The point here is why Christine Lagarde was allowed to become chief of the IMF. It was obvious the EU put her in to save the Euro at any cost to individual countries or the IMF.

Truly disgraceful and obvious when she was announced head of the IMF. She is being investigated for corruption in France for gods sake. This leaked memo basically admits Lagarde forced the IMF to make the loans to Greece on terms it would never make to normal distressed countries and against the advice of her advisors at the IMF. This is surely a form of corruption and warrants a proper investigation. Also don't forget the UK is a large contributor to the IMF and if the IMF doesn't get its money back the UK will be taking a  hit. You see the good old EU got the UK to fund the Euro bailouts even when Cameron insisted they wouldn't. The two most recent French Directors General of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn and Lagarde  have failed their shareholders and the world.  Instead of assisting the EZ to dismantle itself by persuading the peripheral countries to revert to their own currencies in order to experience economic growth and the resurgence of hope, these two EU utopianisms used their position to channel shareholders' funds into this insane and doomed irrationality, thereby throwing good money after bad in a preposterously reckless fashion and stretching out the agony for their blighted peoples.  As southern Europe bursts into flames and blood flows in the streets, we will all know where the IMF leaders belong - in the dock!... Southern Europe may be a bit depressed, and the societies are traditionally cautious and conservative. But please don't think their published figures are correct. They omit the enormous 'black economies' that are presently supporting the south. Spain, for example, is estimated to have another 30% above the published stats, and that's the government's own estimate, hardly likely to be an overestimate. There may be riots one day but not in the near future.  

Rubbish, it's about pretending that the Euro is still viable as a currency, and that Greece can continue to stay within in.

"Austerity" wasn't a political choice for the Greeks - just a simple statement of reality. When your economy produces almost nothing, when your country has been living on cheap borrowed money for a decade, and when the source of borrowing dries up - you can't just decide to carry on spending money that isn't there: A point that the writer of this article seems incapable of grasping....

Since Greece can not stimulate the economy with more government spending, they must encourage businesses through other means. Here's some possible ideas...

1. Go through their regulatory environment, removing any regulation whose purpose is not obvious and sound. or which favors special interests over the public interest. I have heard, for example, that transporting goods in Greece is a nightmare because of all of the restrictions. That's grit in the wheels of commerce.

2. Go through their labor code as well, asking if they've struck the right balance between worker's and employer's rights. Employers are reluctant to hire someone who's near impossible to fire.

3. Revamp their tax code, perhaps making it more favorable for business, but then make sure it's rigorously enforced.

ROME—Italy's new government took its first concrete steps Friday, announcing some €3 billion ($3.86 billion) in economic measures aimed at offering relief to households and workers amid the country's longest postwar recession. Prime Minister Enrico Letta, who was sworn in last month as head of a coalition cabinet, said an unpopular tax on primary residences would be suspended and an extra €1 billion would be pumped into a wage-supplement program.  The measures were the bare minimum of what the new government has pledged. Notably, none of the announced benefits address what politicians have identified as the national priority: youth unemployment. Still, they signal a breakthrough of sorts given the stark political differences among the politicians that make up the patchwork majority behind Italy's first bipartisan government in more than 60 years.  Mr. Letta and his deputy, Angelino Alfano representing the mainstream left and right parties respectively—were upbeat about the day's cabinet meeting, where ministers managed to avoid the squabbles that have characterized recent meetings.  "We scored a goal on our first try," said Mr. Alfano, whose conservative People of Freedom party had demanded that the new property tax—introduced by former Prime Minister Mario Monti be scrapped. Mr. Letta, however, emphasized that only the summer installment of the tax on primary residences is being suspended. That is because the government intends this summer to overhaul the way Italy's tax code impacts real estate overall. Rome draws €44 billion in revenue from taxes, tariffs and other levies related to private property. About half of that is linked to ownership and the rest to service charges. The planned reform will "help households and the construction sector," the prime minister said, adding that businesses would be offered tax credits and breaks on properties they owned as part of production processes.  The decision to lower a tax on property is popular, because of Italy's high home-ownership rates. But it also reduces the government's room to maneuver on another important issue: lowering income and business taxes. Italian income taxes are unusually high even by European standards and hobble competitiveness and output, said Timo del Carpio, an economist at RBC Capital Markets in London.  The property tax was an efficient tool to spread out Italy's painful fiscal adjustment amid the euro-zone debt crisis, said Mr. Carpio. The decision to undo it shows that Mr. Letta's "fragile coalition is already proving to be an obstacle" toward that goal, he said.  While Mr. Alfano's party demanded the property tax cut, supporters of Mr. Letta's center-left Democratic Party wanted more money for a welfare program that has come under strain amid the economic downturn. The measure announced on Friday will provide new money for furlough schemes, helping companies keep their workforces intact. However, because those on furlough aren't part of the hoards of jobless people in Italy, the new measures do little to help tackle the country's 11.5% unemployment.  Mr. Letta is also working on a plan to offer tax breaks for new hiring but no final decisions have been taken, in part because the program is likely to prove far more costly than the measures announced Friday.   In an important shift from the past two years of Italy's economic policy, the latest measures will be "100% funded by public spending cuts and not by shifting the tax burden somewhere else," Mr. Alfano said. He didn't give details.  As things stand, Rome has little margin in making its future moves. Mr. Letta reiterated his intention to keep this year's budget deficit below 3.0% of gross domestic product, in accordance with European Union rules. That should allow Italy to be released from European strictures on countries with excessive deficits—an outcome cabinet officials expect will provide further fiscal relief by lowering sovereign borrowing costs.   "These are just our first steps," Mr. Letta said.

