Benjamin Anderson termed 1931 the “the tragic year” – these are some of the events in that tragic year: 

1. One of Europe’s largest banks with large exposure to Central and Eastern Europe gets into serious trouble (It is of course Austria’s largest bank Österiechishe Kredit Anstalt – and it of course collapsed)
2. Europe’s Sovereign debt crisis is threatening financial stability and currency collapse (It’s the Germans that are to blame – they can’t pay their war debts)
3. Major international banks push for a big country to save the sinners (The US banks ask US president Hoover to help ease the pain on Germany)
4. Debt restructuring (The Hoover moratorium gives Germany a bit of relief – the US banks are happy to begin with)
5. Monetary policy keeps deflationary pressures on (The French central bank keeps hoarding gold)
6. An insane commitment to a failed monetary system (the gold standard mentality keeps the commitment to the gold standard despite the fact that it is killing Europe)
7. Some countries have had enough and give up the monetary standard (The UK leaves the gold standard – the Scandinavian countries follows suit – and recover fast from the Great Depression)
8. Technocracy is popular and it suggested that indebted nations should be run by technocrats (The so-called Technocracy Movement became increasingly popular in German)

And here we are 80 years on…do you see any similarities? I wonder what 2012 will bring – in 1932 10 countries (or so…) defaulted…