Ironies Too

Greek Church Head writes to EU Placeman on "Deadly Austerity"

2012-02-02T17:11:00.002Z

Ekathimerini has a full report on the complaint by Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of the Church of Greece, to the former ECB Vice President and man placed to oversee the destruction of his own country by the EU, Lucas Papademos, regarding more austerity and the disgraceful actions of the so-called Troika within his one-time nation, read here.

It is hard to believe the complete disinterest with which these events are met in the mainstream media across the EU:

“Greeks’ unprecedented patience is running out, fear is giving way to rage and the danger of a social explosion cannot be ignored any more, neither by those who give orders nor by those who execute their deadly recipes,” he wrote....

In what seemed a response to suggestions that a European budget commissioner be appointed in Greece, the archbishop challenged the prospect of Greece giving up sovereignty over its decision-making process.

“It seems clear now that our homeland’s drama will not finish here but may take on new, uncontrollable, dimensions,” he wrote.

“There are, at the moment, demands for even tougher, more painful and even more unfair measures along the same ineffective and unsuccessful lines as in our recent past,

“There are demands for even bigger doses of a medicine which is proving deadly. There are demands for commitments that do not solve the problem but only put off temporarily the foretold death of our economy. Meanwhile, the put our national sovereignty up for collateral.

“They mortgage our wealth but also the wealth we could obtain from our land and seas. They mortgage freedom, democracy and national dignity.”

Commentators said it was almost unprecedented for an archbishop to intervene so forcefully in political and economic issues.

French Presidential Candidate François Hollande tells the truh!

2012-02-02T12:08:00.000Z

“A treaty which isn’t yet ratified has not got any legal value”

Ayn Rand's Birthday - The Great Oak Tree

2012-02-02T10:06:00.000Z

I have posted this passage without the final paragraph on this blog before. I repeat on Ayn Rand's birthday which falls today:

The great oak tree had stood on a hill over the Hudson, in a lonely spot of the Taggert estate. Eddie Willers, aged seven, liked to come and look at that tree. It had stood there for hundreds of years, and he thought it would always stand there. Its roots clutched the hill like a fist with fingers stuck into the soil, and he thought if a giant were to seize it by the top, he would not be able to uproot it, but would swing the hill and the whole of the earth with it, like a ball at the end of a string. He felt safe in the oak tree's presence; it was a thing that nothing could change or threaten; it was his greatest symbol of strength.

One night, lightning struck the oak tree. Eddie saw it the next morning. It lay broken in half, and he looked into its trunk as into the mouth of a black tunnel. The trunk was only an empty shell; its heart had rotted away long ago; there was nothing inside - just a thin gray dust that was being dispersed by the whim of the faintest wind. The living power had gone, and the shape of it left had not been able to stand without it.

***

“It was an immense betrayal – the more terrible because he could not grasp what it was that had been betrayed. It was not himself, he knew, nor his trust; it was something else. He stood there for a while, making no sound, then he walked back to the house. He never spoke about it to anyone, then or since.”

Lombard report on impoverishment of Dutch and Germans to end EU!

2012-02-02T08:39:00.001Z

The morning newspaper from the Franco/Dutch island of St Maarten has an Opinion article which opened as follows yesterday:

Opinion: Wilders and the end of the euro

POSTED: 02/1/12 12:45 PM
In a couple of days the British economic research bureau Lombard Street Research will publish a report about the re-introduction of the Dutch guilder. The report was commissioned by the Freedom Party PVV. Observers expect that the report will blow up the eurozone within the next couple of months.
It remains to be seen whether this will really happen. Lombard is a known euro-critic. Its director Charles Dumas compared the eurozone a couple of weeks ago in London with a suicide pact.
According to Dumas, staying in the eurozone will cost taxpayers every year around €15 billion ($19.6 billion), while the tab for a country like Germany will be something like €60 billion ($78.5 billion).
And these are conservative estimates, Dumas added for good measure in an interview in the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. He said that Greece and Portugal will have to leave the eurozone, and to expect that the Netherlands and Germany will leave in a hurry because if they don’t they will have to keep paying for the southern-European countries.

More on this interesting report may be read from this link.

Fiscal Compact Treaty Problems

2012-02-02T07:43:00.001Z

There will be no deadline imposed upon the Irish Attorney General on deciding whether the Fiscal Compact Treaty will require a referendum, the Irish Times informs us this morning. In Denmark, ironically the rotating six monthly Presidency holding ex-nation, the question of whether or not a referendum must be held is also up for debate.

In France the political difficulties seem to be the most severe, see EU Observer, linked here. The present Upper House of their Parliament has refused to endorse it, although that might be solved in elections due later this year. More serious, particularly when added to the Upper House's rejection, is the whole question of the legality of President Sarkozy signing the deal in March as planned, in the face of the stated views of the present frontrunner, the socialist Presidential candidate François Hollande, that he does not agree with it and will re-negotiate it. The same linked article also covers the problems the matter is causing the Czech Republic following their proposed non-signature of the non- EU deal..

Considerable furore for a thoroughly worthless document, that will affect nothing as regards the present crisis, as it appears to this observer!

ECB should hand its discount on bonds to Athens, Lisbon & Dublin?

2012-02-02T07:20:00.001Z

An iteresting discussion on the horrendous mess in which the ECB has landed itself and us, is on Acting Man blog this morning, linked here. A taste of the matters considered comes from this quote:

What this once again demonstrates is that the fate of interventionist policy as a rule is that it provokes a slew of unintended consequences. Once these rear their head, it is held that new interventions must be implemented to fix what the original ones have broken.

On the one hand it seems almost blindingly obvious that the ECB as a public institution should be prepared to forego a profit it will make on the backs of Greece's citizens who are already faced with unbearable economic conditions and a plethora of new taxes. Alas, it is equally clear then that it can not treat Greece as a 'special case'. Portugal and Ireland are no less deserving of getting a break – if anything, they are more deserving, as they at least did what the Greek government to this day has failed to do, namely meet the targets set out by the bailout program.

There is an interesting and quite elegant solution to the problem however due to how the euro-system of central banks is structured:

“The ECB doesn't need to take formal action to alleviate Greece's bond burden. National central banks hand their profits over to their respective governments, although they keep some for capital buffers. The Bundesbank distributed €2.2 billion to Berlin in 2010. It was twice that the previous year. Governments could simply decide that profits they receive from Greek bonds be earmarked for Athens. "The ECB could say is it's up to the shareholders on what to do with the profits," said Mr. Schulz.”

This blog continues to believe that in the long (if not even the short to medium run) the real problem for the ECB will not be the matter of profits on all its worthless pieces of paper it has bought or stood behind during the crisis, but rather which of its shareholders will eventually be stuck with the very real losses.

The above discussion therefore is included for its very surreal nature to provide some much needed early morning amusement amongst the bitter cold and generally gloomy news!

Farage warns Van Rompuy and Barosso over Greece/Portugal misery!

2012-02-01T20:29:00.000Z

Subsequently there was a dispute about this speech, see my post and video immediately beneath this posting.

Farage vs Schultz - the UKIP story and video

2012-02-01T20:00:00.003Z

The UKIP report of the row in the EU Parliament early this evening is here.

UPDATE 2023 GMT: The speech that caused the protest may be viewed from here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eLJEWZ7Kk&feature=youtu.be

Farage halted in mid speech, storms from EU Parliament

2012-02-01T18:16:00.001Z

The report from AFP is linked here. Video will be linked on this blog when available.The following is a brief extract:

Outspoken British MEP Nigel Farage stormed out of the European Parliament on Wednesday after its German chair cut him off in mid-flight for comparing Berlin's ideas for Greece to Nazi control.
During a post-EU summit debate featuring top bloc leaders, Farage criticised a leaked German plan for EU control of Greek public spending, saying bailed out Athens was already practically an EU "colony, a terrible huge mistake."

Facts on the ESM signing from Malta

2012-02-01T15:42:00.001Z

The ESM may be signed tomorrow as it has been effectively almost completely neutered, contrary to my posting of earlier this afternoon, and the reference in the linked report from Malta HERE, that it is effectively a European IMF, is clearly risible nonsense!

As I stated earlier, even though it is supposed to be in effect from July it does require parliamentary ratification from all signatories, but the toughest is already there, that being from Finland which has obtained its price in unanimity of decision making!

The signing ceremony will be at Representative level and take place tomorrow. Originally, the ESM was meant to come into effect next year, but its appearance on the markets has been hastened and it will come into effect in July.
Dr Gonzi said the treaty will have to be ratified by member state Parliaments, including Malta’s, by next year.

My original statement that it was planned to commence before it had been signed seems effectively true, though perhaps, in view of the worthless Representative signatures, I should amend that to "legal effect".

Von Rompuy States ESM signing tomorrow

2012-02-01T14:32:00.000Z

If the ESM is signed tomorrow, a complete change with what we were informed after Monday's summit/informal EU Council, it still cannot have legal effect without ratification, surely that requires national parliamentary approval, as the fund as originally established can create unlimited obligations against the supposed sovereign nation signatories??????

EVR's Tweet:

euHvR Herman Van Rompuy

#ESM Treaty to be signed tomorrow so that it can take effect from July 2012.This permanent firewall will help prevent contagion in Euroarea

The Emperor has no clothes (reposted from 8th July 2008)

2012-02-01T09:56:00.000Z

The following is quoted from here, on a report by ING warning of the consequences of a Euro currency collapse. Loose lips could sink entire economies if European policy makers continue to question publicly the survival of the euro zone, according to ING economists.

