Monday, April 15, 2013

Apparently, there's now an idea for the smaller countries in SE Europe to come together to confront Germany as a group?
One old family friend was taken off to Mauthausen and his widow received nothing until the early 1970s, and even then it was a pittance - a few hundred deutschmarks.
It's a scandal that because the eastern half of Europe fell under communism, this meant Germany ended up paying nothing until the détente of the 1970s, by which time many claimants were dead.
And as I said, even in the 70s, the amounts paid out were pittances.
This issue affects so many countries. If proper compensation were to be paid now, the amount would be enormous.
 
I think the Eurozone has to admit this now looks more like a fire sale rather than a rescue....Face the facts Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Italy are bankrupt and in the process the Eurozone has in effect done the same to France by spreading the unfunded debt across the rest of the eurozone. To pay for this they have forced the countries into an ever increasing depression of cuts, job losses, and poverty for the citizens of these countries.  This will flow back through the rest of the Eurozone as people just stop spending and companies find they have no one to sell to. 
The Germans are in effect now confiscating or asset stripping those countries of there last assets - individuals savings, gold etc.
The disaster that predicted by many is now happening - meanwhile the eurocrats keep saying everything is okay - I think everyone needs to remind them of TITANIC - there are not enough lifeboats left!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes the banks need capital and need to be restructured...

But they may all crash very soon, and well before restructuring could be performed, according to the Bank of England.

When I saw the BoE, which is always cautious with its words, talking of "a risk to the stability of the financial system", I didn't look for paint stripper.

What I did was to draw out a big wad of low denomination notes and put it in a safe place, plus buying a lot of our favourite tinned foods.

It is, of course. guesswork as to how systemic failure of the financial system would work out. All we can do is to imagine 'Cyprus with bells on'-----banks shut for a month etc----or read about Germany in the early 1920s.

Anonymous said...

There is another bank crash on the way which will follow in the wake of the Interest-Only Mortgage Scandal (which is about to break and why the banks need further buffering). This was the real cause of the house price boom of the noughties and was in fact reported on the BBC in 2003 but nothing was done to stop it, because too many people including the politicos and the bankers were making too much money out of it. Now they are screwed. I have bought some popcorn and am looking forward to the show.
(I write 'another bank crash' only because the public will not stand for another bail out while the disabled are being thrown out onto the streets and the unemployed are being forced to work for nothing instead of being given proper jobs. Sorry.)

Anonymous said...

Comrades, the situation is blindingly clear!!!! A close perusal of Volume 2,377 of Lenin's Collected Works (Red Tractor Factory edition) shows conclusively that the Germans are to blame!!!!

Ever since the hairy Goth emerged from his forest belching in a capitalist manner to wreak havoc among the peaceful, friendly peoples of the Roman Empire, your average Sausage Eater has been on the side of the bourgeoisie!!!!

Their desire to do down all other peoples flares up at regular intervals, and having been beaten to a pulp by the invincible armies of the Proletariat, they undergo a period of introspection and sentimental guilt before it all starts again!!!!

Devoid of humour, your Prussian cannot help but dictate in a hectoring manner to all and sundry!!!!

Faced by the Peace-Loving nuclear weapons of the Soviet Toiler, the Hun nowadays rampages financially across Europe in a frenzied attempt to make everyone else feel as bad about themselves as he is about himself!!!!

Net, Comrade Kraut!!!! You must face Soviet Justice for your crimes against the ancient peoples of Europe!!!! Call Yezhov immediately!!!!

Anonymous said...

There is reportedly $32 TRILLION in offshore BANK ACCOUNTS.

A group of investigative reporters has acquired 2.5 million records and is combing through them to find out who owns it all.

Apparently there are quite a few politicians with secret stashes.

Anonymous said...

If Europe were to seize the off-shore assets of those who have criminally obtained £millions in syphoned off Aid and all sorts of taxpayer funded goodies which they have stockpiled in nominee accounts, it would be a good start.

