Bleedin Obvious Award

In today’s FT, those highly paid experts from Standard & Poor’s have got dome astounding news for us:

Some of Europe’s largest economies, including Germany, Italy and France, seem ill-equipped to adjust their fiscal policies swiftly and effectively in the face of economic shocks

Wow, now wasn’t that a surprise. It qualifies for being the most Bleedin Obvious news of the week. The real surprise is that they only focused on taxation and spending policies:

Rigid spending and taxation policies of some governments would make it difficult for them to avoid a deterioration in their deficits if faced with adverse trends.

In addition to these problems they are also vunerable due to the following reasons:

1. No chance to alter their interest rates to meet their own requirements
2. No flexibility of exchange rates to cushion shocks in individual Eurozone countries
3. Labour markets that make Glass look flexible
4. In Germany, Politicians who think Capitalists are Locusts
5. In France a President who thinks Liberals are as bad as Communists.

All in all prospects do not look rosy.