To show what is at stake, the Dutch bank has helpfully attempted to "quantify the unthinkable." Even an exit by Greece would hurt the whole currency bloc, they calculate. But a complete collapse would dwarf the impact of the Lehman bankruptcy: Output would drop by between 4% and 9% in the various states in the first year. German bond yields would head below 1%, while southern European rates would head for 7% to 12%, and the new Spanish peseta, Portuguese escudo and Irish pound would devalue by 50% against the new Deutschmark. Meanwhile, the rush into the U.S. dollar would likely cause a bout of deflation there. The euro zone may be far from an optimal currency area, but suboptimal is far from bad. overheard@wsj.com

Naturally the consequences of a Euro breakdown will be severe, that was always known, but they were deemed worth risking by the power-crazed federalists intent upon imposing "economic governance" namely totalitarian non-democratic rule across the whole of Europe! Which European leader will have the courage to voice the fact now recognised by ordinary citizens across the Continent, that like the Emperor in Hans Christian Anderson's tale, the end of which is quoted below, the euro currency is naked and worthless, extending its life will only bring greater misery than the ING report could begin to imagine. A child, however, who had no important job and could only see things as his eyes showed them to him, went up to the carriage.

"The Emperor is naked," he said.

"Fool!" his father reprimanded, running after him. "Don't talk nonsense!" He grabbed his child and took him away. But the boy's remark, which had been heard by the bystanders, was repeated over and over again until everyone cried:

"The boy is right! The Emperor is naked! It's true!"

The Emperor realized that the people were right but could not admit to that. He though it better to continue the procession under the illusion that anyone who couldn't see his clothes was either stupid or incompetent. And he stood stiffly on his carriage, while behind him a page held his imaginary mantle.

Remember it was EU Commission President Barroso, one of three such EU Presidents, who recently claimed that EU spending was superior to national expenditure and that the EU budget should remain exempt from austerity cuts. How many Germans facing yesterday's announced budget cuts this morning feel such sacrifices will continue to be worthwhile for their Spanish footballing conquistadors? How many in Britain, the second largest EU contributor, but outside the eurozone, will still feel the present economic sacrifices worthwhile when the corrupted mainstream medias' propaganda campaign is eventually exposed. Money spent on or by the EU is apparently only worthwhile when expanding the power and influence of those within the Brussels or possibly Belgian bubble, or elsewhere when receiving the EU's pay or pension, there the power hungry federalists feed off the fast dwindling wealth of Europe's former nation states. The EU is exactly like the Emperor in the fairy tale, indeed was it also not Barroso who recently claimed that the EU is now an Empire? Maybe so, but with three naked emperors at its head, can it long survive? We must all hope not, for no meaningful steps towards worldwide economic recovery will be possible as long as its inherent madness remains unrecognised by the world's elites.

Knights for the knackers.

2012-02-01T08:34:00.001Z

Yesterday's decision, by a Committee apparently including several senior civil servants, represents the chance for Britain to finally shake off some of the sickness deeply embedded in its society and system of governance.

This blog has for some time been calling for the bringing to account of certain of the most outrageous examples of the deep corruption at the top of our civil service. Of course matters cannot be left to rest with those individuals alone, but it is an ideal place for the next steps to be taken after the shredding of Sir Fred Goodwin, upon which I commented yesterday.

Two candidates for immediate consideration for having their knighthood's removed already selected by this blog for earlier consideration are Sir John Cunliffe, here and here, and Sir John Chilcot the first of many posts on whom is here. A third individual may be a better first case, however, in view of the appalling mess that has been allowed to develop at the Ministry of Defence, where waste and inefficiency and over-staffing is endemic. I do not know the individual(s) concerned but Dr Liam Fox probably has a good grasp of those facts. The deaths of how many servicemen and women might have been saved had the mandarins in charge of the MOD over recent years, either had ability or a shred of managerial ability let alone decency and a normally developed conscience?

In considering Sir John Cunliffe, the case for which has been considerably strengthened since the EU Council meeting in Brussels this Monday, I recommend reading this posting from Kosmopolito titled Cameron's diplomatic failure on his treacherous performance in Brussels, from which I quote this passage in particular:

Cameron’s misjudgment

Both, Die Welt and The Economist have similar stories about what exactly happened during the summit. It turns out that Cameron misjudged the mood among fellow leaders during the summit. Cameron thought that the ‘Protocol 12′ solution was the preferred method for the eurozone – giving him leverage through a unanimous decision-making procedure. Bagehot thinks Cameron overplayed his hand, others said he lost his gamble (or verzockt as Udo van Kampen called it on German TV) However, if he had listened to what politicians, diplomats and media commentators in Germany or France said during the last weeks he should have known better. Plus he had no allies, hence his isolation was not a surprise. Simply put, Cameron is not in the loop, maybe because he pulled out of the EPP… In any case, his advisors should be sacked.
Cameron is not a diplomat and I am not sure he actually enjoys summits. Deep in his heart he is a eurosceptic (although the UK government has followed a pragmatic EU policy) but he comes across as arrogant and bossy. Especially during the eurozone crisis a sense of schadenfreude dominated the UK’s rhethoric. The UK’s bilateral relations with EU member states have not been sufficiently developed. Cameron is like a robot in this respect. Whatever the issue somewhere in Europe he starts his monologue about British interests and why the EU is such a bad idea. This is hardly a good starting point for a constructive debate. Moreover, it seems difficult for him to build personal relationships with other European leaders – a necessity to win an argument at a summit.

Here lies the clue to another new dawn that has arrived today, as Alistair Darling's strident protests on the Radio 4 Today make clear that he has fully grasped, that being that after the smarmy, slimy, self-satisfied and thoroughly disgusting senior civil servants have their worst examples shorn of their honours, as night follows day so must go their ill-gotten gains and following that come the real villains, who should have been in charge of these opportunistic incompetents, the politicians themselves!

More Ironies Too posts on Britain's corrupt civil service are here.

Santander struggles.

2012-01-31T20:46:00.001Z

It was 11th October 2008 that I first appear to have posted on the worrying condition of Santander, though I believe if I trawled my archives more thoroughly I would find earlier posts than these.

Today the truth began to seep out on this Spanish Bank, read here, the amazing thing is how long it has taken for the obvious to be declared.

Banker stripped of Knighthood, now for the Mandarins!

2012-01-31T17:09:00.001Z

Brilliant news that the former head of the RBS Bank, Sir Fred Goodwin has been stripped of his Knighthood, merely for improperly carrying out his job improperly, like a mass of Civil Servants carrying undeserving of their titles!

Go to it, the outrage will win through now the barrier is broken!

ESM to enter into effect before its Treaty signed

2012-01-31T09:51:00.000Z

The ESM, which will take over the role of the EFSF, was agreed yesterday by the Euro Group to enter into effect in July this year, but the Treaty governing financial contributions will not be signed until some time later! Read Reuters from here.

So which member state will be able to legally allocate funds for its use, or lend to it AND if any did, which national leader would be sufficiently stupid so to do?

Only ones daft enough to describe a Treaty agreed at an informal meeting as signed or one not yet signed as binding, many things I have heard and said myself about the EU, but never that it was a place such as the Baltic Exchange, where one's word was one's bond!

EU Press Announcement on Fiscal Treaty binds entire EU

2012-01-31T08:21:00.001Z

The Press Release is here.

Although it states the Agreement was made at an informal meeting of the Council (by means of a footnote) it elsewhere and everywhere implies it is an EU Agreement and thus by implication binding upon all EU members. No mention is made of the absence of Britain and the Czech Republic from the agreeement.

Such devious trickery is typical of the entire institution of the EU which is why the Britiah people must demand their country's complete withdrawal!

I suggest attention be particularly given to the following paragraph:

The new treaty also contains provisions on the coordination and convergence of member states' economic policies and on governance of the euro area. In particular, Euro Summit meetings will take place at least twice a year.

(Emphasis and colour of 'and' added by Ironies Too blogger).

OK a press release is not legally binding, but the depths of the corruption that allows such serial lying and deviousness is thoroughly indicative of the prevailing immorality!

The farcical foolishness of the fantasy fiscal compact

2012-01-31T08:00:00.001Z

Are the twenty five national leaders of the EU countries that last evening announced they had agreed the terms of a new treaty establishing a fiscal union really expecting their parliaments and peoples to take them at their word?

Can we really believe that these leaders have seriously decided to put aside their main tool of governance over recent decades, namely deficit spending, and set that prohibition in concrete in their constitutions or equivalent national guiding provisions? Are the economics of Keynes really to be banned across the entirety of the territory temporarily controlled by these transient tinkerers?

Of course not! Take France, one of the prime movers of this farce. Its Upper Legislative Body has already ruled any such law as unconstitutional and will refuse any debate on the topic. President Sarkozy behind in the polls, the day before he gave his assent to this nonsense immediately scrapped a large tax on employers to be financed by a VAT rise only to come into effect months later, thus assuredly increasing the French deficit yet further. His Presidential opponent, well ahead in the polls, after next May has rejected the very concept of the fiscal compact. So why has Merkozy wasted the time of 25 other EU leaders in even further debating this nonsens, as they did yesterday, while the real crisis, as pointed out below, in Greece, Portugal and Hungary worsened by the hour?

EU leaders are now so far from reality and in awe of German wealth that they blindly accept anything Merkel suggests, as she represent their sole prospect of ever gaining re-election!

Czech Republic drops out of Non-EU Treaty/Fiscal Compact

2012-01-30T20:51:00.000Z

So after five drafts with many more to go, the twenty-seven are now down to twenty-five and the terms get ever weaker.

When the Treaty has no meat nor enforcement powers at all, I wonder if there will still be 12 Euro Group survivors left to bring it into force.

The fact that it has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to the crisis facing Europe as evidenced in Greece, Portugal and Hungary, seems not to have occurred to the EU Council attendees nor their absurd President Van Rompuy at all.

The entire world must either be bemused, in hysterics or scared witless for their own economies!

No EU agreement on ESM Treaty deal!

