for French men and women," the prime minister said last week. Prodi said he stressed to Raffarin that "economic and budgetary policy plans and decisions taken at this juncture have to be credible and sustainable over the long term." He said his sentiments were backed by the rest of the European Commission, amid calls by some commissioners for the pact to be reviewed to help the euro zone escape recession. France is likely to find itself in the dock when EU finance ministers meet in the northern Italian lakeside town of Stresa on Friday and Saturday. The European Commission, the European Central Bank and several member states are expected to call on France to show it is at least making efforts to honour the 1997 stability pact. But France may not find itself the only one being pilloried, after German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Wednesday that compliance with the stability pact should not come at the cost of economic growth. Germany is also on course to overshoot the 3.0 percent deficit limit next year, for the third year in a row, as an economic slowdown bites deeper. Text and Picture Copyright © 2004 AFP. All other copyright © 2004 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable. You have that about right. So when each situation is about the same - why would the currency of one be expected to soar over the other? There in lies the crux of the investment/gold conundrum!