Mandatory Monday: A Voluntary Sigh of Relief

Posted by: Tom Keene on June 17, 2011

I look forward to the weekend op-eds and research reports. Many will attempt to discern the path ahead for Europe’s investors in peripheral paper. Good Luck. One word lept out in all the coverage of Greece this morning: Voluntary.

I asked a number of the informed today what this means and to compare & contrast voluntary with mandatory. Mandatory means mandatory but voluntary…is a modest mystery. But that’s the way politicians want it. They volunteer to be fair, just, and postpone difficult decisions.

This voluntary Friday nudges the can inches down the road towards next week as witnessed buy EUR-CHF moving 1.22 to 1.19466 (gloom!) to a “voluntary” 1.21+.This, I voluntarily suggest, gets us to…Mandatory Monday. Discuss.

Reader Comments

Bob Clarebrough

June 18, 2011 5:32 AM

Having the luxury of writing from England which, praise be, is outside the Eurozone, I am as mystified as you. The ability of the European leaders to come up with euphemisms (a word of Greek origin) is awesome. Apparently they are unable to enunciate the word, "default." Technically, Greece will be in default and applying any other descriptor is, to coin a cliche, putting lipstick on a pig (makes a change from "kicking the can down the road). As Shakespeare might have put it: "A bond investor's haircut would hurt as much by any other name."

dilbik

July 7, 2011 1:27 AM

i like the post its good for all.Magazine printing

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EconoChat captures Tom Keene's thoughts on economics, finance and investment. He is editor-at-large for Bloomberg News and hosts Bloomberg Surveillance and Bloomberg on the Economy on NYC1130, Sirius 129 and XM 130 and Surveillance Midday on Bloomberg Television. His complete interviews are at Tom Keene on Demand. Look for Tom on twitter @tomkeene

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