Neither €40 Billion nor €400 Billion can save Spain or its banks!

The problem for Spain is that country's own membership of the EU common currency inside of the Euro Zone.

Unemployment in Spain cannot drop while a non-competitive currency and labour costs within a world descending into depression, are allowed to continue!

The housing glut in Spain cannot be solved while no drop in the value of such housing can be contemplated because of unrealistic values carried by the supposedly commercial entities who financed that glut.

The EU currency cannot become competitive while Germany remains within it and fixed exchange rates continue.

The EU Commission cannot manage a solution with EU Commissioners and other EU employees of the present lowly calibre, all of whom seem to exist mainly for self-pleasure, self-enrichment and huge conceit.

The Spanish people and others in Europe, having brought this misery upon themselves, with their own votes, are the only group who can find an exit by quickly ending the entire EU nightmare!

The IMF in pitching a low figure for aid at €40 billion, is starting low in order to spare the banks upon which Mme Christine Lagarde depends, look at HER track record in Greece, the initial funding required for that ruined country and the amounts estimated as necessary today, even after having defaulted on some of its bonds.

IMF appears to disassociate itself from its MD Christine Lagarde!

The statement detailing the pledges of extra support the IMF is claiming to have received appears only under the name of Madame Christine Lagarde, the IMF's competence challenged Managing Director, the dangers of whom to the world economy, this blog has long warned.

The version of Mme Lagarde's statement available from the IMF website, linked here, has at least been edited since it first appeared, so that the figures are finally properly aligned, but the dreadful arithmetical errors that would shame many eleven year olds still exist. The total of the numbers provided remain woefully far short of the Grand Lump Sum offered at the end, with a mere footnote number 3:

 "³ Including China, Russia, Brazil, India, and other countries"

being supposedly offered up as justification for this cheapest of low conjuring tricks.

Readers may search in vain for numbers that add up all across the IMF site but none others appear. Thus the organisation appears to have disassociated itself from the entire exercise, particularly as the IMF seems also silent under what provisions these sums have been pledged and with which particular procedures, of the many available to the IMF, they will be disbursed!

All this should be sufficient to consign UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, back to the political playpen, from which he should never have been allowed to set forth.

IMF changes rules to fit Greece and the Euro Zone.

The full report is in the Wall Street Journal linked here. The following is an even more eye-opening quote than this posting's headline, from the content of the article:

The fund has lent Greece proportionally more compared to Athens's IMF contributions than any other country in the fund's history. Also, most of the IMF's lending resources have been promised to euro-zone nations.

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

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.

Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde meet to end Greek crisis!

My mother told me when I was a small boy, that if the world was run by women, things would be a lot better. Good job she did not have to live until now!

The West Australian has this most up to date report on the latest Berlin meeting, linked here, between Merkel and Lagarde! Poor Old Europe!

Statement on €380 million today poured into Piraeus Bank

Read it from here. It is not from the EU. So far I have been unable to find the rules under which the money has been advanced, nor any other detail. What has happened to the EFSM, EFSF, ESM, and all the other emergency facilities supposedly in place for Greece.

Mme Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, this afternoon is reported as stating in South Africa, that the euro will not just vanish this year, read here, does she mean much of it will be found somewhere on the books of the Piraeus Bank?

Why has the IMF not been involved in this latest Greek aid, not to mention the ECB, are they not supposed to be in overall control of the banks within the Euro Zone?

IMF's Lagarde flees her French Finance Ministerial aftermath.

Things look really, really bad for the euro currency next week! Mme Christine Lagarde, MD of the IMF and former leading accomplice in the EU debacle, has arranged to be in Brazil, Peru and other places well away from the aftermath! Read here.

IMF's lightweight Lagarde, flounders on Italy's debt dilemma

No shame over arbitrary governments removal from the IMF chief here, why should Japan, or indeed other democratic nations now agree to extend their voters' funds to such a shameless organisation?

IMF's Lagarde approves Mario Monti!

Mme Lagarde, whose crass incompetence has already been well proven by the ever woresening EU economic crisis in the few short weeks since she  supposedly took charge at the IMF, has now given her supposed seal of approval to the EU endorsed smashing of Italy's democracy, with the following endorsement of Mario Monti to take-over Italy, with no serious reference to his competence or credentials, other than the fact that she personally knows him. The report from AGI is here, from which I quote:

From Tokyo, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said: "I hold Mario Monti in great esteem, I know him well and he's extremely competent".

