ITALY AND THE E.U.--- Monti is desperate. Reform fatigue has breached breaking point," said a top
Italian official. "There is a feeling here that the euro is basically dead
already. Unless Germany offers a road map out of this crisis, Monti is not going
to be able to hold it together much longer." The main Left and Right parties
have until now backed Mr Monti's fiscal squeeze – a net tightening of 3.2pc of
GDP this year – and radical reform of pension and labor markets. The implicit
trade-off was that Brussels and the European Central Bank would in return
intervene to keep the bond vigilantes at bay, if necessary. Germany has so far
blocked such action. Yield spreads of 10-year Italian bonds over German Bunds
neared a record 500 basis points last week. Party leaders fear an electoral
massacre akin to the PASOK defeat in Greece if they back further austerity with
no reward. Dissidents are near open revolt. So, 'gentleman' Monti is in fact a 'double agent'!Just a small correction on your otherwise excellent judgement. Italian labor so called reforms have been rubbish. They are no reforms at all and are made to appear so, as a bargaining chip with Merkel. HEY MERKEL ....Why don't you give it a rest? Europe is closer? Are you quite mad or just happy to peddle lies ? Every poll, every indication, every election shows that more and more people dislike the EU and are against further integration. You and your friends in the EU have become fascists, attempting to impose your One Europe fantasy on an increasingly resistant population. How does that feel?
The fact of the matter is that the Italian establishment is thriving on this euro adventure, Their over valued euros finance property investments abroad. Just to give you an example an ordinary Italian would rather spend €5000 on an English study holiday in America or Britain rather than spend €700 on a perfectly normal course in a language school in Italy. And at the other end of the scale the same course is offered through government and EU subsidies at €100 by local authorities. This confirms the personal wealth issue of Italians and of course the nonsensical spending patterns caused by an essentially corrupt administrative system.
9 comments:
Immigrants flock to the UK because they know here they can apply for jobs on the same level as a British citizen.
This is not the case in countries like France, Germany, Sweden, etc.
In those countries, the job market is pretty much a closed shop and finding employment is all about who you know rather than what you know.
In fact, in continental Europe many job vacancies are not even advertised because candidates come through personal recommendation and not recruitment campaigns and HR departments.
Continental Europe is also a very corrupt place where businesses paying bribes to win contracts is very common place.
Also, in continental Europe, you don't get a job based on what you know, but who you know.
In fact, many jobs are often not even advertised. To find employment you have to have the right contacts.
The UK does not compete well in that business climate because British businesses are not used to paying bribes to get what they want. It's not in our business culture.
The solution is there is no solution, one must confront the fact that the break up of the Euro is now inevitable unstopable and the most desireable solution for all countries. No nightmare scenario is nightmare scenario if it is managed well. Yes it would be economically painfull. But i think in the longterm it is the only viable solution. And it needs to be planned for a disordered break up would be far more damaging. In Ireland we are already expecting a Euro break up as inevitable. Really even if the Euro continues it will have to be in a different form. It is better for peripherals and the EU if peripherals leave anyway. Some banks need to be wound down in a controlled way and they need to stop pouring money into inssolvent banks with unsustainable levels of debt. If they are wound down slowly with support for solvent banks instead of blanket bailouts and restructuring of those banks finances. I think they are using the crisis to push through deeper integration which would otherwise be impossible and it is not in anyone's interests and they fail to address the huge democratic lacking in the EU institutions. Ireland as a PIG should leave the Euro...it is not helping the Euro nor is the Euro helping Ireland ...and this anti -German or anti ANY country rhetotric is completely useless.....lets break graciously up ...yes more than likely Germany has decided to leave the EURO and has decided to try to use collective action clauses to try to cover their bond holders when those countries inevitably default ..however it will not work the markets will still burn them they are trying to cover german bond holders by trying to get countries to accept it as sovreign debt when it has nothing to do with the country itself (except in the case of greece)...but it will not work ..it's not even legal
Is it not obvious? Merkel, for domestic political reasons, needs the rest of the EU to force Germany out of the Euro. She knows that it is the only sensible resolution of the euro crisis but German political opinion is so pro Europe that it would be unthinkable for Germany to destroy the Euro. She is waiting for France and the south to make unacceptable demands that the German people will feel angry enough about to accept leaving the Euro.