2012-01-30T18:09:00.000Z

The first significant failore of the latest EU Summit has been announced with the following coming from the Daily Telegraph rolling debt crisis page:

17.46 EU leaders have agreed to introduce the permanent eurozone bail-out mechanism from July 2012, but will sign a treaty to govern the fund later, reports Reuters. The ESM will have a lending capacity of €500bn and take over from the EFSF.
"There is a deal but the treaty will be signed at a later stage," one EU official said. Two others confirmed the news.

The ESM was originally expected to come into force in July next year, but Germany had called for it to be set up sooner.

Baltic Dry Index has collapsed again

2012-01-30T17:21:00.000Z

Things were bad in 2008 and coming to a head for what seemed like an age before the full disaster hit. The solution to that crisis was to bail out the indebted banks, swamp the world with printed fake money and let the middle classes lose their pensions and returns on investments and house values all go hang.

The crunch moment came whenthe Baltic Dry Index collapsed and the world's shipping sat idly around the globe. The same has now happened again.

Who will the politicians rob this time to maintain their lifestyles and power without responsibility?

More comment and the index charted from here;

Insurers demand lump sum payment up front for Portuguese bonds

2012-01-30T16:11:00.000Z

Reuters has the latest on the ever unfolding euro disaster here. A quote:

Banks and others offering default insurance to holders of Portuguese sovereign debt have begun demanding huge up-front payments rather than allowing costs to be spread over the term of the contract.

On Monday, this meant that it cost a whopping 3.95 million euros to insure 10 million euros in bonds over five years, payable now.

Portugal rates race upwards to scupper EU strike bound summit

2012-01-30T16:03:00.000Z

In a Brussels shut-down by a General Strike, President Von Rompuy rang a little golden bell to announce things were progressing nicely and that the leaders would discuss growth.

In the real world Portugal's tenyear interest rates which has been at 14.4% at the start of the day had risen by more than two per cent and were heading above 17%. Two year rates on the other hand were more than 400 basic points up at 21%. See a chart from the Wall Street Journal blog report.

Meantime Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron, who won leadership of his party with the pretence of being opposed to the EU and promising he would offer his countrymen a referendum as to whether they should continue in the corrupt non-democratic conspiracy, arrived a the summit planning to cede more power to the EU in a Treaty to which his country would not belong, but towards the costs of which would commit to fund!

General Strike in Belgium greets Bemused and Befuddled EU Leaders

2012-01-30T13:38:00.000Z

A country in shut down is perhaps the most appeopriate place for a meeting of the muddled morons who guide the EU.

Der Spiegel contemplating their next steps describes them as losing touch with reality, a charitable suggestion given their performance over the past couple of years, where what is happening today was always predicted and solely due to their own actions and decisions against a cacophony of contrary but sane advice, such as that from this blog.

In the UK the man who should still be leading the Conservative Party has been put down on live television by the Prime Minister, in a rebuke delivered by a Liberal Democrat peer on a live poltical broadcast aired this lunchtime.

Will Conservative backbenchers allow such an affront and backtrack on blocking the Fiscal Comapct Treaty to occur on the same day. Douglas Carswell MP sat and watched as it took place, and he one of the supposed leaders of resistance to the takeover of the country by the EU?

German control of Greece to be extended to Ireland and Portugal

2012-01-30T07:08:00.000Z

The German proposal to take control of the policies of the once sovereign country of Greece is also to be applied to Ireland and Portugal as confirmed in this report in the Irish Times this morning.

So the mainland bombings, Northern Ireland unrest, and years of disputation borne by Britain in the cause of Irish independence has all been thrown away for the sake of a decade long spending splurge in the Irish Republic, now brought to an abrupt halt by a cunning and devious Continental conspiracy..

Britain has loaned money to Ireland in this recent crisis and in view of our shared history and heritage, not to mention security considerations, should thus be reluctant to see Ireland fall under total German control.

David Cameron's trip to Brussels for another pointless summit would be best cancelled in favour of an early meeting with the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny to see if there is any help Britain can provide at this moment of great peril for our close island neighbour!

Papademos says Greek Party Leaders have backed him.

2012-01-29T15:53:00.000Z

Ekathimerini reports that EX ECB Vice President and EU Placeman at the head of the Greek government has obtained the agreement of the three party leaders in Greece to his proposed next steps in Brussels tomorrow. Read here.

Reuters report, linked here, seems less sure of that outcome and shows the Finance Minister leaving for Brussels, rather than Papademos as indicated in the other report. Perhaps there is a time difference or the talks are not completely finalised.

Whatever the truth, and that will probably not be known for some considerable time, this certainly seems like being a momentous day for Greece and the death of democracy once again in Europe!

Irish attempts to avoid another EU referendum!

2012-01-29T14:31:00.000Z

The Fiscal Compact is a huge sacrifice of sovereignty. No matter the Irish Government plans to sign-up anyway, perhaps as they long ago sold their souls to the Troika.

What is astounding are the lengths they seem prepared to go to in avoiding the referendum which any reading of their constitution would make clear they are obligated to hold.

A report in today's Irish Independent, linked here, details all this, for which thanks goes to a regular reader and comment provider on this blog, for bringing the article to my attention.

Why Britain no longer cares when Continental democracy is crushed?

2012-01-29T08:57:00.001Z

The question in this blog's headline, if it is really a question rather than a bold statement that quite inexplicably has a question mark at the end, is beyond the ability of this blogger to even begin to address. I have perhaps lived too long beyond the borders of the UK to have any grasp of what has happened.

The best I can offer is this linked posting from The Slog, posted last evening, which I have quoted in part with the items that struck home with me:

today marks something of a turning point for me. A real Buddhist truth is that good comes from bad. The good for me today has been to realise that no good at all is going to come from me wittering on about how terrible something is any more because, as a form of civilisation, the West has lost the ability to feel what one means by 'terrible'. All those precepts with which I was raised about justice, equality of opportunity, national self-determination and liberty have fallen down the crevasse that yawns between "Yeh...whatever" and "The markets must decide". It takes me back to a great Shavian quote from Pygmalion, where Liza's feckless Dad says, "Morals sir? I can't afford 'em".

Two things are obvious from the non-reportage of today's massively significant European developments:

1. Lone bloggers aren't going to have any effect on these deeply disturbed people we call our leaders. I've been saying this for over a year now, so it's about time I took my own advice: only concerted and mutual efforts by influential writers - in a collective, a virtual haven, a cloud or whatever the bloody hell else one chooses to call it - can ever act as a bulwark against this witches' coven of sociopathic belief in the idea that money is the object, and the human race the subject.

German annexation of Greece

2012-01-29T08:40:00.000Z

Many thanks to a reader who has forwarded me this posting from Zero Hedge, only a part of which is posted below albeit the entire posting being of huge importance:

Greece Politely Declines German Annexation Demands
Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/28/2012 12:29 -0500

Following yesterday's frankly stunning news that the Troika politely requests that Greece hand over its first fiscal, then pretty much all other, sovereignty to "Europe", here is the Greek just as polite response to the Troika's foray into outright colonialism:

GREEK GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN DECLARES THAT THE BUDGET IS SOLELY ITS RESPONSIBILITY - DJ

What is interesting here is that unlike the highly irrelevant IIF negotiations which will end in a Greek default one way or another, the real plotline that should be followed is this one: because unless Germany, pardon the Troika, gets the one condition it demands, namely "absolute priority to debt service" and "transfer of national budgetary sovereignty", as well as a "constitutional amendment" thereto. there is no Troika funding deal. Furthermore, since as a reminder the PSI talks are just the beginning, the next step is ensuring compliance, as was noted yesterday ("[ceding sovereignty] will reassure public and private creditors that the Hellenic Republic will honour its comittments after PSI and will positively influence market access"), any refusal to implement such demands is an automatic dealbreaker. Which means anything Dallara and the IIF say, as representatives of a steering committee that at this point probably constitutes of one bondholder, with the bulk having shifted to the ad hoc committee, is irrelevant. Germany just got its answer. And the next step is, as Zero Hedge first suggested, an epic LTRO in precisely one month, whose sole purpose will be to prefund European banks ahead of the Greek default with enough cash to withstand Europe's Bear Stearns. Although as a reminder, in the US, Bear Stearns only led to Lehman and the global "all in" gambit to preserve the financial system by shifting bank insolvency risk to the sovereigns (a chart showing bank assets as a percentage of host countries' GDP can be found here). But who will bailout the world's central banks which already collectively hold over 30% of global GDP in the form of "assets", or as this term is better known these days, debt?

Nothing on Monday EU Summit agenda addresses Euro Crisis

2012-01-29T08:23:00.000Z

Here is the published agenda for tomorrow:

January 30 - Summit of EU heads of state and government in Brussels, expected to discuss "fiscal compact" on tighter budgetary controls and other measures to deal with the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, including the euro zone's European Stability Mechanism (ESM) permanent bailout fund. Also to discuss ways to boost growth and jobs in the European Union.

Linked here is a thoughtful article by David McHugh which appeared in various publications across the USA yesterday, titled "Deficit focus questioned as answer to euro crisis". Reading it and considering the implications one must despair over what the EU's leaders will spend their time discussing tomorrow!

Possible immediate oil sanctions against EU follow from an infantile foreign policy!

2012-01-29T08:12:00.001Z

The Parliament in Tehran is today debating whether to impose immediate oil sanctions against Europe. Details in a report from the Chicago Tribune, linked here.

Is this not ironic. Apparently the combined supposed abilities of the EU Foreign Ministers who met to discuss oil sanctions against Iran over its nuclear policies, could not foresee that deferring the effective date to July, as an earlier commencement might inconvenience some of their number, did not leave them all wide open to such a stunning riposte?

Such kindergarten stupidity infects everything the EU undertakes, see the posting below on the internet. Had we mature national leaders they would take this on board and remove their nations from this ever deepening disaster!

EU Internet Clampdown - Senior official responsible resigns!

