News from around the web: 2009-12-10
- Barack Obamas Nobel Prize Speech Transcript – Swampland – TIME.com
- Working MAMA (A site a friend started dedicated to building community amongst working women.)
- Congressman Ron Paul – Who Wants War? – Texas Straight Talk
- Tiger Woods Mistress List Rises to 11, According to Tabloids – ABC News
- Public Policy Polling: Obama’s December Standing
- Nearly one third of human genome is involved in gingivitis, study shows
- The Case for Health Care Reform, Arnold Kling | EconLog
- Obama Approval Falls To New Low – Quinnipiac Poll
Distraction of the Day: Bernie Sanders – Fed’s Dead
(see the lead in to this in the financial news)
(video embedded above)
Killer Debt: Dubai, Greece, Spain — Now the Baltics?
We talked about the situation in the Baltics earlier this summer, but I would like to cover the topic again to highlight my belief that a devaluation of the Latvian currency is nearly certain. Although it hardly sounds as if that event could affect the global economy, history tells us otherwise; the tiny country of Latvia may signal the return of risk-avoidance in the region and beyond.
When we first covered the Baltics back in June, we focused on the similarities between present day Latvia and 1997 Thailand. Both countries had a pegged currency, and their respective governments’ coffers were being drained by a defense of the peg. In Thailand, the abandonment of the peg led to the Asian contagion that swept across the globe rapidly and affected all emerging and developed markets. Latvia is coming perilously close to devaluation because its tax receipts, and thus its ability to defend the currency peg, are plummeting along with its economy.
https://www.elliottwave.com/features/default.aspx?cat=mw