Quote from Now is Now:
Well, I have and other parts of the world...UK is in deep poop, but the ECB has yet to divulge all their dirty laundry yet, especially when Italy and Portugal followed by Spain start defaulting on their loans...
Believe me, in the simplest terms, the shit has not hit the fan , yet. Set a date on your calender for 12/20/2009 and we can review the outcome...it will not be pretty.
As for the Chinese, they will simply buy/ loan less than previously because their exports are going to drop off a cliff here as is elsewhere. It makes sense in addition to the fact that their first priority is their own infrastructure.
i like being cautious so i have no problem with the above. you are right that for instance Spain and Ireland are going to fare worse than others.
however i consider housing bubbles as symptoms rather than causes of the current problems. the cause is really too much debt coupled with hope that ever increasing growth will somehow repay it one day. or that chinese will never become consuming more than one bowl of rice per person.
on that count europe is so much better off than US/UK that it is mind boggling. household debt to income ratio is more than twice as much in US/UK than in Germany/France (core of EURo). for instance (as you know) credit cards are not used much in continental europe while every teenager in UK is deep in debt already.
fiscal responsibility on micro level is what will ultimately matter imo. on the other hand productivity growth is better in the US which should hopefully soften the debt burden faster.
