I just want to leave you with the photographs. Here is Mr Bean...
And here is the Spanish Prime Minister.
John
Postscript: several people have complained that I should not mock people for their appearance. Accepted. Now lets look at what he is saying: "European debt crisis over". Response: looked at Ireland lately?
Mr Bean would have done better. He would have said nothing.
John
That isn't Mr Bean, it's Malcom Tucker...
ReplyDeletehttp://media.flother.com/apps/files/uploads/originals/malcolm_tucker.jpg
Mocking somebody because of his looks or a similarity to another person is always sub-standard. From you it is especially disappointing because I valued your blog highly (past form used deliberately)
ReplyDeleteIt was nicer for mocking him for what he was saying. European debt crisis over? Looked at Ireland lately.
ReplyDeleteGoes down in the annals of wishful thinking...
But hey - Mr Bean would have done better - he would have said nothing!
John
Good comment John. I totally agree.
ReplyDeleteMy sense is that the debt crisis will subside after either Germany leaves or some of the PIIGS leave the currency union, default, devalue and translate internal assets/liabilities into their new currency (or some version thereof). I think the latter is more likely.
If any of you have not read Michael Lewis's piece on Greece please give it a read (link below). A friend of mine recently traveled to Spain and Greece - his feeling was that the ground level realities in both Spain and Greece were very similar i.e. ridiculously high prices relative to Germany and corruption (Spanish police asking for bribe money, funds stolen from his Spanish hotel room vault despite the hotel being a 4 star hotel, sewage/toilet systems in the country side similar to the 3rd world, life in the country side still very much primitive etc...)
These are not first world industrialized nations and I can't see how the German tax payer will put up with this much longer.
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010?currentPage=all
ahem, John i hope this comment doesn't mean you've been still shorting euro in the last few days
ReplyDeleteNot shorting the Euro - but have been under invested in Euro all year - and sometimes to my bitter disappointment.
ReplyDeleteJ
Mr. Bean wouldn't dare match his eyebrows with his mustache.
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Investor panic is threatening to drive up the cost of borrowing for myriad nations around the world and to destabilize global currency markets, with the falling euro and strengthening dollar already hitting U.S. exporters by making such items as American beef and U.S. steel more expensive overseas.
ReplyDelete2010 European debt crisis
I just read the link to Swifts "A Modest Proposal" for those who don't get your sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I am quite disgusted. Eating year old children?
A year isn't nearly long enough to get an adequate amount of meat on the bones. It would be a waste, like eating a newborn rabbit. All bone, no bite.
Central Government planning never works lance the boil and split the Euro!!
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