Italian GDP revised down - The Italian recession is deeper than thought. New data released this morning shows that the economy shrank by 0.3% in the second quarter of 2013, worse than the 0.2% first estimated. That means that Italian GDP is 2.1% less than a year ago, not the 2% as initially thought.

As if prime minister Enrico Letta didn't have enough to worry about with Silvio Berlusconi's fate still in the balance.

 ISTAT, Italy's statistics body, reported that household spending continued to shrink in the face of Italy's economic woes, falling by 0.4% during the April-June quarter.

Capital spending and imports also dropped, by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in both cases.

The year-on-year data underlined how Italy's economy has suffered over the last 12 months. Consumption is down by 2.4%, capital expenditure is 5.9% lower, while imports are down 4.6%. Exports are 0.2% higher than a year ago.

Here are the details:

Over in the bond markets, Italian government borrowing costs have risen above Spain's for the first time in 18 months. It means Italy is being priced as a (slightly) bigger risk than Spain, in a sign that the Berlusconi Conundrum is dragging Italy towards a new crisis. Italian 10-year bond yields are trading at 4.485% this morning compared to 4.481% for Spain. That's must be a minor relief for Madrid, whose borrowing costs have been pushed up by allegations of government corruption and fears over bad bank debts.

Well, I guess that's it. The EU is done for.   Europe was doomed in any eventuality, of course. Ultimately the only sustainable way to compete with countries like China and Bangladesh is to lower the living standards of the majority to similar levels.  When it comes to grim reading about the current European condition, it does not rain but it pours.  The latest catalogue of unremitting gloom (unless you're a German) comes in a 49-page survey of public opinion in eight EU countries conducted in March by Pew pollsters.  The results show support for the EU has shrunk from 60% to 45% in a year on average across the eight countries.  The more detailed findings are that public support for EU integration has eroded strongly, with Germans alone in favor of handing more powers to Brussels to tackle the four-year economic and financial crisis that is severely sapping EU confidence and reinforcing the sense of inexorable medium-term decline.  "Positive views of the EU are at or near their low point in most of the countries surveyed, even among the young," said the pollsters, who talked to nearly 8,000 people.  It is striking how the policy responses of EU leaders to the currency crisis are at such odds with public opinion, as centripetal political action clashes with centrifugal national moods.  The crisis management of the past three years has essentially seen Berlin, Brussels, and others resort to technocratic fixes in an incremental process of pooling economic and fiscal policy powers in the eurozone.  Outside of Germany, however, public support for surrendering such powers from the national level to Brussels, as is happening, is declining rapidly, generating an ever widening "democratic deficit" in the EU that the leaders regularly bemoan but have done nothing to address.  In a big speech on Europe last month, the leading German political thinker, Jürgen Habermas, diagnosed the elite policy responses to the crisis and concluded that "postponing democracy is always dangerous".  Pew's findings dovetail with Eurobarometer poll results revealed last month in the Guardian that showed a collapse in public support for the EU in the union's six biggest countries, making up two-thirds of the half-billion population.  The survey results are particularly spectacular for France, reinforcing the sense of drift a year into the term of President François Hollande and underlining the estrangement between Paris and Berlin.  "The prolonged economic crisis is separating the French from the Germans – threatening the Franco-German axis that has long driven European integration. And it has separated the Germans from everyone else.  "No European country is becoming more dispirited and disillusioned faster than France. French public opinion has soured on a number of measures in the last year … Even more dramatically, French public opinion on a range of issues is now looking less like that in Germany and more like that in Spain, Italy and Greece … The French are also beginning to doubt their commitment to the European project, with 77% believing European economic integration has made things worse for France, an increase of 14 points." Pretty much the only optimism evident in the survey is in Germany, leading the pollsters to conclude that the Germans are living "on a different continent". This acute divergence in perception on how the crisis has affected Europe, say officials and diplomats closely involved in the crisis management, makes things much more difficult to fix because the cultural and psychological realities in the different countries are so varied.

