European leaders wound up their final summit of 2012 on Friday in much the same manner as they started the year – kicking the euro crisis can down the road, playing for time, crossing their fingers, hoping the worst is behind them.
In almost three years since the Greek drama erupted in February 2010 and spread quickly around the fringes of the eurozone, the leaders have never quite managed to get ahead of the curve despite 22 summits and countless meetings of eurozone finance ministers.
This week's two-day summit in Brussels repeated the pattern. It was supposed to lay out a grand plan and timetable for reforming and stabilising the euro regime through a battery of federalising political and fiscal moves. In the event, the documents from the EU council president, Herman Van Rompuy, were shredded amid more clashes over fundamentals between Berlin and Paris, while an even more ambitious blueprint from the Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, was simply ignored.
"One wonders how these two gentlemen will enjoy Christmas," quipped Andrew Duff, the Liberal Democrat MEP and ardent European federalist.
Van Rompuy, who has had a very bad month, was told to come back in the middle of next year with a better, more modest plan. The mood was darkened further by German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissing claims that the worst was over for the eurozone and stressing that the bloc faced two years of painful reforms, slow growth and high unemployment.
"The changes we are going through are very difficult and painful," she said. "We have tough times ahead of us that cannot be solved with one big step."
Despite the stalemate and the seeming complacency, leaders concluded their summit keen to list the year's achievements. And they do have things to brag about
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Ministerul Afacerilor Externe atenţionează cetăţenii români care doresc să călătorească în perioada următoare în Ungaria cu privire la previziunile meteorologice pentru acest sfârşit de săptămână. Astfel, Autoritatea Naţională de Administrare a Drumurilor din Ungaria a informat astăzi, 14 decembrie 2012, că pentru zilele de vineri, sâmbătă şi duminică previziunile meteorologice semnalează lapoviţă şi ninsoare. Din această cauză, se solicită participaţilor la trafic atenţie sporită şi se recomandă pe cât posibil, amânarea călătoriei pe această perioadă.
Potrivit Serviciului naţional de meteorologie ungar, în ziua de sâmbătă, cerul va fi înnorat şi se aşteaptă ploi pe teritorii extinse. Până la orele amiezii, în partea de nord a ţării va cădea lapoviţă şi ninsoare. Se vor produce intensificări ale vântului. Temperaturile din timpul nopţii vor fi cuprinse între + 3 şi -5 grade, iar în partea vestică, mai ridicate. În timpul zilei, temperaturile vor fi cuprinse între 3-8 grade, iar în zona muntoasă chiar 0 grade.
Duminică, precipitaţiile vor înceta pe alocuri, după care se vor intensifica din nou, se preconizează ploi în partea de N, iar în N-E precipitaţiile vor avea formă de lapoviţă şi ninsoare. În partea de vest şi sud-vest, intensitatea vântului se va reduce. Temperaturile vor fi cuprinse între -1 şi +3 grade iar pe timpul zilei vor fi cuprinse între 2-7 grade .
Informaţii despre starea drumurilor pe teritoriul Ungariei pot fi obţinute telefonic apelând nr.00361-336-2400, interior 0 sau accesând site-ul de www.utinform.hu.
28 Killed in Conn. School Shooting
Toll Includes
20 Children;
Gunman Dead
The shooting at a Connecticut elementary school left 27 dead, including 20 children and the gunman, state police said. A 28th victim was found dead elsewhere in Newtown. 33 min ago
EU Chooses Rest over Reform after Busy Year
As recently as November, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that this month's EU summit would set an ambitious timeline for far-reaching reforms in the euro zone. European leaders in Brussels responded to relative calm on the markets by backing away from such aspirations and taking a breather.
The Ugly German Rears Its Head Why Germany Can't Shed Its Troubling Past
The 2006 World Cup in Germany seemed like a fairy tale come true for the country. Suddenly, years of troubling history seemed to lift amidst euphoria over the cosmopolitan twist fate had brought to the country. But this year, amid fresh debates over xenophobia, many are left wondering if the ugly German is back.
Hollande's World French in Denial as Crisis Deepens
In the midst of the economic crisis, France's Socialists are denying reality. The minister of industrial renewal is calling for nationalization of some industries, while the president shies away from necessary structural reforms. Business leaders fear the clock has been turned back 30 years.
I don't care what the ECB like or dislike. As long as Greek banks and/or the BoG can use Greek bonds as collateral to the ECB for ELA and/or Target at 70% nominal, the book value of those bonds is at least 70% of their nominal value, or else the ECB is giving loans without (sufficient) collateral, AKA subsidising the banks and the Greek state, which utterly gets a big part of that money through its T-bills.
