My cautions about the risks of rushing to invest in Europe have taken an even more concern. While I know some have made successful acquisitions in Ireland and a few other places, the risk reward is still mostly not worth it. As we see, the US dollar is now far higher vs the Euro, thereby depleting a material portion of the gain. Germany has now possibly sunk into recession, or may be close to it. Other parts of Europe are in recession. Draghi has clearly stated that the situation is not a simple cyclical issue which will clear itself up soon. The issue is deep structural problems with the failure of governments to do the things needed to clean up the labor laws, fiscal policies and banking structures that are the real reason Europe is not coming out of the downturn. The crash was not enough to get these things accomplished, so it is not likely any changes will be forthcoming in the near term , and maybe not for a few years. The unions are still too powerful, and politicians still too deeply indoctrinated into socialist policies.

Ireland may have made the most progress, and some deals there are doing well, despite the issues surrounding the criminal element that has been involved in many of the prior ownership situations. Greece may have made good progress, as has Spain, but they have so far to go, it is not worth the risk. Italy has a culture that will not change quickly, and so it is a long term workout.

Generally, Europe is in for many other potential serious issues that will distract and hold back economic growth. Putin is just getting started on his quest to take back parts of eastern Europe. Because Obama was unwilling to lead, and Merkel was unwilling to really take meaningful action, he will go further next year causing even more issues. As long as Europe depends on Russia for gas, and refuses to allow wide scale nuclear and shale, that is not going to change. Obama is not allowing sufficient drilling nor export of LNG to matter in the short run of the next couple of years.