German Push to Remodel Europe May Backfire

Bloomberg

By Rainer Buergin and Simone Meier - Dec 20, 2011 1:01 AM GMT+0200

… The risk to Germany, …is that transforming the region’s struggling nations into blueprints of itself may work too well…

… German labor costs rose at half the pace of Greece’s…

… Schroeder unveiled his package … It took almost two years before the labor market began to show results,…

… Northern Italy, especially the region around Milan, is as good as Baden-Wuerttemberg…

EU Ministers Seek Crisis IMF Funding Deal

Bloomberg

By Patrick Donahue and Stephanie Bodoni - Dec 19, 2011 10:58 AM GMT+0200

… it’s doubtful they’ll put markets in a Christmas mood…

… an overall crisis solution may be “technically and politically beyond reach.”…

… the U.K. hadn’t agreed to increase its IMF contribution…

… requiring a high-deficit state to amass a super majority within the euro region to head off disciplinary procedures,…

Ties That Bound Europe Now Fraying

By STEPHEN FIDLER And DAVID ENRICH

The Wall Street Journal

… debt worries spread until they set in train a reversal of the historic process of European financial integration…

… the financial lifeline of some European states is ebbing away…

… The euro's first decade was much different…bond yields exceeded their interest cost for repo loans…

…The assumption that euro-zone government bonds were almost interchangeable and none could default steadily began to crumble …

…A turning point for euro-zone investment came in July. …investors in its bonds would take losses.

… The EBA … announced it was recalculating banks' capital needs.

… Investors haven't been convinced by European leaders' efforts…

Παγώνουν τα πρόστιμα σε λαθρεμπόρους καυσίμων.

Σημ. του blog. Πρόκειται για άλλο ένα σχετικά παλιό άρθρο. Η αξία του είναι ο ανάγλυφος τρόπος που περιγράφει την Ελληνική πολιτική πραγματικότητα. Το γεγονός που περιγράφει είναι ενδεικτικό της «κυριαρχίας» που θα απωλεσθεί από την πολιτική τάξη της Ελλάδας. Είναι η εξήγηση γιατί δεν προχωράνε οι μεταρρυθμίσεις, γιατί φέτος πάλι χάσαμε τους δημοσιονομικούς στόχους: Η πολιτική αντί να ασκείται με σκοπό το δημόσιο συμφέρον, παρεμβαίνει για την μη έκδοση αποφάσεων επιβολής προστίμων για παραβάσεις στον τομέα εμπορίας καυσίμων,…

Euro at 11-Month Low

Selloff Comes After Period of Resilience for the Currency

The Wall Street Journal

By TOM LAURICELLA

… ECB officials feel governments are moving more aggressively to address the debt crisis…

… recession in Greece is turning out to be deeper than expected…

… Betting on a lower euro had been a particularly fruitless trade for many hedge funds…

…"The general consensus is that each time the fiscal authorities don't come up with concrete, well-funded plans, the probability increases that the ECB has to step in,"…

Οι προστάτιδες συντεχνίες

Του Πάσχου Μανδραβέλη

Τρίτη, 13 Δεκέμβριος 2011 09:02

...Κάθε φορά που κάτι γινόταν για να περιοριστούν τα εξωφρενικά χρέη στο χώρο του φαρμάκου οι συνδαιτυμόνες του χώρου κραύγαζαν για την «υγεία του λαού»...

… Όπου υπάρχουν περιορισμοί και ολιγοπώλια ο κόσμος πληρώνει παραπάνω…

Cameron’s Backers Look Past ‘History of Antipathy’

Bloomberg

By Kevin Crowley and Ambereen Choudhury - Dec 13, 2011 2:01 AM GMT+0200

… Cameron cited defending London’s financial-services industry as the main reason he refused to join 26 other nations…

…Sarkozy and Merkel have endorsed a financial-transactions tax… George Osborne has called the plan an “attack” on London firms,…

…“For the U.K. economy it’s the equivalent of North Sea oil and it’s not running out.”...