Oh, and incidentally equus, getting annoyed with "cooking the books" / "financial engineering" on the one hand, and on the other hand arguing for the idea of insolvent banks depositing bonds from an insolvent state with the central bank of that insolvent state for 70% of value a bit strange?
You are putting words in my mouth. I did not argue for the idea of insolvent banks depositing bonds from an insolvent state with the central bank of that insolvent state for 70% of value. I presented it as a matter of fact, as something actually happening whether I like it or not.
In fact, the acceptance of those bonds at 70% is cooking the treaties on top of cooking the books and makes things even worse. If the ECB had stuck to its oh so sacred rules, there would have been to room for the EC to keep fudging and muddling and kicking the can down the road, and we would have seen the end of this charade months ago. But no, officially the treaties are carved in stone, behind the scenes they only exist to be bent and crooked, and in the meanwhile they're pulling us all by the nose.
Blair in the UK stopped a legal investigation into sales to Saudi Arabia by the Serious Fraud Office, just before it was about to bring charges, for example.
It is simply not possible to do business in that part of the world without commissions, introduction fees or a whole number of excuses commonly known as baksheesh. When I worked for HP the stated policy was that the company did not do business directly east of Greece and only used agents. The King Faisal hospital in Riyadh was more or less exclusively kitted out with HP medical equipment. Under Paul Bremer's stewardship in Iraq, nearly $12 billion was unaccounted for. If you won't do it their way, don't go. The chinese will help them, no questions asked.
14 December 2012 2:07 PMLink to this comment
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It would indeed be nice. But it's not going to happen.
First of all the coalition govt is hell bent on NOT reforming the public sector in any way, NOR, I may add clamping down on tax evasion. That much is obvious. And those are the reforms that are basic to any recovery or anything else for that matter.
Now where do you get the 9 bill of Euros to pay bills?
The first installment is 34 bill or so. Of this, 16 has been ear marked for bank recapitalisation (which is not nearly enough to get the liquidity pumping as we all know), then 11 billion goes to pay for the bonds bought back (at a high price owing to the way this was mishandled).
That leaves us with 7 bill. But it does not even do that. Have we all forgotten the sum of 5bill for the bond we had to pay the ECB on Nov 16 (when Stournaras said we would not have any milk)? The ECB loaned us short term bonds to pay it so we would not go bust. Now that we have been granted the tranche, we do have to pay that back.
Which leaves us with less than 2 bill. A visit by Restler yesterday to the Ministry of Growth made it clear that German companies were to be paid off first. Fair enough since they are footing the bill to a great extent) which means.... what?
As to the rest due within the next quarter, well on past evidence, we may not get it, or if very delayed and still it will go to paying off debts so we do not default which is all this bailout money is meant for. Fair and square. Nobody ever kidded the Greek govts about that.
But there is a burning fuse in all this bally. As you say
The Fiscal Consolidation is (again) front-loaded, yes. Which is why another year of steep recession is in the forecasts. They're not, however, self-defeating. The reforms will help, and the bank recapitalisation will really help.
ANOTHER year of deep recession, a year in which many more families will be thrown into destitution because of rising unemployment and exorbitant, unfair taxation on the weakest.
You say they are "not self defeating". Bank recapitalisation will really help. So far the money is far short for it to really help, not to mention the fact that what the banks really need is a rise in deposits, which these measures plus the rise in interest taxation, not to mention the continued uncertainty and erosion of income, are unlikely to help
It's good that you are confident all this will work, but I wonder if you would have that same confidence if you lived here, had had your salary slashed, were being taxed over your ability to pay, were in danger of losing your house because you can no longer pay the mortgage and found yourself being summoned to be handed your redundancy slip.
The situation is dangerous. It's all very well cooking up plans on paper, but if you totally ignore the reality on the ground, it could be that you are grossly misjudging the situation.
I very much fear that in all this the remote and distanced policy makers have overlooked one little detail.
We are running out of time. Fast.
The Fiscal Consolidation is (again) front-loaded, yes. Which is why another year of steep recession is in the forecasts. They're not, however, self-defeating. The reforms will help, and the bank recapitalisation will really help.
Oh, and the government paying its unpaid bills will help too. €9bn or so. Maybe once they've settled the one with the main health insurance fund, then Greeks will be able to actually get prescriptions filled, without paying full-price up-front?
That would be nice, now wouldn't it?
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