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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2012 0:56:13 GMT 3
merlinThat "humane capitalism" of which you are a proponent hasn't worked in Greece and isn't working here in Canada. And as for lessons to learn for Kenya, we must learn but never forgetting how European countries have milked and continue to milk Africa of resources. Americans for instance didn't get rich being nice. A little genocide against the First Nations people and a little slavery here and there. I'd be rich too if I could get people to work for me for free for 400yrs. So please. Mercy! take a listen: www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2187557932 Kathure Kebaara,You are ever so right. Look for someone to blame so you can relax and wait for miracles. Just keep borrowing. God will love you. merlindon't be ridiculous. Where does it say anything about borrowing? Not in the article that I posted and that you took exception to neither in the podcast which I don't think you've listened to. Listen to it then we can talk about the issues raised therein. Other than that cut it out. Don't waste your time and mine.
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Post by einstein on May 8, 2012 2:57:37 GMT 3
It was like the world upside down [ Owino Misiani of Shirati Jazz in an album called Piny Ose Mer) for the right of center to right wing press. The election results in Greece and France. The french and greeks undermine the european stability! Markets plung as Socialists and lunatics win in Greece and France! ENDE DA EURO?On the other hand, centrist and leftist papers showcased wild and screaming, tearful french people filling the squares of their cities, chanting Viva Francois! Viv' la Republique! Huraa Parti Socialiste! It is a tale of two europes! the europe of the financial markets which abhor the peoples choices, and the europe of the citizens wary of the austerity regimes designed to fatten the bankers! But it is when Hollande meets Merkel and a working relationship is struck or not, that the viability of the stability pact will become evident. Merkel is an iron lady, in finance. What is Hollande made of? we will see! As for the greeks, Adieu! that is the joke! Jakaswanga,I know that I promised the whole world, including OO, never to debate you again. But I could not resist responding to your question in red bold above even if it is not a definite statement from your side. But the title of this thread sort of gives a definite statement vis-a-vis the €urozone. €uro is going no where. The only people on God's good earth capable of bringing down the €uro are the Germans themselves and they ain't doing that any time soon even if anyone decided to stand on their head! The Germans lost the most in the so called €urozone to embrace the €uro. I personally hate commenting on issues I'm not very well versed with. But as usual, I leave it to time to prove me wrong! Cheers!
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2012 18:19:31 GMT 3
LEFT BEHIND, Part 1, 2 & 3 Over the past 30 years, the benefits of economic growth in Canada, the US and much of the rest of the world, have gone increasingly to the top one percent of the population. For the majority of families, however, incomes have stagnated. This rise in inequality coincided with a sea change in government policy. Beginning in the 1980s, governments in much of the English-speaking world embarked on what has been called the neoliberal revolution - deregulation, privatization and tax cuts, aimed at liberating markets and stimulating the economy. The rising tide was supposed to lift all boats, but it didn't. Jill Eisen explores what happened. PART 2 www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2189516274
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Post by jakaswanga on May 8, 2012 18:53:41 GMT 3
It was like the world upside down [ Owino Misiani of Shirati Jazz in an album called Piny Ose Mer) for the right of center to right wing press. The election results in Greece and France. The french and greeks undermine the european stability! Markets plung as Socialists and lunatics win in Greece and France! ENDE DA EURO?On the other hand, centrist and leftist papers showcased wild and screaming, tearful french people filling the squares of their cities, chanting Viva Francois! Viv' la Republique! Huraa Parti Socialiste! It is a tale of two europes! the europe of the financial markets which abhor the peoples choices, and the europe of the citizens wary of the austerity regimes designed to fatten the bankers! But it is when Hollande meets Merkel and a working relationship is struck or not, that the viability of the stability pact will become evident. Merkel is an iron lady, in finance. What is Hollande made of? we will see! As for the greeks, Adieu! that is the joke! Jakaswanga,I know that I promised the whole world, including OO, never to debate you again. But I could not resist responding to your question in red bold above even if it is not a definite statement from your side. But the title of this thread sort of gives a definite statement vis-a-vis the €urozone. €uro is going no where. The only people on God's good earth capable of bringing down the €uro are the Germans themselves and they ain't doing that any time soon even if anyone decided to stand on their head! The Germans lost the most in the so called €urozone to embrace the €uro. I personally hate commenting on issues I'm not very well versed with. But as usual, I leave it to time to prove me wrong! Cheers! Brother Einstein!First things first. Better late than never, condolences with you brother who succumbed to cancer recently. 2.You know I do not do boycotts on my part, and I always found your position unfortunate and incorrect. I am therefore much pleased that there is a subject which you find important enough to break your self-imposed boycott! and that your heart has relented somewhat. 3. Perhaps because you have not been reading my interactions with others, it has escaped you that I am no longer a brass-tack combat ruffian with a blood-curdling yell at every delivery! but I have mellowed conform the highest standards of Jukwaa's etiquette! So lets get busy engaging, even if it is only about the euro ..[and ahangla of course!] 4. On the euro, what you say about the germans is how we read it here. Angela Merkel will not move an inch from the stability pact [deficity must not exceed 3% GNP]. German public opinion will not accept a 'paper euro' as an alternative to a 'hard' euro. A paper currency is the type [like the dollar!] which allows her politicians to be totally irresponsible with the state expenditures, living far beyond their means and accrueing unpayable debt. Debt which can only be paid by printing money --creating artificial value! There appears to be a philosophical and cultural phobia for hypermonetarism in Germany. A legacy of the the pre-Hitler years perhaps: they hyper-inflation in the Weimer republic!
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Post by einstein on May 8, 2012 22:12:08 GMT 3
Jakaswanga,I know that I promised the whole world, including OO, never to debate you again. But I could not resist responding to your question in red bold above even if it is not a definite statement from your side. But the title of this thread sort of gives a definite statement vis-a-vis the €urozone. €uro is going no where. The only people on God's good earth capable of bringing down the €uro are the Germans themselves and they ain't doing that any time soon even if anyone decided to stand on their head! The Germans lost the most in the so called €urozone to embrace the €uro. I personally hate commenting on issues I'm not very well versed with. But as usual, I leave it to time to prove me wrong! Cheers! Brother Einstein!First things first. Better late than never, condolences with you brother who succumbed to cancer recently. 2.You know I do not do boycotts on my part, and I always found your position unfortunate and incorrect. I am therefore much pleased that there is a subject which you find important enough to break your self-imposed boycott! and that your heart has relented somewhat. 3. Perhaps because you have not been reading my interactions with others, it has escaped you that I am no longer a brass-tack combat ruffian with a blood-curdling yell at every delivery! but I have mellowed conform the highest standards of Jukwaa's etiquette! So lets get busy engaging, even if it is only about the euro ..[and ahangla of course!] 4. On the euro, what you say about the germans is how we read it here. Angela Merkel will not move an inch from the stability pact [deficity must not exceed 3% GNP]. German public opinion will not accept a 'paper euro' as an alternative to a 'hard' euro. A paper currency is the type [like the dollar!] which allows her politicians to be totally irresponsible with the state expenditures, living far beyond their means and accrueing unpayable debt. Debt which can only be paid by printing money --creating artificial value! There appears to be a philosophical and cultural phobia for hypermonetarism in Germany. A legacy of the the pre-Hitler years perhaps: they hyper-inflation in the Weimer republic! Jakaswanga,Thanks heaps for commiserating with me on the loss of my beloved elder brother. He was such a gem in my life. Without him I would not be who I am today. May God give his soul a better home. As pertains to boycotts and in line with the new found spirit, I hereby declare the past banished to its rightful place and the hatchet deeply buried in the abyss! Peace unto my brother Jakaswanga!! Concerning the much awaited death of the €urozone, please let's wait till next week after the Merkel-Hollande '€urozone Summit' in Berlin. Will Hollande make Merkel budge? That is the question whose answer we shall get by the end of next week.