…“This seems to be about the protection of banks rather than the country as a whole,”…

… anything that might result in the Europeans building an option to avoid the City would be unhelpful…

… If I were a rich German, I would already have put half my money in London. In sterling…

Questions Plague EU Pact

Europe's Leaders Agree to Repair Flaws in Currency, but Bold Strokes Missing

By CHARLES FORELLE And STEPHEN FIDLER

The Wall Street Journal

…Europe's leaders crafted a new "fiscal compact"… But the crucial government bond markets were mostly flat…

… It's unclear how quickly the pact could actually go into effect…

… U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron vetoed an EU-wide treaty… renewing questions about the future of the relationship…

… Euro-zone members who run outsize government deficits will face automatic penalties, … governments will put balanced-budget procedures of some form in their national laws…

… The only question that the market is currently asking is whether the political deal opens the way for more forceful intervention by the ECB…

… The months ahead will be filled with serious challenges…

Banks Prep for Life After Euro

The Wall Street Journal

Countries Study Printing Their Own Notes in Case Monetary Union Unravels

By DAVID ENRICH, DEBORAH BALL and ALISTAIR MACDONALD

…the Central Bank of Ireland—is evaluating whether it needs to secure additional access to printing presses…

But the fact central bankers are even studying the possibility…, underscores how swiftly conditions have deteriorated

…Disassembling the bloc would be messy at best…

… it usually takes about six months to develop a new currency…

Κοντογιώργης - Πολιτική Ευρώπη & ελληνική κρίση - 1.12.11

Merkel Calls for More 'Concrete' Union

The Wall Street Journal

By WILLIAM BOSTON and MARCUS WALKER

Ms. Merkel's first challenge, however, is to overcome her differences about the way forward with French President Nicolas Sarkozy…

… that euro members would have to accept a loss of national sovereignty, and that there is no quick fix to the crisis.

… they are prepared to sign a fiscal pact among the euro zone's 17 governments if the wider, 27-country EU won't agree…

…massive ECB intervention, …, if it doesn't work, could leave Europe staring into the abyss with no more cards to play…

…the potential for bondholder losses in future has helped to undermine investors' confidence…

Europe's Leaders Pursue New Pact

Deal Would Bring Closer Fiscal Ties

By MARCUS WALKER, DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS and BRIAN BLACKSTONE

The Wall Street Journal

Euro-zone leaders are negotiating a potentially groundbreaking fiscal pact….

… persuade the European Central Bank to undertake more drastic action…

… a centralized fiscal-enforcement authority with power to seize control of national budgets…

It isn't clear how the ECB would respond to such a pact…

Το φάντασμα του Μνημονίου και η εθνική κυριαρχία

(Από το blog: Πρόκειτε για παλαιότερο άρθρο, η αξία του είναι στο άτομο που το υπογράφει και στην άποψη που προβάλλει.)

Του Αντωνη Μανιτακη*

Από την εφημερίδα Καθημερινή

Έχει υποστηριχθεί, εντύπως και τηλεοπτικώς σε πρωινές εκπομπές, από έγκριτο και σεβαστό συνάδελφο, τον κ. Κασιμάτη -συνεπικουρούμενο από τον κ. Κατρούγκαλο- ότι η Σύμβαση Δανειακής Διευκόλυνσης των ογδόντα εκατομμυρίων ευρώ, που συνοδεύεται από το Μνημόνιο, και συνήψε η Ελλάδα με τα άλλα κράτη-μέλη της Ευρωζώνης, τον Μάιο του 2010, περιέχει όρο (άρθρο 14 παρ. 5) «παραίτησης της Ελλάδος από τις ασυλίες της εθνικής κυριαρχίας» και ότι «πρόκειται για όρο που παραβιάζει θεμελιώδεις αρχές του δικαίου σε όλα τα επίπεδα: του διεθνούς, του ευρωπαϊκού και του εθνικού δικαίου». Επιπλέον, ότι ο όρος αυτός είναι «πρωτοφανής στις διεθνείς οικονομικές συνθήκες των σύγχρονων δημοκρατιών, παραβιάζει τη θεμελιώδη αρχή σεβασμού της κυριαρχίας του κράτους, απειλεί, θέτει σε κίνδυνο και προσβάλλει στον πυρήνα τους τα κυριαρχικά δικαιώματα, την ίδια την κυριαρχία και την υπόσταση της χώρας» (βλ. το πλήρες κείμενο στον δικτυακό τόπο του Ομίλου «Αριστόβουλος Μάνεσης», www. constitutionalism. gr).