MY POINT OF VIEW : David Cameron is now speaking more like the type of person of Scots ancestry, whom I’ve known throughout my life, in four different countries. I, too, was named after the Old Testament legend. Let us hope this David is able to skilfully negotiate, with his slingshot, an escape from the crushing, networking giant of the Continent, knowing euphorically as the ‘Guy Fawkes Club’ – to put it into context. As every attempt has been made to make the bible look irrelevant in today’s world (just see what Romans Ch1v22-32 says of homosexuality), those directing the course for British governments seemingly more concerned to make it easier for the Anglican church to be gobbled up by the Guy Fawkes Club – which long ago gave up any pretence of following Scripture (apart from the subject of marriage – talk of straining at a gnat...swallowing a camel)! Perhaps David has done a crash course in Comparative Religion, and has noticed how undemocratic it has been, for mostly Romans to have held key positions in government & quasi government organisations since UK membership of the Common Market – if only because no decent, self respecting Protestant could bring his/herself to be involved in the systematic destruction of the English Speaking peoples, to advantage that jealous rabble on the Continent. Which Cardinal was it who said, ‘Secret mines may take the town when open batteries fail,’ – on the very same subject ! At last, David Cameron is speaking like a Prime Minister of the Greatest little Britain of all time! UK only started to prosper, to the benefit of the rest of the world, also, when Henry VIII cut the haemorrhage of resources to Italy, & UK began to stand on her own two feet, trusting only in holy scripture, & herself. Mussolini’s mentoring Hitler was meant to reverse all that, & when it didn’t, citizens steeped in Mussolini’s theory & logic began settling in the nations of the victors after cessation of WW2 hostilities, with Mussolini’s Plan B. Part of that was Franca Arena’s setting up our first ever republican movement in Australia, & Ray Bellisario, family also from Italy, setting up England’s first republican movement since Cromwell, to discredit the leadership which caused Mussolini to lose, while other aspects of his culture were trumpeted as superior both directly & subliminally in influential nations, so that, for instance, cat spew chino & pissa (my spelling) became something considered superior, & with an arrogantly assumed dash of romance attached to it. A sense of inferiority amongst the nationals of some other countries, about their own cultures, only helped feed the appetite for self aggrandisement, of those keen to rebuild a new Roman Empire. To assist in this plan the IRA were entrusted with the removal of those who could have warned Great Britain’s leadership what was really going on: battle experienced heroes like the Queen’s relative, Earl Mountbatten, & Airey Neave, MP. I fear, though, that Cameron’s telling the nation how he would vote in any referendum, will tend to make it a foregone conclusion, as voters seem to follow what is seen as the ‘party line.’ Even the Soviet Union discovered that ‘individualism’ whether as nations or as persons, do far better when left to find their own level, instead of being part of some vast metaphorical farm growing peanuts, with individual humans’ means of self expression being emasculated – as though ‘bigger’ is ‘better !’ The communist experiment failed, so why allow catholic activists promote the lie that the British were better off under the Treaty of Rome? It has been an entirely religion driven exercise, cynically aimed at achieving what Mussolini failed to during WW2.

Crass scaremongering by crass corrupt political "elite".

Crass scaremongering by crass corrupt political "elite".

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Viviane Reding, the vice-president of the European Commission, attacked the Prime Minister over the Government’s proposal to opt out of European Union law enforcement and policing measures. The justice commissioner expressed particular concern that the Government was “minded” to opt out from 135 EU crime and policing laws, including the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), which, she claimed, had “horrified” Britain’s own police force. “Do you want criminals and paedophiles running around freely on the streets? Is that really in the United Kingdom’s interest? It is crazy,” she said. In June 2014, the crime and policing legislation comes under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, handing control of sensitive extradition and policing issues to EU judges. Under the Lisbon Treaty, Britain must either opt out of every measure or allow the EU jurisdiction over all 135 pieces of European legislation, a substantial transfer of sovereignty.The usual and very clumsy socialist mantra, if you are not with us you're a fascist/pedophile/Nazi nut/racist or some such clap trap...English Common Law, based on hundreds of years of common sense, held us in good stead well before the perversion of EU Vermin Rights Charter screwed our society over....A lot of assertions by Reding about the importance of staying in the system that "she" has created, but no explanation as to the logic of her assertions, or why she thinks the world will come to an end the day we leave HER system. I think this is just a part of the orchestrated shadow boxing that we get daily from the EU functionaries, supported by the Cleggies, ahead of the much advertised Cameron speech, which itself may not amount to much anyway. Any attempt at a balanced debate will always be taken over by much loud shouting from the EU....Geez and I always thought all the paedophiles were in the parliamwnts (all, including the EU parliament) and now she screams they`re on the streets also?? Brussels help help-send over Inspector Clouseau !!!!

As of Monday evening....a Romanian/French jew at the helm - amusing ...

When German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and his French counterpart Pierrre Moscovici gave their first joint press conference two weeks ago, they were asked who would take over leadership of the Euro Group once Jean-Claude Juncker stepped down. As early as last summer, Juncker had said he wanted to hand over the reins, but had been persuaded to continue for lack of consensus on a successor. But despite such indications that the end was nigh for Juncker's term at the top, both Schäuble and Moscovici played down the issue.

