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Portfolio Insights by Brett Arends Archives | Email alerts
Jan. 18, 2012, 12:00 a.m. EST
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) "â? Watching the European crisis takes me back to a moment at my English boarding school a couple of decades ago.
About 70 of my fellow students were sitting in the dark in the communal TV room late on Saturday night, watching a horror movie.
The suspense was terrible. I have long since forgotten the plot or the movie, but I remember the film was reaching one of those moments when something horrible was about to happen. Each scene was laden with foreboding.
The European Commission wants to force bond issuers to rotate ratings firms. Standard & Poor's sovereign downgrades will no doubt increase the political desire for harsher regulation, but this proposal is flawed, Richard Barley argues on Markets Hub.
The tension mounted. One of the characters slowly approached a door that was framed dramatically in the middle of the screen. You knew something absolutely awful awaited him behind it. He reached for the door handle. Time seemed to stand still"? As his hand began to turn the handle, everyone in the room held his breath, their nerves stretched taut.
Sitting at the back, I chose that moment to intervene.
"Aaaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!"? I yelled at the top of my voice.
The entire room levitated. I mean levitated. I got 70 teenage boys to rise, simultaneously, about nine inches in the air, before coming back down to Earth. Sodas, popcorn and bags of potato chips went flying.
I want to do the same right now.
Everyone is watching the euro horror show, their knuckles white, their breath bated, as they wait for the end.
This may be the moment. The Greeks need a new cash infusion within weeks, maybe days. This week, even the European bailout fund got downgraded "â? never a good sign for a bailout fund.
Luckily the bailout fund's own bailout fund, namely the Japanese, said on Monday they were standing behind it. But who's standing behind them?
An investment manager in London, one of the wisest strategists I have known, privately told clients that in his view only the intervention of the European Central Bank late last week averted a Lehman-style meltdown.
Aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi delivered stern warnings to date on Europe's debt crisis, saying it could cripple financial markets unless effective actions are taken by governments, Brian Blackstone reports on Markets Hub.
Is it going to happen? At last? Is Greece finally going to grasp the handle, open the door, and go into the darkened room, from which none ever return?
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Brett Arends is an award-winning financial columnist with many years experience writing about markets, economics and personal finance in Europe and the U.S... Expand
Brett Arends is an award-winning financial columnist with many years experience writing about markets, economics and personal finance in Europe and the U.S. He has received an individual award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for his financial writing, and was part of the Boston Herald team that won two others. He was educated at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, and has worked as an analyst at McKinsey & Co. He is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS). His latest book, "Storm Proof Your Money,"? has just been published by John Wiley & Co. Collapse
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