Wasn't The Euro Predicted To Have Collapsed By Now?
Whatever happened to 24 hours to save the euro?
Never in the history of propaganda has a political
campaign failed so badly.
The only outcome is Britain is more isolated than
ever in Europe and never looked more ridiculous
to the rest of the world. Even America is becoming
concerned at Britain's apparent deathwish.
The main failing of the europhobic campaign lies
in the nature of the comments themselves, which
are tediously repetitive, contrived and stilted,
the product of a handful of blue collar commentators
posting under numerous aliases. Consequently
comments are puerile, lifeless, artificial and dull
and vulgarly abusive.
And just in case the europhobes missed it:
"The Euro is here to stay, and we all mean it."
Mario Monti
As I understand this complicated web of fiscal and political lies and deceit, Angela Merkel must demand control of 'beneficiary' countries.
If they can't drastically cut public sector wages etc., how will they be able feed money back to German banks, which are dreadfully exposed. Full scale default by the southern countries, which looks inevitable, will bust Germany.
The debate really has nothing to do with German, Southern European - or UK taxpayers, for that matter. It has everything to do with extracting money from taxpayers and giving it to highway robbers. All our governments are entirely culpable in this Crime.
The Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker had already stated that the group expected to have the request, which de Guindos had described as "a mere formality", in its hands on Monday.
Juncker said eurozone ministers had tried to hurry Spain up, inviting it to "pursue [a] clear and ambitious strategy, which needs to be implemented swiftly and communicated early."
Spain will base its request on two independent valuations of its banks which suggest the sector needs up to €62bn (£49bn) to see it through the next three years if the economy takes an even sharper turn for the worse. Spain has been offered up to €100bn in help for its banks alone. It was not clear whether the weekend's petition would include an exact sum of money.
The latest delay follows Spain's slowness to recognise the hole caused by toxic real estate in some of its banks after a property bubble burst four years ago.
It also reflects Rajoy's refusal to call the loans being offered to Spain a "bailout", even though the money will be loaned to the state, then passed on to the banks.
The IMF is working on several fronts to help its members combat the worldwide economic and financial crisis.
The Fund is tracking economic and financial developments worldwide so that it can help policymakers with the latest forecasts and analysis of developments in financial markets. It is giving policy advice to countries and regions, and money to assist emerging market and low-income economies that have been hit by the crisis. And it is assisting the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging economies with recommendations to reshape the system of international regulation and governance.
This page pulls together the IMF's work on the financial crisis and includes links to key articles, documents, and background information.
I'm increasingly convinced that this sort of proposition should be the ultimate aim of reform. Yes, we can try and fix the immediate problem by (a) forcing central banks to lend governments the money they need to get out of debt and/or (b) setting up citizens banks that exploit the insane fractional reserve lending mechanism to get out of debt.
But these solutions are just short term. There can be no doubt in my mind that money creation by commercial banks is impossible to justify. Sure, the bankers will be fighting like crazy to keep their gravy train on the rails, but I defy anyone reading this to explain why it is more "reasonable" to allow commercial banks to create the money needed to allow the economy to function, rather than giving that function to governments.
I think that my proposal to use an automatically varying Financial Transaction Tax to remove the excess money from the system completely demolishes the standard argument used by people like Angela Merkel that claims that if governments were able to create the money supply there would be runaway inflation.
In any case, that argument is clearly completely phoney. To work, you would have to believe that somehow if you let commercial banks do the money creation for profit, they will somehow be able to magically find just the right level for the money supply. As if they have any motivation to find the "optimal value". Even the most religious believer in the invisible hand of the markets would have a very tough time trying to get anyone to buy such obvious twaddle. Banks create money if they think that it will allow them to make a profit. End of discussion.
No. The bankers will have to admit it. The only reason why the system has been rigged in the way it has been is that it allows them to rake in trillions in interest charges for lending us money THAT THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE TO LEND. It's completely indefensible, and only exists because the whole mechanism has been hidden from public view.
But the people are beginning to wake up. And when the 99% realize that it doesn't have to be that way, there should be no way to stop reform.
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