We know it's bad, but just how bad is it? With news of civil unrest daily in Greece and the possible spread of the "contagion" throughout Europe, Dow Jones released recently updated numbers on the plight of the euro zone.
As of Friday, May 14, 2010, Greece is the worst performer of the so called "PIGS countries" Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (Ireland is at times also added to the acronym). Year-to-date through May 14, Portugal is down 24.62%, Italy 25.25%, Greece 37.35% and Spain 31.61%.
In the same time frame, Europe, measured by the Dow Jones Europe Total Stock Market Index, is down 12.56%, outperforming the Eurozone, which is down 18.13% as measured by the Dow Jones Eurozone TSM Index. The Euro was down 12.83% year-to-date as of May 14.
David Krein, senior director of product development and analytics for Dow Jones Indexes, has compared the risk factors of the six European total stock market indexes:
