EC PRESIDENT CALLS URGENT MEETING FOR TOMORROW #2

Hi Panda

Papandreou has survived - I am not surprised it was an awfully good speech - must have brought up the MP's quite sharp about the real desperate situation.

IMO it will not go down well with the people even though he spoke of his desire to help the Greek people - they will more than likely take to the streets again.

ETA result 153 for and 145 against. The result got a good applause.

Angelique wrote:Fuzeta

Good post and very profound.

Papandreou has just delivered his speech and was applauded quite a lot. Don't know if he has achieved what he wanted but he certainly sounded as though he did not want to be in the Eurozone at all! He lauded democracy for the Greek people - well he won't get that if they don't leave the EU. But if they don't take the bail out it will be devasting for everyone.

Thank you Angelique,

It is good to discuss this situation. Do you know I am not sure that it will all be as devastating as we think. I sometimes feel that we are all being brainwashed by the French and German Governments that want to hang on to the euro at any price. Including selling our souls to China.

Bad news for the banks I know but they will have a plan I am sure

I think the euro has been so shored up for so long. Even now, it is ridiculous that we only get around euro 1.12 for a pound. Once it was 1.44 . A currency that is in trouble, it is nonsense. Who is bumping it I think we know that! It has been going on for years now. Obviously money is being pumped in at a rate of knots. Such false economy.

I honestly think that if Greece and other countries leave the euro, it will be very tough but in the end they will survive the way they always did before the euro. Leaving the euro is being treated as a death sentence.

The way they managed before they will do again. They will still be part of europe, still doing the same trade they always have done. Just back in a position where they can run their own economy and get back to their own democracy. Being run by the French and the Germans is definately losing their democracy.

The Greeks have their own ways they always will have. Who would want to make us all the same?

Just my opinion that is all.

Thanks for the reply Angelique

SOMEONE HAD A LETTER IN THE GUARDIAN TODAY THAT ICELAND WHICH HAD PROBLEMS WITH ITS BANKS A FEW YEARS AGO,ITS SEEMS THEY SOLVED THEIR PROBLEMS AND NOW THEY ARE ALRIGHT

fuzeta

I totally agree with all you say - in fact, you say exactly the same things I rant about most of the time!

I don't understand why the Euro is being bolstered as it is. At one point listeners were emailing Radio 4 and asking why the Euro was always at the same rate against the £ no matter what had happened during the day.

I think Sarkozy and Merkel think they are running the whole show - not a Union of Countries. They behaved like bullies towards Papandreou and showed that this is not a democracy at all. I too think we, and Greece could survive without this "monster" running us. IMO it is just another Club to gather as much money from Countries so they can play out some grand theatre of power.

Given a chance I think a Referendum would vote to leave the EU. My partner says the days the Euro are numbered and is going to fail sometime soon.

2:28am UK, Saturday November 05, 2011





Greece's prime minister has survived a knife-edge confidence
vote in Athens after he called for unity to save the country's eurozone
bailout package.


George Papandreou won by 153 votes to 144 after announcing he
intended to hold power-sharing talks from Saturday and signalled that he
was ready to quit after two years in power.


He has been heavily criticised after two days of chaos that saw him
propose a referendum on the 130bn-euro rescue deal to save the country
from bankruptcy.


The idea was swiftly binned after a bad response from markets and European leaders gathered for the G20 summit in Cannes.

The last thing I care about is my post. I don't care even if I am not re-elected. The time has come to make a new effort...

George Papandreou











Calling for support before the vote, he said the bailout package
agreed last week was a "national priority" and said he intended to hold
power sharing talks from Saturday with all parties to form a government
of unity.


He said: "The last thing I care about is my post. I don't care even
if I am not re-elected. The time has come to make a new effort...I never
thought of politics as a profession."


But he said snap elections could be "catastrophic".


The leader was in a vulnerable position because his PASOK party held a small majority of just 152 out of 300 seats.


