When will Greece default? It is already bust and I think it will be leaving the euro before Christmas. I know a lot of people don’t agree with me but I recently met a senior economic writer on The Times who agrees with me.
The sooner that Greece is out of the euro the better, because then it can go back to the drachma, devalue and to some extent sort itself out.
As long as it stays in it is a drag on everybody else. Needless to say Sarkozy and Merkel were quite unable to agree euro bonds which I think would have been very helpful, but one has elections and the other is French!
The trouble is that every European country is by definition selfish and none will actually act as true partners for the greater good of the whole.
The last time there was a euro currency experiment, which I think was in the 1880s, it only lasted a few years before going under. Of course also the Victorians had an idea about having decimal currency because they introduced the florin with that in mind, but never saw it through.
The extreme volatility in the stock markets continues and there’s no doubt that there is a lot of good value in there and also a lot of rubbish. It is best however to stay put, it’s never a good idea to sell into a downturn unless the money is needed for specific purposes.
I wonder if any of you know which is the fastest growing economy in Europe. Well, extraordinarily it is in fact Iceland. Having defaulted on its debts and its currency, it was devalued and is now getting better.
The competition this time is to do with hi-fi. If a base unit is known as a woofer and a treble unit is a tweeter, what is the term for a mid-range unit? On most boxes you will see it described as mid-range, but it does have a name just as the others do. There will be a nice prize for the winner.