Hi Brian

Yes it make sence.Just read Japan will do something to weaken the Yen.Heard some euroezone leaders say that the € is to strong as well and probably the FED thinks the same about the us $.Yes inbdeed it could become a race to get the lowest currency.In the Eurozone printing money so far is not in their agenda.It's out of the rules of engagement in their policy.

If you think about the banking sector past years it becomes clear all banks have acted like hedge funds instead of their core business .They made good profits and extremely high rsults in the years stocks went up.Giving themselve very high bonusses etc..So they use peoples money to play on the stock markets and there was almost no control.But now that it becomes clear a lot of them burned their fingers and are in deep shit governments need to keep them above monet with peoples tax money to avoid they collpase.If a privat banker should applied that kind of policy he should be placed behind bars on corrupt acting but because bank sector own a lot of peoples money + have given huge credits to people for all kinds of debt ,morgates etc. they need to be in place or the whole world economy should collaps.If you ask me strange world we are living in.

Sometimes you think it's better we control our own money by investing in safe haven area's like property,life insurance systems but if you like to take some danger then do it youyrself and invest in stocks you think they will do fine instead of giving money to banks to invest in all kinds of funds banks are using to attrack people to invest in with almost no clue how it works.If you buy stock on your own at least you know yourself what you're doing and could take th eprofits or loss on your own responsability .Banks invest a lot of pe,sion money in stock related funds and many people don't realize this can go the opposit direction as well if things go wrong.It's not a secured pension plan.

My wifes part of pension investment is in a non insuranced part but I follow it closely and i switch from equities to bonds expossure at the right time.By this i made good returns so far .Made a switch just when crisis hit from equities exposute to bonds at almost the highest level.So my return now is still high by doing this.Many people just don't follow this and see their profits coming down .

For 2012 I read something they expect a better year then this in ligght also of elections coming up ,some easing in the Eurozone hopefully etc..I hope they can avoid a recession scenario but I'm sure that consumer spending will be hit by the meassures governments will need to imply to meet their projected targets in the Eurozone.I think the US will have to do the same if they will stay away from the financial unrest.