It is difficult to move through life successfully without family, lover, friends, and business relationships that work.
To see this, let’s apply the notion to, say, Europe. It is easy to see that a “family” this large would have a wide range of relationships. Sure, history points to an abundance of times when the members did not get along, when the members were killing each other in war. Clearly, those relationships were not working. On the other hand, since the formation of the European Union and the creation of the Eurozone and the euro currency in the late 1990s, the relationships have improved dramatically, and, up until recently, the relationships were working, which helped make the EU the largest economy on the planet. Today, however, mom and pop are yelling, the kids are fighting, the lovers are having spats, and business is trying to hold its relationships together amidst all the loud noise. Here is an example …
Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron will try to resolve opposing views on the euro zone crisis on Friday, after Berlin accused London of being selfish about Europe in comments that touched off British sensitivities about German bossiness.
“You are so selfish,” she said. “No, it is your bossiness that is causing all of this,” he said. There it is in a nutshell. Success will not come if the parties in a relationship are fighting like petulant children or irate lovers.
I know, I know, this is basic Relationship101 stuff, and you might wonder why I even write about it, so here it is. What is going on in Europe is not about complex, intractable accounting problems no one can understand. It is not complicated and it is not impossible to resolve. The issue at hand is whether those in the relationship, specifically, Britain, Germany, and France, can stop bickering and agree to do what will eventually have to get done to resolve the crisis – have the “autonomous” European Central Bank step up and buy as many bonds as it needs to buy to bring down rising bond yields. This means the ECB has to unleash the power of the printing press. I think this is inevitable, as it is inconceivable that Europe would let years of hard work and prosperity slip away because the relationships are not working. Now, my belief is not the majority belief, if you trust in polls, that is …
A Reuters poll of 50 bond strategists in Europe and the United States gave an even probability that the ECB would eventually agree to print money.
Okay, so I will finish this week on a positive note for you tech traders who are looking for the trend change, who are looking for an indicator that suggests the trend is changing …
Microchip, often seen as a canary in the coal mine for the chip industry, said it expects the inventory burn-off to be largely over by the end of 2011 and anticipates the December quarter to mark the bottom of this industry cycle.
Trade in the day – Invest in your life …