Who do you think you are kidding Mrs Merkel?

Following German Unification, the Euro was another cunning plan to make Germany the, albeit financial, master race in Europe. Now it's all going awry for the Germans who, yet again, have overstretched their capabilities and their current lords and masters are seemingly living in denial protected by their own economic bubble, or bunker, while the German Euro master plan crashes in financial flames all around them. Meanwhile, past members of the hierarchy try to broker some kind of financial peace treaty while Britain remains steadfast protecting it's financial beach heads and the USA does its utmost to keep out of the, albeit financial, fighting while protecting it's worldwide financial interests. The appropriate words are all in Lafontaine's statements. "The Germans have not yet realized that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later".  Chancellor Angela Merkel will "awake from her self-righteous slumber" once the countries in trouble unite to force a change in crisis policy at Germany's expense. "Hopes that the creation of the euro would force rational economic behavior on all sides were in vain" adding that the policy of forcing Spain, Portugal, and Greece to carry out internal devaluations was a "catastrophe". I love the way the German refers to "rational economic behavior" by which I assume he means "Germany's economic interests"! "They don't like it up 'em!" do they?  As before, methinks this could end up costing Germany dear in what can only be described as reparations for their ill fated financial master plan which caused so much suffering and misery across Europe and is likely to take several years to return to business as usual.

GERMANY–Deutsche Bank said Monday it will raise €2.8 billion ($3.65 billion) in fresh capital in a dramatic about-face for the bank, which has repeatedly said it won't turn to shareholders for help boosting its capital cushion. The bank, Europe's second-largest by assets, has long faced doubts from investors and analysts about whether it has enough capital to absorb potential future losses and to meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. On paper, Deutsche Bank had one of the thinnest capital ratios of large European banks.  The Basel rules don't fully kick in until 2019, but banks across Europe are under pressure from regulators and investors to comply with the rules well before then. Few investors or analysts expected the bank to meet the targets in 2013.  The size of Deutsche Bank's capital hike is relatively modest compared with what some bankers, analysts and investors think it needs. Analysts previously estimated the bank needs up to €10 billion. Deutsche Bank executives have been meeting in recent weeks with senior investment bankers to sound them out about how much capital the bank would need to raise to placate investors, according to people who participated in the meetings. The bankers' response: Deutsche Bank should come up with at least €6 billion and possibly as much as €10 billion to put the capital concerns behind it, these people said. The bank's change-of-heart apparently stemmed from executives' frustration with the lack of reaction among investors to the bank's strategic changes, according to industry officials. The bank's management felt they could raise a token amount to alleviate market concerns without destroying credibility, these people said. "This is a blatant U-turn," said a senior investment banker who was involved in the talks. "It's a real climb-down for them."  The timing of the capital increase could raise questions because earlier this year, with Deutsche Bank's stock trading more than 15% above its current levels, executives insisted they had no plans to raise new capital. If they had proceeded with the share sale at the time, they could have raised more capital by selling a fewer number of shares, a preferable outcome for the bank's existing shareholders. While Deutsche Bank didn't disclose the terms of the share sale, industry officials said the deal's structure would likely involve a small number of big institutional money managers picking up the shares at a small discount to the stock's current trading price. Because the share sale is relatively small, Deutsche Bank doesn't need to go through the process of offering all existing shareholders the right to participate, a potentially costly and complex process that Deutsche executives were eager to avoid....NOW, WE ALL KNOW THAT THE fed PUMPED OVER 25 TRILLION DOLLARS IN THIS BANK IN THE PAST TWO YEARS !!! Show us the money Mrs. Merkel !!!!

