Don't Switch Dicks In The Middle Of A Screw

We have been paying very close attention to the sudden change of heart undergone by Spain's sole Anglo economic authority, Edward Hugh, since about last autumn. Abruptly and absolutely without warning, Edward has transformed himself from the panicked purveyor of pending disasters and serial manufacturer of mixed metaphors to the very voice of considered, elbow-patched reason itself. Take this bit from yesterday's entry, The EU Does Have The Legal Power To Organise Bailouts, as an example:

'Now finally, one piece of news few seem interested in. Santos Gonzalez, President of AHE (Spain’s Mortgage Association) has come out today and warned that Spain's banks do not have the financial capacity to assume the outstanding debt of property developers, which amounts to around 325,000 billion Euros, This he says "gravely endangers the viability of the Spanish property sector as well as Spain’s financial industry"'.

This, if the case, is the type of truly shocking news that would have hurled down an avalanche of hyperbole upon the unsuspecting reader as late as last August (assuming he or she lived in the antipodes, of course). In January of 2010, however, Mr. Hugh can only summon up the truly limp-wristed, '...Spanish sovereign spreads are going bo (sic) be in for a very bumpy ride.' in conclusion.

Or, how about his reaction in a prior piece to Martin Wolf's prediction that Europe's fate was one of permanent economic depression - a position once touted by Mr. Hugh with a religious obsession. Can he not come up with better than, 'No easy answers yet awhile (sic), but lots of interesting problems to talk about, and plenty of food for thought.'?

In all honesty (given Hugh's truly horrific predictive track record), we do not want to be on the same side of the trade as Spain Economy Watch, Fistful of Euros, or any of the myriad other publications that make up his spamdexing empire.

Does the irony of a resumption of the financial crisis occurring during both Edward Hugh's editorial about-face and Spain's risible stint in the EU presidency escape any of our readers?

Sorry for the rant, but we just did a Google search for some item or another and were, yet again, confronted with seven of the first ten results pointing to the same piece by Edward Hugh cross-posted in different publications. Totally unacceptable web etiquette.

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