Anonymous said...

Germany's push for austerity during the ongoing euro crisis has prompted Nazi depictions of Chancellor Angela Merkel in many parts of Southern Europe. SPIEGEL speaks with Cambridge University historian Brendan Simms about the "German question" and persistent hatred toward the country.

Anonymous said...

Chancellor Angela Merkel has tenaciously insisted that austerity is the only way out of the crisis for ailing EU countries. She doesn't practice what she preaches in Germany, though, which makes growing anger toward her understandable.

Anonymous said...

This is not, and would not be, a wealth tax.

Whatever terminology is used to try to blind us, the is the reality that the world is - collectively - bankrupt hitting home.

It is the virtual world of printed money, and the bankrupt 'guaranteeing' the debt of the bankrupt or buying their 'paper' with fantasy money, coming back into the realms of reality.

It is the shortfall between real wealth and pretend money now just beginning to be be allowed to manifest itself.

It should be those that have overborrowed and overspent, and those
who have been reckless with their own and other people's money...often
gamblers in respectable clothing, who pay. But those administering this
bankruptcy will not discriminate. They are in the business of
dispensing 'rough justice', if justice it is at all.

Their aim, too, is to escape any such justice themselves. But it
should comfort and satisfy all to know that there is One whose justice
no one escapes, and - perhaps more immediately importantly - who anyone
who chooses to can rely on as a source of security that is far better
than cash or gold...or anything.

Anonymous said...

If the architects of the EU and Euro were competent designers, then the systems would not be failing. However, evidence suggests that they are. Therefore I conclude that the whole edifice is founded on false assumptions, bad principles and shoddy work. I fear that it is falling down and attempts to shore it up are worse than useless as they are investing in failure.

The trouble is that those in control are too involved and too incompetent to see the facts and to be able to plan and execute a responsible demolition. So, in the long run I can only see a massive crisis which can only result in much harm for the Eurozone, EU and us, and nobody will be held to account.

The great and the good should understand that experiment has failed. They should stop experimenting and do something to bring about an ordely clean up of the whole horrible mess.

The people of Europe have been very badly let down.

Anonymous said...

When was higher taxation, of any type, ever the answer to deepening and widening recession? That road leads from recession to slump. Whatever you want to call it, theft creates no additional wealth. Undermining the value of property won't enhance the value of security for bank loans. Hey ho, we're on the road to perdition. However, we will still have the single currency, the engine of destruction and the EU's nemesis.

Anonymous said...

Senior advisers to Chancellor Angela Merkel are pushing for better-off households to pay towards the cost of any future bail-outs for the weaker members of the single currency.

The proposals, from members of Germany’s council of economic experts, raise the prospect of taxes being imposed on property in a country like Spain if its government was forced to seek a bail-out.

The council, known as the “Five Wise Men”, is often used to test new policies that are later adopted officially.

The German suggestion is the latest sign that Berlin is intent on imposing even tougher rules on weaker southern euro members in exchange for using its economic might to support their finances.

As well as inflaming tensions between Germany and its smaller southern partners, the suggestion could also mean that Britons with holiday homes are dragged deeper into the eurozone crisis.

Anonymous said...

The redundancies will begin a savage round of job cuts in the Greek public sector, with another 11,000 officials due to be sacked by the end of next year.

Greece is in deep recession, GDP has contracted by 22pc since 2008 and unemployment has spiralled to 27pc as the Greek government has implemented deeply unpopular EU-IMF austerity measures or “fiscal adjustment” in return for loans.

“Our society has reached its limits. But finally we are meeting our targets and the programme is being improved,” said Antonis Samaras, the Prime Minister, in a nationally televised address.

“Soon, Greece will not depend on the memorandums. Greece will have growth, it will be competitive and outward-looking. In other words, we will have a strong Greece.”

The troika agreement means that eurozone finance ministers and the IMF board are “expected to consider approval of the review in May”, giving a green light to €2.8bn in outstanding bailout instalments for Greece.