Yesterday was a fine day, indeed, and I was right, at least for me, when I said,
… and I suggest to all of you, no matter your current status in life, look around you carefully. My guess is that you are not alone. My guess is people care about you and they willingly and happily fill the voids that otherwise might make you think you are alone.
Throughout my day yesterday, I did look around me and I did see and I did talk to folks who cared about me, and those same folks easily reinforced for me that I am not alone. I hope yesterday brought all of you the same …
As much as I would like to talk about this or that in the market, about where to look for opportunity, about what the market might do, I find it difficult to do that. The first reason is this week seems to be somewhat of a write off. It’s hard to peg what goes on in the market during Thanksgiving week. Investors and traders are just like everyone else when it comes to taking “holiday” time off. They like it too.
The second reason is the obstinate reality of Europe. Those kids are still fighting, each still trying to get its way on this or that. I find that interesting because, in the end, they all know who needs what and when. They may not like it, but they all know the end game here, and even though the ECB may couch what they have to do in some fancy accounting language, or some political play on words, the truth is, the only way out of the mess is through the ECB.
Analysts believe the sense of crisis will in the end force dramatic action. “We are moving closer to a policy response, which could be either more aggressive ECB action or the idea of euro bonds could gain some traction.” The ECB does have the freedom to lend banks trillions of euros and could use this firepower to indirectly support governments trying to issue debt.
Yet, for all of the reality in this, a certain non-real aura hangs over the whole mess. In fact, some days, it seems surreal. Can you remember all the way to the days of Papandreou in Greece Do you remember how he announced, out of the blue, that the notion of Greece honoring the mandate of the EU regarding its fiscal obligations would be put to the voters of Greece who, to put it lightly, cared little for the idea of stronger austerity measures. Do you remember how that blew out the markets and cost that third generation Prime Minister his job That was surreal.
And the constant sniping between Germany and France, with big brother U.K. periodically chiming in, seems unreal, at least at this late stage of the game. Each, of course, is serving its own political interests, as well as those of its constituents, who, in surreal terms, continually voice their opposition to the reality of the situation. Now, it may still be that the bickering will cause the collapse of the whole deal, and even though I recently missed the boat on our own political debacle here in the U.S., I think the Europe business is so huge, that, well, daddy will step in and stop the fighting. If he doesn’t, the kids just might, as my mother used to say, “cut off their noses to spite their face.” That would be ugly for all of us, yes indeed …
Trade in the day – Invest in your life …
