PEONIES

They're up. And I'm down,...on my knees that is. Herself has God-knows how many Peonies and she knows the name of every one. She's great with the grandkids too, but a bit shaky from time to time as to the dog and the kids which in the dog's case is ok because she's as deaf as a post and can't hear what she's being called. Get's me wrong half the time but I'm getting used to it. It's been a long time.

Anyway, we've been weeding, feeding and generally making peonies happy plants for two days, which in the run of things is a better couple of days than poor, old Jean-Claud Trichet has had with the Euros and the Greeks. The Euros ( read Merkel) cut a deal with the Greeks and the IMF to stabilize the situation while telling Jean-Claud to mind his own business. Well, now the Greeks have the IMF which from time to time politicians like to have because they can always say, "Don't blame us for all the depravations in your life style, the IMF made us do it!" This one should be interesting because the IMF never had an original thought in their entire history of Nation-saving but this time around they are going to have to work without the good old saw of, "Devalue your Currency!!!" No can do guys; the Greeks have the Euro so we're stuck with just suck it up, raise taxes, stop spending and hope there isn't a revolution. As for the European Central Bank? If I were M. Trichet I would start looking and speaking carefully to those banks within the Euro zone that hold Greek debt, because after round one has run its course there might be a need to do a little bank rescuing as the next (only?) thing in the IMF bag of tricks is rescheduling. No I haven't a clue really, but if history is any guide the marks on assets on the books of Euro banks, where similar to U.S. institutions are no where near as aggressive; add a bunch of Greek debt to the mix and we got us a developing situation. And now that we have solved Greece, onward to Spain, Portugal and La Bella Italia which in case you have missed it are real countries.

I'm beginning to think more of the unthinkable. We all keep hearing on both sides of the pond that the dissolution of the Union is impossible but the Germans are acting more and more like they don't think it really matters...to them at least. The Brits, of course or at least a goodly bunch of them never wanted to be part of it in the first place and will surely be even more against joining the Euro Zone. The French? Zut allors! If we cannot run it why bother? And so the next year or so is going to be a most interesting one to watch. This is what they say, makes markets.

The good news is that Google has apparently decided that this blog is not spam after all and I no longer have to decipher those funny written letters (I can't do it half the time) in order to get this things published. A warm thank you for those of you who contacted Google on my behalf. I'll try to continue to inform and entertain.

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