Is this really the end?

Unless Germany and the ECB move quickly, the single currency’s collapse is looming

Nov 26th 2011 | from the print edition

The Economist

EVEN as the euro zone hurtles towards a crash, most people are assuming that, in the end, European leaders will do whatever it takes to save the single currency. That is because the consequences of the euro’s destruction are so catastrophic that no sensible policymaker could stand by and let it happen.

The euro crisis

The screw tightens

Nov 23rd 2011, 13:26 by C.O. | LONDON

The Economist

ONE can almost hear the gates clanging: one after the other the sources of funding for Europe’s banks are being shut. It is a result of the highly visible run on Europe’s government bond markets, which today reached the heart of the euro zone: an auction of new German bonds failed to generate enough demand for the full amount, causing a drop in bond prices (and prompting the Bundesbank to buy 39% of the bonds offered, according to Reuters).

Opposition Leader Backs Greek Changes

The Wall Street Journal

By ALKMAN GRANITSAS

ATHENS—The head of Greece's opposition New Democracy party sent a letter to European leaders on Wednesday affirming his commitment to the Greek government's reform agenda, in an effort to unlock a slice of badly needed aid for the country.

Debt Crisis Is a Symptom of Wider Failings

The Wall Street Journal

By SIMON NIXON

There can be no solution to the euro-zone crisis that doesn't first address this governance crisis…

The euro zone in its current form was destroyed at Deauville in October 2010 with the insistence that bondholders would be required to take losses… it was buried at Cannes…The first introduced previously unexpected credit risk into the sovereign-bond market, the second introduced foreign-exchange risk…

…the run on the banking system is equally damaging…

At best, the ECB can only buy time—but time for what?

…full-blown fiscal and political union needed to credibly underpin euro bonds…

Εκρηκτική η αύξηση του δημόσιου χρέους

Η ΝΑΥΤΕΜΠΟΡΙΚΗ Τρίτη, 22 Νοεμβρίου 2011

Ο βρόχος των χρεολυσίωνΕκρηκτική αύξηση παρουσίασε το δημόσιο χρέος της χώρας στο τρίτο τρίμηνο του 2011, ενώ ταυτόχρονα ενισχύθηκε και ο βραχυπρόθεσμος χαρακτήρας του χρέους, αφού στην προσεχή εξαετία, οι λήξεις των ομολόγων αγγίζουν τα 220 δισ. ευρώ, ή το 60% του συνολικού χρέους.

Νεοκλής Σαρρής: Το Ύστατο Χαίρε σε ένα πραγματικό Διδάσκαλο

(Του διαχειριστή του ιστολόγιου). 

Έφυγε ο καθ. Ν. Σαρρής. Ένας άνθρωπος με βαθιά και βιωματική γνώση της Τουρκίας, αυθεντικός στον λόγο του, και με δύναμη πνεύματος. Αταίριαστος με το κομματικό Πανεπιστημιακό κατεστημένο, και γι’ αυτό σε όλη του την πορεία έξω από το σύστημα εξουσίας που έφτιαξε η μεταδικτατορική πολιτική τάξη και που μας οδήγησε στην χρεοκοπία. 

Το κείμενο που ακολουθεί γράφτηκε από τον μαθητή του, κ. Π. Ήφαιστο.

Merkel Risks the European Union to Save ECB Credibility: View

By the Editors Nov 18, 2011 2:12 AM GMT+0200

Bloomberg

As the euro area walks step by sickening step toward an avoidable economic catastrophe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to oppose forthright action by the European Central Bank.

She argues that it would be wrong to guarantee sovereign debt -- with printed money, no less -- and would wreck the bank’s credibility. It would also be illegal, she insists: The relevant EU treaty forbids it.

She’s wrong. The ECB can and must play the decisive role