TML26, the problem lies in the fact that there are so many banks, cities, states & countries with such big debt problems that an small economy such as Greece can start a domino-effect. Germany, part of the cleverer countries in Europe, are now trying to get their exposure to Greece minimised in case Greece goes belly-up.

Spain has over 20% unemployment and a housing market that makes real estate in California look cheap. Spain is a bigger issue than Greece and I am surprised there have been no riots there so far. UK is horrible as well, people are especially dissatisfied with mass-immigration there (predominantly Muslim) so there's another issue that makes Europe look bad.

The EU was supposed to become a competitor of the US economy, but it turned out that European states cannot be compared with United States. We all speak different languages here and have some degree of nationalism unknown to states in the US (possibly with the exception of Texas). Plus fiscally there is no union and a monetary union cannot exist without fiscal harmonisation, which will never happen...

Well... all to good for gold as we approach new highs but what does that mean anyway when measured in monkey currencies.