Monday, October 24, 2011

Of Mice and Men

Despite the rancorous meetings over the weekend between various "leaders" of the Eurozone and other leaders from non Eurozone countries, the markets are optimistic that a deal will be reached by Wednesday that will resolve the Eurocrisis.

Sadly this optimism is somewhat misplaced.

Aside from rumours that Wednesday's "solve the Eurocrisis" meeting (the one that was postponed from Sunday) may in fact be postponed, today's economic news for the Eurozone is not good.

Goldman Sachs have published manufacturing and services PMI numbers that show a decline to 47.2 in October down from 49.1 in September. This is the sixth consecutive monthly decline, and it clearly shows that the Eurozone is in a recession.

Does this matter?

Yes, it does matter, aside from the obvious negative effects on people's standards of living it will also increase the pressure on ratings agencies to downgrade France's rating. In the event that this happens, the calculations behind the "plans" for the Eurozone bailout will go out of the window.

Now repeat after me and learn this for prep:

- There is no plan
- There was no plan
- There will never be a plan

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