“ "The view was that, ok, if the big boys
won't adhere and impose discipline on themselves, they're
going to be more relaxed in enforcing the treaty [on
us]," recalls the former Deputy Finance Minister
for Greece, Peter Doukas.
“ "I mean, no-one can impose sanctions on
Germany and France. They are the European superpowers.
So they won't adhere." ”
the social damage inflicted by inflation,
which I regard as an unmitigated evil perpetrated
by corrupt government, and
the potential for contention between nations
if this nonsense is forced through against the wishes
of the citizens of the various nation states. Very
few are covering that issue adequately, but the
early part of Redwood's
book, Owen's
article and, particularly succinct, Friedman's
article are germane - see below. William Hague [1]
has recently drawn some attention to this matter
in a speech.
Both issues have considerable civil liberty implications.”
I have also constantly warned that
the structure was designed such that it would encourage
competitive increases in borrowings.
“Following criticism of the way in which the
camp’s financial affairs have been run, the finance
group quit en masse. That included the person who has
the key for the safe — with the result that no
one could access the money. Coupled with the fact that
donations are now lagging behind expenditure, there
has been a serious shortage of money to pay for things
such as food and power. Protester Leo Ashford, 20, …told
reporters that despite generous donations by supporters,
money had been squandered. ‘We’re protesting
against bankers, and no one on our finance team knows
how to use a ledger or a receipt,’ he said.‘In
the second week we had public opinion on our side and
enough donations to sustain ourselves. We all could
have had brand-new tents and blow-up mattresses. Now
no one knows where the money has gone. ‘I’m
sad, but I knew a month ago that it would get to the
point where we would collapse in on ourselves on essentially
our own stupidity.’ ”
Meanwhile, Germany seeks the policy
that turned the 1930s crash into an international disaster
- deflationary monetary policy.
“The European Central Bank can do much more
than it has done: it has bought European debt equal
to just 2pc of GDP while the Bank of England has done
20pc," he said.
—
“Plans for the IMF to help shore up Europe by
boosting its own reserves to $1 trillion (£643bn)
have already run into trouble. Sherpas preparing the
next G20 meeting said Japan, China, Korea, and Brazil
have misgivings, while America has openly refused to
participate. All are reluctant to put up money until
Germany stops invoking ideology and allows the eurozone
to mobilise its own vast resources.”
All the while, politicians across the
EUSSR try to get someone else to act in order that they
can blame someone else for the mess, while keeping their
own heads below the parapet.
We have explained to the unions
who own us, that there is no mileage in telling the
truth about socialism.
We all know the party is owned by
the unions, but we mush shut up about it and pretend
again that we’re Tories. It’s simply the
only way we can get back to the programme of ruining
the country, and running it just for our own interests.
As usual, we must all shut up and
pretend.
Party discipline is paramount, there
is no other way of fooling those idiots daft enough
to vote for us.
“Len McCluskey's article on these pages yesterday
reminded me of the "culture of betrayal"
that I thought the Labour movement had escaped. According
to Len, by trying to position Labour as a credible
alternative to the coalition, Ed Miliband has set
it on a path to "destruction".
“Stuck in a familiar groove, Len goes on to
suggest that all the ills he claims are befalling
Labour are because of the actions of so-called "Blairites"
– those terrible people who introduced the minimum
wage and increased the number, the stature and indeed
the pay of public sector workers across the country.
“What Miliband and shadow chancellor Ed Balls
have done this week is offer the public an opportunity
to make a real choice in politics. Losing an election
is tough for a political party. There is the election
of the new leader to go through, the slow process
of shrugging off what the public didn't like about
you, and the even slower process of building ideas
and narratives around what they might like about you
in the future. What has been evident to Miliband and
others is that Labour simply cannot win an election
in 2015 if it positions itself as the "anti-cuts"
party. It's easy to oppose every cut from the comfort
of the opposition benches, but the public will not
find that position credible, particularly as we've
been clear about the need to tackle the deficit.”
It will also be useful if we can get a
few of our lower cadres and union functionaries to go around shouting that Labour has
lost its way and this is not the true Labour Party.
This will add credibility to the claim that
this is not the usual socialist ‘New’ Labour Party. Mondeo
Man is bound to fall for that one again.
“ "I don't want to leave anybody with the
impression that we're somehow (speeding) two carriers
over there because we're concerned about what happened,
you know, today in Iran. It's just not the case,"
said Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.”
“I could hire 12 people with 760 euros net salary,
but I don't. I tell you why. You could work for my service
provider company in a nice office. It's not telemarketing,
it's not a scam. You would do serious work that requires
high skills, 8 hours daily, only weekdays. I would employ
you legally, I would pay your taxes and social security.
I could give such a job to a dozen people, but I will
not, and here I explain why...”
—
“Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with women giving
birth to children. That's how I was born and that's how my
child was born. I wouldn't hire a woman because when she gets
pregnant, she goes for 3 years maternity leave, during which
I can't fire her. If she wants two children, the vacation
is 6 years long.”
France, Germany and Italy (among
others) are also in the 50% losses level. It is bad in
the UK. Working to get sacked is common.
And this is not
confined to Europe. This is the situation with government
in general.
The blogger misses the fact that
much of the larger contracts are in the gift of government
(civil servants) and that various forms of bribery are
widespread.
The Euro area is in chaos, but the
band must play on and the flags wave, and there is cake
and there is circuses!
“Make me chaste, but not yet.” - Augustine
“The rescue, worth 130bn euros (£107bn),
would include a voluntary restructuring of Greek debt
- meaning bondholders would have to write off 50% of
the Greek bonds' value.”
Special cases!
“Mrs Merkel called Greece "a special case"
but insisted that "no country should be excluded
from the eurozone" ”
Bring back the rack.
“Chancellor Merkel insists on tougher penalties
for countries that violate eurozone budget rules.”
I’ve got an election looming.
“Referring to the pact, Mr Sarkozy said "we
want the negotiations to finish in the coming days,
so that the treaty is signed on 1 March". ”
“We ignored them last time”,
says Sarkozy.
“The compact will include automatic sanctions
for budget rule-breakers - sanctions that can only be
blocked if a majority of powerful eurozone members object.”
But just in case...
“A new 500bn-euro EU bailout fund - the European
Stability Mechanism (ESM) - is to be launched in July,
a year earlier than originally planned.
“The existing temporary fund - the 440bn-euro
European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) - is considered
too weak to rescue a major eurozone economy such as
Italy or Spain.”
It’s not my fault, he says.
“He holds the banks largely responsible for the
debt crisis and sees the financial transaction tax as
a fair measure to ease the burden on taxpayers - a message
that may appeal to voters.”