DislikedSpeaking from an EEC (Czech Rep.) citizen perspective, this is certainly one of the possibilities. We are roughly 20 years behind the "developed countries" since we broke off the Soviet bloc and this means good things right now. Retail banking never really got big here. We do not have a mortgage bubble (except for certain investment grade localities), we do not have excessive credit card and consumer loan debt and we do not have any banks to bail out. Oh, and we get a guaranteed stream of EU structural funds until 2013, that money feeds a lot...Ignored
And what drove our stock market down were freaked out foreign investors as well.
If at least a good chunk of foreign money is already out, perspectives for our stock market are good, coz companies in general are doing pretty well over here.
Even the automakers are recoverying. They tightened their belts in December, flushed out inventories and now they are back to business. Layoffs were minimal. And this was the industry that suffered the most here a) because of the screwups abroad and b) because of the credit crunch by end 2008 (banks shooting first, asking later), that is easing, too.
Just need the media to shut the f* up and everything will be alright.
