Checkout the bar for "Europe". My take on this is that this is the entire Eurozone - 17 nations. In which case, you need to get the bar and make it 1/17th as big, and this will tell you the average for each nation state in the Eurozone.
All seventeen nation states in the zone, combined, add up to about the same level of debt as, say, Norway or Sweden (two of the great poster-children of prudence) on their own.
And yet, the Eurozone is in a debt crisis? Interesting, no?
Let's not dwell too long on the size of that UK bar on the left... :-{
In many ways, it will be the paper longs that abandon the gold markets (forcing prices ever lower) even as the physical price soars. Yes, the shorts may make a killing but the money they make will be worthless!!!!!!
MF Global seems to be scaring a lot of participants off. And, be honest, who had heard of 'hypothecation' (let alone 're-re-re-re-rehypothecation') before last week? Seems like everyone and their dog is using it now.
Why did I pick this track? Who will be lonely in the market?
Why will this determine the price direction of paper gold?
Do you remember? I'm sure you can't - by this time, most people have never known anything different. Forty years is a long time in terms of a human life. But a mere blip on the timeline, when thinking in terms of collective human experience.
Forty years of the water in the pot being slowly brought to the boil, since it last boiled over and a new, bigger saucepan was called to action, the hob cleaned up. So slowly has this pot been brought to the boil, we shrimps haven't noticed what was happening. Little by little, the water got hotter. Slowly we each were allowed less and less freedom. An illusion of freedom, sure. But honestly, do you think the average person around you really gets to make the most important choices about their lives? And to change their mind if they want to? Do you? We choose what job we will do. But do we really? Do you like what you do? Have you ever considered a change of career path - but realised you can't afford to? Our wives stopped choosing to work, found themselves needing to in order to make ends meet. We all believe we deserve more, but this "more" comes at a cost. Your time. Your soul. Your individual liberty. Schools became child-minding factories, making sure they don't come to much harm as we toil to service our debts. Turning out well-programmed little beasts of burden, ready to take over the baton of debt slavery from us. They had better too! Because if they don't the system will implode. A wonderful inheritance. Given the demographics, and the scale of the existing debt burden, is it even possible for them to pull this feat off any more?
So..?
And now? The water begins to roll and bubble around us. It's almost at boiling point. Someone chose a saucepan that still isn't large enough for the ever-expanding volume of water within. There is going to be another mess on the hob to clear up, another alternative vessel will be identified. Perhaps this time a more suitable choice will be made, this problem of the natural drift towards ever-expanding debt can be properly contained in future? Maybe a magic, telescopic saucepan?
How did we live before this system of saving each other's debts and praying we can all pay them off? Do we really live in a world without limits? The history books know. Do you remember?