Mr Papandreou may have won the confidence vote in Athens, but days of
political turmoil lie ahead amid divisions in his own party as well as
calls for immediate elections from opposition members.

The G20 has finished with very little discussed about the World economy , everything centred on Greece. No decision made about bailing out Italy, Spain,
etc . Opinion seems to be that the IMF is halping out 53 Countries so why should it concentrate on the EU when it has its own Bank.

The G20 Finance Meeting meets in February when it hopes the position will be clearer.

There was a peaceful demonstration outside the Greek Parliament building but it was peaceful, many red flags , presumably the communist party demo.

As if things couldn"t get any better for Italy, a flash flood in Genoa has caused considerable damage.

Attention has turned to Italy now and Berlesconi has apparently said he will refuse IMF aid but willing to let any investor look at the books. Italy is
teetering on the edge and likely to bring down France to which it is most indebted . Apparently it has always been felt that Italy is too big to fail, but with the rest of the world unwilling to invest in the EFSF and most Countries, even China, having their own problems there is little appetite for buying ECB
Bonds having suffered a 50% write off on the Greek Bonds.

Papandreou is to meet the President to form a Coalition until election can be held next February . He said the bail out must not be lost otherwise we will
all be beggars. the main opposition Party says it is not willing for a Unity Party and says Papandreou should resign. Meanwhile, the population of Italy ,
while angry at the cuts affecting their lives are reconciled to the fact that the bailout is desperately needed so may not demonstrate against more
cuts.

Angela Merkel says it will take a decade for the EU to overcome this crisis, someone described the crisis as "dancing on a Volcano".

Banks across Europe are to reduce Bonuses paid to highly paid Bank Staff but English Banks are against the idea.....that figures.!!! It"s a bit like closing
the door after the horse has bolted. Maybe, with so many Bank Staff around the World being laid off they won"t have such a high opinion of themselves
in future and look after the Banks interest , not their own. You have to blame the Managers for not looking after the Banks assets.

Italy is indebted to British Banks to the tune of £10 Billion , will it be written off? Britain has too many Banks and I suspect many will now close and if
Britain doesn"t adopt stringent rules for Banks with a competent Regulation authority ....there is no justice.

A couple of observations by Reporters who attended the G20 meeting. One said slovakia, the smallest Country has a much lower Pension scheme than
Greece or Italy but is expected to contribute to the bailout. Brazil doesn"t even have a Pension scheme so why should it contribute to the IMF to bail
out the reprobate Countries. ? Ireland had already drafted new austerity measures and was the first Country to make real progress in paying back the
bail-out, Italy has yet to come up with a plan. France doesn"t think it needs one.

THERE WERE SAYING ON SKY NEWS THERE POSSIBLY NO MONEY FOR PUBLIC SECTOR PENSION AS WELL AS POSSIBLY ANY OTHER PENSIONS IN GREECE.

Badboy wrote:THERE WERE SAYING ON SKY NEWS THERE POSSIBLY NO MONEY FOR PUBLIC SECTOR PENSION AS WELL AS POSSIBLY ANY OTHER PENSIONS IN GREECE.

The Election is not due to be held until February , I doubt very much that there will be a Unity Party until then. The EU crisis is not over, Italy will be the next nail biter and Merkel and Sarkozy are getting a lot of criticsm from Members of G20 for the way they are handling the case , so don"t expect them to
agree any Loans or prop up the IMF Fund. One Official said it was a crazy idea to have one currency without a fiscal union when the Euro was launched.

I SEE IN GENOA THEY HAVE FLOODS.

Badboy wrote:I SEE IN GENOA THEY HAVE FLOODS.

Yes, I saw that this morning, water flooding through the stresst of Genoa, as if the Italians havn"t got enough to contend with.

WILL THERE BE POTENTIAL VIOLENCE AND/OR PROTEST CAMPS IN ITALY?

Breaking News....an attempt to occupy the Business Centre in Paris last night was swiftly dealt with. The Protesters used strongarm tactics and took
down their Tents.