As I commented on Mario Montion my blog "Ironies" on 25th March 2004:

It is extremely dangerous and completely foolhardy to use anti-monopolistic fines against a major company domiciled within the jurisdiction of a main trading competitor, unless you have intentions beyond those of curbing anti-competitive behaviour or monopolistic practises. Monti has been one of the more disastrous Commissioners of even this particularly dud bunch, to exit on such a disastrous note could reap dire consequences indeed.

Now at least Monti's intentions are more than clear, and they are dire indeed, they have no basis in democracy, freedom of choice or individual rights. It seems incredible to me, that a man born so soon after the second war ended, can so quickly apparently forget the image of Mussolini's end.

Olli Rehn flounders again!

Reuters has the best summary that I have found on the complete lack of any progress over the weekend on the Euro crisis, linked here. This quote from their report sums it up very well:

A senior European official hinted that kind of firepower was being contemplated.
"We need to find a mechanism where we can turn one euro in the EFSF into five, but there is no decision on how we could do that yet," the official said.
Financial markets signaled some doubts that bolder steps would emerge soon given a lack of details from weekend comments and differences between euro zone leaders.

The Irish Times, uniquely involved in the Euro mess and following it in the English language, also picks Olli Rehn to open their report but significantly gives him very little coverage in the article, read here. Their report indicates that the IMF head Christine Lagarde, see post beneath this is aware that more funds from the IMF could prove poblematic:

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said it was “ready and it will deliver on any type of resources necessary and available to all members . . . By resources I mean everything that the fund can deliver, from policy advice, from being the trusted adviser and the facilitator, to organising facilities that are needed.”

IMF lacks the resources to tackle coming crisis!

Bloomberg has the report from the continuing meetings in New York, linked here.

Has Lagarde become the puppet of the IMF?

The speech at Jackson Hole by Mme Christine Lagarde, MD of the IMF., was a surprise. This latest assessment on the former French Finance Minister seems almost more astounding, read the report from Business Insider, linked here, from which comes this:

The otherwise inexplicably foolish and incompetent European response to the euro crisis makes a little more sense if you realize that German and French politicians want to manage this problem without letting the public in on the dirty little secret at the heart of the crisis.  Christine Lagarde, now that she is working for the IMF rather than the French government, thinks it is time to come clean.

She is right.

French Judge opens inquiry into IMF MD Lagarde!

Half an hour before the Press Conference where Merkel and Sarkozy are supposed to re-assure the world on prospects for the Euro, seems an odd moment to pick to launch the following story onto the web, covering as it does worrying connotations regarding the activities of a major player in the early stages of the meltdown of the euro currency and EMU. Read more from France 24!

A quote from that report states:

The investigative commission of three judges from the Court of Justice of the Republic -- a special tribunal which can judge ministers -- is expected to summon Lagarde to testify, but no date has yet been set.

Update 19:35 The Slog has some good questions as to why the FT devoted so much op-ed space to this lightweight this morning, perhaps the answer is above.

Germany questions whether Lagarde can continue at the IMF

Der Spiegel International has an article summarising German concerns about the inquiry launched yesterday by the French judiciary into the actions of Mme Christine Lagarde while French Finance Minister over the Tapie affair, as reported on this blog yesterday.

Comment from five German newspapers, as quoted in the linked article, indicates that this concern is widespread across the German nation, so should it be across the entire world!

IMF Board backs Lagarde continuing as MD

The Executive Board of the IMF has stated they have confidence in Mme Christine Lagarde as follows, from here:

"The Board is confident that she will be able to effectively carry out her duties as Managing Director," directors said in an email statement. 

An earlier report, on the opening of investigatory proceedings against the MD of the IMF, also from the Wall Street Journal, is here.
 

IMF's Lagarde to be investigated over Tapie/Credit Lyonnais Affair

The worst news that could have come for the IMF on top of the dire events in the world's financial markets has just been announced by a French Judge, see this posts headline!

A good graphic on the detail of this affair, not requiring a good grasp of French, is available from Le Figaro today, linked here.

The €3.2 Billion Rule-busting IMF payment!

Enjoy the video? Well read this on the nightmare of the ECB Gold manipulations!

