[quote]katzenjammer wrote:
orion wrote:
katzenjammer wrote:
orion wrote:
katzenjammer wrote:
orion wrote:
katzenjammer wrote:
orion wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
orion wrote:
katzenjammer wrote:
tribunaldude wrote:
I would also recommend holding euros instead of dollars (
^^ you must be joking? Europe is in far worse shape, as is the Euro.
No, because we have a fundamentally sound economy.
You don´t.
lol
Is 15-20% of our GDP financial services?
Did we have a housing bubble that has yet to ruin hundreds if not thousand small construction firms?
Do we have a weapons industry that will have to shrink as the whole American empire becomes unsustainable?
Did we live beyond our means or do we have billions of private savings?
I think I´ll stand by my assessment.
Feel free to PM me where to send the care packages.
Yes your banks are involved in the largest lending bubble in history. Yes you are in worse shape than the US. Yes you are in denial. Yes, Europe’s schadenfreude is about to give way to their highly developed sense of irony.
Did you actually read the article?
Yes, a few of our banks are fucked and non-Euro curreencies will be kicked up and down just for fun, but what has that to do with our real economy?
We are like Japan in the early 90´s, we can simply sit this one out.
The huge malinvestments of the US economy just aren´t there.
I read it, but trust me, nobody needed to tell me that banks around here start getting nervous.
Wow. You are in serious denial. Or you haven’t read the piece I linked. Or you’re smoking more of that Austrian hash. Enjoy your schadenfreude while you can - it won’t last long.
Here’s just one short sentence in that piece: “Austria’s bank exposure to emerging markets is equal to 85pc of GDP - with a heavy concentration in Hungary, Ukraine, and Serbia - all now queuing up (with Belarus) for rescue packages from the International Monetary Fund.”
So in the worst case scenario we own half of Eastern Europe?
What it means is that you’re participating in a truly massive lending bubble - just like the US - only it’s much worse.
This is why the dollar has been strengthening; not because the US is doing better, but because investors are quite aware that Europe is facing even worse prospects.
[edit: btw, orion, I really suggest reading the article - I do think you’ll find it interesting.]
I read it, but trust me, nobody needed to tell me that banks around here start getting nervous.
edit: I have spent the last 2 weeks explaining to friends what their banks really wanted from them.
And, while I still remain a true believer when it comes to capitalism, those bankers can be slick, greedy assholes.
But, somehow, there is something very Austrian about it when you tell a banker, in a roundabout way, that he is trying to anally rape someone and he tells you, in a very roundabout way, that he is terribly sorry but his board of directors, um, kind of degreed what would be “best for the customers”.
Sometimes I kind of do not know whether we are just a bunch of degenerate hypocrites or surprisingly frank and honest when you speak the code.
Probably the Austrians have no monopoly on that sort of thing 
However, I won’t be surprised if ahem the Schilling is ahem reintroduced. Do you you think the Euro is going to last? Seriously now. [/quote]
Yes, because everyone has seen what can happen to currencies that are to small to be defended against a hedge fund.
Also, most European trade is inner-European trade and our economies have benefited a lot from no longer having to hedge their currency risks.
I do not see why anyone would want to return to the old system.
Plus, the Austrian Schilling was effectively part of the DM because we knew then that we were to small to make it on our own, why would we want to leave the EUR and then practically join another currency?