patrick.net

Aside from losses of money invested over there, if the Euro was to start collapsing in value, imports/exports could swing, which could be bad.

MF Global account holders care.

John public runs the risk of waking up one day and finding their financial instution of choice bankrupt beacuse of exposure or bad debts to Europe. If the IMF ends up bankrolling more bailouts then American tax payers will get to pony up.

It all depends on how the crisis unfolds and how the debt is handled.

Who buys Europe bonds? 3-7% is nothing, a bank account in Australia pays 7% for a savings account.
A bank account In Mongolia pays 16-20% plus you get 15% appreciation of the currency.

What kind of idiot would loan money to a bankrupt country? Yes this includes the US.

TylerDurden1 says

Who buys Europe bonds? 3-7% is nothing, a bank account in Australia pays 7% for a savings account.

Australia has almost a 4% inflation rate you have to subtract out.

Plus a currency that's trending up 20% pa since the crash.

It could easily move up another 20% this year, say goodbye to your interest gains unless you want to move to Oz.

Not that there's anything wrong with moving to Oz!
I would if I could. Seems like Canada with a much better climate really.

TylerDurden1 says

Who buys Europe bonds? 3-7% is nothing, a bank account in Australia pays 7% for a savings account.
A bank account In Mongolia pays 16-20% plus you get 15% appreciation of the currency.

What kind of idiot would loan money to a bankrupt country? Yes this includes the US.

You can count on the ECB and banks in general buying bonds. Not that I think its smart, but they have to keep the game going. If your a TylerDurden fan then I'm sure you've seen that question asked on ZH.

MF Global seems to have bought europe. A lot of good it did them.

The only odd thing with Oz is the southern parts you really have to put on the sunscreen. Ozone hole sometimes is above them. Normal sunlight has some damage..without the ozone it is quite a bit worse. They've been running psa's about it for decades now.

I would say the Euro matters a bit because if it causes some of the other rates to go up. LIBOR is a interbank loaning rate. If it goes up it can prevent lending across banks or make it significantly harder.

Parts of africa are on the europe (CFA I think) so a decrease there is a bit different. It might actually help them.

A fair amount of US exports go to Europe and if they cannot sell then they have to lower their prices which might cause lower profit margins.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0003.html

If the EU itself needs a bailout eventually they'll end up asking the IMF or the World Bank and that's where it would be the rest of the world (USA mostly but also Canada) to pay for it. Japan is in a odd position because the have plenty of dollars but the strong yen is killing them.

If all countries have a currency that keeps dropping in value eventually it starts a trade war. One tactic Italy used to use was they'd devalue the lira to spur cheap exports and help in tourism..but in the long run that doesn't work as paying for anything from government becomes null and nearly void.