The reason that the Euro will NOT be put to the sword is that it is the (well they can't can they because they are not allowed guns anymore). Merkel is a typical Prussian - NEVER WRONG - and that will soon lead to the impoverishment of most of the less powerful in Europe, which in turn will lead to massive civil unrest. And who will "take charge", or "come to the rescue"?...Why the very person who caused it - Angela Merkel.
Ring any bells Greek people?".... Meanwhile, The Greek coalition seeks two extra years to NOT meet bailout deficit targets!"
"The general target is for there to be no further reductions in wages or pensions and no more taxes" A good target for a country with budget in red for years and still in red and it seems has no intention getting out of red and asking basically EU taxpayers to cover its unbalanced budget for next two years or more probably forever . "They ask extra two years' grace to meet the tough deficit targets laid down in the bailout deal, and was hoping to reverse cuts in the minimum wage and cancel planned civil service layoffs."....So,minimum wages upwards, regardless of the fact that even now with all the "cuts" their minimum wage is higher than in Spain. Promised excess state administration lay-offs to be cancelled,actually they have not even started with the cuts, and is still only a promise to IMF, EU of 150,000 out of 1 milion public sector workers. ... And, aaa, taxes, not to be forgotten, Please, no more taxes!!!....Is it only me, or it just doesnt really makes sense? I mean how do they plan to run their country like this? Who do they think should foot the difference between their overspending and taxes they (dont) collect??? To whom they think they can go and make this "case" with straight face??? To EU taxpayers??? I somehow dont think their "argument" will work.
Ring any bells Greek people?".... Meanwhile, The Greek coalition seeks two extra years to NOT meet bailout deficit targets!"
"The general target is for there to be no further reductions in wages or pensions and no more taxes" A good target for a country with budget in red for years and still in red and it seems has no intention getting out of red and asking basically EU taxpayers to cover its unbalanced budget for next two years or more probably forever . "They ask extra two years' grace to meet the tough deficit targets laid down in the bailout deal, and was hoping to reverse cuts in the minimum wage and cancel planned civil service layoffs."....So,minimum wages upwards, regardless of the fact that even now with all the "cuts" their minimum wage is higher than in Spain. Promised excess state administration lay-offs to be cancelled,actually they have not even started with the cuts, and is still only a promise to IMF, EU of 150,000 out of 1 milion public sector workers. ... And, aaa, taxes, not to be forgotten, Please, no more taxes!!!....Is it only me, or it just doesnt really makes sense? I mean how do they plan to run their country like this? Who do they think should foot the difference between their overspending and taxes they (dont) collect??? To whom they think they can go and make this "case" with straight face??? To EU taxpayers??? I somehow dont think their "argument" will work.
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Once again, it is likely to disappoint. The main issue is well-known; bail-outs for indigent, non-tax-paying southerners at the expense of hard-working northerners.
The form book tells us that even if they come up with something, the proffered solution will be too little, too late.
But the real issue goes deeper. All the bailout mechanisms under the sun cannot make the euro-zone work. Such bailouts are still, in the end, loans. Even if the interest rates are set very low, interest is due to be paid and the debt eventually to be repaid.
What would make some difference is if the money provided were not some sort of loan but rather an outright gift. Such gifts can be made in advance (although they rarely are) or after the event, when they are called write-offs. Sometimes a recipient itself turns what was once a loan into a gift.
This is called a default. But northern countries understandably don't want their past loans turned into gifts, and they don't want to be forced to make new gifts until the crack of doom.
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German real estate market prices have increased sharply over the last two years as investors look for solid returns and safe havens in the midst of the euro crisis. That has some worried about the formation of a bubble that could collapse if the German economy falters.
At first glance the two story office building tucked away in the town of Nordhausen seems unremarkable. The boxy building north of Erfurt, the capital of the eastern German state of Thuringia, is painted yellow and comes with a parking lot. Though part of the first floor already has a reliable renter, another part suffered fire damage earlier this year. Still, it's in a desirable location.
In a catalog for an auction early this month in central Berlin, the property was listed for €48,000 ($60,355). But by the end of an intense 15-minute bidding war between two remote buyers and a gentleman in the back of the airy atrium, it went for almost double the asking price: €90,000 ($113,166). The top bidder turned out to be an investor from western Germany.
"It is an example of what real estate can fetch when it's good," says Carsten Wohlers of Plettner & Brecht, the property brokerage that ran the auction. About 90 percent of the 53 properties listed were sold, a 10 percent improvement over last year, he says. Organizers also noticed that more buyers called in bids rather than coming in person, though Wohlers attributes that as much to the good weather as the ongoing European Football Championship.
