Suicide is Painless..

Ahhhhhhhh....June....... and a mixed weekend for the British, as we beat the might of Bangladesh at cricket, storm the citadels of the Formula 1 world with a 1-2 in the Grand Prix,strike fear into the hearts of the footballing world by brushing aside the threat of Japan by the decisive margin of 2-1 and finish stone cold last in the Eurovision song contest.
Meanwhile, the ECB has forecast E195bn write downs by Euro zone banks will be necessary in the next 18 months. This figure even optimistically assumes no economic slowdown, so could well be higher. This compares to a total of around E240bn written down during that little credit crisis thing we had up until the end of 2009. In other words, what's to come could (according to the EBC) be worse than what we've already had- and with a sovereign debt crisis (remember that?) to cope with at the same time. Happy days. This news, combined with concerns about Chinese growth slowing down and some little oil thing in the Gulf have spoilt the start of June for the bulls. Stock exchanges down over 2% with US futures lower, ITRX over 6.5bp wider and the new issue market for banks/corporate, basically, closed (Finland Govt. is bringing E5.5bn 10yrs however). By the way- on that subject- Euro zone banks need to refinance over E800bn by the end of 2012..... I just mention it. Believe it or not (if you only know me through this comment) I am, by nature, an optimist. My current suicidal tendencies spring purely from the wonder of realizing that nobody seems to know...or admit to... the trouble we are all in. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh....June. Happy Tuesday everyone! ISM data in the USA today and PMI in the UK- but who really cares?