Clunkers

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Not so long ago, Europeans thought they had dodged the worst of the financial meltdown. … “No one, including us, expected the crisis to be so severe,” says Siemens CEO Peter Löscher. The Continent’s banks may not have written subprime mortgages, but it turns out they financed something worse: subprime countries. The former communist East is sinking into recession as Western banks choke off the easy credit that fueled Asian-style growth. Now, some pundits say, the former Soviet bloc countries are headed for a crisis on the scale of Asia’s in 1997 and 1998. And how about subprime companies? European corporations are deeply in hock, with $801 billion in corporate debt maturing this year-nearly one-third more than in the U.S. “Cash-for-clunkers”, eh. Were they talking about politicians? Confidence for confidence’s sake should never be invoked as an excuse to mandate a perception of the future. Nobody knows the future, not even the Lightworker.