THE PREMIERE LEAGUE?

Now we all know that the English Premiere League isn't English at all, I mean, hell's bells, Chelsea put a grab-bag of ten foreigners on the pitch at Stanford Bridge the other evening.  But that kind of action has produced  without question the finest soccer league in the world.  But the Bank of England?  "Mark Carney?  Wha's his position, center-mid on the Bank's side?......Guv?  Oh come off it.  England don't do such things, know what I mean Jack?"....And so went the talk in the City this afternoon.

But it did and what an exraodinary choice for the new Governor as the Commonwealth, in the form of the governor of Canada's Central Bank, comes to the aid of the mother country.  OK, that's a bit over the top but it's a hell of a surprise and a tremendous choice in the opinion of those who know him (I do not).  He is apparently frightfully bright, blunt, non-beaurocratically correct and very much hands on in the running of his institution and in the oversight of the nation's banks...which to be fair, there being only seven that count, is somewhat of a less-complicated task.  What this means to the UK and to Euroland remains to be seen, but what a way to close out the year.

And moving over to Euroland, the weekend brought additional difficulties as local Spanish elections showed major gains for the Catalan seperatist movement; not enough to get a vote going but probably enough to mak Sr. Rajoy think twice before taking ANY action with political overtones such as going hat in hand to the TROIKA or any one else for that matter and asking for a bail-out and the conditionality that will most certainly attach itself to such an action.  Now local politics has further complicated the situation allowing the Euros to maintain their perfect record of buggering up everything they touch simply by not be able to make decisions in a timely manner and being tied to a whole host of political considerations that in a true union would not exist.

If that wasn't enough, the Brussels Eating Club still can't get their act together on Greece with the Chrissie at the IMF still demanding that the debt to GDP ratio come in at 120% by 2020 (which she knows can't happen) and every one else coming up with off-the-wall schemes as to how it seemingly be made to happen and Angie saying "Nein" to any debt forgiveness scheme that could make it happen..  I did hear some rumors of a few ministers who have gotten so sick and tired of the exercise that they are mumbling about telling the Greeks to bugger off, here's a fifty-year maturity at 3% and never come back again.  A couple of wise folks on this side of the pond have suggested that very thing for years but so far, no go.  Makes too much sense.  For all the time and treasure being spent on not even a real country is ridiculous.  Then again, Oysters are in season as is game and Cepts; why stop talking when there is so much to which one can look forward?

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.