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Strategies & Market Trends : John Pitera's Market Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yorikke who wrote (13903)	3/17/2013 6:16:58 PM
From: ggersh	Respond to of 33421

en.wikipedia.org -vbg-

To: Yorikke who wrote (13903)	3/17/2013 6:22:49 PM
From: cmg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 33421

Or maybe Putin blessed this taking......

To: Yorikke who wrote (13903)	3/18/2013 7:06:16 AM
From: The Ox	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33421

Let’s hope that, with reasonable luck, European regulators hold the line tomorrow (and if a commentator were to predict otherwise, it would be like crying “Fire!” in a crowded theater). But it is a fair bet that the botching of the Cypriot bailout has ensured that the agonizing economic malaise afflicting much of Europe for four years now will be further prolonged. It is time for plain words. The ultimate source of Europe’s financial malaise is Germany. The German financial establishment was complicit from the beginning in the inflating of some of the bubbles in the afflicted nations. Now it is not only disowning its role in causation but, by forcing austerity on national governments and refusing to allow more than token inflation of the euro, it is turning the knife in those nations’ wounds. It is already clear that though Japan for long has enjoyed exceptionally cordial relations with Germany (neither side advertises this but it is a fact), financial officials in Tokyo are now pressuring their German colleagues to relax the austerity policy. The most obvious outward evidence of this is Japan’s sustained effort in the last four months to depreciate the yen. Although the depreciation is popularly attributed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in reality the policy is coming from the Tokyo Ministry of Finance, and the principal loser is Germany (which had been winning share against Japan in many advanced producers’ goods industries in the years of a cheap euro). The United States enjoys no similar ability to apply the thumbscrews to the German economic establishment but President Barack Obama can still be a vital part of the solution. For all his shortcomings, he ranks abroad, if not at home, as the most respected American President in decades. He needs to talk to German Chancellor Angela Merkel – and talk openly for the permanent historical record. It is time to call Merkel’s bluff. forbes.com