Our big fat Greek correction
I’ve got a couple of favorite restaurants in Chicago’s Greek Town. The music is loud, the wait staff entertaining, the food is great and the flaming Saganaki cheese is served with a flourish. It’s a dining experience that can get well, a bit raucous. We’re now in the middle of a market correction – Greek style – and it’s not unlike those restaurants.
Global markets are reflecting the Greek debt problems, that comes complete with their strikes and riots, which seems to be morphing into a “European contagion” perhaps related to, or because of, the debt concerns of “PIIGS” – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.
Can they, will they pay their debts off, or will they walk away? Will they cut spending, while they borrow more and more? Will the European Union dissolve?
Throw in posturing by politicians vying for re-election – yes, they act like that everywhere – and we’ve got a market correction on our hands. I don’t believe Greece will be tossed out of the European Union. I don’t think the Germans will revert to their deutschmark. The French won’t like anything and the press will play up the infighting. Global growth also means global corrections.
This is our fiscal “Greek” correction. Every correction is different. I’ve never seen two corrections that have been identical, nor heard a bell to signal their start nor their ending. Our Flash Crash on May 6th was a mere 30 minutes although for some traders those 30 minutes seemed like a lifetime.
This Greek led European correction will settle down. I’m still cautiously bullish and will order a lamb dinner at Rodity’s on Halstead Street. Opa!