2012-01-29T07:57:00.000Z

Talk about ba resignation coming too late, this surely must be a prime example. The complaints about how the new conrols were eneacted without parliamentary input, consultation nor any thought for the citizens who will be affected, all that is typical of almost all the EU undertakes, it is the fact that the official responsible only resigned AFTER the provision was signed into effect by all the member states, including Britain, as may be read here, amazingly enough from the EU controlled BBC itself!

In his resignation statement Mr Arif stated the following:

"I condemn the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation given, reject of Parliament's recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly."

Protests have been taking place in Poland, elsewhere there seems to have been little publicity on the new rules, as in so much of what the EU steadily undertakes top make the lives of its citizens tightly controlled and effectively pointless.

Osborne and Lagarde lead push for more cash for the Euro Zone

2012-01-28T20:36:00.000Z

Quite incredibly this year's Davos meeting is being brought to a close by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, leading the rallying call, alongside former French Finance Minister and now IMF head Christine Lagarde, for more money to be poured into the pit that is a doomed Euro Currency. The report in the Irish Times is linked here.

Such calls came when even at the same meeting others were predicting the almost certain end of the currency, the article's conclusion being as follows:

However, economist Nouriel Roubini was more downbeat and described the euro zone as a “slow-motion train wreck”.
Mr Roubini said he expected Greece, and possibly Portugal, to exit the euro zone within the next 12 months and believed there is a 50 per cent chance of it breaking up completely in the next 3-5 years.

Portugal next to buckle - NASDAQ report

2012-01-28T20:21:00.000Z

The report from Nasdaq just re-posted from Emerging Money, confirms what this blog has been pointing out repeatedly for a long time, but most particularly these past few days, when most attention has been turned upon Greece.

There is in fact not that much difference in CDS consequences of default between the two EU crippled countries, Reuters this evening reminding us, link here, as follows:

The current average market value of a portfolio of Portugal's bonds, weighted for the different amounts it has issued, is about 63 percent of face value, and an event which triggered a payout on credit default swaps would cost the sellers of protection about 1.4 billion euros.

On a similar basis the market value of Greek debt at the moment is about 28 percent of face value and if a CDS payout were triggered it would cost sellers about 1.7 billion euros.

Greece - Party Leaders meeting deferred from Saturday to Sunday

2012-01-28T16:45:00.001Z

Ekathimerini has the report, linked here.

A meeting between Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the leaders of the three parties that make up his coalition government has been moved from Saturday to Sunday, a few hours before the Greek premier is due to meet his European Union counterparts in Brussels.

Elsewhere several reports from the USA state that the EU has rejected the German proposal to take over the running of Greece, for example this report from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, linked here. However the source appears to be Olli Rehn the EU Commissioner for the economy and monetary affairs, who has proved consistently behind the curve and ill informed on developments in the EU's ever growing financial crisis.

If the proposal has been tabled by Germany, the harsh reality of the EU today is that it can only be amended or withdrawn by Germany!

Update 1650 GMT Talks on the Haircut and Bond Rollover broke up without agreement read here.

Canada's Globe and Mail recognises Greek Sovereignty is at risk

2012-01-28T15:38:00.000Z

The newspaper just issued from Canada is linked here. The following is a small portion of their report:

The unprecedented and sweeping powers for creditors would indeed deal a huge blow to Greece's sovereignty, but they could help mobilize more support for the government in Athens from its European partners.

Except in the EU, the shock of the nature of the proposal to neuter a supposed independent and once sovereign state is at last receiving proper attention

Britain's Daily Mail gets the story on German threat to the Greeks

2012-01-28T14:35:00.002Z

The article put out by the Daily Mail some quarter of an hour ago is linked here.

BBC World News, as it laughingly describes itself, remains obsessed by the salary and bonuses of the heads of a broken bank called RBS. Truly lamentable and pathetic.

US Media learning of the Troika ultimatum to Greece

2012-01-28T14:27:00.001Z

The Washington Post has an exceedingly brief report, linked here, appearing thirty odd minutes ago.

CNN cariies a longer report, linked here, with the headline "Call for EU to control Greek budget" if only that were all! More detail of the list of "prior actions" mentioned in my earlier postings of today comes the following from the CNN report:

Even before Germany circulated its proposal, the EU and International Monetary Fund had presented a 10-page list of "prior actions" Athens must implement before the new bail-out is agreed. According to a copy of the document, also obtained by the FT, Greece must cut an additional 150,000 government jobs within three years.

The document, dated Monday, also calls for major budget cuts in defence, healthcare and "entity closures" to bring down this year's budget deficit. The document said the preliminary estimate for the 2012 deficit target is about 1 per cent of economic output -- implying swinging cuts, since previous estimates by lenders put this year's budget deficit at 7 per cent.

Troika's Terror for Greece

2012-01-28T13:46:00.001Z

The leaders of the three political parties that allowed ECB plant Lucas Papademos to be installed as Prime Minister of their country by the Troika are being subjected to pressure this afternoon to sign away the remains of their country's independence and sovereignty without time limit. Read the report in "ekathimerini" linked here. The following are extracts from that report:

Papademos will attempt to obtain a clear commitment from PASOK’s George Papandreou, New Democracy’s Antonis Samaras and Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) chief Giorgos Karatzaferis on the measures requested by the troika.....

There are signs that Papademos could face a tough task in extracting support from all three party leaders. Speaking in Parliament, Karatzaferis made it clear that he would not sign any written commitments if they were requested.

Germany's ultimatum to Greece

2012-01-28T10:25:00.001Z

This is taken direct from the comments section of the post linked below on The Slog:
§§§

The content of the German ultimatum to Greece:
Assurance of Compliance in the 2nd GRC Programme
I. Background
According to information from the Troika, Greece has most likely missed key programme objectives again in 2011. In particular, the budget deficit has not decreased compared to the previous year. Therefore Greece will have to significantly improve programme compliance in the future to honour its commitments to lenders. Otherwise the Eurozone will not be able to approve guarantees for GRC II.
II. Proposal for the improvement of compliance
To improve compliance in the 2nd programme, the new MoU will have to contain two innovative institutional elements on which Greece will have to commit itself. They will become further prior actions for the second programme. Only if and when they are implemented, the new programme can commence:
1. Absolute priority to debt service
Greece has to legally commit itself to giving absolute priority to future debt service. This commitment has to be legally enshrined by the Greek Parliament. State revenues are to be used first and foremost for debt service, only any remaining revenue may be used to finance primary expenditure. This will reassure public and private creditors that the Hellenic Republic will honour its comittments after PSI and will positively influence market access. De facto elimination of the possibility of a default would make the threat of a non-disbursement of a GRC II tranche much more credible. If a future tranche is not disbursed, Greece can not threaten its lenders with a default, but will instead have to accept further cuts in primary expenditures as the only possible consequence of any non-disbursement.
2. Transfer of national budgetary sovereignty
Budget consolidation has to be put under a strict steering and control system. Given the disappointing compliance so far, Greece has to accept shifting budgetary sovereignty to the European level for a certain period of time. A budget commissioner has to be appointed by the Eurogroup with the task of ensuring budgetary control. He must have the power a) to implement a centralized reporting and surveillance system covering all major blocks of expenditure in the Greek budget, b) to veto decisions not in line with the budgetary targets set by the Troika and c) will be tasked to ensure compliance with the above mentioned rule to prioritize debt service.
The new surveillance and institutional approach should be formulated in the MoU as follows: “In the case of non-compliance, confirmed by the ECB, IMF and EU COM, a new budget commissioner appointed by the Eurogroup would help implementing reforms. The commissioner will have broad surveillance competences over public expenditure and a veto right against budget decisions not in line with the set budgetary targets and the rule giving priority to debt service.” Greece has to ensure that the new surveillance mechanism is fully enshrined in national law, preferably through constitutional amendment.
In answer to a question to the editors about why it is in English -
28.01.12 at 03:41
editor says:
This is the draft which is before us – it is in English only. Presumably, if it is really adopted on Monday, it will be translated into all EU languages. The editor
§§§

The real face of the EU cospiracy has now been revealed as this blog and blogger have continually warned!

The Slog reports Troika have taken over Greece

2012-01-28T10:13:00.000Z

The post referred to in the headline above is linked here. My first post of today referred to this same grave circumstance but presumed it remained as a proposal. If the linked report is correct in its essential details, then Greece's democracy, under threat for the past two years and steadily being eroded, has now been totally destroyed by the EU/IMF/ECB Troika and an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council should be called to condemn what has occurred!

Surely Budget Commissioners are a giant step too far for Sovereign States

2012-01-28T08:52:00.002Z

The following is from an article in the Daily Telegraph this morning:

It was also being reported last night that the German government wants Greece to hand over control of tax and spending decisions to a 'budget commissioner' appointed by the rest of the eurozone, before the country gets its second bail-out.

The budget commissioner would have to power to veto decisions made by the Greek government, according to a proposal seen by the Financial Times, marking a significant step-up in the EU's powers over the sovereign governments of member states.

The leaders of Britain and other countries wishing to remain democracies, where there citizens can retain the powers to change their rulers, should ACT NOW to prevent this evil developing in the heart of the European Continent!

Update 0945 GMT - More on this from Ben Chu in The Independent linked here.

Fitch downgrades Spain, Italy, Belgium, Cyprus and Slovenia

2012-01-27T18:15:00.000Z

The Bloomberg report is linked here and is interesting as Fitch was quite recently very positive on France! We must watch developments on their rating of that country with particular interest.

The EU - destroying democracy on funding from the USA and IMF

2012-01-27T17:16:00.002Z

The following came in a speech from John Redwood MP in the same Parliament where onceWestern Europe's last bastion of democracy was based. Today that same democracy is under threat from the EU whilst being financed from the IMF and the USA:

"This is not only an economic crisis, this is not only a banking crisis, this is not only a currency crisis, but it is also now a crisis of democracy ... We see in some of these countries now that the electorates do not choose the Government; the European Union’s senior players choose the Government. We see in some of these countries that the electorate change the Government but they do not change the policy. The new Government have to pledge to follow exactly the same policy, which does not work, in order to get elected and to be acceptable to the European Union, in order to carry on drawing down the subsidies and loans from within the European Union that have to be on offer to try to make the system operate to some extent."