Capital Economics: eurozone crisis wil flare up again this year -

Here's some analysis from Julian Jessop of Capital Economics on today's minutes from the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting last month. Among other points, he predicts more alarm in the eurozone this year.The revelation (although hardly new) in the latest FOMC minutes that some members would favour at least a tapering of QE by the end of the year has refocused attention on the role that Fed buying has been playing in keeping Treasury yields low. (See US section below.)The conventional wisdom appears to be that 10-year Treasury yields are only likely to remain below 2% if the US central bank maintains its current pace of buying. In fact, the launches of successive bouts of quantitative easing have seen yields rise, rather than fall. Instead, the prospects for Treasuries depend mainly on the outlooks for short-term interest rates, inflation expectations, safe haven demand and other overseas buying, which together should keep yields low for at least another year.At first sight, it might seem obvious that the Fed’s purchases of government bonds under QE3 have been a key factor keeping their yields low, and hence that any scaling back of these purchases would inevitably see yields surge. But the reality is more complicated. Indeed, Treasury yields actually rose during most of the period when the Fed was buying government bonds during QE1 and QE2, and are higher now than when the Fed launched QE3.There are several ways in which large-scale central bank purchases of government bonds can put upward pressure on their yields. One is by raising long-term expectations for inflation. Another is by improving the prospects for the real economy and increasing the appetite for risk, thus encouraging investors to buy assets such as equities or industrial commodities rather than safe-haven government bonds. (Correspondingly, these riskier assets might be the major casualties if the Fed stops buying Treasuries, rather than Treasuries themselves.) To the extent that QE succeeds in restoring confidence, it might lead investors to revise up their expectations for the average level of short-term interest rates over the life of the bond too. The upshot is that we would not necessarily expect a sustained rise in Treasury yields even if the Fed, perhaps mindful of the implications for its balance sheet and eventual exit strategy, does scale back its purchases later in the year. These concerns may matter less for “conventional” monetary policy and high unemployment would still be likely to keep official interest rates on hold near zero. There is also now more room for inflation expectations to drop again, especially if commodity prices continue to fall.Finally, other investors might simply step up to take the Fed’s place. In particular, we expect a renewed escalation of the euro-zone crisis in the second half of the year to boost safe haven demand for Treasuries. And at the margin, the fact that the Bank of Japan will now be buying a lot more JGBs may encourage (or even force) some Japanese institutions to increase their purchases of Treasuries instead.

'Disastrous' and 'unbelievable' are the words which spring to mind!

The EU has now shown that it is not simply a fraudulent organisation (audits not signed for 16 years) but a criminal one. Expropriating funds deposited in banks is no better than daylight robbery.
The lesson or ALL is to quit this organization without further delay.....Under an arrangement expected to be announced on Saturday, depositors in Bank of Cyprus will receive shares in the lender worth 37.5pc of any savings over €100,000, while the rest may never be paid back, according to Reuters, citing a source with direct knowledge of the terms. Of the 62.5pc of uninsured deposits not converted to bank shares, about 40pc will continue to accrue interest but will not be repaid unless the bank does well, while the final 22.5pc will cease to attract interest, the source told Reuters. Government figures, including finance minister Michalis Sarris and central bank governor Panicos Demetriades, had previously indicated that depositors in the island's largest lender would lose around 40pc of their uninsured savings as part of an 11th hour agreement reached in Brussels in the early hours of Monday. Meanwhile, account holders in Laiki Bank, the country's second largest, stand to lose up to 80pc of their money as the lender is wound down and insured deposits transferred to Bank of Cyprus. The harsher-than-expected terms on the Bank of Cyprus' largest depositors will provoke further anger among Cypriots, who face sharp economic decline with the contraction of their dominant banking sector. The most irritating thing about this whole tragic saga is the constant use of the euphemism 'haircut'. Theft is theft pure and simple. Theft is, and always has been a serious criminal offence; anyone found guilty of it should be properly punished for their crime. When we start trying to dilute the meaning of it and pretend to mitigate the affects of it we seriously jeopardize our morality as human beings. Perhaps rape will soon be described as undesired sex, and murder as a premature termination etc, etc.

