“Fright!”, “Chaos!”, “Depression!”, “Crisis!” – if these sound like the tag lines of a 1940’s B horror movie, in a way that’s true.
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Except the year is 2011 and all of the aforementioned words are just a few of those currently floating around the press in the business pages these days. And this comes after the last minute rise of the debt ceiling by the US Congress. Shouldn’t there be cheers and banners in the streets at the calamity narrowly averted? Perhaps that’s a little premature. Now the focus of dread moves swiftly back to Greece crumbling, Italy now having to deal with its dangerous rise in bond values, and lest we forget, Spain and Portugal.
After finishing an article in The Guardian about “the silent run on banks” in Greece, where customers are going to extreme lengths to stealthily take their money out for fear that the banks will collapse (one case involved a man taking out 30,000 euros in a plastic bag), I wondered if there were a silver lining to be had economically in the West? None, you say? The American near-default seems to have reiterated that “we” are not close to being free from “it” – that is, financial instability and perhaps a dreaded double-dip recession. The international markets are the equivalent of very frightened rabbits at the moment and are becoming increasing hard to reassure and pacify by equally fretful European leaders.
The only safe haven, once again it seems, is gold. This is constantly being reiterated and the price is now at record levels. I foresee a strange, child-like vision where there are no more banks, governments, or markets – just the image of everyone clinging to bits of bullion, attempting to start again.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
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