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Post by jakaswanga on May 20, 2012 11:45:59 GMT 3
GAURDIAN.CO.UK.COST GREXITFollow the money. The smart money. What is the smart money doing? It is getting out of Greece! [And Spain and Portugal]! And when money gets the hell out of a place, sure thing poverty is moving in! There has been a bankrun on greece going on!The figures were long available in the english press, but not the papers of the aboriginal languages of europe, who did not trust their readers to deal with the panic info! [with the important french elections coming up and the rest [Northphalia West-Rhine] And this one is the hottest: the financial market in London tuesday 15/05/2012 did a dry-run trading with the greek drachma against the dollar, euro and pound. Opening rate to the euro: 1500 drakmas! Next month's general election in Greece is effectively a referendum on the euro. (though when Angela Merkel reportedly said this in private, she had been forced to deny it publicly!] And there has all this time been a Greek Task Force called into existence by the crack German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaube, to, in the event of it, facilitate an orderly grexit. Going for victory, bail-out, preparing for defeat, grexit. Always good to keep an eye on laureate Paul Krugman on the euro. krugma.blogs.nytimes.comG8 SUMMIT 2012 MAY: EURO-CRISIS ONLYWHO OWES WHO WHAT? THE WEB OF DEBTSwww.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15748696GREXIT LOOMS AS GREECE GOES TO ELECTIONS: [we will profile Tsipiras Alexis of the radical leftist Syriza party, now leading in the polls, and has declared greece can nolonger be impoverished further by debts. ...But... Can the ECB {european central bank} really let Greece go bust? Is the House of Euros a house of cards? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Officially Greece's EXTERNAL DEBT: €360bn 160% of GDPBut there are estimates which put the real figure near €500bnIt is built like this, in this model. May 2010 Eurozone/IMF loan: €110bn October 2011 Eurozone loan: €130bn What greek banks owe to etc: €234bn Household debts, misc. bonds: +€40bn The so called HAIRCUT, that is writing off of debts, should sliceit by 35-50%, depending on the negotiations per sector. {Banking sector 35%] So if Grexit occurs, ie Greece leaves the €uroZone, then about [size=2[color=Red ]]€500 bn of external debt has to be converted into the drachma[/color][/size], the expected new [but old] currency of Greece. With the greek economy expected to shrink with a further 30% in that event, there is no hope in hell of Greece ever repaying that amount in the next 50 years! So the haircut must be skin-flash, bald shave. Can the eurozone absorb a €500bn hole in her pocket? If forced yes, but not at the current political dispensation methinks. Greek could be the first domino, followed by Portugal, Spain and finally Italy, Ireland. And Eurozone being the USA's chief economic and political partner, we would be staring at a further limping West at a time of BRICS ascendancy. A historical shift the West will try to avoid. I think this is why Obama has said, end G8, that there is resolve to keep Greece inside the Eurozone. Now, just the money and the will to back up the words.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jun 7, 2012 19:38:15 GMT 3
Earlier this week, a shaky Herman van Rompuy (quite a novel sight), and a nervously smiling Jose Manuel Baroso, between them the leading political faces of the EU, faced a cynical wolf-pack of financial journalists from around the world. They were aware that no magic wand they could wave, would tame the monster of skepticism, and that this meant more woe upon the €uro at the Markets. At this grandstanding of the Old Continent, Jukwaa was represented, though without accreditation, I took a seat far at the public trenches which came at a premium, outside before a projected TV screen. I believe since Jukwaa is read by men powerful enough to intimidate the administrator to freeze a thread not to their liking, it needs to have an ear in a situation-room where prefects of the world tell fates on behalf of capital. So there I was. Up to three or so weeks ago, denial was the name of the game in town, but a series of first, leaks, then a flow of concrete data ended that phase. Not to mention unrelenting American pressure by way of Obama's constant calls to Merkel and the two boys [Van Rompuy and Baroso]. The leaks included (i) the existence of the Grexit Task Force --both at the ECB (European Central Bank) and the Bundesbank (German central Bank). (ii) The secret working group headed by Jean Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, the chairman of the €urozone ministers of finance. (iii) The the details of the Finland's preparation for the Horror Scenario as they called it in Helsinki. (iv) London had rehearsed trade in the Drachma, should the greeks re-introduce it. In private therefore, everybody was long prepared for Grexit [and more?]even as the EU officially denied that possibility. The markets of course did not believe the EU spokespeople, who became more and more ridiculous even to themselves. (Olli Rehn, The finish EU commissioner for monetary affairs caught in the act as his own home country contradicted him, smiled ruefully then grinned sheepishly as he denied himself: 'I am not a typical fin,' he said, 'I am an optimist. Most fins are naturally pessimist!' Here he is below on a more serious note. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18278848Meanwhile the Bank run in Spain could not be swept under the carpet. Too big to let fail, yet too big to bail? A german EU parliamentarian brought the point home: 'How can Germany consider herself safe if Spain is on the edge? Look at our economic ties to that country! their doom is our dip! Not so?' And Angela Merkel openly started to fidget. In Mei alone, €66 billion of ordinary savings quit Spain heading for Northern Europe. By june 5, a further €1b had quit. Smart money of course left long ago, even before the rating agencies devalued Spain the state. The second biggest bank in Spain, Bankia, needed €19b end Mei or go under. It was nationalized by the Central government. But the central government itself is on the infuse from the ECB! Can not raise the at least €150b needed to recapitalize all regional and national spanish banks. Then the interest rates on the [10 year] bonds spiraled once more as the rating agencies further devalued the creditworthiness of all 17 of Spain's autonomous economic regions. Adding salt to the injury, George Soros --the guy who once sent the british pound over the edge, publicly warned the Euro had three months to regain credibility or split. This is the background in which Barroso and Van Rompuy approached the do or die press conference. Meanwhile dangerous politics are rearing its head. There is open talk of a Neuro and a Zeuro zone. Neuro for the North, Zeuro for the South, or what are derogatorily called the 'Siesta States'. (Some blond chauvinist politicians from the North think the real crisis is caused by the 'laziness' of the southerners, where the workday is one long siesta at the wheel or the office or the bed or the street or wherever!) This kind of caricatural talk does not help inter-european brotherhood. The lazy greek or parasitic portuguese, being paid €uros to sleep as Germans sweat blood, is a popular cartoon joke in some papers! and has actually mobilized popular feelings against the euro as basically unfair to Northerners. THE MASTER PLAN.Van Rompuy and Barroso therefore felt pressed to come up with serious answers. There will be a master plan presented at the end of this month [June 2012]. Another euro summit coming up then. --It will deepen monetary and economic integration [eg harmonize budgets and taxes --create a unified and union banking system, with EU-wide guarantee of deposits and supervision of banks from the center. --Introduce euro-bonds and banish the current anarchy in which every state produces her own bonds and obligations. [This step will need further political integration, a sensitive topic at this moment]. --It is a work in progress and details will emerge, promised Herman. www.businessspectator.com. AAP @[copyright] The heads of four key European institutions are hammering out a "master plan" to lead the eurozone out of its crippling crisis, a German Sunday newspaper reports.