Link to report of debate.

While they dine in Davos several EU countries fall apart!

2012-01-27T15:29:00.001Z

Italy is variously described in its press today as paralysed, split in two and subject to a pitchfork revolution. Ten days of petrol station stoppages will follow the virtual general strike of public transport taking place today.

Greece of course is in a similar situation. Portugal is following and Ireland whose future generations have been placed in massive debt for decades ahead is suffering a large exodus of skilled workers.

This is the real EU, by which tranquil, prosperous and democratic Switzerland is surrounded, in which lies Davos, all very happily well outside the EU.

The picture of the EU appointed Ruler of Italy below is in La Repubblica, linked here and the striking image is from ansa.

Whatever happens in Greece may now be a credit event!

2012-01-27T13:42:00.001Z

Well round and round it goes! It now appears from this report in the San Francisco Chronicle, just updated, that while only 50% of private participation in the bond roll-over might be voluntary, the "authorities" are no longer so concerned about it being a credit event and thus triggering a pay off on outstanding Credit Default Swaps.

The suppositions continue, even while now apparently reversing direction!

Spectator editor rightly attacks Tory leadership!

2012-01-27T10:05:00.001Z

Cameron must follow his Davos speech of yesterday by adopting an alternative to his present lame "stay in the EU and suffer" stance. Simultaneously he must order a radical tax and spend reform from his Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

The urgent need for both may be seen from attacks from one of his backbenchers, Douglas Carswell, here and from the Speccie editor, Fraser Nelson, here.

IMF's Lagarde says policy over EU CRISIS is her business not ours

2012-01-27T09:53:00.006Z

Bloomberg have just concluded an extraordinary interview with the featherweight head of the IMF Christine Lagarde. It is now (11:15 GMT) available on their website here:

VIDEO Removed due to constant replay on this blog!

A feel of the depth and nature of the problems could be gained earlier when Spanish unemployment for the fourth quarter of last year came in at 22.9% with youth unemployment now touching half of the nation's under 25 year olds.

The utter pointlessness of the Fiscal Compact, which is the main emphasis of EU leaders for their coming summit next Monday, can be seen when recalling that Spain is one of the few member states who in the past has adhered to the old Growth and Stability pact limits for deficits and spending, which will become the new norm (with similar weak constraints) in the new fiscal compact.

Treasures from the threads - Number 71 "Spanish debts in Portugal".

2012-01-27T07:05:00.000Z

The following comment was to an article in this morning's Daily Telegraph, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, on the impossibility of Portugal surviving its present debt position, linked here:
§§§§§

Titus__Pullo
Today 04:20 AM

Portugal has a population of 10.6 million people (of which probably only about half are economically active) and owes Euro 286 billion. There's simply no way they can trade themselves out of that position, sell assets or write more debt. Defaulting is inevitable. Currently nearly one third of that debt is owed to Spain.

The unemployment rate is Spain is over 21% and there has to be serious doubts they could sustain a Portugese default to them of Euro 100 billion. The whole pack of cards is destined to come down. It's not if, it's when.
§§§§§

FTT Madness - Cameron in Davos

2012-01-26T20:33:00.002Z

Early video of Cameron's blistering attack against the FTT is below. As more of his speech is available it will be posted on this blog:

Merkel removes the mask and reaches for a new Reich

2012-01-26T18:17:00.002Z

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in an interview with six of Europe's newspapers, has revealed her plans to unite Europe under Germany's leadership. How can this be considered anything other than a bid to re-install a new Reich, or even modern day Holy Roman Empire, I do not know!

The report on the interview may be read from EurActiv's article, linked here, from which come the following exact quotes:

"My vision is political union, because Europe has to follow its own path. We need to get closer step by step, in all policy areas," Merkel said.
The chancellor's European vision was made public ahead of an summit on Monday where EU leaders are expected to finalise a new treaty aimed at tightening fiscal discipline and deepening economic integration in the eurozone.
Without mentioning federalism, Merkel described a new architecture for Europe where EU institutions have the last word over member states, placing her on a collision course with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has vetoed attempts to transfer more power to Brussels.
"In the course a long process, we will transfer more powers to the Commission, which will then work as a European government for European competencies," Merkel said.

The reaction from France, where sitting President Sarkozy faces a re-election test in mere months, and has pitched his call to the electorate as based on a merger with Germany, should be most interesting.

I will try to record on this blog the manner in which this proposal is reported by the various newspapers as and when it is possible to do so.

Portugal to require second bailout - 50 Economists

2012-01-26T17:12:00.001Z

Reuters pours some realism over those wishing the Eurozone's woes might just vanish, a quote is here:

A separate poll of 50 economists suggested there is a 70 percent chance that Portugal will require a second EU/IMF bailout at some point.

One is tempted to question what a private haircut on Purtuguese bonds might be called when recalling that Merkozy promised Greece would be a unique and one off case. Maybe they could get Greece to buy the bonds and cough up the 30 billion, Antonio Saraiva, head of Portugal’s main industry confederation, said yesterday was needed “I’ll dare to say we have a credit crunch...What is lacking is €30bn.” (As reported by Open Europe today) and the whole lot can now be included with the Greek haircut, (negotiations upon which are seemingly endlessly continuing) thus maintaining the pretence that things are developing as Merkozy wished!

Remember in all this, it was the dreaded two headed Merkozy which made the early error by not just accepting a Greek default and a Euro exit! They would never allow it, seemed to be one of the early statements if memory serves.

Olli Rehn - Extra cash needed for 2nd Greek Bail Out

2012-01-26T14:50:00.000Z

Reuters report is from here. Yes folks, it's Olli at it AGAIN:

PM Cameron presents unarguable case for Britain's EU withdrawal!

2012-01-26T13:41:00.000Z

The speech at Davos left no room for misunderstanding nor indeed for argument, let alone further dithering and prevarication. The best course for Britain is to remove itself from the EU as presently undemocratically and economically constructed!

The following paragraphs, taken directly from the speech highlight that point:

While China grows at 8%, India at 7% and Africa at 5.5%, the European Commission forecasts the EU will grow by just 0.6 per cent in the whole of 2012 – and even that is assuming the problems in the Eurozone get better not worse.
Yesterday in Britain we had the official figures for the final quarter of last year – and they were negative.
Other large economies of Europe are forecast to have a similar outcome.
In just four years Government debt per EU citizen has risen by 4,500 euros. Foreign direct investment has fallen by around two-thirds.
And in more than half of EU Member States, a fifth of all young people are now out of work. So this is not a moment to try and pretend there isn’t a problem.
Nor is it a moment to allow the fear of failure to hold us back. This is a time to show the leadership our people are demanding.
Tinkering here and there and hoping we’ll drift to a solution simply won’t cut it any more. This is a time for boldness not caution.

The entire speech is linked here. The speech later continued after some mention of Britain:

Europe’s lack of competitiveness remains its Achilles Heel.
For all the talk, the Lisbon Strategy has failed to deliver the structural reforms we need.
The statistics are staggering. As measured by the World Economic Forum, more than half of EU Member States are now less competitive than they were this time last year while five EU Member States are now less competitive than even sclerotic Iran.
For every Euro invested in venture capital in the EU, five times as much is being invested in the US.
The Single Market remains incomplete. And there are still a colossal 4,700 professions across the EU to which access is regulated by government.
And that’s not all. In spite of the economic challenge, we are still doing things to make life even harder.
In the name of social protection, the EU has promoted unnecessary measures that impose burdens on businesses and governments, and can destroy jobs.
The Agency Workers Directive, the Pregnant Workers Directive, the Working Time Directive.
The list goes on and on. And then there’s the proposal for a Financial Transactions Tax.

Of course it’s right that the financial sector should pay their share. In the UK we are doing exactly that through our bank levies and stamp duty on shares. And these are options which other countries can adopt.
But look at the European Commission’s own original analysis.
That showed a Financial Transactions Tax could reduce the GDP of the EU by 200 billion euros cost nearly 500 thousand jobs and force as much as 90 per cent of some markets away from the EU.

Even to be considering this at a time when we are struggling to get our economies growing is quite simply madness.
We can’t go on like this

And eventually concluded:

But there a number of features common to all successful currency unions.

A central bank that can comprehensively stand behind the currency and financial system.

The deepest possible economic integration with the flexibility to deal with economic shocks.

And a system of fiscal transfers and collective debt issuance that can deal with the tensions and imbalances between different countries and regions within the union.

Currently it’s not that the Eurozone doesn’t have all of these it’s that it doesn’t really have any of these.

Unions begin to protest the Fiscal Compact Treaty

2012-01-26T11:16:00.001Z

EurActiv has a report on a protest in Brussels yesterday which is linked from here.

The significance is that on the one hand the measures are being visibly watered down to provide the same avoidance procedures as was successfully accomplished by France and Germany with the original Growth and Stability Pact, while on the streets, resistance is mounting (particularly in Greece with health sector protests).

The causes of all this misery meeting in Davos are particularly sickening this year. One such,the CEO of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit's words this morning on Bloomberg, to defend what the EU was about and his talk of the work upon and progress of the fiscal compact provided a welcome moment of hysteria inducing relief. A text report of the TV interview is here.

Two's company, Troika's a crowd.

2012-01-26T07:56:00.001Z

Knowing the power of money to cause conflict the widespread reports yesterday that the EU/ECB/IMF Troika were in open dispute over who owes and must pay what, came as no surprise. The Irish Times, who let's face it has more than a little interest in this matter, reports on the difficulties from here. (Also visit their front page for an amusing photo on piggy bankers!)

