Will the Markets Collapse?
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 6:00AM We are headed for a crisis. Readers of this blog know I am optimistic. We can trust our leaders to do the right thing and tell us the truth:
On March 29, when speculation swirled that Portugal needed a bailout, Prime Minister Jose Socrates denied — again — that that would happen despite clearly unsustainable market pressures.
“I’m sick of saying we won’t” be requesting help, he told journalists.
Just eight days later, in a chastened appearance on national television, Socrates did just that.
For Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, the threat of immediate market turbulence means the usual norms of transparency don’t apply.
“When it becomes serious, you have to lie,” Juncker, who as the chairman of the regular meetings of eurozone finance ministers is one of the currency union’s key spokesmen, said in recent remarks.
There is an old cliché from the era were currencies had a fixed value. It is called lying like a finance minister before a devaluation. Can we trust anything that any politician says?-maybe a few here and there. Juncker told the truth in this quote when he admitted he would lie. I suppose he could be lying when he tells us he lies, like that old Star trek episode with the androids.
If you want to know why no one is hiring, consider the risks associated with investing right now. You cannot trust anything that anyone says. I began the crisis with 16 employees. Now I have 8. I have zero plans to hire anyone. Far more likely is that I will let more go, maybe doing their jobs myself.
Like the Androids in the Star Trek episode, the logic of lying leads to shutdown. There is a lot of trust inherent in the market place. If we enter an era without trust the markets will stop.
This is the risk in our current situation, if no one can trust the markets, no one will trade. And if no one will trade then the whole edifice collapses. This is not what I expect to happen but it could.
Reader Comments (2)
I hope he is still alive for I want Harry Mudd for President!!! (He is pictured in your post)
He was the ultimate Star Trek character, with the attractive androids, and in another episode the purveyor of pills that made ugly women super duper hot!
Also, LIAR LIAR (your pants are on fire), which you also pictured above, was a great one hit wonder song from the "Castaways" back in the early 1960s. BTW-Dennis, you give away your age by these regular references to 1960s Pop Culture!
Here is a portrayal of LIAR LIAR , as dubbed by the Gilligans Island Castaways... (The scream at 0:48 is in my humble opinion is the best scream EVER on any Rock and Roll song). Check it out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8rCy173y7Y
Eddie H. Nessul
Amboy , California
(read names backwards!)
Harcourt Fenton Mudd, a great political name, but alas he is dead.