Domino Effect at Work with Euro - Last Days of the Eurozone ? - UPDATE: S & P put EU on Negative Watch

[C. Flower]

How very reassuring

The Brit economist said she had a spring 1914 attitude - "it can't happen" therefore it won't.

[PaddyJoe]

La Garde said "There will be no defaults before the end of the year".

French Fin Min? That's reassuring. Any second opinions?

[C. Flower]

French Fin Min? That's reassuring. Any second opinions?

The normally mobile and vivacious visage of Ms. Lagarde was fixed in a mask-like rigor, out of which peered frightened eyes.

[TotalMayhem]

The Brit economist said she had a spring 1914 attitude - "it can't happen" therefore it won't.

It's a condition known as Normalcy Bias.

The normalcy bias refers to an extreme mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of the government to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred that it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.

[PaddyJoe]

The normally mobile and vivacious visage of Ms. Lagarde was fixed in a mask-like rigor, out of which peered frightened eyes.

I remember her doing a quick soundbite around the weekend of the EU/IMF intervention and thinking that she would make a superb matron in a very expensive ''end of life' facility'

[wickedfairy]

the same lady to whom Brian Lenihan spoke to "in French"

[PaddyJoe]

Not sure what's going on with VB here. All female panel with Terry Prone and people with glaring colours. We should have been warned!

[TotalMayhem]

Not sure what's going on with VB here. All female panel with Terry Prone and people with glaring colours. We should have been warned!

And the topic: "Would women have done better a better job?"

As if there aren't any women in government: Mary Coughlan, Mary Harney, Mary Hanafin, Mary White, Áine Brady ... fine ladies, the lot of them, now, do we really need more?

F***ing monkeys would have done a better job than Fianna Fail, Vincent!

[DCon]

EUR/USD has gone below 1.30 today.

Take your pick from bad news around the eurozone

Belgian 5 year cds rise to record high 255 bps, up 16 bps on day

Portuguese/German 10-year bond yield spread widens to 433 bps, 13 bps wider on day

German November retail sales much weaker than expected

http://www.forexlive.com/

[C. Flower]

I'll merge this with the main Euro thread

[C. Flower]

Swiss banks no longer accepting Portuguese bonds as repos as of today - did I hear the same about Irish bonds ?

[DCon]

Swiss banks no longer accepting Portuguese bonds as repos as of today - did I hear the same about Irish bonds ?

The SNB were never taking Portuguese bonds apparently

They stopped taking Irish governemnt and bank debt this week

Earlier talk that Portuguese bonds had been excluded from eligibility for use as collateral turns out to be false. Only because Portuguese bonds were never eligible in the first place, according to the SNB, via Reuters. No new decision on the matter has been taken…

http://www.forexlive.com/

[DCon]

Portugal are not going to the dreaded Markets for their bond issuance next week.

They are issuing by Private Placement, likely to China

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/por...an-underwriter

[morticia]

Now, what's in it for the Chinese?? I doubt they're doing it out of the goodness of their little hearts (and why should they)??

But we need to get some idea of what they're after. Wasn't aware Portugal was a mine of untapped natural resources.... but maybe their geologists know something ours don't.

[DCon]

Now, what's in it for the Chinese?? I doubt they're doing it out of the goodness of their little hearts (and why should they)??

But we need to get some idea of what they're after. Wasn't aware Portugal was a mine of untapped natural resources.... but maybe their geologists know something ours don't.

The Chinese have a lot of Euros in their foreign reserves and have been converting more USD to EUR of late