Cypriots face a suspension of credit card payments for overseas goods and a ban on cashing cheques under draft capital controls designed to avert a run on the banks. Here is the government document outlining the capital controls in full. The only notable correction from the measures outlined at 15.51 is that the limit on cash that can be taken out of the country per trip abroad is €1,000, not €3,000 as previously reported: Cypriot finance minister Michalis Sarris has said capital controls are needed because of the "lack of substantial liquidity and significant risk of deposits outflow, with a possible outcome the collapse of the credit institutions". This could cause "chain effects that could lead to systemic instability of the financial system and have destabilizing consequences on the economy as a whole".... Cyprus central bank official Yiangos Dimitriou has confirmed that the cashing of checks will be banned as part of the introduction of capital controls. Dimitriou also told state TV channel CYBC that bank withdrawals will be limited to €300 a day, and that the effectiveness of the controls will be evaluated on a daily basis.

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has been left red-faced after shaking hands with world leaders on a rug looted by Hitler's second-in-command Hermann Goering.

The rug is part of more than 2,000 items looted by the leading Nazi, who killed himself after being sentenced to the death penalty at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946.
An investigation by journalists working for news magazine Der Spiegel revealed the true history of the Persian rug, which has caused embarrassment for the German leader.  Mrs Merkel is preparing to make her third bid for power this Autumn, and is said to be furious with her aides over the revelations .  It is understood the rug will be removed from view by the end of the week.   The former state minister for culture Michael Naumann has now urged the government to force the return of Nazi looted items to their rightful owners or their heirs.
"The legislature must concretise their return," he said. "More money must also be used for research in German museums."    The timing of the revelation is even more embarrassing as it comes hours after Holocaust Memorial Day, held on Sunday January 27..... In a podcast on her website, Mrs Merket said: "Naturally, we have an everlasting responsibility for the crimes of national-socialism, for the victims of World War II, and above all, for the Holocaust.

We’re facing our history, we’re not hiding anything, we’re not repressing anything. We must confront this to make sure we are a good and trustworthy partner in the future, as we already are today, thankfully."It is unclear how another Goering carpet ended up in the chancellor's office in Berlin.  The West German government in 1966 declared the task of reuniting owners with their stolen property to be 'concluded.'
But tapestry from the same collection as the rug in Mrs Merkel's office adorns the walls of a government guest house on the outskirts of Bonn.

The Italian caretaker Prime Minister, Mario Monti, has promised to cut labour taxes in an interview seen as the launch of his election campaign. Mr Monti, who leads a centrist coalition while not standing as a candidate himself, also attacked conservative rival Silvio Berlusconi. In office he vowed to restore market confidence in Italy's finances. Wednesday saw him achieve his aim of halving the difference between Italy's and Germany's bond yields.

These indicate a country's cost of borrowing and reflect how nervous investors feel about lending to them. Germany is used as a benchmark as it is considered the safest bet in the eurozone.

The difference between Italy and Germany's yields dipped below 2.87 percentage points on Wednesday.

When Mr Monti took office as head of a technocratic government in November 2011, the spread had stood at 5.74 percentage points.

Mr Monti's centrist allies are in a three-way race with Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party on the right and the Democratic Party on the left. Speaking on radio, Mr Monti pledged to take measures to redistribute wealth in the country.  "We need to reduce taxes on the labour force, both on workers and companies, by cutting spending," he said. He defended his administration's record, saying that the "light at the end of the tunnel" was "much nearer".

Since withdrawing his party's support for the government in December, Mr Berlusconi has repeatedly launched attacks against the former European commissioner. "Berlusconi has made improper attacks against me - on areas like family values," Mr Monti said on Wednesday.

"I think I need make no further comment," he added, in an apparent reference to the string of sex scandals involving the veteran billionaire politician.  Mr Monti, a former economics professor, was chosen to impose financial rigour on the economy, after Mr Berlusconi quit the prime minister's job.  In power, Mr Monti made some progress early on, including raising the retirement age and structural reforms. However ordinary Italians have been hard hit by the combination of tax rises and spending cuts he imposed to repair Italy's public finances. Italians are due to go to the polls over the weekend of 24-25 February....
The Euro will survive even if the ECB has to kill Europeans and recycle them into Euro notes, bit like Soylent Green only bank notes instead of food. Interesting fact on the EU today, they have ordered all the cash machines in the Vatican City to be turned off because the Vatican has failed to comply with anti money laundering regulations. Is this the shape of things to come.

hahahahaha....