The auction is just one example of how, even as housing market recovery in the United States, Spain and other struggling countries muddles along, Germany's real estate market has taken off. After years of stagnating, German prices for both residential and commercial real estate began rising again in 2009. Buoyed by trouble in other euro crisis countries, German property has become a safe haven for both German and international investors looking for a secure place to store their money.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras underwent eye surgery on Saturday and Vassilis Rapanos is in hospital after suffering from nausea, intense abdominal pains and dizziness on Friday before he could be sworn in as finance minister.
Instead, the foreign minister and outgoing finance minister will attend the June 28-29 meeting to ask for the terms of the 130 billion euro ($162.96 billion) bailout to be loosened.
The unexpected turn of events forced the postponement of a visit to Athens on Monday by officials from Greece's "troika" of lenders - the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The officials had been expected to meet Samaras and Rapanos and set a later date for a review of Greece's implementation of reforms required under the programme.
An IMF spokeswoman confirmed the Fund's representative, deputy director of the IMF's European department Poul Thomsen, would not be arriving. "Poul Thomsen's visit has been postponed and new dates have not yet been set," the spokeswoman said.
An EU spokesman also said the troika visit had been postponed.
Samaras's coalition government, sworn in last week, has called for the renegotiation of the painful terms of the financial lifeline, which is keeping Greece from bankruptcy but at the cost of harsh economic suffering.
The government faces a stern test at the two-day EU summit, with euro zone paymaster Germany particularly resistant to giving Athens any leeway
The Future Group
A picture of the German conception of Europe's future is emerging from the utterances of the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, and through the newly published interim report of what is known as the Future Group, which he set up.
The proposals are:
• More European power to determine the economic and tax policies of the member states. There should be a "transfer of sovereignty" to the European centre
• A strengthening of the EU's "foreign office", with a common European foreign and security policy
• A smaller European Commission able to make decisions faster
• A bigger role for the European Parliament to make "stronger democratic legitimacy"
• A directly elected President of Europe
• A European army
BIS: Central Banks Reaching Limit of Power to Fix Economies
Central banks in developed nations are confronting the limits of their ability to aid economic recovery, the Bank for International Settlements said Sunday — just four days after the Federal Reserve extended its 'twist' program. While central banks’ actions were key to limiting damage from the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, interest rates are now “as low as they can go” and debt purchases have swollen central bank balance sheets, the Switzerland-based BIS said.
The euro was an ideological political invention by the european political and bureaucratic elite , but without the necessary fiscal and banking union.
I read recently that if any combination of countries had been chosen to have a common currency then the 17 eurozone countries would be the worst combination possible.
The euro was set up by ideologues and is still being run by ideologues, the most dangerous people because they ignore reality to hold on to their ideology.
So long as the ideologues are in control, they will destroy europe rather than admit defeat.
Hopefully one brave country will take matters out of their hands.
And against this reality check we have Tony Blair, who still hopes to be President of the EU, popping up in a BBC interview yesterday to declare that "Britain could still join the single currency if the problems in the eurozone were addressed and urged Germany to do more to “save” the euro."
There is no reverse gear in the EU and no admission that they have made a mistake.
Nothing will happen until the euro implodes and at what cost?
It is time to take radical action now, but that just won't happen as the political elite will always blame someone else.
Merkel has been beaten by the Eurocrats. Germany is bust. It can choose to be bust inside the Euro, or outside the Euro, but either way, the PIIGS have already sucked out any prospect of financial stability for Germany.
The optimal solution for Germany would be to unilaterally exit the Euro and take the €1.5 trillion hit to its economy that that would create. If it stays in the Euro, in the short term it will get away with paying only €500 billion but that doesn't include a continuing €100 billion a year in subsidies to its "euro allies".
Either way Germany's true debt to GDP is not 82% ( which is already ridiculously excessive and a mile outside the fantasy of the Stability and Growth Pact) but more like 120% - 160% when its euro obligations are accounted for.
"Austerity and structural reforms will be of little help unless confidence returns."
Are we talking about the same kind of short-term "confidence" the "markets" showed when they did not see much of a difference between German and Greek bonds? There is so much borrowed and speculative credit made out of thin air in the markets that we cannot speak anymore about market trust, confidence and similar categories.
"That requires an unequivocal, if limited, sharing of liabilities. The proposal by Germany’s council of economic advisers to pool part of the euro zone’s stock of debt is a good start."
It seems that parts of the British media even after hundreds of years do not understand the meaning of: "no taxation without representation"!
It is very simple: you can have a monetary union/standard without a fiscal union (Gold standard, Latin and Scandinavian monetary union) but a (limited) dept union requires previously a (limited) fiscal union.
