Well, That Didn't Take Long

Hooray! The European Central Bank is going to print a trillion dollars and hand it to various people! We're saved! Buy!

Wait a minute. Did we actually do anything? No? Sell!

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- The euro lost all of yesterday’s gains on concern the $1 trillion bailout will hurt European economic growth. Stocks fell, paring the MSCI World Index’s biggest advance in a year. Chinese shares entered a bear market...

The European Union’s unprecedented bailout package is unlikely to be a “long-term solution” for the region, Marek Belka, the director of the International Monetary Fund’s European department, said in Brussels yesterday...

“The euphoria of 24 hours ago has passed,” Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency research at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London, wrote in a report today. “We are in little doubt that steps taken will offer the euro little support and the aid package does not change the fact that Spain and Portugal in particular will still have to undergo further painful austerity measures.”

Wages in southern Europe are still too high, government are still pouring way too much money into entitlements and regulations are still strangling business. The rescue package is just so much fiscal sugar and caffeine.