AS PREDICTED?

Sorry for the passage of time of which there will be more.  Off to play Grandpa to Trouble & Strife's Grandma tomorrow for about a week so reports are going to be a bit spotty but at least we had a good day for commentary today.

Everybody's mad at the poor Greeks as the fact that Greece has absolutely no way to fulfill any of its financial commitments has come to life.  What a farce!  "What?  You're broke?  You can't be!  You told us that you would do what is required!  You need how much more?  15 Billion?  Impossible!"...and so on and so forth.  It reminds me of the infant in the stock broker ad on tv:  "Want to see my shocked expression...?"  France immediately jumped up proclaiming that Greece should get an immediate 2 year extension...which gives you a very accurate idea of the state to the French banks; mal, tres mal.  Somewhere along the line someone has gotten the idea that Greece and Portugal actually count...just like the World's Dumbest Professor over at the U, he of the "scholarly papers."  And speaking of Portugal the opposition smells blood in the water and another year or two of austerity is, IMHO, not on.  Look for a full-fledged stand-off with the Troika within a fortnight and the increasing realization on the part of the leadership of Europe (forgive the oxymoron) that it might be wise to start exploring the best way to explain to the populous that we were only kidding when we said it would be unthinkable for any nation to leave the Union.

While all this was going on in Spain, which is a very real country, the autonomous state of Catalonia threatened to break away and proclaim themselves a separate and independent nation unless the receiver 15 Billion in new financing no questions asked.  You might remember that in 1936 the Spanish had a bit of a family feud that sort of rolled into WWII, so statements like this are not taken lightly. A few army boys suggested that the killing of all Catalans might solve the problem which seems a bit extreme to me but then my hot Latin blood has cooled somewhat in my dotage.  One MUST pray that nothing like this comes to pass but unfortunately a march this evening that was scheduled to protest the austerity plans and began peacefully enough suddenly turned into a horrific riot that was still continuing as I began this piece.  Needless to say, markets tanked on the the sight of the dreadful images being transmitted from Madrid.

Finally, as if to put an exclamation point on all that was occurring, it seems that the Bundesbank has forced the ECB into a joint investigation as to whether the bailout facility is once and for all legal under EU law, and not to be outdone, Angie chipped in with the belief that no bank recap operation could begin until at least February of 2013 when she believes the proposed expanded regulatory powers of the ECB might be ready to go into effect...or to put it another way, kiss your banking systems good-bye unless you do what I say.  This was an ugly day.  I fear there will be more of the same in the future.