The Groupe de Francfort takes another one down. The replacing of elected leaders, no matter how much a clown they were, with EU anointed technocrats really takes a hammer to Europe's inflated sense of self-worth. The tinfoil hat brigade in the US would be advised to study what's going in the EU, as it's a much better guide as to when it's time to reach for your revolver than listening out for black helicopters. I'm interested in seeing just how the electorate in Italy and Greece respond to being totally locked out of the piddling little matter of deciding who governs them. A small coterie of Eurocrats act in a manner that would have Machiavelli taking notes, whilst an army of useful idiots are so busy blaming the markets they're not seeing the people behind the curtain. It's up to America and China now, they're really the only ones who can truly reign in the Franco-German arrogance that's started to fester in the EU, by applying concerted and overwhelming diplomatic pressure to Germany and, to a lesser extent, France.
If true, there's a certain perverse irony to Germany and France working together to control Continental Europe.
I don't think control is truly in their thinking, they just want other nations to act in a certain way and cannot comprehend why they won't do so. They're doing what they feel is simply the most expedient way of saving the Euro, the fact they're essentially controlling other nations is a side-effect they can live with. Of course the big problem is Germany is utterly clueless here, they've been told the immediate fix - get the ECB to print money - which would buy the Euro nations time to find a more permanent fix to their differences to stabilize the currency, and won't do it.
He lost his majority in Parliament so he's stepping down per Italian law so I'm not sure where the supposed coup d'etat occurred. He passed some much needed but very unpopular austerity measures and Italian PMs have lost their jobs over less. On the other hand he ran the most stable post WW2 Italian government in history so he deserves some credit on that point. For several decades it was common for the Italians to have two or even three different governments in a single year.
Fair enough. I admit that I'm woefully ignorant about a lot of what's going on in the Eurozone as far as it's economic policies. Is it possible that Germany sees a little of what I see here in the States? If you give people time to find a permanent solution, they won't. They'll merely do whatever it takes to pass the buck to the next Presidential Administration/Congress. IE: The Continent can go to hell in 20 years, but I won't be alive to worry about it so my "legacy" is good.
They learned the Libyan Lesson - help the rebels, and they'll do the work for you. You just back them up with a few tactical things, like the ECB buying the barest minimum of Italian debt, and openly condescend Berlusconi. After all the events he's survived - over 50 votes of confidence for example - and he's deposed when the current controlling powers of Europe decide he's surplus to requirements, well, that's pushing coincidence to breaking point.
Possibly, but it's self-defeating. Without printing money the Euro is doomed, and the backlash will decimate the German economy as well as everybody else's. And a more permanent solution would have to be worked on almost immediately, even with printing money they'd buy themselves a year or two at most, and the bond market would simply see the same fundamental issues and price accordingly without any changes to the Eurozone.
Another thing is, the people being brought in are the kind of Eurocrat who've brought the Euro to the precipice. Until Italy was dragged in, there was still the opportunity to excise Greece, and let them default. Instead it was deemed Greece must remain in the Euro, and must pay back all the debts it owed to governments, which allowed things to snowball. Now the type of person who have shown themselves so ineffectual over the last 18 months are supposed to fix things. Right. Next week Italy has to try and rollover some debts, and we'll see French debt start to creep up.
May I ask a really, really stupid question? Good. Okay. Burculosis (Ha! Tuberculosis!) has lost a vote of "No Confidence" from the MP's. I also assume he lead a coalition government because his party did not have a majority. So, who picks the next PM? Does the coalition stick together, does it blow apart and call for all new elections of everyone, or do a Plutocratic few Europhiles from abroad pick the new PM?
As I said in another thread, can't say I give a fuck about him personally. But the manner in which the strings are being pulled is very disturbing. What happens now? Do they think the problem has gone away because Italian bond yields have dropped to 6.6% (or whatever they're at)?
AFAIK the Italian President will talk to the party leaders, get agreement, and then offer the role to someone. If some of the parties decide to kick off, I've no idea what'll happen then. It will blow apart though, apparently a lot of Italians aren't happy with the front runner, and the northern regions are going to get incredibly pissed off at the austerity measures which may strengthen Lega Nord more than they already are, and strengthen demands for a Padanian devolution, if not outright secession.
To be fair his previous austerity measures weren't all that inspiring and avoided making most of the hard choices so it's right for the ECB to want deeper cuts & bigger tax increases as a sign of good faith. Other wise they're just flushing good money after bad as they're currently doing in Greece.
Yes it is. The moment no one wanted to buy Italian bonds without massive interest rate premiums and they had to go begging to the ECB as a buyer of last resort they had to do what ever the ECB wanted or decide to just default since no one else was interested in buying their debt. It's prefectly reasonable for the ECB to want to see structural changes to reduce the deficit BEFORE they dump more money on the Italian beast.
They didn't go begging to the ECB. And even if they had, it's the job of a central bank to be lender of last resort. If there's anyone who should be telling the Italians what to do, it's the European Commission.
So, who would like to correct me here: "Austerity measures" = "government stops spending money it doesn't have."
So... women who are leave-black-glass-footprints-in-the-sidewalk hot (until age 40, when they turn into moustache-sporting dwarves) and sports cars that rival the women.
Germany and France want the common economic government for the 17 eurozone countries. It remains to be seen how long the rest of Europe can resist the financial pressure that's building up.
Italy and Greece are different issues. Greece was never going to be saved by bailouts or further debt, Italy on the other hand was able to tackle it's debts so long as rates remained reasonably low. What is happening in Italy is a consequence of the Eurozone's inability to do anything and German intransigence towards having the ECB actually be a central bank. Italy may have needed reforms, needed to cut reliance on debt, but they could've muddled through had Greece been handled properly. France is next on the hit-list, as the markets take a look at exposure to various forms of debt and costs, including EFSF and IMF exposure, and price in risk there. Given a number of nations who have promised to supply funds to EFSF no longer can do, France and Germany are going to be looked at as they'll have to make up the shortfall. The markets will eventually turn their eyes to Germany, and I really don't think Merkel will enjoy that.
