Source - The Telegraph

The EU is a malfunctioning construct for today’s world – and even more so for tomorrow’s. It needs either to undergo fundamental reform or to break up. It was conceived in a world of large blocs, dominated by the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and before globalization and the rise of the emerging markets. Its agenda of harmonization and integration inevitably leads to excessive regulation and the smothering of competition. This is largely why, in contrast to the prevailing view that the EU has been an economic success, its economic performance has in fact been relatively poor. If nothing changes, the EU’s share of world GDP is set to fall sharply and, with it, Europe’s influence in the world. Meanwhile, the EU is becoming more unpopular; most people do not want to press on to a full political union; and increasing numbers of its citizens want to leave the EU altogether. European integration is the great issue of our day. Like many British people, I feel both British and European. The culture I love is European – its food and its wine, its history and its buildings, its literature and its art and, for me, especially its music. It is precisely because I am so much of a European, and because I so desperately want Europe to succeed in the world, that I take issue with the EU as it is currently constituted. For me, the EU is the most important thing that stands between Europe and success. It has several key defects: it suffers from a profound identity crisis; its institutions are mainly badly structured and badly run; it is focused on a largely irrelevant agenda; and it is alienated from its electorates. To the casual observer, it may seem that the EU has been successful. After all, it is the world’s largest economy and trading bloc. It accounts for almost 30% of global output, 15% of trade in goods and about 24pc of overall global trade. Its people are prosperous, with standards of living that their parents and grandparents could only dream about.

The E.U. is close to total control over the European Countries ...It is desperate to keep up the lie. Pooled sovereignty is destroyed nationhood. The party leaders are planning the total destruction of the European democracy.  Meanwhile the EU and the US are increasing sanctions on a war over the Ukraine largely caused by EU expansionist ambitions based on bribing local politicians with EU members' money to sell out their own people.  The peace guaranteeing EU is setting up the beginnings of a bloody war. Japan entered WW2 because it had no choice after its Oil was cut off. Now the sanctions against Russia could similarly cause a war. We are sleepwalking into an EU Super state and are just allowing it to happen....Where are all the mass protests and the rallies, or will we just wait until it's all too late and the EU STASI (the 4th. Reich)are guarding every corner of our land to keep us in our places.  While everyone bellyaches over banker bonuses again, a more potent threat to finance and the City is once more rearing its head.

This is Europe’s proposed Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), a blatant piece of populist politicking, which, if enacted, would be deeply harmful to the City and, by extension, Britain’s economic interests. But let’s not jump the gun; it’s not yet law and, in its original form, quite unlikely to become so. All the same, there was much alarm in the Square Mile this week after it emerged that the European Court of Justice has accelerated its judgment on the UK government’s challenge to next week, which almost certainly means a thumbs-down.  Even so, it’s not as much of a blow as it first seems. If the case is chucked out, it is likely to be on the technical grounds that there is as yet no hard version of the FTT to adjudicate on, leaving the UK free to mount a fresh challenge when there is. The final draft is expected ahead of European elections in May, just in time to give Europe’s political establishment some crowd-pleasing firepower to throw at the insurgent populist upstarts. Honest, it really is as cynical as that, for the FTT really isn’t about making the European economy function better.

Nor is it just City fat cats who oppose it. Central bankers oppose it because they fear it will bring money markets to a grinding halt; industry opposes it because it will increase the cost of finance; and pension funds and insurers oppose it because it will make saving more expensive.... It isn't this particular tax or any other such proposal......the real problem is the politicians have actually convinced our & other populations the answer to every problem (usually created by them) is to tax it.......if someone walked up to you & asked for a tenner to throw down the drain you'd question their sanity..... & yet it is your own rationale that needs questioning as we allow them to pilfer our wallet/bank account to do similar...

