Mind Over Market

It's time to cut in half the € 327 billion that Greece owes sovereign bond holders in an orderly fashion and delay interest payments on the remaining debt. That's the shock therapy Barron's is urging on the European Union, as more and more voices are coming to agree with Michael Darda, chief economist and chief market strategist of MKM Partners, Stamford, Connecticut, who says the policy of lending new money coupled with aggressive budgets cuts is failing in Europe. In a new report, "Why Bailouts and Austerity Are Failing in the Euro Zone," Darda points out that despite the policy changes urged on the the PIIGS -- Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, now plus now Belgium -- the spreads of sovereign debt in peripheral Europe against the core nations of Germany and France is rising above the levels where it stood a year ago. The problem is particularly acute in Greece, which received a € 110 billion bailout last year from the European Union and the Internatio...

Haris Pamboukis, Minister of State for Greece, told CNBC May 25: "Our aim is to take drastic measures," he said, to pull Greece out of its "depression." Greece needs to make the public sector more competitive. Government spending, he claimed, has already been reduced 5 percent, which has been very painful, but more must be done. Greece also needs new incentives to expand the private sector. "Our goal is to have an economy that produces more than it consumes," Pamboukis said. Exports have grown to represent 26 percent of growth. This export-led growth from the private sector is the way forward for Greece.

Robert Stowe England's newest work -- Black Box Casino -- will be published this fall by Praeger Books . Advance copies for reviewers and selected media outlets will be sent out at the earliest possible date. The book is currently going through the copy-edit and production process. The book can be pre-ordered at Praeger at this link , and at Amazon.com at this link : The new book, Mr. England's fifth, is a no-holds barred account of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and explores and explains the causes of the crisis and describes the unfolding of the crisis in dramatic and compelling detail. The author sorts through a mountain of evidence, interviews and information and provides new information, sources, analysis and insight into the crisis in order to tell Americans what they most long to hear: what went wrong and why. The book is unsparing in its examination of the follies in Washington and on Wall Street that caused so much economic and financial pain for so many people...

Robert Stowe England's newest work -- Black Box Casino -- will be published this fall by Praeger Publishers, a division of ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California. Advance copies for reviewers and selected media outlets will be sent out at the earliest possible date. The book is currently going through the copy-edit and production process. The book can already be pre-ordered from Praeger at this link , and at Amazon.com at this link : The new book, Mr. England's fifth, is a no-holds barred account of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and explores and explains the causes of the crisis and describes the unfolding of the crisis in dramatic and compelling detail. The author sorts through a mountain of evidence and information and provides new information, analysis and insight into the crisis in order to tell Americans what they most long to hear: what went wrong and why. The book is unsparing in its examination of the follies in Washington and on Wall Street that caused so much e...