Moving to the right

From a story on the internet: "PARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Muslim burqa would not be welcome in France, calling the full-body religious gown a sign of the "debasement" of women. In the first presidential address to parliament in 136 years, Sarkozy faced critics who fear the burqa issue could stigmatize France's Muslims and said he supported banning the garment from being worn in public. "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause at the Chateau of Versailles, southwest of Paris. "The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement — I want to say it solemnly," he said. "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."

It appears that there is movement towards the political right behind the scenes. With either France or Germany taking the lead, Europe will go radically towards the right, while the U.S. moves left. What do I know? Nothing. I'm just guessing.

Europe and Finance

As I was saying, the EU has initiated a plan, by way of French President Sarkozy, to revamp the current world financial setup - whatever that is. The idea of a universal currency and a worldwide cashless system might be proposed. The idea will be resisted - for now. What the credit crisis brought out into the open is a serious credibility problem regarding the future strength of the U.S. economy. Japan, China, India, Russia, and all of Latin America will benefit greatly from this.

"On Friday, Sarkozy repeated his call to overhaul the global financial system so that it can be better supervised in the wake of the crisis.
"Together we need to rebuild a capitalism that is more respectful to man, more respectful to the planet, more respectful to future generations and be finished with a capitalism obsessed by the frantic search for short-term profit," Sarkozy said
Sarkozy has floated the idea of reforming rating agencies and even exploring the future of currency systems.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who engineered a British bank bailout that inspired U.S. and European rescues, is proposing radical changes to the global capitalist system, including a cross-border mechanism to monitor the world's 30 biggest financial institutions. "

World Finance

OK, now we know. The market is not going to get better any time soon. If people want to panic, they will panic. If they want to riot, they will riot. French President Zarkozy has already made some pronouncement about the need to change the world financial structure - whatever that is. The meaning behind that is ominous. It has become clear that the U.S. has - up to now - exerted too much influence over world money markets. When things have gone sour here, they then have soured the rest of the world financial order. That is no longer acceptable. He didn't say it in so many words but that's what he meant. It is now clear that Europe does not want to be held hostage by economic or financial conditions in the U.S. A meeting will be held some time in November to initiate changes - whatever those may be.

The lack of transparency is being held up as one of the key issues. As a result, it may well come to pass that cash will be eliminated as an exchange medium for buying and selling. Perhaps only banks will be allowed to transact cash. You and I will need credit cards. Electronic transactions is the only way to keep everything transparent. It will also cut down on the crime rate since every dime you have will have to be accounted for. Pretty clever. Let's see what happens. In the meantime, buy the cheapest stocks you can find.

Told You So

Now comes Mr Sarkozy, President of France, at the U.N., saying in no uncertain terms that something must be done to stabilize the credit markets - meaning that the U.S. must act. He must have been speaking for a lot of other countries. I told you so. The pressure is coming from Europe and China. Then there was a call to expand the U. N.'s Security Council, meaning that the power of the U.S. in that body - if the suggestion is taken seriously - will be diluted. The new Council will probably include Germany, Spain, Japan, and Italy as permanent members. They saw an opening and they took it. They fear that a mismanaged U.S. economy will bring down the entire world financial system. In other developments, Warren Buffett bought a few shares ($5 billion) of Goldman Sachs stock. I was going to buy some myself but I ran out of money last week. Wall Street is not doing well, but it's not doing as badly as they would have us believe. Also, the FBI is investigating several banks over possible criminal activity.