Brussels (in fact the 4-th Reich) tries to take over the Ukraine by stealth in the way it has taken over most of Western Europe and expects Russia to sit back and let them. Any idiot could see that there was no way the Kremlin was going to lay down and effectively let NATO take over their only sizeable Black Sea port....So Russia steps in with a counter offer based on bribing the Ukrainian government to abandon its plans to join the EU and instead strengthen its links with Russia in a not dissimilar way to the way in which Brussels was bribing Ukraine to strengthen its like with the EU...Then all hell is let loose...Now who is to blame for creating this mess?  I would like to think those in Brussels would learn from this - but they wont!  The Western powers are scrambling to bolster defenses against a halt in Russian gas supplies after the Kremlin tightened the energy noose on Ukraine, and paramilitary actions in eastern Ukraine increased the risk of a full-blown sanctions war.

The Geneva deal reached last week to defuse the crisis is close to disintegration, with the US government openly accusing Russia of carrying out covert operations across the Donbass region.

US Vice-President Joe Biden warned that Russia will pay a very high price unless the Kremlin withdraws troops massing on the Ukrainian border. “We will not allow this to become an open-ended process. Time is short,” he said in Kiev.

Two key US senators have already called for sanctions on large Russian banks, mining companies and energy groups, including the state gas monopoly Gazprom. Any such move would freeze gas deliveries to the EU, since few European banks would risk defying US regulators by handling Gazprom transactions.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s premier, accused the Americans of “pure bluff”, challenging the US to show its teeth. “You can, of course, continue to expand the 'black list’: it will lead absolutely nowhere,” he told the Duma...

In case you thought that America's shale gas would ride to the rescue, then think again.

"Charif Souki, Cheniere’s chief executive, said that the idea of his company’s exports alone liberating Europe from Russia’s Gazprom was “nonsense” and that only six to eight of 20-plus proposed rival export projects were “real”."

"Asked if Cheniere’s terminal could rescue eastern European countries from their dependence on Russia, Mr Souki said: “It’s flattering to be talked about like this, but it’s all nonsense. It’s so much nonsense that I can’t believe anybody really believes it.”

Public Debt to GDP %  and  External Debt to GDP %

france .........................94% ....................243%

germany......................80%.....................203%

Italy ..........................137%.....................157%

u.s.a............................77%.....................100%

u.k..............................92%.....................449%

and...

RUSSIA.......................7%...............33%

 

Spending cuts in Greece caused a rise in male suicides, according to research that attempts to highlight the health costs of austerity.

Echoing official statistics in the UK showing suicide rates are still higher than before the crisis, researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found a correlation between spending cuts and suicides in Greece.

According to the research, every 1% fall in government spending in Greece led to a 0.43% rise in suicides among men. In other words, after controlling for other characteristics that might lead to suicide, 551 men killed themselves "solely because of fiscal austerity" between 2009 and 2010, said the paper's co-author Nikolaos Antonakakis.

"That is almost one person per day. Given that in 2010 there were around two suicides in Greece per day, it appears 50% were due to austerity," he added.

Antonakakis, a senior lecturer in economics and finance, and himself a Greek national, said he had been prompted to look into a potential link between austerity and suicide rates after media stories and reports of friends of friends dying from suicide.

Although there had been studies into the health effects of negative economic growth, there was a gap when it came specifically to spending cuts and health, he said.

Antonakakis and his co-author, the economics professor Alan Collins, said they were surprised at how many suicides appeared linked to austerity and how clear the connection was.

There was also a clear gender divide in the effects of austerity with no obvious rise in female suicide rates, according to the research published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Men aged 45-89 faced the highest suicide risk in response to austerity because they were most likely to suffer cuts to their salaries and pensions, the research said.

Antonakakis and Collins are considering work on the link between austerity and suicide rates in other eurozone countries most affected by the crisis, such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. In the meantime, they are urging policymakers to put more weight on the health costs of spending cuts.

"These findings have strong implications for policymakers and for health agencies," said Antonakakis. "We often talk about the fiscal multiplier effect of austerity, such as what it does to GDP. But what is the health multiplier?

We have to consider the health multipliers of any fiscal consolidation and austerity. The fact we find gender specificity and age specificity can help health agencies target their help."