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s center-left government won a clear victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, according to exit polls. The result could inflame the personal rivalry between the nation’s top two officials and bring yet more political upheaval. The prime minister’s governing alliance had about 57 percent of seats in the 452-seat legislature, according to a poll published after elections on national television TVR. Coming in second was a center-right group, allied to President Traian Basescu, which polled over 18 percent. A populist party headed by a media tycoon won about 13 percent, according to the poll. First results are expected Monday. Basescu and Ponta are bitter rivals after the government tried to remove Basescu from office in an impeachment vote in July, a bid that failed as too few people voted to make the election valid. Basescu has indicated he won’t appoint the 40-year-old Ponta again, calling him a “compulsive liar” and saying he plagiarized his doctoral thesis. Ponta says Basescu is a divisive figure who overstepped his role as president by meddling in government business. As he voted, Basescu again accused the government of the former communist country of failing to devote itself to democratic reforms. He said Romania must continue its “path toward the West” and show the world it is “headed toward Brussels, not Moscow, and Washington, not Beijing.” For his part, Ponta said he remains committed to leading Romania to a better future. Many Romanians are fed up with the power struggle between the top two leaders, especially as the country remains one of the poorest and most corrupt members of the European Union. Romania is enduring deep austerity cuts in return for a €20 million ($26 million) bailout to help its foundering economy. Sunday’s vote was hampered by heavy snow and authorities asked the army and the defense ministry to help clear roads closed by blizzards. About 250 polling stations were prevented from opening on time, officials said. Turnout was more than 30 percent three hours before the polls closed.

ITALY -Never a man to let defeat – or scandal – keep him down, the disgraced former prime minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi has anounced he will run once again for the country's top job.
With three colourful terms behind him, Berlusconi confirmed he would try for a fourth time to become premier, saying he was doing it out of "a sense of responsibility" days after his party withdrew its support for the technocrat government of the current prime minister, Mario Monti.

The media mogul told reporters he was running to win and that "the campaign is already on".

Monti took the loss of Berlusconi's support calmly, calling the situation "manageable", despite it increasing the likelihood of fresh elections. Although Italy's economy is still struggling, Monti is credited with calming the country's financial markets and rescuing it from financial disaster.

Monti, who is a life-appointed senator, has said he will not stand in next year's vote, but is willing to step in afterwards if the result is not clear.

The British betting firm Ladbrokes gave 3/1 odds on Berlusconi becoming the prime minister in 2013.

Berlusconi stepped down last year amid a severe debt crisis. Allegations of his involvement with an underage prostitute and reports that he hosted sex-filled "bunga-bunga" parties also clouded his premiership. He has since been convicted of tax fraud and faces low favourability ratings in the polls.

The three-time prime minister got his start selling vacuum cleaners and singing on cruise ships. In 1971, Berlusconi founded a local cable firm, Telemilano, which grew into the country's largest media company, Mediaset. He has since expanded his media empire to include Italy's largest publishing house, Mondadori, and the newspaper Il Giornale. Other business interests include owning the globally popular football club, AC Milan.

Berlusconi entered politics in 1993, forming his own party and naming it after an AC Milan chant used by fans, Forza Italia, which means "go Italy". He rose to power the next year, winning the elections, and went on over the next 14 years to win twice more and lose twice, both times to Romano Prodi.

