The current Euro mess has seemed to have little impact so far on the stamp market. The Euro has fallen some 15% against the dollar and the financial system in Europe is in turmoil but prices for European stamps seem stable. There is little buying from the weaker European areas, countries like Italy and Spain which would see serious devaluations of whatever currency they moved to if the Euro failed. And we are seeing no increased selling by European stamp holders attempting to put their money in dollars pending a devaluation. My own sense is that most stamp collectors and dealers are like most other consumers and they are still divorced from the financial turmoil that is going on around them. What concerns money center banks and government financing really has little short term impact on what most of us do anymore. Maybe we have become anesthetized to bad news. Last summer we watched the travesty of the United States nearly defaulting on its debt because of Congressional intransigence. In the end, the players involved blinked and a solution appeared. A similar ending is probably what most people feel will happen in the Euro crisis. So many major financial players have skin in the game that a solution will be worked out in the end. How much that solution will cost and how much of that cost will trickle down to most stamp collectors is not yet known. But until we feel the cost, it is still business as usual for most collectors.
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