The leader of Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement political party, the
second most popular by opinion polls, has added his voice to the anti-austerity
rhetoric that will likely dominate the country's upcoming election campaigns.
Beppe Grillo, an Italian comic, echoed Silvio Berlusconi's scathing criticism of the current prime minister
Mario Monti's policies as 'German-centric' when he told US
broadcaster CNBC that Mr Monti is a mere "bankruptcy curator" who "needs to
disappear". He said:
The ECB puts out money that is meant to help our
banks,but they do not use it to finance our businesses, but they give it to them
to buy back their debt, to help French and German banks. That was Monti's
work. The CNBC interview came on the same day Mr Grillo expelled two
prominent party members who had voiced criticisms over his
leadership style, branding it dictatorial. His expulsion of the pair
unleashed at outpouring of criticism from the party's young supporter base, who
compared him to famous dictators including Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin.
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The EU has already agreed that the European Central Bank (ECB) will act as the chief supervisor of eurozone banks.
"We have reached the main points to establish a European banking supervisor that should take on its work in 2014," said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, after 14 hours of talks ended shortly before dawn.
Under the deal, banks with more than 30bn euros ($39bn) in assets will be placed under the oversight of the European Central Bank.
The deal gives the ECB powers to close down eurozone banks that don't follow rules. It also paves the way for eurozone rescue funds to come to the aid of struggling banks.
"Piece by piece, brick by brick, the banking union will be built on this first fundamental step today," said EU Commissioner Michel Barnier.
EU leaders believe that the first stage of a banking union - a Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) - can be put into place without having to change EU treaties.
But there had been some legal doubts about the subsequent stages - a joint deposit guarantee scheme and a joint resolution mechanism for winding up broken banks.
Following months of tortuous negotiations, finance ministers from the European Union's 27 countries agreed to hand the ECB the authority to directly supervise the eurozone's biggest banks and intervene in smaller banks at the first sign of trouble. "This will enable the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns – which has been a salient feature of the debt crisis in Europe – to be broken," leaders said in a statement following 14 hours of talks. Cypriot Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly compared the deal to a "Christmas present for the whole of Europe." After three years of piecemeal crisis-fighting measures, agreeing on a banking union lays a cornerstone of wider economic union and marks the first concerted attempt to integrate the bloc's response to problem banks.
Europe clinched a deal on Thursday to give the European Central Bank new powers to supervise euro zone banks from 2014, embarking on the first step in a new phase of closer integration to help underpin the euro.
After more than 14 hours of talks and following months of tortuous negotiations, finance ministers from the European Union’s 27 countries agreed to hand the ECB the authority to directly police at least 150 of the euro zone’s biggest banks and intervene in smaller banks at the first sign of trouble.
“This is a big first step for banking union,” EU Commissioner Michel Barnier told a news conference. “The ECB will play the pivotal role, there’s no ambiguity about that.”
The euro rose to a session high in Tokyo of 1.3080 against the U.S. dollar on news of the deal.
After three years of piecemeal crisis-fighting measures, agreeing on a banking union lays a cornerstone of wider economic union and marks the first concerted attempt to integrate the bloc’s response to problem banks.
The new system of supervision should be up and running by March 1, 2014, following talks with the European Parliament, although ministers agreed that could be delayed if the ECB needed longer to prepare itself.
The plan sets in motion one of the biggest overhauls of any European banking system since the financial crisis began in mid-2007 with the near collapse of German lender IKB.
The onus is now on EU leaders, who meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, to give it their full political backing.
In an about-turn, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dropped earlier objections that had led him to clash openly with his French counterpart, Pierre Moscovici, last week over the ECB’s role in banking supervision.
With time running out to meet a year-end deadline, both sides managed to settle their differences and Germany won concessions to temper the authority of the ECB’s Governing Council over the new supervisor.
Agreement on bank surveillance is a crucial first step towards a broader banking union, or common euro zone approach to dealing with failing banks that in recent years dragged down countries such as Ireland and Spain.
The next pillar of a banking union would be the creation of a central system to close troubled banks.
The decision also sends a strong signal to investors that the euro zone’s 17 members, from powerful Germany to stricken Greece, can pull together to tackle the bloc’s problems.
I was a skeptic until Obama was elected.
His birthday is on August 4th. 8+4=12
His Facebook page is "Obama 12"
He was elected in 2012 ... the forecasted year.
And, as a Muslim, he could be the 12th Imam.
He taught at the Chicago Law School for 12 years.
And, the clincher, he asked and asked and demanded that Romney provide 12 years of tax returns.
The number 12 is obviously intertwined in his life.
And if you multiply his 6 feet of height by 12 inches per foot ... he is 72 inches tall!
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