Tuesday 31 January 2012

Eurofudge part 96

So here we are, another day and another Euro.

David Cameron comes back from Europe having not signed anything and is being accused of "selling us down the River" according to no lesser authority than Ed Milliband.

meanwhile in the real world, the next President of France, Francois Hollande, has said he will re-negotiate the treaty anyway..

But what is this treaty - a final fix to the debt crisis, a burst of liquidity and debt forgiveness to restore some vitality to the PIGS? No, nothing of the sort, it is a treaty to stop Countries from borrowing too much in the future (Europe had one of these before, called the Stability Pact, which worked so well in the 2000's that we are where we are today).

The real deal will have to wait as this one is to help Angela Merkel persuade the Germans that they can put more money up to save the Euro. Safe in the knowledge that they will get it back again in the future.

I can't really see any progress since March 2010 when the problems in Greece first emerged and showed signs of being terminal. That makes the crisis nearly 2 years old and with nothing but hot air created to try and fix it.

Amazing to watch such inept people in action.

11 comments:

Old BE said...

I'm surprised it hasn't already blown up. I mean Spanish people are watching their economy collapse in front of them, 20% unemployment and 50% if you are young. If Britain had 20% unemployment we would have left the Euro already.

Timbo614 said...

This morning I read that the ECB is preparing a 1 Trillion spree of QE/Bond buying to inject cash into the EZ. So we are no longer bothering to work out the sums in measly billions - just round it up to a trillion. Eh!

This is no longer real money or money with any future value to it, not creating it 1 trillion at a go!

Where is the "stuff" going to come from? The baubles and trinkets, roads and runways factory goods etc that will support a 1T injection. The future? Again?

This is starting to look like desperation...

hovis said...

"I can't really see any progress since March 2010 ..."

It's a regress not progress.

An economy which was inefficient now broken by idiot policies. This driven due to Northern (read German) eyes seeing this as a neo- Calvinist morality lesson rather than the balance of payment crisis that it is.

A political system alreasy broken now replaced by technocracy.

A society which with no trust in its elites / oligarchs withdrawing support even furher as they show themselves both rapacious and incompetant (and that's not just the Greek elites)

Budgie said...

I am not surprised the euro hasn't blown up. I said it wouldn't, partly because Draghi has injected massive amounts of euro QE and is continuing to do so.

"That makes the crisis nearly 2 years old ..." Yes, and the euro is still with us, not least because it has been propped up by our, and our children's tax money by that well known eurosceptic (not) 'call me dave'.

"... this one is to help Angela Merkel persuade the Germans ...". No, no, no. The German people are not being 'persuaded', they are being fooled.

Electro-Kevin said...

Budgie - Brilliant again.

andrew said...

" This is starting to look like desperation... "

one small change...

" This is starting to look like depreciation...."

mercantilism on a big scale.

Old BE said...

Budgie, no amount of QE so far has prevented the Spanish economy from dying. My point stands: if Britain had got to 20% unemployment we would have left the Euro by now. Why hasn't Spain?

Budgie said...

BE, I wish I really knew. But what I believe is that "we" are thinking like eurosceptics, from the outside. We are not standing in the other man's shoes.

From a true believer's viewpoint leaving the euro is literally unthinkable, it is just not an option. The EU is the new Roman empire, it cannot fail. So a solution must be found that does not involve the breakup of the empire. All suffering must be borne - it is noble to do so for the greater good of the new empire. Even the Greek public wants to stay in the euro, and certainly the Spanish do.

Unfortunately I see a future where the euro scrapes by, supported by various fudges, euro QE, the UK, the USA and some others; where we lose the Falklands, the UK splits up and where we make such a hash of things generally that we beg to join the euro.

All because we do not understand the enemy, and because of the useless, execrable, Bliar mk2, Heath-without-brains, dim-but-power-crazed boy Cameron.

Mr Ecks said...

Budgie,

Just because political scum want some outcome, even with all their thieving, their thugs, etc, doesn't mean they will get it. If that was true, Rome would still rule the world. The Euro-trash can pull all the strokes they want--they can't beat reality. When you add the fact that the US is going to fall for the same reasons as the EU it is just a question of time.
Things take longer than we think but they can't last out forever.

Budgie said...

Mr Ecks, yes things can't last out forever. And that includes us. The UK will be gone before the EU, the way we (ie Cameron and co) are going. And I am truly sorry about it. But let us see who was right in a year's time?

Anonymous said...

Merkel isn't inept - she's doing it on purpose. The German papers are starting to wake up to her attempts to take control over Greece and the implications of that.

As I have said before, the German government are once again setting us on a path to war in Europe. The exact nature of this war is yet to be determined but that is the inevitable direction in which the EU is headed at the moment.

Merkel is smart enough to realise this so we must assume her actions are inspired by her former Marxist/Stasi past which she has studiously covered up (I notice that even English Wikipedia has now been edited to remove references showing her father to have been a Marxist in East Germany with high connections). I assume she is trying to foment war in Europe at the behest of Putin, with whome she has a close relationship (she has been making sure that Germany is even more dependent on Russian gas). This woman is seriously dangerous and we have underestimated her, just as all those that once were above her have underestimated her. She likes to pass herself off as a quiet hausfrau when in fact all her actions betray her utter ruthlessness and connections to people in low places.

Meanwhile there are 50,000 people living in the streets in Greece, young women are handing their babies over to charities because they can't look after them anymore, and almost none of this is reported in the European press which is being stifled by the EU when a 3rd world style calamity is happening on our doorstep that we could do something about.