European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, European Union president Herman Van Rompuy, EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso and Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker were tasked last month with working up a reforms roadmap, Welt am Sonntag said.
The plan is to be presented at an EU summit in late June, the report said.
Under global pressure to put an end to the turmoil rocking financial markets and creating deep economic uncertainty, the leaders want to point the way toward a lasting solution, an unnamed high-ranking EU official told the newspaper.
"Around the world - in America and Asia - we are asked, 'Where do you want to go?'" the official said.
"After two years of crisis, it is finally time to provide an answer."
The proposals being considered would include European institutions having more power over national budgets; a European supervisory body for the banking sector with new powers; harmonised fiscal, tax, foreign and security policies; and reform of social welfare programs.
The report said some of the changes could initially apply just to the 17-nation eurozone and not the 27-member European Union as a whole.
Barroso pleaded on Wednesday for a tighter eurozone union to avoid "financial disintegration", including "a banking union with integrated financial supervision and single deposit guarantee scheme". --AAP, businessspectator.com.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jun 10, 2012 16:45:14 GMT 3
SPAIN BITING THE BULLET: NATIONAL HONOUR AND BANKRUPTCY! It is a sight that can only remind of how it was at the mouth to the cave that housed the Old oracle of Dodona, when the pilgrims from afar, who had come to have their fates told, realized it was a fake racket and actually had been outed earlier. And that is why the locals had been giving them journeymen that look. Entertaining themselves at their expense. Spain, the fourth economy in the €urozone, is bust. She can not raise €150B to save her banks. The Bank of Spain revealed her major financial institutions borrowed €316.3bn from the ECB in March, about twice the €169.8bn in February. {Of course to fund the ongoing bank run!} SPAIN WANTED HER BANKS TO BORROW DIRECTLY AGAIN FROM THE ECB, BUT BRUSSELS SAID NO WAY. YOU ARE BUST! BEG OFFICIALLY. But her pride is such that she can not officially say PLEASE HELP ME €CB! If she says this (in the proper protocol language like Greece said) it means by the same protocol she lands in what we call a 'curatele regime'! This is what the english would call a 'receivership'! the stuff you do with bankrupt companies. It would mean top sleuths and financial bureaucrats from Brussels moving into Madrid and taking over the ministry of finance and the central Bank of Spain. Making her effectively a financial colony like Greece. The prime minister and his cabinet would be reduced to spectators and the democratic mandate a farce.
The calculation is this humiliation of the national ego would be the literal death of a whole political elite, thereby exacerbating the collapse of the traditional middle ground which has been the guarantor of political stability in the land of deep fascist, Franco loyalties. So the question was: how can spain be declared bankrupt without a receivership protocol being initiated?
This is the story of what did you eat for lunch? and the answer is the dignity-saving 'airburger'. So spain is not getting a bailout, Nop, she is getting a 'scheduled loan'! fast-tracked because summer holidays are soon on full-blast. €130b it is. Even the word emergency loan is taboo. (The private debts of spanish banks are then transferred to the spanish national debt. No banks go bust which is capitalism upside down. The spanish national debt is funded by taxpayers. Robberies of the century in the best tradition of the Wall-street bail-out construct authored in America)
This kind of comedy has undone all the good work Van Rompuy and Barroso did last week. The press, sizing up the economy minister of spain Luis de Guindos, couldn't hide their contempt. THe IMF has been brought in to help with the calculations and delivery of the loan, to sugar-coat the otherwise bitter pill of direct rule from Brussels. And Christobal Montoro, minister of finance and public/treasury administration, had gone missing having suffered a mental break-down. {that is he told the truth earlier about his nations problems and highlighted the danger of contamination or the domino risk, and immidiately the euro slid down!} Telling the truth is madness! going rogue! {see telegraph footnone}
Watching these former bankers --Draghi at ECB, Monti at Berlusconi's job; Guindos in spain-- most of whom only yesterday were the architects of the Wall-Street banking crisis and a near global financial meltdown, drunkenly grapple with a crisis the making of their own greed and self-deception, has equated the word top-banker to charlatan in popular language in the eurozone. These are guys from the elite business schools of the West. The best of the best. That they can not fix their own mess, has led observers like Mahbubani Kishore of Singapore, (the author of the New Asian hemisphere, the irrisitible shift of global power to the east), to declare the end of the model, not the western model, the banker's model.
It is only the bankers themselves, still at the pinnacle of power, who do not recognize nobody believes their divine powers anymore. That their press conferences are entertainments. TV comedy shows! The once intimidating oracle now but a variete show. Mighty Dodona has become folklore. =========================== TELEGRAPH.UK 05-06-12 UPDATE: Spain's Economic minister Luis de Guindos told reporters in Brussels he had "absolutely not discussed any intervention in Spain's banks" at an EU meeting on Wednesday and that they had a "road map" which includes making no decisions until the audit of Spain's banks later in June. Spain's Treasury minister has called on the eurozone to help rescue its debt-laden banks, in a sign that the region could be heading for a fresh crisis. Treasury minister Cristobal Montoro has admitted that Spain needs outside help to prop up its banks, saying that high borrowing costs mean that the market doors are now effectively closed to the nation. He called on the eurozone to stand by its obligation to help the nation pull itself out of its economic mire, telling Spanish broadcaster Onda Cero: "It's so important that the European institutions open up and help us achieve, help facilitate, that figure because we're not talking about astronomical figures", ... @from the The Telegraph ------------ So the two ministers were not singing from the same hym book at the same time.
If this were to happen by two lead-singers of a band in live performance!
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Post by kasuku on Jun 10, 2012 17:19:56 GMT 3
It is as good as official now. They are asking for help from the Euro-stock to fill up their banks
But that won't help as spain needs a radical reform. For example, you will find that, in summer many gastronomies and other service providers seek Employees from other European countries to cater for the millions of tourist in the afternoon when Spanish Nations are sleeping or in el Amore mood…and this when millions of young Spaniards are jobless. How can a country progress in the 21st century with cultures from the 16th century?
Edit The spanish Government must gaurantee for 100 Billion Euro credit from the stock
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Post by nereah on Jun 10, 2012 17:39:29 GMT 3
what are the lessons for big brother kenya and the rest of great lakes that are driving towards a monetary union,common markets and political confederacy?