The G20 agreed to bolster the IMF Fund but the IMF is to monitor the austerity measures in Italy. Rebellion is growing in Italy as the population realises Berlesconi is not the man to guide the Country out of the mess they are in.

There is no guarantee that Papandreou can form a Unity Party before the Election and his lead in his party is very slim to guarantee any measures he takes
to curb expenditure.

Many thousands of people have congregated in Rome, from all over Italy to protest at what is happening . The Reporter says the people want to know what is going on , the rumour persists that Berlesconi refused an IMF bail out because the IMF would want to know the true figure by examining the
books.

There will be music and later , Politicians will speak to the Public. It is estimated that the debt of Italy is E 1.9 TRILLION and it is not at all sure the IMFcan
raise that kind of money.

Open Europe Analyst says the EU leaders have been incredibly slow to react to the crisis which is escalating and he thinks that more and more Countries
are whispered to default and leave the Eurone, Italy"s debt is unsustainable and shoring up these Countries to keep the Euro is the dream of Angela Merkel
and Sarkozy which is becoming more untenable.

Its not just me obviously who thinks Merkel and Sarkozy are throwing their weight around!

EU accused of Athens coup after threat to end payments




By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels7:00AM GMT 05 Nov 201141 Comments
José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, warned that unless George Papandreou was deposed, Greece would not be able get its next payment from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, leading to national default and bankruptcy.
“What we expect to happen is to have a government of national unity,” he said. “What is the other option? Default and have real difficulties to pay wages to the public servants, to the schools, to the hospitals, which will lead to paralysis of the country. I am sure that the majority of the Greek people do not want this kind of chaos.”
Even after Mr Papandreou abandoned his plan to hold a referendum on the EU-IMF austerity plan, senior French, German and European officials demanded that he step down to allow for a “technical” government that could implement the measures.
“We respect Greek democracy and Greece’s right to decide on its own future,” said Mr Barroso. “At the same time, we need Greece to demonstrate commitment to the decisions that it has itself subscribed to.”
Raoul Ruparel, of the Open Europe think tank, said a new “compliant” Greek government would be a “victory for the EU elite”. Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, accused David Cameron of giving tacit agreement to the overthrow of European democracies by supporting closer “fiscal union” in the eurozone and EU. “Cameron is actively encouraging the countries of southern Europe to sleepwalk into slow-motion, sugar-coated coups d’etat,” he said. Le Soir newspaper in Belgium described Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy as “putschists at the head of Europe”.
RELATED ARTICLES
Greek prime minister narrowly survives confidence vote 05 Nov 2011
The EU's journey towards closer union has screeched to a halt 04 Nov 2011
Markets fall as G20 indecision revives rescue doubts 04 Nov 2011
The German Chancellor and the French president summoned Mr Papandreou to Cannes on Wednesday night to instruct him to call off his plans to hold popular votes on Greece’s involvement in Europe. The prime minister was accompanied by Evangelos Venizelos, his finance minister, and they were given the ultimatum that Greece would not receive “a penny more” in aid payments unless Athens convinced the EU that it was “ready to make the commitments that come with euro membership”.
On returning from the meeting, Mr Venizelos set about preparing the ground for Mr Papandreou’s departure and a new transitional national unity government involving the Right-wing opposition. By yesterday, the plot was well advanced, with Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice-president, tipped to be its head.
Mr Papandreou had for months resisted strong EU pressure to suspend normal parliamentary democracy for a unity government to impose austerity measures required to cut the country’s crippling debt, expected to reach 160 per cent of GDP this year.
President Sarkozy said yesterday that “things are progressing” towards a technocrat administration in Greece.
“I am pleased to see there are sufficient responsible politicians in Greece who have understood that message and who have been able to see the national priorities,” he said.

