“Stocks finished the final trading day of a weak second quarter with a huge bang as Wall Street cheered a surprise agreement by EU leaders to help the region’s struggling banks,” JeeYeon Park reports for CNBC.
“Defying expectations for a ‘June swoon,’ the Dow logged its best June gain since 1997, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their strongest since 1999 and 2000, respectively,” Park reports. “‘June is usually the second worst month for the market next to September, but this time was a bit of a fluke,’ said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services. Still, all three major indexes posted significant losses for the quarter. For the month, the Dow rallied 3.93 percent, the S&P jumped 3.96 percent, and the Nasdaq advanced 5.06 percent… Apple [AAPL $584.00, +$14.95, +2.63%] climbed after Pacific Crest raised its price target on the iPad maker to $690 from $630.”
Park reports, “EU leaders at a summit in Brussels agreed that euro area rescue funds could be used to stabilize bond markets without forcing countries that comply with EU budget rules to adopt extra austerity measures or economic reforms. ‘It’s going to be very interesting when [Merkel] tries to sell this to the German people because this is a very unpopular decision on her part to compromise, but this is a breakthrough that we’ve been waiting for and it bodes very well for the markets,’ said Michael Yoshikami, CEO and founder of Destination Wealth Management. ‘You buy based on probability and this is definitely a move forward towards Europe stabilizing.'”
Read more in the full article here.
That’s right, EU, kick the can down the road – with no changes in the behavior that got you into this mess – until you choke on it.
Works for us here in the States.
It’s hardly perfect here but we don’t have the massive amount of government workers here that they do there in terms of percentages
Um, you’re kinda forgetting that the good old US of A has a singular level of responsibility thanks to the lack of regulation (or enforcement thereof – it doesn’t make any difference) of its banking and financial industry. As much as you don’t like to hear it, you’re the cause to a large extent. The lessons of the FSL fiasco decades ago was not learned, and sadly this one doesn’t look like it will make any impact on the truly greedy and evil.
Not that the Euros are without blame for their own issues. The Cradle-to-Grave Welfare Mentality, where the government takes care of you and you can retire at 50 with full pension regardless of where you live in the world was doomed to fail when you run out of people to pay for it. Their form of social democracy is too expensive.
Big *DING* Factor.
But it gets a bit more complicated.
The ‘Debt Driven Economy’ is a product of desperation. The ‘Starve The Beast’ Neo-Con-Job mentality bombarded the US govt. with debt in order to induce the current US debt crisis for the purpose of stripping away everything but the US military. (Sick, isn’t it!)
Meanwhile, the Corporate Oligarchy around the planet tightened its grip to the point where it now writes government bills for our so-called ‘elected representatives’.
IOW: It’s a big fiery ball of self-destructive corruption, desperation and stupidity with no regard for customers, actual citizens, or democracy. zoom! bang! fizzle~~
Oh and then add in our current ‘Age Of Marketing’ where propaganda rules and nothing gets sold, be it physical or conceptual, without an added layer of squinky (shiny, sparkly, smiley, bogus) deceit.
[Squinky is my word concept for anything that seems great, but is not. I find it to be a terrific summary word for our current age of humans].
I know it’s just TV, but if you watch Continuum and pay attention to the back story – try to sort out who the real bad guys are and it’s not so black-and-white. Could that be where we’re heading?
I was being facetious.
When you say “doomed to fail when you run out of people to pay for it”, THAT in itself is not the fundamental problem.
The problem is that most countries in Europe robbed the pension funds empty, replacing them with a -euphemistically called- “repartition system”, i.e., a system, where as you state, the working pay for the retired.
But had the pension funds been intact, then every retiree would have been sitting on his/her own savings, i.e., many retirees->many savings, and NO shortage of working people needing to scrap up the money for current pensions. In such a world the working would be building up their OWN pension fund.
Not only the banks are at fault here… your own governments have stolen your money away you were sitting on.
You’re talking about that subprime mortgage absurdity that started all this mess, right? Oh, wait! That was the States! No, you were probably talking about those huge bailouts. Ups! States also.
Indeed! But then of course the rest of the world followed suit, making our ongoing economic depression a worldwide phenomenon. So maybe, you outside the USA would be better off by thinking for yourselves. My country (the USA) has gone more than a bit mental and is bent on self-destruction, in case you hadn’t noticed. 😯
“…kick the can down the road – with no changes in the behavior that got you into this mess…”
This, coming from a U.S republican, is Comedy Channel-worthy.
@’First 2010, Then 2012′ is an endless source of cynicism inducing hilarity. It’s like enjoying the perfect gin and tonic in a deck chair while listening to the band playing as the Titanic is sinking.
“Jolly good tune! This will lift everyone’s spirits!”
Uh, yeah, but it doesn’t stop the boat from sinking or save any lives. I think I’ll catch a lifeboat instead, if I can find one.
Urm. Perhaps you should look at the bubble known as US debt. Makes the Europeans look positively miniscule. Frightening.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Obama save the day!
The original kick the can kid,
I get so tired of politics in every article. But do you think Obama is the first? Really?
Nope and won’t be the last. I get tired of people thinking Obama is the answer to their problems.
So bearing in mind the next guy may be worse, isn’t it better to stick with the devil you know until you’re forced to choose someone else?
Obama. Right.
Romney. Right.
Shot by both sides. Not a good place.
No argument here. Rather discouraging knowing that of all those eligible, these two morons are the best the people could muster.
Exactly Mark, what we have here is far from the “best and the brightest.” Those people are waaay too smart to enter politics.
Too smart; too afraid; or something else?
The founders never intended for there to be career politicians, but rather citizen politicians who serve a term or two, then return home to resume their former occupation.
Career politicians are the problem. Instead of being stewards of the states and peoples, they sell their souls to corporations and lobbyists, and screw us in the end.
There is a way to straighten this mess out, but it will take some courage on the part of the american people:
(1) Term limits for Congress (2) No retirement (3) No benefits such as Medical, Dental, etc. (4) Pay equal to the median wage of the American people (5) Repeal of the 17th Amendment.
With regard to being too smart to be politicians. I disagree. Letting ones country deteriorate into the state this country has deteriorated is anything but smart. Yet, I understand where you’re coming from.