It must be clear by now that the Euro doesn’t work. Member countries will always disagree on what is an appropriate exchange rate and thus terms of trade with the rest of the world, and worse, with one another. There is no automatic mechanism to link a (further) Greek default to their exiting the Euro. An

Its one of those periods again when markets are falling and people are feeling down. And when they feel down, they sell assets and markets fall, and they feel even more down.

In the May 5th edition of the Economist magazine, there appears an article on China’s banks. It points to the high profitability of the banks and the low level of NPLs.

A few months ago the ECB’s long term loans to the banking system appeared to have staved off risk of default or breakup for at least as long a term as the facility. The fears of default and breakup have returned with a vengeance.

Since 2008, raising capital for a hedge fund or private equity fund has become very difficult. In the case of some would be institutional or family office investors, it has always been difficult.