Great posts this morning, thanks for all the stimulating thoughts! My two cents re the EU and the monetary union: all this talk about letting Greece out of the EMU and defaulting is a non starter. The elephant in the room is the counterparty risks that have spread througout the world, as has been made so apparent by the meltdown in 08. All the PTB are aware that this little country, (or other little countries, Ireland, Portugal, etc) are just one little domino in a worldwide pyramid, and pulling it out will crash the system. Greece's sovereign debt is held by French banks (PNB Paribas, SocGeneral last week), French bank debt is held by the Fed (TARP) and dozens of others, and all of this is held with massive margin. At 40 to 1 which many say is normal in this era for every dollar in decrease in value, 40 dollars has to be liquidated! I am thinking this is very close to crashing in toto. All of the craziness in the PM's are the last gasp of a dying system to discredit the only real safe haven on the planet.

Really, Good Luck To All!