John Mauldin说:
“Europe has problems that are structural and can't be fixed with just another treaty or more ECB liquidity. With that in mind, here are my thoughts.
1. The European Union works, mostly much more than less. Keep the free trade zone. There are countries that work just fine that are not in the euro. We live in the world of computers. Currency exchange is a computer operation and relatively easy. And keep working on coordinating with the rest of the world. Take advantage of what you can do together. We are all better off with a united Europe. Until such time as there are stable labor and productivity markets across Europe, don't press for a single currency. Single currencies don't insure there will be no conflict. Really integrated free trade and open borders do.
2. Admit the euro just doesn't work for some countries, and let them leave the eurozone (but stay in the free trade zone, like Denmark and Sweden are now). Establish as orderly as possible a path for a country to revert to its old currency. Yes, there are going to be some very large losses. If you control it, they will be far less than if you don't. You can set up a two-tier system, just as you did when you created the euro. And pass some laws so everyone isn't spending the next two decades suing everyone else. Deal with it like adults who want to be friends after the divorce rather than enemies for life. If you have to make up some rules, then make them up. But do it quick. The longer you take, the more it will cost you (and the world).
3. Greece has to be told no. No more loans. No more threats. If they want to stay, then let the market deal with them. I doubt it will be kind, but they have to take responsibility for themselves. Nobody forced them to borrow too much. Cut your losses now. Use the money to salvage your own banks. When (not if) Greece decides to go, help them with some humanitarian aid (medicines and emergency supplies) but stop piling on debt they can't pay. Work out the terms so they can get on their feet and go on with their lives. Allow them to stay in the free trade zone. And learn your lessons. Be careful whom you lend money to!
4. Sadly, the same goes for Portugal, although with a reasonable and very healthy haircut they may be able to stay.
5. Ireland is not going to pay that bank debt. Get over it. Just let the ECB swallow it. Then Ireland will pay the rest of its government debt and can grow its way out of its problems. They have a positive trade balance. Besides, who doesn't love the Irish?
6. Italy and Spain are problems. If they stay they are going to need some major ECB help on rates while they get their deficits under control. Either do it or don't, but don't keep the world in limbo. Germany needs to make a decision and make it very publicly.
7. I don't know what to suggest to France. That is the toughest question. They are losing labor competitiveness with Germany and others, and already have taxes that cannot go much higher, large fiscal deficits, poor demographics, and huge future unfunded liabilities in the form of health-care and pension benefits. They have time to get things sorted out if they will use it (like the US). The world surely hopes they do. The concern about the problems of French banks was voiced everywhere in Hong Kong and Singapore. They are integral to world trade in ways that US banks (or others) can't come close to. They just have the experience and infrastructure in making those trade loans. You can't build that up in a short time. A problem with French banks would be a problem for world growth, which is already slowing down.”
“If the dollar has begun an intermediate degree decline then we should see it continue generally lower for the next 7 to 10 weeks. If this turns out to be the case then we are not going to see any meaningful declines in the stock market during this period.”
“Contrary to what most people believe, the initial break out of a volatility coil is usually a false move that is soon followed by a much more powerful and durable move in the opposite direction. ”
“The big question now is; did Bernanke break the dollar rally? Confirmation will come once the dollar finds its daily cycle low, and if the rally out of that low fails to move to new highs and rolls over quickly forming a new pattern of lower lows and lower highs.
If this scenario plays out then we can jettison the deflationary bear market hypothesis and begin positioning for the inflationary scenario which should culminate with a dollar crisis in late 2014. ”
“If the dollar has begun an intermediate degree decline then we should see it continue generally lower for the next 7 to 10 weeks. If this turns out to be the case then we are not going to see any meaningful declines in the stock market during this period. As a matter of fact the risk is great that the stock market could enter a runaway type rally if the dollar has begun the move down into an intermediate degree bottom.
As you can see in the chart below the last runaway move in 2006 lasted almost 7 months.
Runaway moves are characterized by randomly spaced corrections, all of similar magnitude and duration. As you can see in the chart above the corrective magnitude in this particular runaway move was about 20-30 points.”
“In a recent essay, Golub stated that without Apple's earnings, total U.S. corporate earnings growth goes from being in the mid-teens to only 2 percent. He told Keene that Apple's earnings "obfuscate" the underlying trend in corporate earnings, which he says is "really weak." He also pointed to stronger growth in foreign markets and high oil prices, both of which are good for S&P profits, along with a weaker dollar, as contributors to the profit trend.
Mr. Golub questions how the U.S. could have 2 percent economic growth in the face of 16-17 percent earnings growth. He reasons that cost-cutting and other corporate measures cannot explain the stellar earnings trend of the past couple of years. "If you take away that one name [Apple]," he says, "you get greater clarity on the fact that earnings are moving much closer with the direction of the economy."”
“As I have been warning traders for months the dollar's rally out of its three year cycle low almost certainly isn't done yet. The rally out of a three year cycle low usually lasts at least a year, and that's the norm in a secular bear market. Since the three year cycle low bottomed in May of 2011 it's unlikely that we would see a final top until at least May of this year. And since the three year cycle low in 2011 held above the three year cycle low that occurred in 2008, there is even a case to be made that the dollar has now entered a secular bull market.”