Europe is trading down 2% at lunctime (7:30 EST). 

The Euro fell below $1.25 this morning and the Pound plunged all the way to $1.45 as the new government of the UK gets the fastest “no confidence” vote ever delivered by the financial markets.  Keep in mind that only 36% of the people in the UK wanted Conservative leadership.  The Labor Party got 29% of the vote and further left Liberal Democrats got 23% of the vote with crazy parties getting 12% of the vote.  This is the problem with multi-party systems – MORE than half the people are unsatisfied with the result of almost every election

Thank goodness America avoids this kind of thing by having a one-party system that pretends to be a two-party system but every once in a while that illusion is totally blown as candidates switch parties as if their former idealogies were mere youthful dalliances.  Arlen Specter was only 70 when he decided to leave the Republican Party after 20 years as a Senator.  Specter has gone from voting with Democrats 16% of the time to voting with them 97% of the time during his current Senate term and the funny thing is he wonders why the voters don’t seem to trust him…

So if our country is run by two parties that have no soul, imagine how chaotic it is in England, where 3 parties vie for power and the far left and the far right are forced to effectively share the Ministry in order to get rid of the moderate.  And if that seems crazy to Americans, think of Germany, who have FIVE (5) major parties, three of which are different brands of Democrats:  Christian (yes America, Christians can be Democrats too!), Social and Free all of which are more conservative than the “Green Party” who are seen as more conservative than the “Left Party.”  Personally, I’d be voting for the Pirate Party (pictured below, won 2% of the vote) on name alone – I’ll bet they have the best bumper stickers!

Only two countries as screwed up politically as England and Germany could come up with an idea as screwed up as the EU government, which is impossible to explain in a single day but can be summed up very simply by pointing out that it’s currently Spain’s “turn” to head up the Council, who’s 27 ministers form a bicameral legislative branch with the Parliament, who’s 14…
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