Oh come on, it’s Friday afternoon, the sun is probably shining all over continental europe, and you’re all probably off away from your desks for a weekend in the country or on the beach. So why spoil the fun. I’ll save my piece on Portugal till Monday. And meantime, you deserve something better than ‘gloomy Edward’ on such an afternoon, so why not, the opposite view: Stephen – ‘bright sider’ – Roach:

“As a congenital euro-skeptic, I will be the first to admit that it feels rather uncomfortable rising to the defense of Old Europe. But someone has to. The world is down on the Mother Continent as never before. And Europe, itself, is caught up in a bout of self-flagellation that is getting worse by the day. The risk, in my view, is that this is an overdone story of cyclical angst. While the economic outlook for Europe is far from terrific, it?s not nearly as bad as the consensus mindset would lead you to believe……. At the same time, I would concede that the tails of the political verdict could well have major impacts on financial markets. A decisive French rejection of the EU constitution could force markets to raise the probability of an EMU break-up. A ?yes? vote, by contrast, could spark a huge rally in the euro and in most-euro-denominated assets. We?ll know soon enough.”

I think I’ll deal with this, and with Henry’s arguments when the votes are safely in and counted. Have a nice weekend everyone :).