The Greek Parliament passed the new austerity package to the dismay of its citizens. I was watching reporters in Athens talk about how Greeks told them that the protests are not over and that they vow to expel the IMF from Greece. Tomorrow the German Parliament must approve the loans that they will give to Greece. This will not be easy because German opposition parties vow to not vote for the loans for Greece.
The financial markets appear to finally have awoken to the realization that Europe has a major problem. I watched in awe as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell from -300 Points to – 991 Points within a few minutes. Some people speculate that the major decline was a result of a major technical error. However, an error like this does not happen unless there is enough fear and selling in the marketplace to trigger it.
Today was the first time I heard U.S. financial television news anchors characterize what is going on in Europe as a crisis. The Wall Street Journal had a great article today about how the problems in Greece and Europe can spread to the U.S. Here is a link to the article:
- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703322204575226610969485910.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us
It’s a must read article and it’s free.
While the financial markets may stabilize at times and things may seem more calm at times the problems in Europe will not go away. I believe stock investors tried to ignore Europe's issues as long as they could or dismiss its impact when these issues were brought up. However, after what's happened in the past few days I think they've finally woken up.