Tying disparate countries to one exchange rate simply makes no sense

When will the polititians realize that tying disparate countries to one exchange rate simply makes no sense?... How can Greece share a currency and monetary framework with Germany? A totally idiotic concept. The Euro is the PROBLEM !!! A single currency cannot provide a solution. The eurozone was dealt a fresh blow as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the region’s rescue funds and unemployment hit a new record high. The ratings agency cut its rating on the European Stability Mechanism to AA1 from AAA and maintained a negative outlook. It also lowered the European Financial Stability Facility’s provisional rating to (P)AA1 from (P)AAA. Moody’s said its decision was driven by its recent downgrade of France, because the credit risk and ratings of the rescue funds were “closely aligned to those of its strongest supporters” ...Klaus Regling, managing director of the ESM and chief executive of EFSF, said Moody’s decision was “difficult to understand.” He added: “We disagree with the rating agency’s approach which does not sufficiently acknowledge ESM’s exceptionally strong institutional framework, political commitment and capital structure.” It came as the EU’s statistics office said eurozone unemployment rose to 11.7pc in October from 11.6pc in September.... Have idiotic and arrogant politicians worldwide not realised that ideological half ars.ed constructions like the EU and the EZ always fail ? Are we really surprised that it was Europe with its history of fascism, communism, military dictatorship and undemocratic statist and authoritarian governments which has given birth to two of the most appalling and undemocratic constructions of the 20th century, the EU and the EZ ? They will fail just like the USSR failed. "Klaus Regling, managing director of the ESM and chief executive of EFSF said:  Moody’s decision was “difficult to understand.” They should get someone with more understanding. I wonder what he gets paid for having so little of the stuff? 150,000€ a year?.... Well, I must write to the EU and tell them that my 90 year-old Gran is currently available. She used to run a market stall and so understands economics. Sadly, she is now showing signs of senile dementia, but even so, it must be worth a go compared to the current lot.

The feeble EU will....

European banks have asked the European Commission to postpone the introduction of tougher global bank capital rules by a year to 2014 after U.S. regulators told lenders they did not expect the new regulations to take effect in 2013......The feeble EU will almost certainly cave in. Europe is SO bust that it needs the bankers, more than the bankers need the EU. This would show that the EU is no more than a grubby little exercise (or project) to allow politicians to borrow "however much it takes" to get as many European people "hooked for good" on Europe's spend, spend, spend socialist politicians as possible. And, later on, if US banks decided to play by less strict rules, then don't let them trade in Europe? The new Basel rules are not that strict anyway. They are only designed to try and make it a bit more difficult for banks to go bust when the next crash happens. It tries to raise the cover provided for banks debts turning bad from 2% to 7%. Meaning if more than 2% of the loan book goes bad now - the bank goes bust. The authorities have plucked a 7% figure out of the air as being sufficient cover for all future banking crises.

The fourth REICH in full action according to the Ribbentrop - Molotov Treaty ... Europe is under the German boot !!!!..

Mario Draghi has defended his Outright Monetary Transactions plan to the Bundestag in the last few minutes.

Draghi promised German MPs that the pledge to buy unlimited quantities of bonds will dispel fears over the euro's future.

The ECB president also began his two-hour appearance in Berlin by repeating his line that politicians, not central bankers, must take the decisive steps to ensure Europe's future

Here's how Draghi defended the OMT, which he insisted did not put taxpayers at risk.

We designed the OMTs exactly to...restore monetary policy transmission in two key ways.

First, it provides for ex ante unlimited interventions in government bond markets, focusing on bonds with a remaining maturity of up to three years. A lot of comments have been made about this commitment. But we have to understand how markets work. Interventions are designed to send a clear signal to investors that their fears about the euro area are baseless.

Second, as a pre-requisite for OMTs, countries must have negotiated with the other euro area governments a European Stability Mechanism (ESM) programme with strict and effective conditionality. This ensures that governments continue to correct economic weaknesses while the ECB is active. The involvement of the IMF, with its unparalleled track record in monitoring adjustment programmes would be an additional safeguard.

The full statement has been uploaded to the ECB website.

Draghi also warned that deflation is a bigger risk than inflation today, which may not convince German lawmakers who fear a return to the 1920s.

Interviewed by the Guardian and five other European newspapers from France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland, Hollande also called for monthly meetings of the national leaders of the 17 eurozone countries to end the cycle of "so-called 'last-chance' summits", which he said in the past had led only to "fleeting successes".

He said domestic electoral considerations should not get in the way of solving the euro-crisis. Merkel "is very sensitive to questions of internal politics and to the demands of her parliament. I understand that, and can respect that. But we all have our own public opinion. Our common responsibility is to put Europe's interests first."

France's first socialist president for 17 years also rejected the idea that Germany was the only nation putting its hand in its pocket for everyone else.

"We're all taking part in this solidarity. The French, the Germans, just like all the Europeans in the ESM [the eurozone's new rescue fund]. Let's stop thinking that there's only one country who's going to pay for the others. That's false. However, I know the sensitivity of our German friends to the problem of supervision. Whoever pays should control, whoever pays should sanction. I agree. But budgetary union should be completed by a partial mutualisation of debts through eurobonds."

