Friday, June 11, 2010

Greece Collapsing Into Recession

Looking at the most recent OECD economic indicators, Greece makes by far the weakest showing in all the Eurozone while further appearing to be clearly quickly collapsing into recession.

Industrial production has fallen off a cliff, consumer confidence has plunged to historic lows, business confidence has made a sudden reversal and the leading index is turning down fast.

Worse yet, Greece may be just the leading edge with Ireland, the U.K., Italy, Spain and Portugal show some initial signs of weakening leading trends.

Is the double-dip here? For Greece the answer appears certain but we will have to wait to see whether elsewhere in Europe and the U.S. eroded similarly.

The pattern is clear though. For those who argued (and still argue) that solving the ills of an epic debt bubble with more debt was sheer folly may soon see their outlook born out.