Article

2008-10-26 Home Front Economy

Europe on the brink of currency collapse

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Posted by Anonymoose 2008-10-26 13:29|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 They kept talking about loans to Asia but they don't mention China (the largest economy in Asia, AFAIK) once in the article. Anyone want to comment?

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2008-10-26 13:54|| 2008-10-26 13:54|| Front Page Top

#2 China has a large economy with a relatively small external debt and large current account surplus. You are very unlikely to see a currency collapse or sovereign debt default by China. The main risk in China is social instability from an economic contraction or widespread internal debt defaults from the collapse of their real estate bubble.

Posted by phil_b 2008-10-26 15:24|| 2008-10-26 15:24|| Front Page Top

#3 Western European banks hold almost all the exposure to the emerging market bubble, now busting with spectacular effect.

The Irony is that the EUniks hustled and bustled and did under the table deals to get into those economies ahead of / instead of the US.

Posted by lotp 2008-10-26 15:32|| 2008-10-26 15:32|| Front Page Top

#4 Hmm...the Euro-socialist model collapses just as O proposes to implement it here? Gee, I feel so bad for him.

Posted by Thor Grairt5784 2008-10-26 16:40|| 2008-10-26 16:40|| Front Page Top

#5 A good socialist never lets a few socialist government collapses get him down. Right, Comrade Obama?

Posted by Darrell 2008-10-26 17:03|| 2008-10-26 17:03|| Front Page Top

#6 China's man problem is the risk of a dollar default...

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2008-10-26 17:57|| 2008-10-26 17:57|| Front Page Top

#7 H3ll, 100 million murdered by their own countries hasn't stopped socialists!

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2008-10-26 17:58|| 2008-10-26 17:58|| Front Page Top

#8 Also noteworthy, the gold COMEX is dangerously close to collapse. It is margin paper trades of gold, and even a small margin call can wipe it out right now.

Importantly, at the same time, the shelves of retail gold dealers are bare. One said his looked like "a Soviet grocery store."

The premium for physical gold is still normal, but unless whoever has physical gold right now starts dumping, the gold COMEX will collapse, and the price of physical gold will go through the roof.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-10-26 19:04|| 2008-10-26 19:04|| Front Page Top

#9 good time to sell that wedding ring from my unsuccessful venture? The kids don't want it (bad luck and all), I don't want it, and although my ex might like the $ it represents, I'll be damned if she gets that...lol

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-10-26 19:08|| 2008-10-26 19:08|| Front Page Top

#10 Gee, I wonder if I should muster a little more sympathy for the Euros than they did for us? I guess anything less than absolute, completely unrestrained glee would be orders of magnitude nicer than what they did.

Beggar thy neighbor, indeed.

Posted by Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-10-26 19:16|| 2008-10-26 19:16|| Front Page Top

#11 Everyone is hurting. No one wants to part with any cash, including the banks. The liquidity crisis is killing business activity. One venture I am involved with has seen orders drop 50% this month. That's for a business that makes replacement parts that wear out very predictably. That will translate to layoffs and the company surviving by working down inventory, both of finished parts and raw materials.

Posted by ed 2008-10-26 19:50|| 2008-10-26 19:50|| Front Page Top

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