Thanks Angelique,

The sad thing in all this intrigue is the generations of Greeks who will be paying for this evermore. The interest on the 10 yr Bond at the last count was 102%!!! Greece has made this problem because of its lax fiscal policy and to be honest, even if they bring in new austerity measures any attempt to
abide by them won"t last long, however, to default would make even more misery. I don"t like Cameron and if he is involved in political intrigue he is
beneath contempt, especially when Merkel and Sarkozy said he couldn"t attend one of their meetings because Britain is not in in the Euro.

control, and points to full restaurants as proof of strength

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• Tom Kington in Rome
  
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 November 2011 20.20 GMT
• Article history
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the G20 summit in Cannes. Photograph: Christophe Karaba/EPA


Silvio Berlusconi insisted Italy has no financial problems – even as its cost of borrowing rose to dangerously high levels and the president, Giorgio Napolitano, warned that the country is undergoing its worst crisis since the second world war.
As fears rose that the euro crisis is spreading to Italy and the embattled prime minister's majority continued to crumble, Berlusconi put on a typically upbeat performance in Cannes, defying reports of his political demise and denying that a planned IMF check-up on his reform programme was a humiliating limitation on his sovereignty.
Berlusconi insisted Italy was in rude financial health, with its debts under control, pointing to full restaurants as proof of its economic strength.
The Italian prime minister said he had turned down an offer from the International Monetary Fund to extend Italy a line of credit. He also insisted he had asked inspectors from the IMF to monitor economic reforms demanded by the EU and which he promised will be voted through parliament by the end of the month.
The visits, to take place every three months, will start next week, said EU commission president José Manuel Barroso, who will be joining the IMF team to see for himself that Berlusconi carries out the measures he listed to EU leaders in Brussels last month to help to stave off Europe's worsening debt crisis.
Berlusconi likened the visits to a regular company audit which would prove he was on the right track. However, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said the move was prompted by Italy's "lack of credibility" over reform, while the country's opposition Democratic party called the move "an abdication of sovereignty".
Francesco Rutelli, the head of the centrist Alliance for Italy party, said the country had been "put into administration" by the decision, and pointed out that Berlusconi has yet to fully reveal the reforms. "The government turned up in Cannes empty handed and the G20 said: 'Enough, we're sending the inspectors.'"
News of the IMF visit appeared to do little to assuage the markets, however, as yields on 10-year Italian bonds hit a euro lifetime high of 6.43%.
Berlusconi admitted that changes to the labour market – a key plank in his reform programme – were missing from the measures he is seeking to put to a confidence vote in the Italian senate on 15 November.
Tough decisions on making hiring and firing easier will require talks with employers and unions first, he said. "I've dreamed all my life of making these reforms to the economy, but it hasn't been possible because of the socialists and communists," he reportedly said in a meeting at Cannes. Berlusconi will also face opposition from Italy's lawyers to moves to open up the country's professional guilds to greater competition.
Signs of Berlusconi's faltering authority at home were evident at his G20 press conference as his treasury minister, Giulio Tremonti, ducked questions over whether he had asked Berlusconi to resign.
As former loyalists confirmed their defections in Rome on Friday, leaving Berlusconi's majority uncertain, defence under-secretary Guido Crosetto said: "I don't know how many days or weeks the government has left. Certainly a majority relying on a few votes cannot continue for long."
Berlusconi, however, denied Italy is in financial dire straits, claiming restaurants were full and it was hard to find seats on planes. "Our budget deficit is half of France's and can be wiped out by 2013," he added.
"Berlusconi has no idea that his fairy tales will not save the country, but will leave Italy at the mercy of speculators," said Giorgio Conte, a backer of Berlusconi's former ally Gianfranco Fini.
"Berlusconi should try and stick his nose outside his villa at Arcore, between one party and another and maybe he would see the serious economic crisis afflicting the country," said Leoluca Orlando, spokesman for the opposition Italy of Values party.
The prime minister said he was confident of wooing back into the fold dissident MPs who have threatened to desert him this week.
He added: "I feel obliged to continue because I do not see in Italy a personality able to represent the interests of the country internationally."

