"Surging Greek and Portuguese bond yields? Plunging Italian bank stocks? The
projected GDP of the Eurozone? In the grand scheme of things, while certainly
disturbing, none of these data points actually tell us much about the secular
shift within European society, and certainly are nothing that couldn't be fixed
if the ECB were to gamble with hyperinflation and print an inordinate amount of
fiat units diluting the capital base even further. No: the one chart that truly
captures the latent fear behind the scenes in Europe is that showing youth
unemployment in the continent's troubled countries (and frankly everywhere
else). Because the last thing Europe needs is a discontented, disenfranchised,
and devoid of hope youth roving the streets with nothing to do, easily
susceptible to extremist and xenophobic tendencies: after all, it must be
"someone's" fault that there are no job opportunities for anyone. Below we
present the youth (16-24) unemployment in three select European countries (and
the general Eurozone as a reference point). Some may be surprised to
learn that while Portugal, and Greece, are quite bad, at 30.7% and 46.6%
respectively, it is Spain where the youth unemployment pain is most
acute: at 51.4%, more than half of the youth eligible for work
does not have a job! Because the real question is if there is no hope
for tomorrow, what is the opportunity cost of doing something stupid and quite
irrational today?..."
at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/europes-scariest-chart
at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/europes-scariest-chart