Posted on 03/05/2011 5:39:05 PM PST by bruinbirdman
A few days ahead of the 11 March Eurozone summit that should prove crucial for the the future of the single currency and the union's most indebted members, Angela Merkel is piling the pressure on her EU partners to accept the Competitivness Pact concocted along with French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
When in October the Portuguese Minister of Economy, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, said that if Portugal’s bonds went through the ceiling of seven percent the country would have to be rescued by the EU, like Ireland, the noose was already dangling a little closer. For weeks now, Portuguese ten-year bonds have hovered above that seven percent mark.
When after the last Ecofin the same Teixeira complained on 15 February of "the delays and doubts", especially those of Germany, over the widespread request to expand and make more flexible the current temporary rescue fund, he was absolutely right. Portugal, as with Greece, is doing its part with the austerity programme. Like Greece, it’s paying a high price for the tardiness of Berlin in coming to a decision. And for suggesting in January that Berlin pick up the pace.
This pact is not a bad idea The go-slow is calculated. Chancellor Merkel also has her reasons. She’s being squeezed by the upcoming German elections and a near-unanimity across society on the ultra-orthodox/nationalist view of the monetary union: strict deficit reduction, nothing doing with Eurobonds, no new common commitments... That’s why she’s urging a "global package" on her European partners, with a little something in return for her support of the single currency: the Competitiveness Pact.
This pact, with its six points, is not a bad idea. But it was tabled on 4 February as an accession agreement, as a “diktat” from the Merkel-Sarkozy duo, and it landed like a bull in a china shop. Rightly, it stirred up a rebellion among the shopkeepers.
President Van Rompuy has trimmed its horns. He has cut down on its intergovernmental nature and swung the reins back towards the common institutions, for without those there are just two member states in the saddle. And he has watered down the absurdity of imposing a zero deficit on constitutions.
But the other points – linking wages to productivity, if social dialogue is respected; mutually recognising diplomas and degrees; harmonising the corporate tax bases of the EU27 (it is more crucial to unify the bases, since multitudes of obscure deductions proliferate, than to pool the rates); coordinating retirement ages; or agreeing on a plan to resolve future bank crisis – are not merely agreeable. They are necessary. They should be an essential fixture in a true economic union.
Or Europe will be dragged along the road to Calvary If this plan is adopted, Berlin will have no choice but to play its part. How? Some are betting on back-door agreements, on a compromise that will come in useful at this month’s summits. The current Rescue Fund will be expanded to 500 billion euros (with the support of more solvent countries); or it may issue Eurobonds (the right dream, but still a dream); or buy bonds from countries in distress (resisted by many Germans, not just the Chancellor); or make loans to those affected to let them buy their bonds back at a higher price. The economic effects of the latter two initiatives would be equivalent to issuing Eurobonds.
And in return, Berlin would get what it craves: that the banks will pay a chunk of the bailout bill. How? By buying back the not-so-good bonds at their secondary market price, well below the nominal price. The result would be partly achieved: some private debt would be removed without a country having to declare a suspension of payments. Or something similar will be cobbled together. Or Europe will be dragged along the road to Calvary. Or there will be a train wreck.
I dunno about that. Seems these new Euros just don’t have the spunk of previous generations, it’s been pc-ed out of them. I would hope they recover it and give the Muzzies what for but I don’t think so. Hope I’m wrong but....
the good Doctor lived and worked twenty minutes from here...
He was a neat man. He was loved by all the musicians who bought his synths.
Read up on just how close the Muslims were to conquering all of Europe before Charles Martel rose up and stopped them, and what happened to the Muslims after.
This cycle is repeating that cycle pretty close.
Du Hast Mich
yes, he was...
Du hasst mich
Du hasst mich all about triflin hoes.
Why do we still have troops stationed in Germany? =.=
All of their videos are like little movies, and are quite enjoyable even if you don’t understand a word cause they’re in German.
I love Haifisch & Roserot, but Kein Lust has to be my all time favorite!
You right about the heat & the fire works. We counted 11 tractor trailers outside of MSG after the show. Heard that they used all of them to carry their set. I don’t know how the band members could stand the heat. I guess they’re used to it by now :-)
Fantastic. Flake can always steal the show. On this tour, Till throws him in a bathtub then dumps a can of sparks over him. Then Flake comes out in the mirrored suit you see in the Ich Tu Dir Wey video.
Flake does the weird dancing stuff too as well as ridding a rubber raft through the audience during Haifisch.
Yeah but this is not Martel’s Europe. Ten years, fifteen tops and Canterburry Cathedral will be a mosque.
England is not continental Europe. Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, Austria have a long history of fighting against Islam.
New German minister: Islam does not belong in Germany
“Hans-Peter Friedrich’s comment comes in context of probe into killing of two U.S. airmen at Frankfurt Airport believed to be motivated by radical Islamist beliefs.”
A German politician standing up for 2 Americans far more than any American politician.
No, England is not continental Europe but it might as well be. Do you really think The Brits and the Euros are going to start slaughtering Muslims at some future point? It’d be nice but it ain’t gonna happen!
England is not continental Europe. Let’s see - Europe has had murderous wars for hmmm.... 1,000 years? They have not had one for 70 years. Might be about time. It’s still in there DNA and it is called survival. This is all media control and manipulation created by the invention of TV.
I think the Europeans may be less docile than American sheep in front of TV. Even the Brits had pensioners and younger people chasing Muslims down the street and if the cops had not been there......
And what are they going to fight with? They’ve dis-armed themselves. They have Muslims in their military. Hate speech laws are there the moment some skin-head, neo-Nazi or yob opens his mouth. Look what happened to Geet Wilders and he wasn’t even talking about killing anybody. Look man, I’d like to think it’s 1933 in Europe concerning this but it isn’t. Do really think the Euros are going to rise up and do what you want them to?
I think they have a higher probability of turning it around than the USA does. Major Hassan is just one example.
The American public are now sheep who are brainwashed by TV. People here think Fox is there friend. American elected a known Muslim to destroy America.
Geert Wilders exists in Europe. Name a Geert Wilders in America?
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