The next phase of the breakdown will be amongst the shareholders of the ECB over exactly which former nation states must meet the costs of all the worthless pieces of paper and meaningless promissory notes and commitments the ECB has accepted in its hopeless attempt to save the doomed Euro.

As this blog has warned again and again for what has now become years, that is when the EU will split apart, that is when the recriminations could get very nasty and that is where Europe's present national leaders are leading us, such is the depth and grave nature of the real problem which they should address on Monday, if not before.

The question of the Euro currency and EMU has already become an irrelevance through neglect!

Airbus owns up to A380 wing cracks - Is EU safe to fly?

2012-01-25T20:50:00.001Z

As we posted earlier this month on the Airbus wings' cracking up as being a suitable emblem for the EU, read here, the EADS announcement this evening was as follows:

Airbus blamed a recent series of A380 wing cracks on a combination of design and manufacturing flaws and said it had worked out a two-stage solution, while stressing the superjumbo was in the meantime safe to fly.

Following developments on the EU's second most important prestige project, the Airbus, is becoming as tortuous and fraught as following that of its first such, the Euro, one such most recent comment is here.

If Scotland and England cannot stay together, what hope for the EU?

2012-01-25T18:21:00.001Z

Some news reports on the coming bid for independence by the Scots are Reuters here and the BBC from here.

As an Englishman I view what we have done for the Scots as a neighbourly act of charity over a long period of time. It was essentially a union of the two crowns, cemented to aid the Scots who had virtually bankrupted themselves through stupidity, an earlier version of the more recent stupidity of the Bank of Scotland and RBS.

Having said that, Britain has gained some benefit from the arrangement but has suffered long periods of appalling Labour Government as a result, which probably would not have been the case had we remained as England and Wales.

The EU is the main complicating factor, as in all things for Britain in this 21st century. We entered the EU as Britain and before any referendum we should first leave as such. What arrangements we make thereafter regarding the EU should be decided by our islands resultant constituent nations, England should, however, first make it absolutely clear that it will remain outside the EU and will not tolerate, under any circumstances, a land border with that non-democratic entity!

Iran warns against buying US$ for hoarding, hikes own rates to 21%.

2012-01-25T14:06:00.000Z

Reuters has the full report, linked here, on the growing tensions in the Gulf, this time concentrating on the financial implications.

Ashton throws away €55.4 Billion more on Gaza.

2012-01-25T13:38:00.001Z

The EU has poured Billions of EU taxpayers funds into the Middle East mess down the years with nothing whatever to show for it. That policy continued today as may be read in this press release from Brussels linked here.

Note the proud assertion at the end:

The European Union is the largest multilateral provider of international assistance to Palestine refugees. Over the period 2000 to 2011, the EU, excluding EU member states alone, has provided approximately €1.2 billion of support to the Agency. This funding has enabled human development for the most vulnerable Palestine refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

How much of that we must merely wonder, went on activities that caused pain, injuries, misery and even death to others?

EU Parliament President Schultz refutes sole explanation for EU's Sickness!

2012-01-25T10:22:00.000Z

The BBC reports the following, as may be read in full from this link:

"Prime Minister Orban is an efficient man," Mr Schulz, flanked by Mr Orban, told reporters in English.
"He is an efficient man by taking on board in Brussels the European rhetoric and to blame the same rhetoric when he is in Budapest as a kind of inadmissible approach.

"So the Europeans should take into account that he is a clever man as a party leader but he should take into account that the European leaders are not stupid."

What? If we rule out stupidity as an excuse for the actions of those in charge of the EU, the present mess must surely be only down to their own greed or downright mendacity!

A "Davos Avalanche" is worth pondering!

2012-01-25T08:12:00.002Z

There has been a week of snow in Davos ahead of the meeting of the World Economic Forum. Public Trust of those gathering must be at an all time low, therefore it is worth pondering on what thes people's replacements might decide to do, were there to be huge avalanches, at the high point of the meeting, burying the lot of them!

You can bet your life it would be far different from what will actually emerge. The main problem facing the world, is that those who caused this mess are still the ones in charge and they dare not begin to give a glimpse of the extent to which they have been completely and utterly wrong!

Update: 0955 GMT 25/1/12 Study this and begin to understand why their brains appear to have ceased to function properly!

ECHR - A malignant tumour that must be cut out.

2012-01-25T07:36:00.003Z

PM Cameron travelling to Strasbourg today to hector the ECHR Judges and officials will achieve nothing. A terminal illness has the Western part of the Continent of Europe in its grip, evidence of the disgusting nature of the sickness can be seen in the work of the ECHR, but more significantly every moment of every day in the activities of all the institutions of the European Union.

Like a terminal cancer tumour in the brain or other essential organ of the human body, removal is the only possibility for the patient's survival. Britain must remove itself from the sick organs of the potential corpse. If we go, others may see the light and follow, but that is for them.The warped and flawed thinking evidenced by the Judges of the ECHR is pandemic throughout Europe's common institutions. It cannot be changed by argument or reason, we have tried that, only by an example being set where the folly can thereafter be clearly seen.

We will not solve Britain's problems as one of twenty-seven within the EU, nor one of twenty within the G20, nor one of 193 within the UN. Removing ourselves from the Council of Europe and from the scope of the ECHR will disqualify us from continuing within the EU, a highly desirable aim.

Our Ministers, whom the country can presently ill afford to remain essentially idle or pointlessly attending expensive international talking shops, should be concentrating on the task at hand, curing Britain's ills.

David Cameron's trip to Strasbourg today is a perfect illustration of the utter pointlessness of his present activities.

Updat 1000 GMT 25/1/12 For once a vaguely sensible BBC report on the same topic.

EU wreckers and incompetents again warned by the IMF

2012-01-24T20:44:00.001Z

If Europe quickly follows IMF recommendations, the fund expects the euro area to face a 0.5% contraction this year. The fund shaved off 1.6 percentage points from its last forecast for 2012 in September—reflecting its worst-case scenario—after risks escalated sharply in the last quarter of the year, when the debt crisis "entered a perilous new phase." Under its optimistic scenario, the IMF expects growth to return to the region next year.

Economists increasingly expect Greece to default within weeks. Even more worryingly, Spain and Italy are now in the market's targets, pushing up the cost for Madrid and Rome to borrow to cover the risk of default. The IMF slashed its 2012 forecasts for both countries, saying Italy faces a 2.2% contraction and Spain, a 1.7% fall. Both are expected to continue to be in recession through 2013.

The above is taken from a WSJ report on the latest IMF warnings about the consequences for the world of the ongoing disregard of all prudent financial management and prudent government by those who run the disaster that is the European Union, read it in full from here.

Britain's 2012 growth forecast, due to the gross incompetence of those in charge on the Continent of Europe and its own politician's subservience to their commands and objectives, was cut by a full 1% from 1.6% to 0.6%.

Update 2049 GMT - The WSJ also now has a report on the full Ecofin meeting held today which has previously been strangely unreported, read here.

EU Derivatives regulating to go to EU Parliament!

2012-01-24T18:32:00.000Z

It appeared tonight as if Britain has once again been edged in a direction it solemnly swore it would never go as the Finance Ministers sent their Derivative Regulation regime to the EU parliament for their approval. Reuters report is here.

We must now await George Osborne's explanation to Britain's own neutered Parliament, a familiar and depressing wait.

FTT - The Tax that could free Britain from the EU

2012-01-24T18:20:00.000Z

Barmy Barnier did nothing yesterday to convince the City of London that he is not both slightly loopy, out of control and almost certainly their and the nation's present major threat. Good

The likes of Clegg and Cameron need the incentive of an opinionated and out of control French Commissioner to perhaps wake them from their stupor and recognise the true nature of the dreadful threat their country faces from the EU. Maggie only woke up when confronted by Delors,can Barnier perform a similar service now?

On the financial transaction tax itself, EurActiv has a report on how it is today being pushed at the top of the EU, where any potential source of new funds are desperately required, linked here. A more impartial view with questions and answers on the possible working of the tax is in Al Arabiyah, linked here.

ESM Treaty - no approval until next week!

2012-01-24T17:08:00.001Z

Finland, as always with these special financing packages, has proved the sole realist among the Euro Group it seems, read here. They wanted a veto on loans and it presently looks as if they have got it. Next Monday is now the latest deadline, but never forget with credit ratings and contributing countries sliding lower, it gets ever less likely that the thing will ever get enough support to be up and running by July!

Britain's £1,000,000,000,000 Debt

2012-01-24T14:35:00.000Z

One trillion pounds, wasted by our politicians of the three main parties, to buy themselves power.

They know they could not raise such monies in taxes, yet they spent it anyway.
Still they promise to spend ever more and greater sums - £127 Billion extra this year alone!

Merely, it would seem, so that they might enjoy all the benefits and pensions of holding power together with whatever other obscene gratification they gain from its oh so obvious and blatant misuse. Real authority meanwhile has passed to Brussels without our consent!

Orphans of Liberty is proposing a sweeping campaign to expose the real natures of all those who have crawled their way to the top of the the festering remains of our three, one time respectable, main political parties. One suggested emblem is here:

Once a suitable logo is selected, it will be placed on this blog, give your input through this link.

An awful alliteration on neutered non-nations for Euro Euthanasia

2012-01-24T08:25:00.002Z

The Euro, a corrupted coin, has assaulted Austria, besmirched Belgium, crippled Cyprus, eschewed Estonia, fiddled Finland and F****d France, gouged Germany, garrotted gasping Greece, immolated Ireland, imprisoned Italy, laid lower little Luxembourg and minor miniscule Malta. It has neutered the Netherlands (hobbling Holland, eh!), pissed 'pon Portugal, stained Slovakia, sacrificed Slovenia and surely screwed Spain!

The Euro is a currency corrupting countries and destroying democracies, for the personal pleasures and political power plays of professional politicians.

