I am wondering lately: could things become even worse than having Greek butter on the head? This week we got the answer, and it was the German government that gave it to us by unilaterally introducing a prohibition on short-selling (as a response to financial markets developments). Because the Germans find it clear that those crooks at banks and financial markets are messing with us politicans and we will get back to them. Even the Dutch parliament followed that same line of reasoning today. And the stock markets in the US continued their nose dive.
I remember well that two years ago, at the beginning of the crisis, we were all afraid that politcians would overreact on the crisis. Well, we finally experience it now. With Lehman, it was the distrust between banks that lead to a frozen/absent market. But now, the mechanism is more direct. Politicians themselves shut down the markets and thus create an atmosphere of distrust and unease. Because the real killer for a market is politicians stepping in en messing with the trades directly. So at first we had a liquidity-crisis, then a trust-crisis, followed by a euro-crisis which now results in a political-financial crisis.
Things aren't proceeding that well this way. And all of that because essentially Merkel comes from Eastern Europa and hasn't learnt that well how financal markets work. It would be quite remarkable if, in the end, the 'communist system and upbringing' turns out to be responsible -in this indirect way- for the euro failing and for the end of eurocapitalism.....
