I keep hearing that it will take a crisis for Europe to act. Well if you look at the S&P 500 to determine whether a crisis is occurring in Europe, you are probably looking at the wrong benchmark. Even the DAX might be the wrong one. Take a look at Spain. It is the lowest in 12 years. It is back to 2008 levels. Italy which has done slightly better if back to 2009 lows, same with France. The fact that 3 of the biggest market in the Eurozone are back to 2009 prices at a decade lows is a pretty clear sign that they are in the midst of a crisis. Look at unemployment or almost any other metric, and to argue that Europe needs to be pushed further to react seems flippant at best.
Volatility in these markets is also spiking. The markets in Spain look and feel a lot like ours did back in the heat of the crisis.
Europe may fail to act this weekend, but far too many people are looking at the wrong indicators when determining whether Europe is in crisis mode or not and whether they are finally willing to take the next step in delaying or avoiding collapse of the banks, markets, and economies.