Euthansia for the Euro, NOW!

Euro Group Finance Ministers reject Greek Private Haircut Final Offer.

2012-01-24T07:43:00.001Z

The BBC is reporting, (Radio 4 O8OO am news bulletin,) that the best and final offer made by private bondholders of a haircut and rollover into new debt has been rejected by the Euro Group Finance Minister meeting last night in Brussels.

Update: A report on this from the Telegraph is here.

Invest in the EU and voluntarily be forced to lose 70% and CDS costs against such loss.

2012-01-23T21:01:00.000Z

The insane world of the European Union tonight appears to deliver investors to the nightmare world described in this posting's headline. Forbes describes the process in an article linked here.

Greece uncertainty killing Portuguese bonds and stifling CDS activity

2012-01-23T18:28:00.001Z

Tha Wall Street Journal carries a report on the horror now facing Portugal, linked here. The closing paragraphs are as follows:

Another trader noted the risks involved in trading in such conditions, because it can be difficult to offload bonds when nobody wants to buy them. "Most traders now only deal with Portuguese bonds on a order-only basis; otherwise it's just too risky," he said.

Portugal's 10-year government bond is yielding 13.78%, according to Tradeweb data.

The market for insuring the country's debt with credit default swaps has been slightly more active, as a different investor base helped push Portugal's five-year CDS to fresh records Monday.

With CDS, if a borrower defaults, sellers compensate buyers. However, participation of banks in the proposed Greek write-down are intended to be voluntary, a fact that left the industry body to say Greek CDS probably wouldn't pay out under such terms.

This means many market participants are more willing to sell Portugal's CDS, under the reasoning that should Portugal find itself in a similar situation as Greece, the Portuguese contracts wouldn't pay out either.

"Relative to holding (Portuguese) bonds, you'd be much happier selling CDS," a CDS trader said.

Portugal's five-year CDS earlier hit a record of 1,280 basis points, according to Markit.

Barmy Barnier unveils his bonkers plans

2012-01-23T18:13:00.001Z

Limiting top bankers salaries to a multiple of that of junior staff is one guranteed to get Capital fleeing from the EU! Many more will be found in this link from India, where they must be drooling in anticipation of an influx of high paid financial services middlemen, the bosses being in some luxurious tax haven elsewhere!

In the EU, once the bankers have left, perhaps we can use the precedent to cut the pay and perks of EU Commissioners, preferably together with any accrued pensions to zero!

Update 24/1/12 1405 Here is an actual report of Barnier's speech: LINK
It's a Financial World Blog.

What Euro Group Finance Ministers are deciding tonight.

2012-01-23T17:12:00.000Z

The following is from Acting Man blog, which I have found extremely accurate over the past weeks, the full report is linked here:

It is clear that the private sector creditors have now arrived at the 'take it or leave it' point. If their most recent offer is again rejected, then there won't be a 'voluntary' deal. This would put Greece into default (instead of a merely 'temporary' default) and this is the crux of the whole song and dance over pretending that the debt exchange is 'voluntary'. Once Greece is officially in default, the public sector lenders such as the ECB and the IMF can no longer credibly maintain that the Greek debt they hold is worth its face value.

Economist on CNBC says Greece and Portugal to leave the Euro Currency

2012-01-23T11:57:00.000Z

The report from the business news broadcaster is here.

The absolute impossibility of these two countries, Greece and Portugal, staying within the euro currency, barring an almost total depopulation and redistribution of the workforce in the richer EU countries, as is serrupticiously underway for the Irish, leaves this observer bemused that such an obvious statement really warrants such attention.

Have Ecofin Finance Ministers more cash to waste on Greece?

2012-01-23T11:37:00.000Z

The Finance Ministers of the Euro Group, who have been collectively regularly gathering since May 2009, with their own agent now assisting at the head of the IMF acrossd the pond, meet today to witter about the waste they have already caused and attempt to defer proper action even further. One report is here.

Other problems than Greece also loom as this quote from the linked report makes clear:

Greek debt is not the only tough issue EU officials need to tackle with at the meeting. The Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Research team outline the difficulties connected with the revised blueprint of the fiscal pact: “While the new fiscal proposals seek to avoid potential problems, it cannot address the current financing needs of some of the euro area’s most fiscally vulnerable countries” as well as with the ESM fund: “Standard & Poor’s downgraded the EFSF last week from AAA to AA+, which raises concerns around the potential credit rating that will be associated with the new fund and the capacity to increase its size if needed.”

Barmy Barnier in Britain today.

2012-01-23T08:05:00.001Z

EU Commissioner Barnier, upon whom this blog has been posting for some considerable time, initially refused to communicate in English in his new post, read here; subsequently called for population progroms across the EU, then set to his main task of destroying the City of London, presumably not solely for the pure pleasure of doing down the English and revenge for what many French see as centuries of injustices from our islands, but for the commercial benefit of France.

Thereafter he called for World Governance at Humboldt University, read his speech and my critique from here, and so on and so on.

Today he comes to London again, the creepy crawling EU fanatical Financial Times considers his visit from here, apparently joining the call for Britain to play the "euopean game" and accept self destruction just because Barnier has demanded it.

The Indian edition of the Wall Street Journal, appears to have recognised the deluded rantings of this extremely dangerous man, when he asserts that the steps taken by the EU over the euro crisis will somehow, almost magically, resolve matters. Read that from here.

US Nuclear Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, HMS Argyll and a French vessel enter Hormuz

2012-01-23T07:33:00.001Z

Quoin Island received a large naval bypass yesterday to demonstrate the West's determination to ensure freedom of navigation as their Foreign Ministers are set to meet today to define oil sanctions against Iran.

Only 42% of Croatia's voters turn out to say yes to the EU by a two third majority

2012-01-22T20:21:00.001Z

In Finland the next President appears almost certain to be a pro-EU Conservative. Timo Soini gaining just under 10% in early results.

Monti & Draghi propose lumping unused EFSF funds with ESM

2012-01-22T16:03:00.000Z

The two Italians, whose country of birth faces a debt mountain of indescribable proportions and a system of economic governance akin to some of the worst economies of the third world, have this afternoon come up with a new cracking idea to get their hands on outside cash, according to the Telegraph, linked here. A quote:

Doubling the European Stability Mechanism's (ESM) firepower would reassure markets while driving down borrowing costs for the debt-wracked countries of the eurozone, Mr Monti is said to have argued.

Mr Monti had won backing for the proposal from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who proposed using unused money from the EFSF to boost the size of the new fund to about €750bn, according to reports in German weekly Der Spiegel, which cited unnamed sources.

How Costa Concordia hit the rocks in video!

2012-01-22T14:14:00.000Z

Reconstruction of the Costa Concordia Tragedy, Narration by John Konrad from gCaptain.com on Vimeo.

Croatia and Finland, two tests for the EU today!

2012-01-22T12:08:00.002Z

We must hope that South Carolina was not an isolated victory against big money sleaze politics, for today, Finland, read here, and Croatia, link here, both have the chance to record utter disgust at the recent activities of those who hold all the power in the non-democratic EU.

Oh Glorious Sunday Morn! - Newt trashes Romney

2012-01-22T07:46:00.000Z

Newt Gingrich gets 40% to Romney's 28%. Can these figures be believed?

Reuters report on the shock result is here.

The set back for slimeball politics epitomised in Britain by Cameron, Clegg and the Labour Party Leaders and in the USA by Mitt Romney is enormous. Oh Happy Day!

When soulless and evil men, driven by numbers, dine together.

2012-01-21T21:01:00.000Z

Credit to Der Spiegel for noting the gruesome 70th anniversary that passed yesterday. Credit also to Richard North for also marking the anniversary.

All praise to The Boiling Frog for posting the video on this linked post, to mark the event AND for once, an oh so rare word of praise to the BBC, who apparently produced the production, Conspiracy, from which the horror can be witnessed,see here:

Greek talks collapse - Portugal next in EU line of defence against defaults?

2012-01-21T20:35:00.000Z

Well my earlier post that the IIF negotiators had left Athens has proved correct and recriminations are starting all around, here, here and here.

The Economist suggests we must now turn our attention to Portugal, after the Greek farce, can we really be bothered, when the outcome seems so inevitable and the reactions so tardy? Deja EU!

Greek farce continues IIF negotiator Dallara leaves Athens

2012-01-21T16:37:00.001Z

CNN has the latest non-report on the Greek "haircut" debt non-deal! Link The crux for me is here:

Dallara and Lemierre left Athens Saturday but a team of experts and Greek government representatives continued to hold discussions, IIF spokesman Vogl said.

Oak Tree Lament (Stop the EU's HS2)

2012-01-21T16:27:00.000Z

Berlusconi "ready to return to power soon"

2012-01-21T14:55:00.001Z

Monti's emergency measures, mostly of concern to vested interests such as lawyers and taxi drivers, have been passed by his "technocratic" cabinet, but once signed off by the President, have to be approved in Parliament within two months!

Such parliamentary approval requires the endorsement and support of Silvio Berlusconi, the ousted elected Prime Minister, who in this report states "that measures adopted so far by the new government had 'produced no results' and that he was ready to return to power soon. - Reuters"

Croatia prepares to vote on EU Membership - A Fitting Photo!

2012-01-21T14:24:00.001Z

An unarmed anti-EU protester is pictured by a Canadian broadcaster being manacled by riot gear clad and armed police, at a protest rally ahead of tomorrows referendum on EU membership: CLICK HERE! Background, here and here.

UPDATE Video now available on YouTube:

Debate on extra funding for the IMF

2012-01-21T12:21:00.000Z

The debate on IMF EU funding, which was broadcast on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning, may be listened to from the attached link here.

4th Draft Non-EU Treaty continues with the same Preamble Lie!

