Count them: Greece, Germany, France, Serbia, England. Huge election gains against austerity and in favor of radical left and right ideas. As the Wall Street Journal headlined, “Voter Anger Sweeps Europe.”
And that’s just this past weekend.
Sadly, Europe is back again, hurting our markets. My unfavorite weekend image:
From Greece, political leader of the far-right Golden Dawn party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, spoke during a press conference on Sunday. Note the similarity to the Nazi swastika. Greece’s stockmarket dropped a whopping 7.7%.
Europe has been coddled by populist socialism for the 50 years. Only a few countries — Germany and Sweden for example — have been disciplined enough to afford it. For the others, the wild government spending is coming home to roost.
More than half the people in France work for the government. That’s mind-blowing for us, comfortable for them.
Austerity and devaluation work. But only when you have control of your own destiny. The only way this will work for Greece and Spain (and perhaps others) is for them to get back their own currencies. And that may be how this political crisis will play itself out. Perhaps the only way. Meantime, the uncertainty and the unrest fostered by newly-empowered nutcases will hurt our stockmarket, and the businesses of our companies with global reach — especially now that China, India and Australia are also slowing.
This is not the best time to buy American equities. I suspect they’ll be much cheaper soon.
For now this market should be played to the downside.
Favorite recent New Yorker cartoons:
Harry Newton who spent much of the weekend coughing up green phlelm — a function of severe allergies, which I seem to be incapable of dealing with. Despite Clairtin, Benadryl, etc. Every doctor says it’s the worst allergy season here in New York they’ve ever seen. Maybe, it’s God’s way of punishing us for living in New York?
Try Tavist. It isn't drowsy.
When you are ready, the answer is Singulair. two weeks and you arr amazed you hadn't tried it years ago.
I have used many different allergy remedies. I find that Claritin and Allegra do not work for me. I think the fact they are non drowsy means they have a lower amount of active ingredient. Benadryl works but does put me to sleep. I find Zyrtec works for me. It stops my eyes from watering and I have minimal sneezing. I do get a little sleepy but usually well after I have taken it and usually not until evening ( I take it in the morning). Good luck. The worst year ever for me.
The voice from above was clear: vote the Republican ticket and both your allergies and your NYCity friends will go away – for sure!! Can it get any better?
Celebrating a certain person's birthday in warm sunny clean-air Las Vegas and winning at every table. Time to get out of Dodge, err, NYCity, Harry. Oh, I should add, everybody here is smoking, the casino's smell of cigarettes, and they don't build these huge magnificent palaces by giving money away. And my sinuses are going crazy. Still fun.
A deep voice from the sky just spoke, the lousy air and resulting coughing and nose blowing in New York City comes from voting the Democratic ticket! Still time to change, it said! Better than Claritin.
That since the Neo-Nazi “Golden Dawn” party symbol was probably designed by a Greek, perhaps it better symbolizes the maze of the Minotaur, and the hopeless, convoluted nature of the Greek economy. Also, there's a new anti-Nazi Russian movie, “Match” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt22… recounting the famous Russian/German soccer matches of WWII.
The one sure cure for allergies is to leave New York. As a bonus you're view on the economy and investing always improves when you're out of NYC. Its beautiful here in South Florida. Come, visit and breath easy.
Harry- I just switched from Claritin to Singulair. Singulair does wonders for the lower respiratory symptoms but little for the nasal sinus symptoms. But at least I can breath easier!!!!!!!!! I still respond to exclamations.