The research is not the first to claim that cutbacks have cost lives. Last year, the political economist David Stuckler and the physician-epidemiologist Sanjay Basu pointed to soaring suicide rates, rising HIV infections and even a malaria outbreak. But in their book, The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, they argued that such costs were by no means inevitable and that in some countries countermeasures such as active labor market schemes had softened the blow from cuts....
The ECB is a central bank without a nation to support it.
How does it work elsewhere?
The political, banking and central bank elites work together to run things, e.g:
1) Nation has massive debts and needs low interest rates.
Hey, Mr. Central Bank man, lower interest rates we can't handle this debt.
2) Nation's banks have got themselves in the doggie do with latest boom and bust / derivatives / etc ......
Hey, Mr Central bank man how about some QE and low interest rates to rebuild our balance sheets
The only nation that could support the ECB is Germany and Germany is doing rather well.
The German's also don't want to keep bailing out the Club Med nations.
Oh, Mr. ECB, Central Bank man you are the figurehead of a supposedly powerful organisation that is just a paper tiger.

BRUSSELS - The European Union (EU) and China should cooperate more closely to jointly curb global warming, the 28-member bloc's top climate official has said.

The two sides have been cooperating very intensively on climate change, EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, who will begin a visit to China Wednesday, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The EU's emissions trading system, which puts a price on carbon and caps emissions from 11,000 power stations and heavy industrial installations responsible for 40 percent of its member nations' total emissions, is similar to the one that China is currently setting up, Hedegaard said.

"We have started a cooperation project with the Chinese authorities on emissions trading this year and it is a very good example of how we can work together on climate change," she said.

During the upcoming visit, she will travel to the eastern Chinese cities of Zhenjiang and Shanghai to get first-hand information about China's efforts to reduce emissions through innovative policies.

Hedegaard also showed willingness to share Europe's experience in clean technology to tackle such climate issues as smog, which is plaguing many Chinese cities.

"As a result of our stringent environmental regulations, we are leading in innovation and production of green technologies. We are ready to share our experience and our solutions with other countries such as China that are facing environmental challenges now," she said.

Apart from cooperation on climate change, the commissioner stressed that the EU and China should see climate actions and the green sector as benefits rather than downward impacts for economic growth.

She also called economic benefits from the green sector a good business opportunity.

"Green growth is about maintaining and improving our quality of life while ensuring pollution does not undermine economic growth," she said. "The green sector is one of the fastest growing industries with millions of new jobs being created. China and Europe can benefit enormously from that."

According to Hedegaard, Europe's green sector created 180,000 jobs per year between 1999 and 2008. Most of these jobs were retained -- and many more created -- during the worst years of the global economic crisis.

She urged the EU and China to lead more ambitious climate actions for the whole world.

"China and the EU can prove to the world that green growth is not just a vague utopian vision; it is the smart answer to many of the challenges the world is facing... By leading the way, we can motivate others to move to more ambitious climate action," she said.

 

 

 

Western stock markets seem to be assuming that this little spat with Russia will blow over, and that it will soon be business as usual.

It won't. There's a terrible inevitability to events.

The annexation of Crimea was a no-brainer, since Russia needed to protect its naval bases there. The installation of puppet Russian administrations in the Southern and Eastern Ukraine is also inevitable. The problem here is that the process will not be peaceful, and the appearance of Russian tanks in Ukraine to "protect" Russian-speaking people is a certainty.

This will trigger off draconian economic sanctions by the USA and the EU, and Russia will inevitably respond the only way it can, by turning off the gas pipeline. It is impossible to predict events beyond that, but what we can be sure of is that it will not be pretty and it will not be good for world stock markets....Anyone who has worked in resources realizes that to-date, there has been enormous levels of Western investment into Russia, especially into the energy sector; the demand from which will not dissipate over time. If push came to shove, massive debts to Western (especially German) banks would be dishonored entirely, coupled with the nationalization of EU energy assets. There is no doubt Russia will have a tough time of it - but understand that the Russian psyche can handle it. The confiscation of wealth from the West (Germany) as a net creditor, and UK based resource companies would be a very, very large financial blow, which could take decades to recover from. Not including the resultant damage to European manufacturing from massively higher energy costs.

Nothing in life is simple. Cliché characterizations are unless, Putin is doing what he thinks is best... don't forget, the guy is a student of history. Perspective is everything. History does nothing but demonstrate time and time again, its the small insults, the loss of pride in a relatively benign situation, that quickly spins out of control; underlying the unpredictability of human emotion maybe.

