Some countries are threatening to leave the Euro because of austerity measures that their people won’t accept. Others want Germany to prop the Euro up or leave the zone.
What do all of you make of this mess?
Some countries are threatening to leave the Euro because of austerity measures that their people won’t accept. Others want Germany to prop the Euro up or leave the zone.
What do all of you make of this mess?
I was wondering when I would see this appear on this site…
Anyway, I live in the “Heart of Europe” – Brussels. If you had asked me this question a year ago I would have been much more optimistic, but at this point I (and everyone else that I know here) is tired to death of the “Eurocrisis”, doubly so because it is making Europe look like a collection of a bunch of babbling fools to the outside.
I don’t trust the Euro one bit anymore and actually have most of my money out of Belgium and in the UK, Germany and so on. I would open a Swiss account in a heartbeat if I had the minimum deposit that they require, but alas 500,000 CHF is not available at the moment for me… A part of me wishes that the Euro would just fail, that Greece would be kicked out and that some sort of resolution would come about as quickly as possible. I’m tired of worrying about what is going to happen to this currency every week and seeing all of the politicians here loaf about.
The worst bit is sending money to Greece. They “massaged the figures” to get in and should be kicked out asap. No more money going down into a black hole. Germany and the others supporting the south then need to decide if they want to continue to do so in the future, and fast. If not, break the Euro into two blocs, southern and northern.
I used to believe in a federal Europe, but now I’m not so sure. I don’t favour any more integration and prefer the status quo at this point. The Euro is certainly starting to look like a mistake in my book since it wasn’t implemented properly and is starting to slowly, but surely pull Europe apart it seems. Even the Dutch have become somewhat Eurosceptic. That would have been unimaginable just a few years back as they were one of the founding members of the bloc.
50 years of work integrating Europe lost just like that if a breakup comes to pass due to the Euro. I just hope that whatever happens that we are united in some sort of way (such as the EFTA covering all of Europe) if the EU falls apart. If not, I think that we’re going to be left for the vultures (ie China and the US)…
*Even Finland, where 40% of its GDP is produced by exports, is suffering a retraction in its economy by registering negative growth. This is a new development.
*One problem is in creating the whole “Federal Europe” concept Europe was trying to copy the US “model” right at the time the US was going down the tubes. As such the EU essentially replicated the very unstable “Jacksonian” banking system of the US in the Eurozone. Having said that their are models of running a sucessful banking system i.e. Canada however, no one his tried them across a population of a couple of hundred million. Within the Canadian currency “union” their is essentially one unitary Central Bank and five major banks with coast to coast presence. In the Eurozone you have something like 18 or 19 central banks and hundreds of smaller commercial banks. I also don’t the EU really ever understood or studied what makes a currency sucessful instead they basically went off in a very unplanned way to try create a “competitor” for US Dollar which they had seen as the “dominant” global currency.
I would say that things are proceeding right along the EU-elite’s plan. Through their appointment of Venizelos and Monti they have already Greece and Italy where they want. Spain and Portugal are also falling into line. This crisis was planned from the beginning in order to force the national governments and peoples of the EU to secede sovereignty. Draghi (ECB) and LeGarde (IMF) are ready to tag-team any Euro dissent on EMU. But there are signs of discontent among the slaves:
1.5 million take to streets of Barcelona in support of independence
Golden Dawn Assails Electronic ID’s for Greeks
Anti-European tide sweeps Dutch marshlands
The sheeple are starting to wake up, but of course the Eurocrats have a plan:
Monti Calls for EU Summit to Confront Populism
So the Eurocrats are going to do they same as the US political elite: turn “populism” into a code word for racism and fascism, just like with the teaparty, libertarians and constitutionalists in the US. Using the brunt force of their state controlled media they will turn any dissent into the equivalent of terrorism. Good thing the Yurps don’t have drones.
But even then things may be spinning beyond their control. It looks like Obama may have left the reservation (USA and Isreal in open feud) and gone rogue. Russia and China seem to be unyielding on the now long overdue overthrow of Assad. But both the Fed and the ECB can pull the trigger at any time by allowing interest rates to rise, causing a worldwide derivative nuclear bomb in a matter of days. Its a kind of financial MAD. The derivatives and banks are toast as soon as interest rates rise, and the elites know this. When the time is right, they will allow interest rates to go up and the long planned crackdown on dissent will swing into high gear.
I live in Germany. The Euro crises is a lot like the Fukushima disaster. The damage has been done, by a combination of faulty design, lack of imagination, and general sense complacency. The engineers are working to try to contain the damage, but they cannot get the reactor under control; no one can repeal the laws of physics. The politicians meanwhile are lying to the people that nothing is really wrong, but nobody really believes them any more.
A recent survey in Germany resulted in 59% of people being against Germany as a part of a United States of Europe. But why are all the main-stream political parties so bent on going against the clear will of their own people.
*The timing of the crisis is perfect for my mortgage refinancing. Yet, once I refinance, I’ll be hoping for a quick recovery! Other than that, it seems like politicians are carelessly dumping money that they didn’t earn into a bottomless bucket.
@SP: did you land that 2% 10 year at the Lichtenstein bank?
Missed this yesterday – Barroso has called for a “federation of nation-states” again. Yes, this is the language being used nowadays since “federal Europe” is a dirty word. He then rambled on about saving Greece (lost cause in my book) and then said that a new treaty would be required. That’s nice, because the last treaty took forever to get passed so whatever he has in store will likely take years to come to pass, if ever. Hopefully the UK and Central and Eastern European countries will put a stop to these plans..
This Belgian doesn’t EVER want to have a characterless “European Union” or “Replubik Europa” passport. We all know that that is where a “federation of nation-states” will lead.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19568781