Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Euro and reality

The soap opera of the Euro continues to make headlines and drag markets down.

Exactly why anyone would be surprised by the Euro zone's woes is completely beyond me. At the end of the the day the Euro is/was founded on the belief that a group of countries which had long term track records of continually spending more than they take in and increasing their national debt would suddenly become more fiscally responsible if the market imposed sanction of a currency market were taken away from them and they were given the freedom to borrow more money at lower interest rates.

On planet earth we call that enabling behaviour. In the Euro zone it's called monetary policy.

While the losses to the portfolio in recent weeks have more or less unwound the gains made earlier this year, given that I am still a net accumulator of assets (at least for another 7-12 months), I suppose I should be celebrating the opportunity to buy at lower prices. Somehow, I am struggling to do that.

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