Britain turns on 'disreputable' Germany as relations sour over eurozone crisis

Whitehall says Germany should be more flexible in eurozone crisis after single currency boosted its economy in first decade

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Angela Merkel and David Cameron pictured at an EU in October last year in happier times. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Downing Street inadvertently provided a reminder last week of the depth of Britain's ties with Germany.
In a briefing on the merits of David Cameron's plans to end male primogeniture in the royal line of succession, No 10 pointed out that Queen Victoria's daughter would have succeeded her if the rules had been in place in 1901. Downing Street overlooked the fact that this would have meant that Kaiser Wilhelm II would have been our King during the First World War. Britain's monarch would now be Princess Marie Cécile of Prussia.
These historic ties, which partly explain why the British establishment was so slow to wake up to the Nazi threat in the 1930s, endure to this day and help to explain why the Anglo-German relationship is one of the most constructive within the EU. The Franco-German alliance is obviously the most important in the EU – the "spinal column" of the eurozone, in Nicolas Sarkozy's words.
But Germany tends to find Britain a steady and reliable partner within the EU. Berlin, which hopes this will endure, has always believed British euroscepticism is self defeating. It believes that France would love to use Britain's semi-detached status to make the single market less open and more protectionist.
With this history in mind, it is striking how relations between Britain and Germany have soured in recent weeks. In Whitehall senior figures are joking that Greece is turning into a "German protectorate".
The words of one senior Whitehall figure sum up the British view:

People are slowly waking up to Germany's disreputable behaviour in this whole saga. Their growth over the last decade was in large part down to countries like Greece buying German goods after racking up public and private debt because they had German levels of interest rates after joining the euro. And now Germany is dictating in very harsh terms what they should be doing. This shows how lucky we are that we are not in the euro.

This helps explain why the prime minister is pushing the Germans so hard to accept that the European Central Bank should act as the lender of last resort to countries within the eurozone. This would place a huge burden on Germany which is Europe's largest and most successful economy. But British officials have a clear message. Germany should be prepared to pay something back after prospering in the first decade of the euro by exporting shiny new Mercedes cars to countries like Greece.
But Germany is, as I blogged recently, reluctant to take this step because it believes that a sacrosanct principle of the Bundesbank – passed to the ECB – should be respected. This is its independence. Mario Draghi, the new president of the ECB, is insisting that he will not buy debts of the so called eurozone "peripherals". But the jokes doing the rounds is that Draghi, an Italian, is attempting to show his rectitude by acting as a German.
Britain, which thinks that Merkel may be slightly more flexible than others in Berlin and in Frankfurt, believes that the ECB will eventually have to come in and guarantee the eurozone bailout fund. This may be the only bullet left in the gun at five to midnight, goes the thinking.
Germany is equally irritated with Britain, though for different reasons. Merkel has not taken kindly to what Berlin regards as the lecturing tone of British ministers in recent months. But Germany's real irritation is with the prime minister's suggestion to Conservative eurosceptic MPs that Britain may seek to repatriate social and employment laws during future EU treaty negotiations. Germany is pressing for a narrow treaty change to place any moves towards greater fiscal co-ordination between the eurozone's 17 members on a legal basis. Britain would have a veto in these negotiations.
David Rennie, who writes the Bagehot column in the Economist, has one of the most important scoops of the eurozone crisis this week. Rennie, who has just returned from Berlin, reports that German officials are so angry with Downing Street that they are threatening to draw up a treaty just among the 17 members of the eurozone. This is what Rennie wrote:

Germany's priority is rules establishing unprecedented oversight of euro-zone economies. If Britain asks too high a price for its consent, Germany will reluctantly agree to a new treaty outside the EU system. This, it is expected, would involve more than 17 countries but fewer than 27. Britain would lose its veto.

