Jim Rickards - The Myth of August

It comes as no surprise that European bank regulators completed their bank stress tests in late July. After all, what self-respecting European bureaucrat wants to spend the month of August thinking about the word stress. August, of course, is the European vacation time par excellence and the continent practically grinds to a standstill except for those jobs directly involved in the transportation, lodging and feeding of vacationers. Over time, this sense of August as a “time out” has become firmly entrenched in the United States and, as a result of globalization, is now truly a worldwide phenomenon.