Friday, April 30, 2010

More of unbearable nonsense

Suddenly we have hundreds of experts on Greek debt. Roubini et al.
Yet where were their warnings before the downfall happened? Did I miss something? Why didn't they say a thing when banks plunged in to buy Greek debt at a level of interest as low as for the Bunds? As almost always, the worst of the self-proclaimed reverse prophets is Paul Krugman. For him, and not for the first time, the demise of the euro is a fact. 
Being wrong more than ten years in a row isn't enough to change his mind. And he is not alone.
And then, there are the rating agencies.
Rating agencies, famous for having missed the real estate crisis in the US or the Asian crisis of 1997, are now eager to downgrade Greece, Portugal and Spain. How silly can one get to follow their lead? Their data base is as poor as mine or yours, their analytics are flawed and the theoretical basis of their judgment is about at the level of 101 economics or below.
The tragic part of all that is that ignorance in and by itself is a force. Just like expectations create facts in the financial markets, the unhampered confidence of  our famed blockheads makes the headlines.

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