Hollande's assertion of the need for the eurozone to pool some of its debt through eurobonds challenged one of Merkel's red lines. She has repeatedly refused to countenance the proposal and there is scant chance of her shifting that position as she moves into an election year.

"We are near, very near, to an end to the eurozone crisis," said Hollande. But decisions taken at the last EU summit in June had to be implemented "as fast as possible".

What has Weimar to do with the Greece ...????? nothing !!!!

I was in Greece a few weeks ago, people are living on nothing, some people have not been paid in months, others surive on low salaries while the social welfare system is nowhere near good enough.  Greek people are being crushed, their livelihoods are being crushed, their spirit is being crushed, their country is being crushed.  If this EU is assisting in that process rather than stepping in to try and assist and find proactive ways forward then the whole damn thing should be wrapped up as a monumental failure, it simply has not performed in the way the founding fathers envisaged as it is all stick and no carrot. Debt on debt, austerity and stupid statements out of  Berlin and Brussels from mult-millionaire natzies like The Governor designated of Greece - Horst Reichenbach... who know next to nothing about deep personal and financial struggle.

What has Weimar to do with the Greeks?  Fake Left and Neo-Fascist Right keep on talking about ...Weimar.  Greece never was an imperialist power. It is almost  a banana republic. It is currently occuppied by the Troika and has a german governor. Under the Euro Greece had massive de-industrialisaion, massive importation of illegal labour. a collapse of agricultural production and an arms budget that has skyrocket beyond all proportion.  Yesterday they used riot police vans to arrest half a dockworkers demo outside the Defence Ministry, which is a crime scene, for all the financial fraud and bribery from Franco-German defence contractors.

On the other hand ... Germany went nationalist under Hitler, rearmed, got involved in civil wars in other countries and then allied itself with France, took over Europe leading to a war where 50-70 million died.
That was Weimar..."WTF" has that to do with a small banana republic on the outskirts of Europe ????  Nothing.

 

Poland under the current administration is based on “a system of clientelism”....

WARSAW–Tens of thousands of people marched through the center of the Polish capital Saturday in an anti-government rally organized by the conservative opposition hoping to unseat the country’s popular prime minister who it says has turned Poland’s democracy into a facade through his firm grip on power.   Police estimated that 50,000 people participated, while the conservative Law and Justice party said 200,000 people took part in the march, held under the slogan “Wake up, Poland.” The party’s leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said Poland doesn’t give equal opportunities to all its citizens and discriminates against Catholics. He put the blame on Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“These huge crowds mean strength,” he said at the end of the march at Warsaw’s Castle Square. “This means that Poland has awakened. The cup of evil has overflowed and we Poles, we Polish patriots, say ‘no’.”    Mr. Tusk’s administration, which took power away from Mr. Kaczynski in 2007 and is now in its second term of office, has been going through several rough patches recently. The collapse of a gold fund, Amber Gold, which the authorities said was a Ponzi scheme, highlighted possible systemic problems with enforcement of financial regulation. On Mr. Tusk’s watch, bodies of victims of a Polish government airplane crash in Russia in 2010 were mixed up and buried in incorrect graves, with the administration taking the heat this month for relying on autopsies performed in Moscow and not ordering that all coffins be opened upon arrival.   The economy is slowing more than expected, while the latest statistical data showed that Poles continue to emigrate to other European Union countries in search of better life. Poland has been growing robustly since the early 1990s, at 4.3% in 2011, much above EU and regional averages. But the EU’s largest emerging economy is expected to grow 2.5% this year amid the crisis in the euro zone, the largest recipient of Polish exports.  With economic output per capita adjusted for purchasing power about $20,000 a year, Poland remains a poor relative of the more developed nations in the European Union, which it joined in 2004 after more than a decade of transition from communist central planning.

Mr. Kaczynski said Poland under the current administration is based on “a system of clientelism” and said the mostly leftist and liberal media flatter the ruling Civic Platform party by painting a rosy picture of Poland’s economic and international situation while ignoring challenges and keeping mum on the governing camp’s shortcomings.

SPAIN ...Merkel wins , the german boot upon the spanish neck...

