So far this has been a horrible week in International finance with the specter of collapse hanging over the future. The Spanish debt auction stank; oh yeah, the coverage was ok but The Spanish had to pay waaaay up for it to be a success and this was for short dated maturities. One must view with trepidation the longer dates which are scheduled just down the road. If that wasn't bad enough, the gloom turned to night as the Swiss, in one of the most cynical moves of all beat the Spanish 1-nil in a stupendous match played earlier this day.
Now the Swiss surely knew that a Spanish defeat would raise the chance of a Spanish collapse on all levels, so rather than taking the beating everyone expected they apparently reached the conclusion that the Swiss banking system would obviously benefit from added chaos in Europe---especially in Spain--and played for the deposits with a verve heretofore unseen in modern memory. As the Swiss Guards once said to the Pope over a discussion of wages, "No money, no Swiss," the boys on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich got to the national side and explained what a result such as we saw today could mean. Zowey! The world is upside down at this stage, credit default spreads are widening out to my waste-line's size and the punters on the High Streets are probably looking for a bid on a few a the wagering shops who surely got killed on this one today. I'm tellin' ya, things are grim out there.
Closer to home, The Leader made a nonsensical speech last night but BP, playing on a bit of a sticky wicket, apparently coughed up $20 Billion into some slush fund to be managed by the Presidential bag man, Ken Feinberg, he of pay czar fame, to shut up the folks down near the oil spill...which can be defined as anyone within 2000 miles with a big mouth...who claim to have been injured. A few of my mates in Blighty are beginning to wonder, "What's this guy all about, Jack, you know wha' I mean?" which may not be a bad thing in the long run but is going to do nothing for the pensioners who just got ripped off by an inept management team at BP and a rapacious President who will stop at nothing to fulfill an agenda that is becoming more and more ego-centric and unattainable.
Finally, South Africa was embarrassed this evening by a Uruguayan side of quality 3-nil which, coupled with the loss of their goal keeper and captain in the next match against France due to penalties, surely means an exit from the competition they are hosting. This will raise all kinds of unsettling issues adding to the starkness of the prevailing mood. The Referee in the match was Swiss. Huuuummmm....?
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