The recent persistent and aggressive support of the TE for all kinds of quick-fix dept unions without fiscal balance and protection of basic individual economic rights equals support for large scale robbery.
The free and productive people in all parts of Europe and the world should get ready for an appropriate answer because the cronies will not stop until they feel that something is burning under their feet.
Angela’s vision: Fawlty Towers. With the Sybil at the wheel, Basil pushes and Manuel getting in the way. The problem with Fr.Merkel’s statagty is the Goodies and the Baddies are all in the same pot and fools follow. The Dutch saving on resource that export there goods, the Italians recovering from a Berlusconectomy, the Spanish for hiding the truth and more. “Walking the Planks” constant of the 3% and no more when growth is the solution is a “vogel strauss” head in the sand policy. The Stability and Growth Pact of 3% of GDP is a chicken or the egg causality dilemma and nothing to do with economics. Should I tell her or you?
<< All along the fundamental doubt remains. What stands behind the euro: Germany, the European Central Bank (ECB), or nothing at all? Investors in euro-zone bonds want to be sure they will be repaid, and in euros, not devalued drachmas, liras or pesetas. National currencies are backed by national treasuries with the power to tax and central banks with the power to print money. But the euro is a single currency without a single government, and the ECB cannot lend to sovereigns.>>
Every act of speculation carries a risk. Today's zero-risk banking credit sector is a system which shouldn't falter but it has. The entire credit-rating system for states and individual persons is idiotic. Today in reality, banks have zero risk when giving a credit or loan. I won't get anything because my investment in a book shoppe is viewed as risky by the banks. On the otherhand, someone with a labour contract will get money to buy another television, car or house. It is not shrewd investment and thriftiness which decides in today's finance. Why does someone who possess high wages of around 1.000 EURO per month (in Poland) need credit is beyond me. He can easily pay off his debt. I could also but the running of a restaurant or book shoppe is viewed as being risky yet I need 10.000 złotych credit while the banks give 50.000 or 100.000 złotych credits for car buying.
Banking needs to become a living system based on cooperation. Today, banking is an automated system in which the Bank's Directoriate in Warsaw/London/Brussels/Berlin/Rome decides about everything.
Today's banking system will have 10 times bigger crisis than today. Give monkeys money and they will give you bananas. 5% deposit-credit ratio or 1:20 is not that bad yet today's banks are dying at such a high ratio!! Banks functioned for hundreds of years at 1:75 - 1:125 yet today 1:13 is considered bankrupcy.
The fault is that the people who run these banks are neoliberal idiots who are devoid of any context to European banking traditions. It's the bank management's fault in the end. The creation of huge banks, which have 10.000 branches is another stupidity. Maybe the disbanding of the national commercial banks and the creation of regional banks would be better.
My town of Kielce had 2 banks and 30 credit unions in 1920. One bank was the local aristocrats' bank used for servicing French and Russian trade, the other was the rich peasants' bank servicing German trade. Somehow, they survived. Today, I have 50 banks in my city, all foreign brands, which solely function as deposit boxes. None of these banks don't service foreign trade today!!! Hundreds of millions of francs, marks and roubles were in circulation, because a Frenchman or German could easily gain service in 1920 in Poland in Kielce. Today, we have thousands of bank-ladies, who barely speak Polish and have no economic training whatsoever!
Imagine, Francois De Baque left Paris at 5 am, arrived in Kielce at 3 pm, went to the Industrial Bank, showed a weksel/cheque d'exchange and got 20.000 francs to buy steel for France from Sosnowiec. Today, no one recognises weksels/cheques; today, no one would give Francois de Baque a credit/loan in Poland, even though he has the backing of BNP Paribas in Paris!! And vice-versa, in 1920, I could get a credit in Paris and take my money to Poland. Today I can't do that.
Imagine in 1880, I could take a train to Hamburg and get a loan on the basis of my uncle's gleit. Can I do that today? NO! There are no trains to Hamburg and there are no banks servicing foreign trade in Hamburg as that is illegal by European Securities and Banking Law!
Heavily exposed to the crisis in Greece, cash-starved Cyprus needs to recapitalise its second-largest bank by Friday. For weeks, it has been trying to juggle its options between a bailout from Europe's EFSF fund or a bilateral loan from either Russia or China.
It was unclear whether a loan from either country would be forthcoming, giving the Mediterranean island precious little leeway to rustle together 1.8 billion euros for Cyprus Popular Bank by the end of the week.
Government sources have told Reuters that President Demetris Christofias wanted to consult political leaders before taking a definitive decision, suggesting one was close.
Earlier on Monday Fitch downgraded Cyprus to BB+, saying Cypriot banks could potentially need up to 4 billion euros in capital primarily on the back of losses in Greece.
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