Austerity is already harsh in what has traditionally been the continent's most euro-enthusiastic country - Spain. Unemployment, now affecting one in four workers, is set to continue well into next year. In the Spanish capital, a largely conservative place, the mood is of resignation rather than revolution. There will be no Athens-style protests in Madrid – or not soon, although the ongoing battles between balaclava-wearing miners and police in northern Asturias are proof that anger is spilling over elsewhere. Photographers seeking dramatic pictures on protest days travel to Barcelona, where radical left wingers see police persecution in a wave of recent arrests, while police say they are picking up those behind street violence during strikes. With the rescue money in Spain's "bailout lite" looking likely to go straight to former savings banks, the roots of its banking problem lie fully exposed. A decade-long housing boom, fueled by cheap credit thanks to low interest rates needed by Germany, has left the banks stuffed with toxic real estate. It is clear : "Europe needs fiscal integration with a fiscal authority and banking integration, a banking union with eurobonds, a banking supervisor and a European guaranteed deposit fund," Rajoy said last week. A bank bailout does not provide that. "The future of the euro is going to play out in the next few weeks in Spain and Italy," finance minister Luis de Guindos has warned. The problem is that Spain has already introduced harsh austerity measures, with official unemployment at around 25% and over 50% for those under 25. If they push that any further social explosion awaits. The further problem is that within this system there is no alternative to a very bad decision. Either you bail out the banks and shift the debt around the central banks in order to put off the awful day or you let them go to the wall and then watch the whole economic system collapse around our ears right now.

The trouble is that the orthodoxy of the last 50 years means that the IMF, World Bank, European Bank and almost every university economics department are run by Economists brought up on a paradigm that has failed spectacularly....Monetarism, Thatcherism, Hayek, Friedman, the Chicago School and the Austrian School ... all bollocks. We need a new paradigm and young economists with new ideas. Otherwise we really are screwed.

The eurozone is confronted with the prospect of "financial disintegration"

José Manuel Barroso began his press conference to outline today's report on the European economy (see 12.03pm onwards) by expressing sympathy to the victims of yesterday's earthquake in Italy. Moving to economic issues, Barroso argued that Europe is moving in the right direction on public finances, and also moving towards "greater integration in the euro area". Barroso stuck to broad-brush issues (I think Olli Rehn will do the detail shortly), insisting that the euro had delivered benefits, and wasn't the cause of this crisis – on the grounds that countries who aren't in the euro have also been caught up in the financial turmoil. The key message within the 1,000 pages of reports issued by the European Commission is that the eurozone risks imploding unless it uses the tools at its disposal to calm the crisis.

From Brussels, reports: The eurozone is confronted with the prospect of "financial disintegration" and should use its new bailout fund to overcapitalize distressed banks directly while embarking on a transnational banking union, the European commission said today. Delivering more than 1,000 pages of diagnosis and policy prescriptions on the dire condition of the European economy and how to try to end almost three years of euro crisis, the commission also talked up the merits of eurobonds or pooling of eurozone debt, a proposal gaining in traction but strongly resisted for now by the biggest economy, Germany.

The average European (Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, Irish, Italian, even British and German) before paying one more coin to the government in taxes, need to ask for a full, popular and independent audit of all expenditures decisions which bring us to the present disaster. States lost their credibility. ... We need a big TRIAL, Nuremberg style. To find responsibilities for the present mess. All those rendered guilty for corruption and robbery expeditiously judged and jailed. Traitors, who plotted the enslavement of its own people by opaque schemes and treaties, irresponsible debts and high regulation and taxes, associated with foreigners powers and multinational interests, judged and publicly executed. All debts related with the submission of the nation canceled and remaining sound debts paid for the society even with utmost sacrifice. Otherwise people will not be cooperative with the current state of affaires. We need a new era of clean people, clean policy and clean money before we move to the next step. Let´s sort out who is who first. I think it would be a good idea to let the people get what they asked for. They want a socialist government and now it is time to reap the rewards. In a few weeks they will be broke and unable to borrow more money. Instead of cuts they will have nothing. It sucks but sometimes people can only learn the hard way....It is easy to blame the Greek man in the street for th e failures of his government to collecttaxes and t toleraate forms of corruption> votes or no votes he man in the street has little control over his governemt. So let us put the blame where it ddoes lie.
1. The greek government of the day who lied their way into the Eurozone in the first place.
2. Goldman sachs who created the fiddles whicj allowed thenm to lie their way into th eeurozone
3. The euro zone experts who should have been fully aware of the potential greek difficulties and did nothing.