GORDON CALLS

Gordon is a formal colleague, dear friend, one of the smartest--and certainly richest--guys I know. Gordon could care less about mundane, unimportant things like the Irish debacle or the impending collapse of the world's finances. Gorden has more cash than he can spend, a big place in some island in the leeward (or is it windward?) chain and half a county in Blighty, so when he rings up about Ireland I listen. It must be important, I think.

"Me and the lads got talking about the mess the Micks have made of things (Gordon is Scottish)."

"Solutions?"

"Nah, but I said what's going to happen is that The Jerries are going to opt out and go back to the D-Mark. Then Max...you know Max right?"

"Sure."

"Well, Max agrees but follows on with 'The French will follow them out and adopt the D-Mark as well.'"

"Oh get along, that will never happen."

"I know but before I could say that up pops Gunther, this young Berliner we have with, 'YES! We achieve all we want without firing a shot'!" Christ! They haven't given up!!!!"


True story I guess. Not even Gordon could make this stuff up, but it probably reflects one of the major problems facing the Euros: there is really only one country that counts and the Volks don't like what's going on inasmuch as they are the ones who have to set it right or to put it another way what's needed is money and it's THEIR money. So out it goes with promises in return but the minute it's out the door the promises begin to slip a bit here and get modified a bit there while at the same time little in the manner of doing business changes. Witness Greece.

Last reports have the 'Irish Solution" moving forward but no one with whome I have spoken knows or is prepared to tell me what the deal is going to look like. By that I mean how close will the Irish come to what the Germans, and to a lesser extent, the French want and in what time frame. The question of the fate of the Irish banking system still remains up in the air with what I think--and I may be wrong--is the understanding that in the end there may be NO Irish banking system, but the manner under which ownership could be transferred and to whom is unknown. I must admit I am surprised to have not heard a peep about any American interest. Then again, American banks have their own problems to work on but under the right terms......a long shot but we shall see.

There are, however, some mutterings about what Euroland may look like after the dust settles and some of these thoughts may well inpact the U.S. as well. We'll see what develops and talk about these next week. We're off to spend Thanksgiving with #2 son and his brood. See you next week.