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Post by merlin on Jun 10, 2012 18:55:42 GMT 3
what are the lessons for big brother kenya and the rest of great lakes that are driving towards a monetary union,common markets and political confederacy? Lessons to learn are obvious. You cannot run a monetary confederation without check and balances just as you cannot run a country without these check and balances. You have to build proper institutions which can enforce checks and balances. A law or agreement without a means of enforcement is a nonentity. This is missing in Europe. The integration of the European Union slowed down leaving it up to the goodwill of the participating countries to commit to the agreed monetary targets. We all know MOU’s leads to fraud and disappointments and failure to reach the envisaged goals. Europe has to move forward and needs proper integration towards a sort of federal Europe. The European Union has a European Government though without an enforcement arm which leaves well defined laws, rules and regulations hanging in the air. The southern countries Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal only committed to the sections of the agreements that gave them an advantage; they ignored the sections that seem a burden to them. Overspending, over borrowing, poor investments (white elephants) and corruption lead to the inevitable (poverty) same as corruption is keeping Kenya a country from the rich for the poor. If the members of the East African Community only commit to the sections that is an advantage to them than the community will be like the buildings under construction which collapse in front of us. The EAC needs institutions build with proper structures. Politicians can give directions though the institutions have to been designed and build by structural engineers including enforcement arms. Are the EA countries willing to contribute towards building a strong community or will they hackle about who is getting what?
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Post by jakaswanga on Jun 10, 2012 19:26:28 GMT 3
what are the lessons for big brother kenya and the rest of great lakes that are driving towards a monetary union,common markets and political confederacy? Lessons: A monetary union goes best with a political union. A political union goes best with one central bank. This is effectively the model of the USA, or the UK.Make sure the banks have their own formidable reserves and never over stretch themselves. #( At one point Iceland, with a population of less than half a million, had 4 banks which were 40 times richer than her on paper! When the crisis hit, they realized they would have sell all the fish in the ocean cheap for a century to refund the money! And they said NO! even if it means goodbye to the international financial system!) So do not believe the value of the bank which the bankers tell you, nor believe the garb the rating buros write. The banks pay the rating buros to write them good reports! Bankers must be reigned in and controlled just like other professions.The money they are in custody of at the bank is not their own money, and therefore they owe accountability. Penalties for indiscretions must be.. Have a model to balance the acceptable rate of credit [financing growth by debt], and a run-away expenditure pattern which is a bankruptcy risk. This requires quite a wily touch of the manipulation of the determinant instrument 'interest rates'. --No need re-inventing the wheel. The Germans developed one of the best prototypes to help their 'miracle' after the second world war! Could be modified and adapted to the East African economic zone. The euro was modelled on the D-mark matrix. But fatally Minus the central political control of monetary policy. Avoid corruption. When folks in charge of large amounts of money start to be cagey with figures, fire them. The southern states were found too late to be cooking the books! So an inspection system must work. Train highly skilled mathematical economists en mass, so you have a cheap body of competences which even for fun can crack the most complicated accounting ruses. Brussels have some of this hobbyists who, for instance, cracked the dutch shoddy budget in one week and sent theirr finance minister back to do his homework. Of course some of these mathematicians will go rogue, selling themselves to banks to come up with the kind of once brilliant schemes that lead to the so called 'toxic portfolios'! that eventually crashed banks like Lehman. But the most important thing. Explain yourself to your people. Actually the eurozone is rich enough to save herself. The problem is the citizens. They have no say in this grand institutions which push around their taxpayers money without consultation. Therefore they become hostile. Susceptible to myths like 'lazy ziesta southerners!' A currency without the support of those who generate the wealth it embodies, is a paper tiger. So, sister wa Amadi, bring the people along. Consult and listen and argue with them and let them in the decisions. Have referendums. (Not completely: some polls have shown EU citizens could accept the death sentence for bankers only!] So have selective referendums! ==================== By the way: the shilling was a very successful union currency for Kenya Uganda and Tanzania for a while before bad politics set in. We could just study how it worked then, and draw even more relevant lessons!
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Post by jakaswanga on Jun 10, 2012 19:29:43 GMT 3
It is as good as official now. They are asking for help from the Euro-stock to fill up their banks But that won't help as spain needs a radical reform. For example, you will find that, in summer many gastronomies and other service providers seek Employees from other European countries to cater for the millions of tourist in the afternoon when Spanish Nations are sleeping or in el Amore mood…and this when millions of young Spaniards are jobless. How can a country progress in the 21st century with cultures from the 16th century? Edit The spanish Government must gaurantee for 100 Billion Euro credit from the stock Kasuku my sister, you appear to be condemning the 'Zeuro Zone' in terms which I can only associate with the NeuroZone chauvinism ofblonde xenophobics! With their fantasies about the lazy greek and sleepy spaniard! wacha ubagusi wewe!
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Post by kasuku on Jun 11, 2012 11:16:42 GMT 3
It is as good as official now. They are asking for help from the Euro-stock to fill up their banks But that won't help as spain needs a radical reform. For example, you will find that, in summer many gastronomies and other service providers seek Employees from other European countries to cater for the millions of tourist in the afternoon when Spanish Nations are sleeping or in el Amore mood…and this when millions of young Spaniards are jobless. How can a country progress in the 21st century with cultures from the 16th century? Edit The spanish Government must gaurantee for 100 Billion Euro credit from the stock Kasuku my sister, you appear to be condemning the 'Zeuro Zone' in terms which I can only associate with the NeuroZone chauvinism ofblonde xenophobics! With their fantasies about the lazy greek and sleepy spaniard! wacha ubagusi wewe! Jakaswanga Those are your words...actually i never even thought in their terms... By the way, those you call Blonde Xenophobes (That’s really racism) are happy to lend the money to the Greeks and Spaniards as they earn from the interests. There is no Eurozone crises as such, its Business as usual as the Money finds its way back to the Lenders big Banks as they are the ones who fed the Mediterranean Banks with credits, which they knew very well that they won’t be able to pay back. One catastrope after another, without the end in site.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jun 12, 2012 18:28:36 GMT 3
Kasuku my sister, you appear to be condemning the 'Zeuro Zone' in terms which I can only associate with the NeuroZone chauvinism ofblonde xenophobics! With their fantasies about the lazy greek and sleepy spaniard! wacha ubagusi wewe! Jakaswanga Those are your words...actually i never even thought in their terms... By the way, those you call Blonde Xenophobes (That’s really racism) are happy to lend the money to the Greeks and Spaniards as they earn from the interests. There is no Eurozone crises as such, its Business as usual as the Money finds its way back to the Lenders big Banks as they are the ones who fed the Mediterranean Banks with credits, which they knew very well that they won’t be able to pay back. One catastrope after another, without the end in site. Kasuku, this quote from you: .... seek Employees from other European countries to cater for the millions of tourist in the afternoon when Spanish Nations are sleeping or in el Amore mood…and this when millions of young Spaniards are jobless. How can a country progress in the 21st century with cultures from the 16th century?*** Condemning 'Spanish Nations' as 16th century cultures vis-a-vis 21st century for the Northerlies! really sounds to me as coming with a lot of prejudice! But if you did not mean it that way. Sawa.
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Post by merlin on Jun 13, 2012 9:04:02 GMT 3
Integration of Europe is slowing down.
