With Team GB riding high and the Olympics following closely on the heels of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, the market has been quieter for longer than normal during the traditional summer holiday season. I do not expect things to change during August although barring any serious damage in the Eurozone I believe that things will improve considerably in September. Assuming that GB continues its winning ways in the Olympics I expect the country to be riding on a massive high once the holidays are over.
However August will be a testing month for the Eurozone and the financial markets have lost patience with the way the crisis has been handled to date. My personal view is that Greece will be left to fend for itself and will declare bankruptcy but without leaving the Euro. Germany will continue to refuse to pick up the tab for Spain and Italy and the crisis will only go away once the European Central Bank is authorised to undertake quantitative easing and start buying back the debts of Spain & Italy, as has happened in the UK and America.
On the local financial scene I was talking with our finance broker the other day and asking him whether commercial debt was difficult to obtain. His response was that purchasers can always get the finance for a business purchase provided that (a) they are not over-geared and (b) they ask the right person. If a purchaser tries to get finance from their local bank manager then the chances of success are very low as those guys are programmed to take no risk and protect their own jobs and pensions! Please rest assured we spend a lot of time trying to persuade our purchasers to talk with our finance broker because the money is out there you just need the right person on your team to find it.
