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The Most Important Person In The World

On Wednesday, the most important person in the world will be Andreas Vosskuhle.  He is the head of the German Supreme Court, which will rule on the constitutionality of German support for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).  It is widely believed that the court will support it, which is one of the three legs critically necessary to deal with the European financial crisis.  If the court rules it unconstitutional, the bears will start eating Europe quickly . . . as in tomorrow.

On Thursday, the most important person in the world will be Ben Bernanke.  He is head of the U.S. Federal Reserve system, who will announce the results of their latest meeting.  It is widely expected that he will announce another round of quantitative easing (QE3), which will weaken the dollar and drive up the price of commodities like oil and gold.  If he does not, the bears will be growling on Wall Street.

On Friday, all will return to normal when Angela Merkel is again the most important person in the world.  She is the head of Germany, of course.  Europe cannot recover without her, but she is besieged by her fellow Germans who insist it is better to let the Eurozone break apart — than to spend the money necessary to save it.  With an occasional day off, she will remain the most important person in the world . . . at least until January 20, 2013.