Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Finance, the economy & Economics How will the financial crisis develop?

I’ve been saying for months that the European problem is not a crisis but a negotiation. On Sept. 14 China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said, in effect, that China might want to buy some Italian bonds, provided, of course, that the EC opened up markets to China. Writing in La Stampa, Francesco Sisci, my favorite China-watcher, argued that Italy should allow Chinese companies to buy a chunk of Italian oil companies among other firms. Who really doubts that if Italy let China buy its best assets that the “crisis” wouldn’t disappear in a heartbeat?

The issues are:
1) How much and what assets will Italy give up?
2) How poor will its state-dependent parasites have to become?
3) Will the trade occur before or after Italy defaults on its debt?

At some point the US market is going to realize that the problems of three little countries don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world....
It’s NOT, NOT, NOT 2008. Back when no-one knew who owed what to whom, because everybody had lied to everyone else....The only issue is at what price, and to whom, what assets will change hands.