It is all about decision power. Are the citizens of the European countries prepared to shift political decision power to the European parliament or will they keep decision power at their National parliament?
Many citizens think they have more influence if the decision power stays at country level which is why they rejected the European Constitution in 2005. This thinking is not a rational evaluation though emotional. It has parallels with the emotional thinking of Kenyans who like to keep decision power within their tribe. The result is that decision power is weakening. The trouble with the monetary situation in the Euro zone is the direct result of the rejection of the European Constitution. The proposed European Constitution aimed to increase the decision power but not without strengthening the democratic check and balances to keep this decision power at the disposal of all the citizens of Europe.
The national political structures in Europe are well established. It is the balance of power of the citizens between social and liberal ideals. Voting is mainly issues based with well established democratically political party structures. However when it comes to voting for the European parliament the issue based voting changes to tribal (national) based. They vote for their National country representative and not for party ideals like liberal or social. This weakens Europe and in parallel with Kenya tribal based voting weakens Kenya.
With a good European constitution the citizens of Europe gain in influence regarding the decision power, like the citizens of Kenya will gain influence in the decision power when the constitution will be fully implemented.
The rejection of the European Constitution in 2005 was a failure for the citizens of Europe. Of course some powers do not want to give recognition to the citizens. The wheelers and dealers of corruption do not like to be accountable to the citizens and stoke the emotional tribal or national belly feelings of people like they do in Kenya. The answer is civic education bringing clarity to reality. What will your tribes’ man means for you though what will he obstruct or divert from you?
People in Europe have taken the good live for granted not being aware democracy is not a fixed state of affairs. Democracy has to be earned and defended. It will grow to a higher level and the European crises is a excellent stimulus to think about the European Community and what it means in reality for the individual citizen.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jun 15, 2012 18:47:38 GMT 3
TRUTHS THAT MUST NOT BE SPOKEN IN PUBLIC!
Angela Merkel, a hate figure in some southern papers where she is satirized with Hitler moustache, and hero in the north where she is termed the iron-lady, all but flipped in two recent speeches. One before the German parliament, another before a group of women representatives. Under intense pressure from the americans and an increasingly vocal coalition of problem countries who have found a spokesman in newly elected Hollande of France, she unleashed a barrage of counter-arguments with a passion which shocked even some of her german critics.
'Even German resources are not limitless. Germany is the leading economy and locomotive of Europe, but that position did not come by preaching and practicing irrelevant theories! Germany has undergone pain to be here! and the German worker continues to undergo pain to be here!'
'We are against universal eurobonds because they will reward mediocrity, because it means even states who do not have their books in order, will be borrowing money at the same interest rate as those who have their houses in order! This gives them no incentive to correct their situation, and, on the other hand, incites those who are doing better to hate the system ---and the euro! We reject the wrong debate where economic growth is put in direct opposition to budgetary austerity! European leaders are seeking the easy way out.. the lazy way out!'
Then, in a frontal attack, unprecedented within the Franco-German axis which is EU powerhouse, Angela Merkel let Hollande have it full: Let us, Europe, talk about the increasing difference in economic power between Germany and France! before anybody from 'wherever' gives me.. us.. germans lectures! Germany is the guarantor of stability and economic growth in europe! and fulfils her obligations without fail. --That last can not be said of our other european partners in the EU house!
In short. Merkel trashed Hollande. You are inferior and a junior partner. Grow up first, then talk! Brussels is in shock. The spin is she was speaking before a german audience in german in germany, so playing to the crowd for electoral purposes! But the truth is she is right!
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Post by merlin on Jun 16, 2012 0:01:26 GMT 3
Angela Merkel in front of the German voters will boost the image of the voters unlike our politicians who mainly brag about themselves. More important is the message Angela Merkel has for the rest of Europe. She sounded bitter at the international pressure being heaped on Berlin to save the euro by, for example, agreeing to guarantee the savings of bank depositors across the eurozone or yielding to the calls for common European liability for the borrowings of eurozone governments – eurobonds. "Seemingly simple ideas for pooling [debt] are not feasible constitutionally and totally counterproductive," Merkel declared in one of her strongest rejections to date of eurobonds. "They would turn mediocrity into Europe's yardstick. We would be abandoning our ambition of retaining our prosperity in worldwide competition." Berlin is incensed that eurozone debtor countries are clamouring for Germany to underwrite their borrowings but are reluctant to cede sovereign powers over fiscal and budgetary policy to Brussels in return. "Liability and control belong together," said Merkel, meaning that copper-bottomed, German-scripted intervention in other countries' budgets would need to be in place before Berlin eventually committed to opening its chequebook to rescue the euro and repair others' profligacy. "All other discussion amounts to a bogus solution of our problems." Read more: www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/14/angela-merkel-warning-eurozone-crisis?newsfeed=true
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Post by merlin on Jun 18, 2012 10:08:39 GMT 3
Greece ElectionsAlthough the New Democracy party won the largest share of the vote, it will have to rely on its discredited socialist rivals Pasok to form a coalition government to accept the bail-out, keeping Greece in the single currency. In his victory speech, Antonis Samaras leader of the New Democracy party, said Greece had “voted to stay in the euro”. He said: “We will not be reined by fear, and especially the sacrifices the Greek people have made will be realised.” Mr Samaras, vowed to create a pro-euro unity government and said Greece would honour its bail-out commitments. Read more: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9337683/Greece-election-vote-leaves-Euro-in-balance.html
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Post by merlin on Jun 18, 2012 11:40:22 GMT 3
Racist Western media portraying Europe negatively This week’s issue of Newsweek magazine has a photo of a euro, which is all breaking up, on its cover. On the left top corner is “Kaput?” On the top right “Finito?” On the bottom left corner “Fini?” And at bottom right, “The End?” You get the drift; the euro is finished, and the Eurozone economies are in the throes of death. If that had been a cover on an African currency, say one of the East African shillings, there would have been mini-riots, accusations of racism, and how the “Western media always portrays Africa negatively and callously,” By CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO The Nation.Read more: www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Racist+Western+media+portraying+Europe+negatively/-/434750/1429084/-/6k3g22/-/index.html