IMF chief opines on Italy

Mme Christine Lagarde said the turmoil that had raised fears of an Italian financial meltdown was "essentially market driven."


"Some of the Italian numbers are excellent," she told reporters in Washington, read here!

It sounds to this reader as if the new IMF chief is anticipating an early visit to Milan to purchase some fashion items. Who know, maybe soon those markets may drive Italy clean out of the Euro Zone, returning designer handbags etc to denominations of thousands of lira, we all remember as being so easily affordable!

No explanation was given in this article nor in the reported news conference, as to why the 3 billion was just released from the IMF to Greece, when clearly that country's future financing is high up in the air, if indeed anywhere at all, this situation now not sceduled to begin to be  resolved by the EU until talks starting in September at the earliest!

Strong and visionary European leadership is needed - Papandreou

"I am now convinced, after fourteen months, that no matter what Greece does-and we have proven ready to live up to our responsibilities—if Europe does not make the right, collective, forceful decisions now, we risk new, and possibly global, market calamities due to a contagion of doubt that will could engulf our common union. Strong and visionary European leadership is needed.
I say this to you because now there is a greater need to avoid mistakes of the past. “Crunch time” has arrived and there is no room for indecisiveness and errors such as:
- taking decisions that in the end prove ‘too little, too late’ to convince the markets we are serious;
- making compromises that satisfy our internal political ‘red lines’ that in the end substitute tactical politics for sound management of the crisis (although I do recognize the problems some governments have and the democratic demand for a greater say of Parliaments in trying to deal with this crisis);
- failing to use in-depth technical analysis and consultation before decisions are made;
- allowing a cacophony of voices and views to substitute for a shared agenda, thereby creating more panic than security;
- and I would add more global issues such as doing nothing substantive about the destabilizing role of the rating agencies, credit default swaps, tax havens or about plausible new revenues such as a financial transaction tax.
The above have in one way or another had profound effects on my country and others facing similar challenges."

The above is from a letter from Greek Prime Minister Papandreou to Jean-Claude Juncker, thanks to Covering Delta, linked here. Asking for strong and visionary leadership from this typically blinkered Luxembourger in regards to the leadership of the Continent seems worse than asking a member of an Olympic synchronised swimming team to run the IMF, (or perhaps expecting a drone bee to take the role of the Queen Bee in a hive). Frankly they are just not mentally, genetically nor physically capable of fulfilling such a task! When will somebody twig that obvious fact?
Or of course, on the other hand, is that the very reason they are appointed to the very positions in which they now find themselves? 

PS The Euro Group response to this letter, appears to be to prepare legislation against the rating agencies, as I reported on my first post of today see below.

IMF set to break its own rules by next Greek payment.

Labour yesterday voted against increasing Britain's commitment to the IMF by £9.45 Billion, that is £9,450,000,000!

Given the speech made by the new Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, see my report on her first press conference from yesterday below, this seems to be entirely justified.

Last evening the media reported that someone from the People's Republic of China could be appointed as her deputy MD. A telling indictment when a communist from a regime such as that in China is appointed near the very top of an organisation supposedly dedicated to the advancement and protection of Western Capitalism. On the brighter side, the Chinese are generally brilliant at mathematics and figures, which may serve to compensate for the general ineptness of the French, whose citizens are first taught to count with a base of ten from twenty to sixty, then have to switch to a base of twenty until they reach one hundred. This often results in a deep-seated fear of figures, yet one more reason this blog opposed Mme Lagarde's appointment.

 Ian Talley reports as follows from the Wall Street Jounal site, linked here:

 WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Some International Monetary Fund officials--including executive directors on the Fund's board--fear the Greece loan program will ultimately prove unsustainable.

Despite those concerns, the IMF board is expected to approve the next tranche of loans to Greece to stem the sovereign debt crisis from spilling over into the rest of the euro zone. The IMF's new managing director, Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister who helped to negotiate financing for Greece, said the sovereign debt crisis was her top priority and the board would consider the loan Friday.

In the world of foul life forms that bottom feed in the sludge and sewage of the political pond, maybe there is some form of natural balance at work, which has allowed this clearly charming French lady to rise to the top. Perhaps it is because she is so clearly an air head!

The IMF should not be allowed to break its own rules. Britain should not grant the increase in IMF resources approved in Committee yesterday.