Not a reflection of Parisian haute couture but a metaphor used by American business media airheads to describe the Euro Zone financial crisis as compared to their stateside brethren.
It is funny to watch all the pundits come out in full glory and start lambasting each other when the American equity markets go for a tailspin. When we are fighting wars in any number of gulf nations these Euro folks are all the allies we can get but talk about economic malaise and Euro zone becomes a curse to avoid.
Now it is interesting to observe from an ombudsman's standpoint that there is no room to stand and there is no point when the crowds have taken to the waves and shouted themselves hoarse blaming everybody under the sun for the state of the global economic slowdown. One moment China is going gangbusters, the next day they have hit the brakes so bad we can smell their rubber all the way here.
Oh and Latin Americans, man those are crazy - not sure what is going on there - for a moment they were part of the building BRIC consortium, the next they are unpredictable. But then again - wait - nothing is as crappy as the EU and their glorified vision of a single trading entity.
Admittedly there are cracks in the system with the more robust nations like Germany feeling the pain of pulling the weight of its other 11 socialist partners. But then although known for its Schwein and frankfurters they too detest the PIGS - made of not so meaty nations - Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.
So ignoring the rampantly dysfunctional housing crisis at home and a divided congress with a gap wider than the grand canyon, and no clue on how to provide for entitlements that people have come to expect, our belief is that Europe has major problems.
The ECB and Fed leaders will at least get a few Swiss trips out of this I say.
It is funny to watch all the pundits come out in full glory and start lambasting each other when the American equity markets go for a tailspin. When we are fighting wars in any number of gulf nations these Euro folks are all the allies we can get but talk about economic malaise and Euro zone becomes a curse to avoid.
Now it is interesting to observe from an ombudsman's standpoint that there is no room to stand and there is no point when the crowds have taken to the waves and shouted themselves hoarse blaming everybody under the sun for the state of the global economic slowdown. One moment China is going gangbusters, the next day they have hit the brakes so bad we can smell their rubber all the way here.
Oh and Latin Americans, man those are crazy - not sure what is going on there - for a moment they were part of the building BRIC consortium, the next they are unpredictable. But then again - wait - nothing is as crappy as the EU and their glorified vision of a single trading entity.
Admittedly there are cracks in the system with the more robust nations like Germany feeling the pain of pulling the weight of its other 11 socialist partners. But then although known for its Schwein and frankfurters they too detest the PIGS - made of not so meaty nations - Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.
So ignoring the rampantly dysfunctional housing crisis at home and a divided congress with a gap wider than the grand canyon, and no clue on how to provide for entitlements that people have come to expect, our belief is that Europe has major problems.
The ECB and Fed leaders will at least get a few Swiss trips out of this I say.
Are all the countries in the world becoming Banana Republics, slowly but surely? And does that make all the citizens monkeys?
ReplyDelete