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Post by amadain on Jun 18, 2012 14:22:50 GMT 3
Merlin I was just about to post that link! Interesting read.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jun 23, 2012 12:07:05 GMT 3
ONLY ONE AGENDA: SAVING THE EURO. AS THE WORLD BOARD MEETS. BUT WHAT AN 'UNCOMFORTABLE ' VENUE FOR THE WORLD'S CEOS!Narco-state Mexico has just {18-19 June 2012} hosted a G20 summit at Los Cabos, at the tail of the Californian peninsular, a surreal resort tucked far away from the real Mexico. Perhaps it is no coincidence that she became host at this trying time in the North. Mexico, a curious mix of big crime, big business, big government, big corruption and big politics, is a unique success story. She is not in BRICS, but she packs a bigger punch than some in there. A [non certified] list of the 500 richest men in Latin America claimed 100 were 'Mexicans' in the drugs-trade. Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, comes from this country too. Mexico is where prosecutors still receive communiques [ narcomantas] to divulge what evidence they have against suspected drug mafiosi ETC. If they do not comply, their loved ones, relatives and children will be kidnapped on contract to be beheaded with electrical chain-saws, shredded in 'posho' mills, (concrete/aggregate makers]; or some other pecular form of 'Aztec death ritual' enacted upon them. Mexico is where they [used to] hire air-force choppers to drop drugs across the borders, producing millionair army generals ready to hire-out complete military fields and guard! She is not a failed state --there is so much loose money flowing around illegally in the economy, the finance minister can think of himself as a genius. In a global capitalism looking for some good news, Mexico tops the bill for now. The daily diet of gory murders at Ciudad Juarez and other border cities, are out of the news as the gathering of the cardinals of capitalism come to town. But Monterrey city is also the financial capital of Latin America. Even the bankers from Big Brazil come here to fine tune plans on how to set foot up North! ( Carlos Slim's America Movil has spearheaded a Latin American move to buy up Austrian and Dutch Telecoms, a move that has stunned the Europeans). legalnews.findlaw.com/article/0eZWeF7dQY94NThen there is just the horror size of the Mexico city itself, claiming 30 million inhabitants. And one of the oldest continuously lived cities on earth. Merkel met Obama one on one. Some of her advisors are on record as having described the american economy as needing a german fix. Barroso too lost his temper at a press conference, 'tired of useless lectures from those who initiated the global ciris in the first place!' With the american public debt at 103%, some economists would say that is a junk country like Italy! A debtors paradise. Most european countries are at 80% and below, except for the bail-out ones --Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Portugal --Generally known as PIIGS. Of course the USA firmly controls the dollar, and can run the printing press the much they want [creating artificial value] to pay off their obligations. That is why the debt ceiling was raised last year June: The Fed will never run out of dollars! And the size and enduring potential of the US economy is heavenly! The world knows it and beams confidence at the dollar, and holds the dollar in times of crisis, especially now that the competition, the euro, is in sick-bay with her so many pigs.But the germans say: wait a minute. It is not the Americans, it is the Chinese who control the dollar in a MAD [mutually assured destructive] embrace. 70% of chinese foreign currency reserves are in dollars, between 2.3 to 3 trillion dollars. China paying her international obligations in dollars, is what keeps the dollar from junk status. And china can not dump dollars, because a fall in the dollar is a self-inflicted mortal wound. Their astronomous reserve would become ' zimbabuean', causing a massive contraction in their economy. So they are stuck with the dollar, and the americans stuck with them. MAD. With this in mind, Merkel treats the Chinese as equals to the USA, which enrages the americans silently. Like Merkel saying while laughing: I cannot listen to Obama with both ears, there is Beijin too! When Obama press said: the solutions to the euro will firmly come from the eurozone. The german allowed herself an indulgent smile: some of our true friends have just realized theirs is just to talk! they have nothing else to contribute! It is a blessing Frau Merkel does not speak english! this allows the translations to sanitize and diffuse the venom in some of her quips. Why this nearly hostile tone from the iron lady? The answer is german public polls. The latest one says over 60% of germans will not accept an unconditional bailout for the PIIGS! Germany pays, germany has her way, they say. Which actually is European intergration toward a political union, and the end of the independent tribal homelands like France, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, but especially the PIGS of the South who, apparently, have no aptitude for financial management! Just like Obama too is worried about his chances at re-election with a stagnating economy, Merkel too has to constantly look over her shoulders at the electorate and her coalition partners! But what emerged in Los Cabos is the de facto recognition of the German head of state as the Chief of the EU. What Hitler could not do by millitary means, the Germans have now done by economic prowess. And it is this emergence of Germany which now again threatens the EU. Many of these european tribes, just like the Kenyan tribes fear the Kikuyu domination, live in morbid fear and distrust of German dominance. But they are beggas and have not much choice. END THIS MONTH, THE VAN ROMPUY-BARROSO SAVING THE EURO PLAN COMES TO PRESS.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jul 1, 2012 17:42:55 GMT 3
A HIGH RISK GAME WITH THE EU-CITIZEN AS THE LOOSER. The mass of Europeans can only understand their current politics when packaged in old folklore. Tales from the days of lawlessness and banditry, and Shakespearean court intrigues. So opaque, so undemocratic, so shrouded in mystery are the EU institutions (and the going-ons inside them), that they resemble the medieval Vatican with its divine mandate to run a mafiosi-type reli-order. From there the metaphor of white or black smoke rising over Brussels as the €uro-curia meets. And financial markets with the firing nerves of a addict denied substance. (Few Europeans know for instance, how EU commissioners are hired; what gives Van Rompuy and Barroso their power, nor to whom they account; what the EU parliament does relative to their national ones. In common discourse, this is called THE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT OF THE EU. Now the limits of the system are in sight as it creaks. But up to now it has worked well enough, so was not fixed) Yes, inside the EU boardroom goes on a cloak-&-dagger game with blackmails, rapes, skulduggery, chivalrous knights, Don-Quixote type stop-gap measures; court idiots, a battery of minions, and of course bored journalists drowning in cynicism. But these are decisions that involve sums of money worth staying awake for. ... Trillions of euros, and the future of a continent. A continent of suspicious, perplexed citizens who keep on hearing about a rising monster called BRICS set against their humbled PIIGS. They feel hunted. Aware their elite can not arrest the decline soon. BRUSSELS THURSDAY 28-06-2012. The Italian premier held a knife to Merkel's neck, as Hollande of France and Rajos of Spain, stripped off her clothes. Angela was intimidated and molested, Germany dishonoured. Humiliated like at the infamous treaty at V, which some say gave rise later to Hitler. That is one tabloid version.The bankrupt PIIGs of the south, forced the paymaster Germany to concede to their every demand. The iron lady capitulated. It was Angela meltdown. A solitary Germany routed. Let us break it down.The EU has two rescue funds, popularly called bailout pots. [1] The ESM (european stability mechanism), PERMANENT. [2] The European FinancIAL Stability Facility. EFSF. {sometimes called: Europe Finance Stability Fund].TEMPORARY. ===================================================== @copyright EUROPA.EU The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is planned as an institution to manage a permanent rescue funding programme following the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) in the 17-member Eurozone. The ESM is due to be launched as soon as Member States representing 90% of the capital commitments have ratified it, which is expected in July 2012.