2012-01-21T08:29:00.002Z

The lie in the Treaty Preamble timed at 1600 on 19-1- 2012 (4th draft of the Fiscal Compact) needs to be legally challenged by Britain as it has been carried forward from the third draft. The draft provided by EurActiv, is linked here, the offending untrue statement of fact is as follows:

BEARING IN MIND that the Heads of State or Governments of the Euro Area Member States and of other Member States of the European Union is to incorporate the provisions of this Treaty as soon as possible into the Treaties on which the European Union is founded,

To make this statement factually accurate, (which should surely be the aim if it is not shortly to be totally disregarded as was its forerunner the Growth and Stability Pact, by its same two driving founding members, France and Germany,) the word either "several" or "various" should be included between the word "of" and the word "other" in the statement of intent.

Will Britain now contribute for Oil for Greece?

2012-01-20T18:25:00.001Z

The weak-willed Coalition Government of Cameron and Clegg could next be about to concede further aid to Greece disguised as mitigation of the consequences of imposing an oil embargo against Iran.

A report in Reuters, linked here, suggests nothing will be agreed until Monday, but it should be recalled that most commitments by our treacherous politicians to continue to provide aid, usually in the form of cash or cash guarantees for the Euro Group, have been entered into during the weekends. Language such as the following should by now be taken as a clear warning sign of extra commitments ahead:

Jan 20 (Reuters) - EU foreign ministers will assure Greece on Monday that it will still be able to buy oil on reasonable terms after the introduction of a planned EU ban on Iranian crude, a senior Brussels official said.But he added that ministers, who plan to announce the embargo at a meeting on Monday, will not come out with a detailed plan that same day on how to maintain supplies to Greece, which sources around 23 percent of crude imports from Iran.

Sacrificing our Sovereignty - HS2 and TEN-T

2012-01-20T17:17:00.002Z

Research by Anne Palmer

The Coalition’s Program for Government?

The linked research paper has been prepared by Anne Palmer and is too long to include in full as a posting on this blog. I have therefore posted it on a little used but relevant sister blog linked here. I quote merely the first few papragraphs and omit all the hugely important links. Please read it in full when your time allows, it is immensely important for Britain.

These two paragraphs below are acknowledged as Crown Copyright from the Coalition’s program for Government. Chapter 13: Europe.

“The Government believes that Britain should play a leading role in an enlarged European Union, but that no further powers should be transferred to Brussels without a referendum. This approach strikes the right balance between constructive engagement with the EU to deal with the issues that affect us all, and protecting our national sovereignty”.

“We will ensure that there is no further transfer of sovereignty or powers over the course of the next Parliament. We will examine the balance of the EU’s existing competences and will, in particular, work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive in the United Kingdom”. End of quotes.

We have read recently of the Government’s acceptance of a full speed ahead with HS2. Yet, not one word from our Government or explanation that the HS2 is part of the EU’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) Policy. Although I have written about this before, I did not emphasize just how, in accepting this EU project, it is transferring ever more masses of UK Sovereignty to the European Union. In the acceptance of this EU Legislation our politicians are allowing the European Union to dictate what we must do on our land, sea, and air. All of which so many people fought so very hard to prevent in the 1939-1945 war, when the people of every age-yes even children- fought so hard for this once sovereign Country to remain forever FREE FROM FOREIGN RULE.

British Establishment Figures Alone to consider the West Lothian Question!

2012-01-20T14:05:00.001Z

Please visit the web site linked here to read about the latest affront to all the people of England. The detail will shock and fully justifies the dire warning from the Chairman of the English Democrats, with which the post concludes which is as follows:

"....I have a message for Ministers and for their West Lothian Commission – the English are awakening and when fully roused they will not be happy with Westminster or Whitehall which have betrayed the trust placed in them to be fair to England and to the English Nation! And this McKay Commission will not appease us one bit!"

EU and Britain are drifting apart.

2012-01-20T08:25:00.003Z

Mario Monti, always a powerful figure in the development of the EU as it presently exists, has solidified his power base since trashing his commitment to the democracy of the country of his birth. There is now no going back for Monti!

Feeling in Italy against the EU will inevitably become increasingly anti-EU as austerity mounts and the realisation grows that domestic corruption has been replaced rather than removed by the centralised trans-national socialist conglomeration the EU has become. The fact that this is also incompetently led and grossly mismanaged is well captured by this cartoon from Italy, yesterday re-published in Der Spiegel in Germany, linked here.

Mario Monti has therefore burnt his lifeboats for a return to respectability amongst his countrymen, his words in a report in City AM yesterday, linked here, should therefore be considered as well considered and likely to be accurate - “The possibility of the UK subscribing to the new fiscal compact [EU treaty]... is water under the bridge. Pity, but this seems to be the case.”

The meeting between another very powerful and dangerous anti-democratic EU fanatic, Michel Barnier, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, next Monday will therefore be very important, read here. These are dangerous times for our country, England, and for the Corporation of the City of London, under attack from the Continent, both from Scotland backed as so many times in history by our enemies on the Continent and directly from France and our commercial rivals to its East.

Monti has chosen to meet other traitors within our ranks after his visit to 11 Downing Street, this quote comes from the Reuters report linked above, "Barnier will also visit the City to meet senior bankers, some of whom are uneasy about Britain's stand last year."

George Osborne, would appear to have faint-hearted friends enough in the figure of the proud and boasting Scots' blood bearing Prime Minister and his EU fanatical Deputy Clegg, surely the City could now manage to present a united front?

Hungarian uprising 2012 - Video from UKIP

2012-01-19T18:20:00.000Z

I posted yesterday morning on the nature of the assault by the EU against Hungary being like a re-run of 1956. Ukip have placed a video on this same topic on the internet which is here:

Greece and our money

2012-01-19T07:57:00.004Z

John Redwood MP, one of the few astute spokesmen in Westminster on the EU, chooses to write on the traffic light situation in and around Parliament on his blog this morning, this follows yesterday's offering on roads and before that on yachts. Prior to that post we did have something on Greece, but that was long before yesterday's harrowing IMF proposal.

For detail on that we must rely on the Wall Street Journal who fifteen minutes ago updated this comment, from Washington, where it remains the dead of night. This article presently concludes as follows:

Some experts and policy makers maintain the world needs far more money than even the IMF is seeking in order to contain the growing crisis. The $500 billion proposed by the IMF "is not nearly sufficient to provide bailouts for Italy and Spain," said Desmond Lachman, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute and former IMF official. He estimates that Italy could need $750 billion and Spain could need $450 billion for bailouts. "Additional money would have to be ponied up by the Europeans."
Those and other nations in the euro zone also face growing economic strains, raising the risk that they will need more than outside loans to recover.

It was 30th May 2010 that I appear to have first headlined a posting stating "Greece must exit the Euro and Default" concluding it as follows:

This blog has been stating this obvious fact as it appears in this posting's headline for some considerable time, in fact ever since the so-called Greek crisis first hit the headlines! Other common sense on the present terrible situation is in other postings below this.

Time and again since then I have blogged on the futility of pouring money into Greece, with no Euro exit nor devaluation possible and that it would would surely bring the world to its present point.

Little could I ever have guessed, however, that when we finally arrived at the crunch, even our brightest MPs would seek distraction with topics such as traffic lights, roads and yachts. At least Douglas Carswell MP yesterday recognised the acute danger the country faces, his Party leadership, in thrall to Clegg, clearly do not!

Has IMF lost $100 billion from Congress?

2012-01-18T18:23:00.001Z

Careful readers may have noted in my earlier posting about the IMF this afternoon, the first paragraph of my quote from Bloomberg referred to $500 Billion while the second paragraph and the postings headline mentioned $600 Billion.

Researching the discrepancy I came across this report of yesterday in the Daily Caller, linked here "As the Eurozone takes a turn for the worse and chatter heats up about more European Union and IMF bailouts across the continent, Republicans in Congress are pushing to rescind the $100 billion set-aside."

A report, linked here, in the Irish Echo, also has interesting detail on Tim Geitner and the first Irish bail out with the risk of default or potential non-repayment of an IMF advance having been considered a possibility worthy of discussion.

Steve Liesman has been tweeting on the same topic from CNBC as may be seen from here.

IMF seeks another $600 Billion for the Euro

2012-01-18T15:08:00.004Z

The Euro is DOOMED! Throw no more $$$$$s or £££££s in that direction!

Greek default cannot be prevented only POSTPONED!

The € is a currency fronting what decency and democracy exists to oppose!

Link to the Bloomberg report on the latest request for extra cash which includes this:
The International Monetary Fund is proposing to raise its lending capacity by $500 billion to insulate the global economy against any worsening of Europe’s debt crisis, according to a person familiar with the talks.
The Washington-based lender currently has about $385 billion available to lend and wants to lift that to $885 billion after identifying the potential for a $1 trillion global financing gap in the next two years, the person said. To incorporate a cash buffer, that means asking its membership for $600 billion.

UPDATE at 1630 GMT. Douglas Carswell has blogged on this disastrous proposal, linked here
to which Denis Cooper has added the following sensible suggestion and protest:

As I've argued before, MPs should not permit the government to use an Order, secondary legislation, to authorise payments to the IMF when it's clear that the money would be destined for eurozone bailouts which are illegal under the EU treaties and therefore under UK primary legislation approving those treaties.
If the government insists on doing this it should only be done through primary legislation, an Act of Parliament which expressly stated that the payments were being authorised "notwithstanding the European Communities Act 1972".

Posted on 18 January 2012 14:17 by Denis Cooper

Sun editorial exposes how European Human Rights Court renders us defenceless!

2012-01-18T11:58:00.000Z

Human rights have destroyed the fabric of our nation, as I discussed yesterday morning, both on this blog and on Orphans of Liberty. Today The Sun newspaper, in an editorial, linked here, continues with the same theme and describes our resulting defencelessness as a nation.

When Human Rights trash Common Sense, society is left valueless, and the trash rises to the top!