Another day another dollar. BREAKING NEWS FROM THE EUROZONE: Greek debt talks continue; negotiations are ‘days away’ from completion. BREAKING NEWS FROM THE EUROZONE: Successful Spanish bond auction due to ECB cheap 3-year loans improving liquidity. BREAKING NEWS FROM THE EUROZONE: EU members are deeply committed to the fiscal compact. BREAKING NEWS FROM THE UK: Bank of England may increase Quantitative Easing in February.
Currency news headlines are starting to resemble the small green rodents that star in DMA Design’s PC game from the early 1990’s, ‘Lemmings’. Without specific guidance from the player, the lemmings walk straight forward with an uncompromising confidence, one after another. The problem arises when the lemmings hit an obstacle, a roadblock, a boulder, or a particularly steep hill in the landscape. With no exterior input the lemmings just walk into the obstacle, turn around, and walk back the other way. Until of course they hit the previous obstacle and spin back around; the cycle lasts indefinitely; no progress is made.
Much like the neglected lemming, publications dealing with the Eurozone debt crisis have been abandoned by their leaders, figuratively speaking. Every time EU leaders such as Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Mario Draghi, David Cameron, or Lucas Papademos release statements of rhetoric that implore their own ‘decisive’ or ‘significant’ actions, the press follow suit and publish eye-catching headlines hoping to inspire optimism within their readers… The problem arises when the EU leaders hit an obstacle, an unsuccessful bond auction, a poor set of PMI figures, a political disagreement, or the threat of sovereign default. With no exterior input the press are forced to retrace their footsteps and publish the inversion of their previous header, this time foreboding doom and gloom for the Eurozone. With no resolution apparent, currency news publishers are reduced to feeling the pain of the forsaken lemming; perpetually repeating the same headlines of hope and glory / doom and gloom over and over again; the cycle lasts indefinitely; no progress is made.