[1] It will be established in Luxembourg and will replace the provisional programmes in the Euro rescue package www.efsf.europa.eu/about/index.htmThe European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) was created by the euro area Member States following the decisions taken on 9 May 2010 within the framework of the Ecofin Council. The EFSF’s mandate is to safeguard financial stability in Europe by providing financial assistance to euro area Member States. EFSF is authorised to use the following instruments linked to appropriate conditionality: •Provide loans to countries in financial difficulties •Intervene in the debt primary and secondary markets. Intervention in the secondary market will be only on the basis of an ECB analysis recognising the existence of exceptional financial market circumstances and risks to financial stability •Act on the basis of a precautionary programme •Finance recapitalisations of financial institutions through loans to governments To fulfill its mission, EFSF issues bonds or other debt instruments on the capital markets. EFSF is backed by guarantee commitments from the euro area Member States for a total of €780 billion and has a lending capacity of €440 billion. EFSF has been assigned the best possible credit rating by Moody’s (Aaa) and Fitch Ratings (AAA). EFSF has been assigned a AA+ rating by Standard & Poor’s. EFSF is a Luxembourg-registered company owned by Euro Area Member States. It is headed by Klaus Regling, former Director-General for economic and financial affairs at the European Commission. www.european-council.europa.eu/media/582311/05-tesm2.en12.pdf-- COPYRIGHT EUROPA.EUThe Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) is a rule-based framework for the coordination of national fiscal policies in the economic and monetary union (EMU). It was established to safeguard sound public finances, an important requirement for EMU to function properly. The Pact consists of a preventive and a dissuasive arm. --@copyright EUROPA.EU ====================================================== STABILITY AND GROWTH PACT and GERMAN ORTHODOXY:This [SGP] is a key tenet in the persuasion of Germany to underwrite Europe. And Merkel, doing political deals in Germany with the opposition, had already traded and promised this was the line of defence. She could not negotiate it away in Brussels. It would be her undoing in Brussels, the Achilles heel the Italian premier and former banker Monti would use to blackmail her, to pin her down. (Sometimes when, in cartoons, Merkel is depicted as an SM 'domina' in black leather, the whip she wields on the naked butts of the PIIGS, has the brand name SGP, made in Allemania!)So the treacherous and egoistic southerners threatened to block the SGP unless Merkel relented on her other iron demands. In effect they were threatening to end her political career in Germany. I suspect down the line somewhere they will be payback. Merkel must turn this defeat into a tactical retreat. So with gritted teeth Merkel consented to: 1. Easy money from the bailout fund ESM --without austerity and the pain of Troika supervision. 2. Recapitalization. Direct money to banks from ESM --after the European banking supervisory mechanism is in place. Under the auspices of the ECB, but with German veto. [Germany will probably use this veto with vengeful impunity]. Point No. 2 means EU-wide shared liability, (the deposits of all european citizens gambled away?) while the southern beneficiaries maintain their freedom to squander, as they have done in the past to cause this crisis! The rotten PIG banks are getting fresh money risk free. (Well, they are too big to fail, as they would, in domino effect, sink a whale of french banks, then, god forbid, german banks. For so goes the financial web.) It also means the rates at which Italy and Spain borrow money from the financial markets go down. But it also means Greece, seeing the preferential treatment meted out to the Spaniards and Italians, can sulk and try their own hand at emotional blackmail to have their stringent austerity regime relaxed. (Greece is under the Troika boot! Spain under the Troika boot would be suicidal, because of Iberian pride! it would equate Spain to Bangladesh!) =========== WHEN THE GOING GOT VERY TOUGH! A TABLOID IMPRESSION OF IMPERIAL BRUSSELS 28/6/12 There was a scuffle between Berlusconi-successor Mario Monti and Herman van Rompuy, as the Italian threw a temper tantrum. 'I am not going back to Italy without measures to brow-beat inflation and interest rates on Italian bonds!' he yelled, blocking van Rompuy's dash from the conference room. The Belgian wanted to conclude phase one the meeting, go home for a shower and have his beer and at the local cafe, watch footbal with his fellow flamish speakers. They call it gezelligheid. A holy concept. Helle Thorning, PM of Denmark, was shocked, and then irate: 'Are we now hostages of this dumb mafia banker? The viking blood in her fumed! Marion Rajoy of Spain, the S in the PIIG, lept to his feet and took a stand beside the Italian. 'I too is not endorsing the growth pact unless, [he stammered] unless we float together with Italy! Otherwise 'basta' the euro we all sink!' The Fin scornfully whispered in the ears of the besieged Merkel: 'these are children Angela, treat them like you would your grandchildren!' 3 hours later, 1030 pm, Van Rompuy, his usual cool gone, said he was going to the press center to make an announcement anyway. To cool the nerves of the journalists snoring or watching footbal on TV. Merkel told him to lie, by announcing the SGP [growth-pact] had been passed. No, shouted Francois Hollande! 'Tell the damn truth!' So the seasoned Belgian diplomat went before the press and announced an 'interim stop'! The journalists gaped at him. 'Well, the growth pact would be passed, but another conclusive round of negotiations would be needed!' the Belgian substantiated. At 4:40 am Friday, Angela capitulated and the southerners carted her off to bed to collectively enjoy her favours. At 5:00 am friday morning, a grinning Monti emerged from the bedroom, buttoned his trousers, took a Mario Balotelli pose after the second goal against Germany, and said making a meal of Germans is an Italian speciality, especially ones named Mario! Meanwhile the degraded Merkel has had her concessions ratified by two houses of parliament. The peoples assembly, bundestag, and the assembly of the constituent states. Now the formality of the supreme court awaits her.And the bankrupt southerners? No worries, they are off to Ukraine to watch football finals. Lazy piigs! The parasites of the south have done good business, sinking their proboscis deeper into the German purse. 'Now they off to a foobal party, and we Germans off to work for them! Mama Angela you hear me your kids are hurting.'! To date, Germany has been compliant, letting herself be blackmailed by her holocaust past. I do not think that game can continue much longer. Germany is evolving toward normalcy, and soon may have a prime minister who can behave like these minions from the south, or even David Cameron.David Cameron just stormed out of an EU summit and drove turbo to the airport and off to London. He felt that was in the best interests of Great Britain. The day a German chancellor does that! Even the UN will collapse! Watch this space.