I assume the EU never did any forward inductive analysis before they backed a group that overthrew a democratically elected government !!! Because this was always the most obvious outcome under any Game Theory analysis. It is abundantly clear (to me at least) that since Crimea has left, any future Ukrainian elections will no longer allow ethic Russians (numerically) the chance of political power. It is a mathematical inevitability that they will increasingly become a sidelined as massive minority.

Furthermore, given the Ukrainian leadership has no intention of allowing political and economic devolution (which is also opposed by the EU) – realistically, the only political and logical outcome for this minority is self-determination via force of arms. Of course Russia will inevitable have to enter the fray (remember the Falklands anyone???).

AEP's economic threats are mere futile war drum beats from yesterdays story. This book has already been written. The best that strategists can hope to glean from this transition, is to make it as comfortable and as less disruptive as possible. But given nationalism is not a fertile field for logical outcomes - the risk remains that this situation could get a lot larger and uglier as well. The Ukrainian government for one, appears desperate to want to ramp this up significantly...

Whilst Washington is throwing paper darts in the form of notional Russian debt obligations to insolvent Western banks, the Russians just dig up more oil, gas, gold (whatever, you name it..) and trade with China, India, Brazil etc.
All the US government has is paper money and missile systems that don't work, a rigged stock market, a rigged US treasury market and shale gas/oil that takes more dollars to extract (ex. tax break) than it costs in the market.

The only reason there aren't riots outside Wal-Mart is the debt forbearance shown by China for the plastic junk the infantilized US population seem to need to live the American dream (or is that nightmare..?).

The US empire is running on empty and we're seeing the results now in this last desperate attempt to show they're still a 'contender'. If it wasn't so scary it would be pathetic - what a sad end for that marvelous tool for what could have been human emancipation, the American constitution.

Instead of leading the world (which I think was a possibility before the NeoCon tragedy), they are vaporizing men, women and children with drones in countries most American couldn't even find on a map, under some phony pretext, to boost the military-industrial complex. It's like watching a person destroying themselves with drugs and their family members around them....I'm genuinely saddened by it.

I think its fair to say the greeks like the other so called europigs bought a pig in a poke when they joined the euro disaster designed by the French and german elites, who in their rush to create a euro super state to rival the u.s.a after the collapse of the ussr, overlooked one little detail they did not consult their people, ofc the most evil of all were the greedy, corrupt ,self-serving, parasitic elites of the now uropigs who couldn't wait to jump on the urogravy train and fill their boots, irk , Greece , Portugal, cyprus being the worst offenders ofc the elites have left the working class holding the can who are now debt serfs for a longtime to come, in the case of pious irk the bankers, politicos, and those in the upper ranks of the public service who presided over this grotesque fiasco are mostly still in place or retired on huge fat pensions, lol isn't the upside down logic of the eurofarce ever so fascinating...The Greek public sector were all on the take and Greek industry and farmers were grabbing every EU subsidy available by fair means or foul, when the house of cards fell down who gets hurt the most, mainly the ordinary man in the street.Greece should get the hell out of the EU and try to get back to some standards of fiscal behavior which suit it's new status as a poor country.  The EU and the IMF saved Greece from a much worse fate then it is in now.
All the so called commentators who predicted the 'collapse' of the Euro were wrong and are wrong so now they have to find another way to spread pessimism and mistruths. 
As many people have pointed out it was the Greek people and not the EU, who fiddled the taxes, had a huge public sector, institutionalized corruption. The EU has stabilized Greece and saved its butt if truth be told. Which is why the pro EU parties are the most popular in Greece and not the negative, isolationist parties that offer nothing but division and solipsism.

"Greece has survived its ordeal without revolution or civil war. If that is a vindication of EMU debt-crisis strategy and the greater Project, the bar is set low."

 

In spite of AEP's many dire warnings of Greek default, exit from the Eurozone and the domino-effects on Portugal, Spain and Italy, the Eurozone has not only survived the Greek fiasco but has done so without losing any members but gaining one. The Euro is also the strongest of major currencies despite which the three Med countries are achieving record exports.