"Next year is next year," said the Frenchman. "We have other concerns at the moment," said the German.

As of Monday evening, however, the two can no longer dodge the question. At the end of yet another late-evening Euro-Group meeting in Brussels -- during which finance ministers from the 17 euro-zone member states agreed to provide €40 billion in aid to ailing Spanish banks -- Juncker told his colleagues that he intended to step down at the end of the year. "I have asked them to name another minister," Juncker said. His departure will mark an end to his seven-year stewardship of the common currency -- and one that comes not a moment too soon from his perspective. Juncker, who is also the prime minister of Luxembourg, had long been nonplussed at the lack of urgency with which his colleagues viewed his approaching departure, assuming that he would simply carry on until they got around to finding someone. Juncker himself is not blameless in this regard, having been convinced to continue once before, even allowing himself to be elected to another term as Euro Group president last summer. Still, he had been consistent in his desire to step down at the end of this year or the beginning of next. Now, it would seem, it would take a great deal of convincing from a personage such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel to get him to change his mind....Other candidates could theoretically be considered as well, but their chances are seen as limited. Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, for example, is considered both competent and less stubborn than his predecessor, but he has only been finance minister for a few weeks. It is also possible that the Euro Group chooses an outside candidate. The Lisbon Treaty merely stipulates that "the Ministers of the Member States whose currency is the euro shall elect a president for two and a half years, by a majority of those Member States." Still, it would almost certainly need to be someone who has played a central role in recent efforts to combat the euro crisis. Whoever might take over the leadership of the Euro Group, Juncker will likely continue to play a role as Luxembourg's representative. While his country's finance minister, Luc Frieden, currently fills Luxembourg's seat on the panel, Juncker, who carries the official title "treasurer" in addition to his role as prime minister, is likewise eligible for Euro Group membership. And, he has said, he still wants to have a voice.

Begining with 2006 International credit rating agencies were paid billions of dollars to bundle junk debt for international financiers. All the international credit rating agencies bundled the junk debt and then rated all this junk as AAA+ risk free investments, and having paid the credit rating agencies to do this on their behalf, crooked financiers then sold these junk investments to European banks - making them go bust. Then European politicians decided - the banks can't crash - we must let each state go bankrupt and each state crash instead and take on all this debt from the private sector - (miss-rated by the credit rating agencies and miss-sold by international financiers). And then what happens - the same credit rating agencies start waging war on Europe on behalf of the same international financiers that stole our money - to force Europe to sell all their assets - and the international financiers are using the money they stole from European banks to now buy up the European state assets that we are being blackmailed into selling. This is war - just because there are no bullets, bombs or tanks on our streets - the result is the same These financiers are using the money they stole from Europe to buy up our assets and European companies to ensure they control everything and that the people of Europe have to work longer without pensions, have no state benefits, have no national assets and no armies, navy or air force to defend our selves. While our governments wage war on Libyan people our politicians are too cowardly to wage war right back on the international financiers and the credit rating agencies on our behalf . Why are our governments not investigating this financial war being waged on us and why did they force our states to take on this private sector debt. We should all stand together in Europe and tell the financial sector - every single penny of banking debt is being put into one pot and we are not paying a penny of it until every single transaction and credit rating decision on every penny of the debt is investigated. And if the credit rating agencies were found to be fraudulent in their ratings - then the credit rating agencies take on the debt and also has to pay compensation and punitive damages for each bundle of debt they miss-rated and miss-sold to European banks. This is war and it is time our politicians took the war straight back to the people that are causing it.

"Who knows?"

William Hague, the foreign secretary, has raised doubts about the future of the euro, saying it was impossible to know whether the currency would collapse. The Foreign Secretary, a vociferous and long-standing critic of European monetary union, said he "hoped" that the euro would survive, but added: "Who knows?" His comments came as talks continued about the possible need to bail out debt-ridden Ireland, the latest crisis-hit eurozone member. Asked whether the euro could collapse, Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Well I hope not. The Treasury has not ruled out any options for financial aid to Ireland, including the possibility of a bilateral bail-out, although that appears unlikely.
Britain would be required to guarantee up to about £6 billion of support as part of the European stability mechanism, if that option is pursued. Many Tory MPs are deeply opposed to the use of UK taxpayers' money to bail out Ireland. Earlier this week, Edward Leigh warned: "The British people want to be assured at a time when very painful cuts are being made here that good money is not being thrown after bad in driving the Irish further into the sclerotic arms of the euro which caused the problems in the first place."