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Post by jakaswanga on Aug 12, 2012 11:37:23 GMT 3
WHERE IS THE FABLED BAZOOKA? OOPS, THE ITALIAN WAS BLUFFING!It was a week of high expectations on the €urozone, followed by a disappointment. A top, hot bull had promised a ripe heifer the best of her bed-times, only to exit the theater of operations without bequeathing himself worthy. Hera has her wiles of taming Zeus, the god of the thunderbolt. A marked depression followed. . The Chairman of the €CB, the Italian Draghi, promised the financial world (and everybody else who cared to listen), that the €uropean Central Bank would do everything it took to save the €uro. The markets, showing how desperate they had become for some assurance, however fictitious, jumped up with a flash of adrenaline, believing this was a promise of the hyped and much fabled bazOOka. The rates on the Italian and Spanish bonds shot down (by 0.6 points), making money cheaper to borrow for those practically bankrupt twins. But the Italian was playing a game he could not win. Bluffing like a stray dog at wild winds. Everything to save the Euro means some very fundamental changes. The biggest is the granting of a banking license to the rescue fund ESM, so that it can have a limitless heap of cash to buy bonds, and bailout the bankrupt countries, aka PIIGS. This is called the printing press option, which is the American dollar model. ( The USA will never run out of money --that is the economic theory. Congress just passes a law to raise the debt ceiling and the printing press rolls: let there be money and there was money!). Europe banned this at the treaty of Maastricht, calling it the monetarist waterloo. An inflationary paradise which Germany --for historical reasons, the Benelux, and the Scandinavian twins Denmark and Finland, are fiercely opposed to. But Draghi and the other Si€sta-zone supremos thought they have a quorum and majority vote to force a backdoor at the €CB high command (boardroom) in Frankfurt. Nyet, thundered the Germans (and their N€uro-zone allies). The 2nd thing would be a freer €CB, European Central Bank, operating more independently of the constituent countries --that is ridding themselves of political control. But this is an impossible ideological option right in the thick the banking{Libor $ €uribor crises, following on the heels of yet another banking crisis {Subprime and toxic portfolios}. And indeed the German finance minister and governor of the Bundesbank, have sternly opposed these options. in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/31/eurozone-esm-germany-idINB4E8HB02F20120731 [Germany against banking license to ESM / EFSF] The result is that on thursday August 9, a lame and tame Draghi faced the press to say 'we are in motion but making no progress', with other words. That is there are things the EU wont do to save the euro. Saving the euro is still PRECONDITIONAL. Back to where we were last week, and the months before. The markets went into depression. Greece practically ran out of money and had to be saved by a handout. NB: 1. A European independent monitoring body has written to the ECB saying Draghi belongs to a select private club called the club of 30, which seeks to influence global finance policy outside transparency, and that his membership of this exclusive, secretive club, is in conflict with his public duty as the chairman of the European central bank.2. Draghi and Monti used to work for Morgan Stanley, and have occasionaly appeared defensive to questions interrogating this past. Morgan Stanley gave Greece large credits, while at the same time betting Greece would default, and offering insurance against the same! And of course it was the greek elite --(who have since jumped ship and shipped all their money offshore)-- who bought this insurance and made a killing! Ordinary greeks did not know their country had to collapse anyway!People in the North, Scandinavia, Germany and the Benelux are much more aware of what bankers like Draghi and Monti can do with you and your money and your country if you are not looking and trusts them! They are very very wary. Their public pressure is to cut loose the PIIGS. PS: (This is the Draghi who was the architect of laws in Italy that blurred the original distinction between Commercial and Investment banks, copied from this Bill-Clinton signed Act en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act. This was the total deregulation of the banking sector, what I call the the historical stamp of Reaganomics in finance. A Thatcherite flagship. This deregulation is now being accused, by hind sight, of being the architect of banking scandals like the Libor/Euribor. Rate rigings which have now destroyed the reputations of Western To Bankers.) Here is a brief look at how the separation originally was regulated in law in the USA. The famous Glass-Steagall Act of post depression America. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act ) Danish, Dutch, Belgian and German coalition financial experts from across all parties have cut short their summer holidays to meet and state: they will veto the move to grant the ESM a banking license. Operation curing debt with more debt, they call it. If possible, why bother save? But on the other side is the ghost of 1930-1932 Chancellor of Germany, Heinrich Bruning, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Br%C3%BCning whose stringent austerity package of economic policies ushered in the the Nazi take over in 1933. But The euro-blues continue.Bank of France has posted projections for a continual recession July through september 2012, at a contraction of 0.1%. The Trend is still downwards from Sarkozy days, whose nickname, Turbo Sarko, is now referred to as acceleration toward the abyss . And Olande Francois? he can promise miracles, but he can deliver non. Italy's ISTAT --national bureau of statistics, has posted a 2.5% decline in GDP two years in a row. That is a structural recession more like Spain. The banker Monti is just another clown in power, like Berlusconi. Just another Pied Piper of Italy. Meanwhile Obama in his re-election speeches has found it convenient to blame the sluggish €uroland economy for the USA's defaulting performance. While the challenger Mitt Romney of course blames Obama's misguided policies! Paul Ryan on his maiden speech as running mate in Norfolk Virgina, where Romney introduced him as the next POTUS, oops, painted a picture of Obama as the worst manager of the american economy since the invention of the concept! But those are American blues for another thread. NB: All 4 previous winners of the European banker of the year award are now disgraced. Former CEO UBS of Switzerland; Former CEO ABN-AMRO of the Netherlands; Former CEO of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland); former CEO Barclays; and now the CEO of Standard $ Chartered who is negotiating to avoid criminal procecution in the USA. (The state of New York has just stopped short of banning his bank from operating there. HSBC, the biggest bank in the World based in London, is of course thick in the Libor.) Watch this space.
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Post by jakaswanga on Mar 23, 2013 11:42:37 GMT 3
EURO FALLS TO YEAR LOWEST RELATIVE THE DOLLAR, OVER CYPRUS.This is now a bit of a non topic for Kenya, yet I see some relevance. William Ruto may want to pay close attention to the crisis in Cyprus, as he prepares to assume FULLY the finance docket, and possibly deal with a little pinch on the shilling, --a mild pinch which would be the consequence of Western frowns on his, with UK, conjoined ascendancy. What do you do when your govt is totally out of money and your country faces bankruptcy? A bankruptcy which includes the collapse of the banking sector, with 3 largest banks going bust in one week? ---And God is not answering your prayers however you shriek and flow down many a tear? as Ruto is wont to do when in shock and awed?www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/18/us-markets-forex-idUSBRE92E11120130318That is the crisis facing the decision-makers of Cyprus. Trusted solution is always to expropriate the citizens. But account holders, who have not been able to access their money for one week in an economy which has gone cash only, charged a police barricade. And the police dared not club down middle class types flashing only their 5 golden credit cards! No political elite running a capitalist regime would survive that: the murder of depositors demanding to access their money at the bank. The Cypriots, running to the bank to remove their savings which, 'however small', faced a 6% forced tax, found all ATMs disabled by order of the ministry of finance, and all banks closed. Now one week long as the President and Minister of Finance beg around for a Savior. Now, Kamalet just randomly I a pick a name , if you have some friends with several millions stashed in three leading Kenyan banks, and one day they wake up to hear Ruto saying 10% is taxed [to help button a whole in state finances]; and any cash withdrawal above 100K will be 20% taxed on the spot, how much confidence would they have in Jubilee govt? Meanwhile the Cypriots have made a daring blackmail move. They have appealed directly to Putin and Russia to come bail them out. Gone East! ;D It would give Russia control of a big banking sector at the heart of the EU and Eurozone: Can Germany and France handle that? But Putin has decided to hold out, preferring instead to use Cyprus as a bargaining chip to evoke more concessions from the EU on other planes which are his priorities!Meanwhile the realisation that being within the euro-zone does not guarantee a depositors cash in the bank, has catalysed the likelihood of a bank-run in the remaining weaker Southern economies! Tough times for guardians of the euro! But there is another story to this story. Angela Merkel has decided this could be a scientific opportunity to study the EXIT of a country from the Euro. This is a controlled simulation, limited in scope, which can then be used to fine-tune the management of a real big Exit, like that of Greece, GREXIT, would be. Or even, God forbid, Iberexit --the exit of Spain. The parliament of Kupros has been in permanent session for one week. There is a bullet on the table from Brussels, they just have to bite it. It was quite a spectacle, Royal Air-force Carriers laden with bales and bales of hard-cash, flown to British essential personnel on the island of Kupros! Royal Air-cash! Air infuse they grinned! I suggest we keep a look at the going ons at the Central Bank of Cyprus. Lessons, lessons. Where is the manna from heaven falling?
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