This would be seen by some as a dramatic step by Germany. It would be a deliberate attempt to bypass Britain.
Germany is particularly angry because Berlin has made clear to Downing Street and the Treasury in recent weeks that it is looking for a very narrow treaty change focused solely on underpinning the euro. This would need to be done quickly to reassure the markets which means that no other issue would be placed on the table.
Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, thought this message had been understood when he visited George Osborne in London last month. This is what I blogged on 19 October:

Schäuble, who held talks with George Osborne, had an important message for Britain: forget any attempts to use the eurozone crisis to repatriate EU social and employment laws.

German officials were left with the impression that No 10 and the Treasury accepted that treaty negotiations to underpin the eurozone would not be the time to repatriate powers to Britain. That would be for a larger EU treaty negotiation in the years ahead.
These German officials were therefore slightly alarmed by the prime minister's statement to MPs on 24 October after the first of the two recent European Councils. In remarks designed to persuade Conservative eurosceptics not to vote in favour of holding a referendum on Britain's EU membership, the prime minister said:

Fundamental questions are being asked about the future of the eurozone and, therefore, the shape of the EU itself. Opportunities to advance our national interest are clearly becoming apparent. We should focus on how to make the most of this, rather than pursuing a parliamentary process for a multiple-choice referendum. As yesterday's Council conclusions made clear, changes to the EU treaties need the agreement of all 27 member states. Every country can wield a veto until its needs are met. I share the yearning for fundamental reform and am determined to deliver it.

German officials believe these remarks contradicted what British officials had said in private: that Britain accepts that any eurozone treaty change over the next year will be short and sharp and will not lead to wider negotiations.
Britain appears to be heading through a bit of a rough patch with the Germans. There is a belief in Whitehall that Germany is failing to face up to its wider European responsibilities and refusing to put back into the European economy some of the benefits it has enjoyed from the eurozone.
Germany, which sometimes struggles to appreciate the acute domestic pressure any British prime minister faces on Europe, believes that Cameron is making public statements which go way beyond his position in private.
Does this mean that, possibly for the first time, Germany has found common ground with eurosceptic Conservatives? Eurosceptics told me last month that the prime minister should not "tease" his party with suggestions on the EU he cannot deliver.



Posted by Nicholas Watt Saturday 5 November 2011 01.34 GMTguardian.co.ukArticle history

Angelique wrote:Its not just me obviously who thinks Merkel and Sarkozy are throwing their weight around!

EU accused of Athens coup after threat to end payments




By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels7:00AM GMT 05 Nov 201141 Comments
José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, warned that unless George Papandreou was deposed, Greece would not be able get its next payment from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, leading to national default and bankruptcy.
“What we expect to happen is to have a government of national unity,” he said. “What is the other option? Default and have real difficulties to pay wages to the public servants, to the schools, to the hospitals, which will lead to paralysis of the country. I am sure that the majority of the Greek people do not want this kind of chaos.”
Even after Mr Papandreou abandoned his plan to hold a referendum on the EU-IMF austerity plan, senior French, German and European officials demanded that he step down to allow for a “technical” government that could implement the measures.
“We respect Greek democracy and Greece’s right to decide on its own future,” said Mr Barroso. “At the same time, we need Greece to demonstrate commitment to the decisions that it has itself subscribed to.”
Raoul Ruparel, of the Open Europe think tank, said a new “compliant” Greek government would be a “victory for the EU elite”. Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, accused David Cameron of giving tacit agreement to the overthrow of European democracies by supporting closer “fiscal union” in the eurozone and EU. “Cameron is actively encouraging the countries of southern Europe to sleepwalk into slow-motion, sugar-coated coups d’etat,” he said. Le Soir newspaper in Belgium described Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy as “putschists at the head of Europe”.
RELATED ARTICLES
Greek prime minister narrowly survives confidence vote 05 Nov 2011
The EU's journey towards closer union has screeched to a halt 04 Nov 2011
Markets fall as G20 indecision revives rescue doubts 04 Nov 2011
The German Chancellor and the French president summoned Mr Papandreou to Cannes on Wednesday night to instruct him to call off his plans to hold popular votes on Greece’s involvement in Europe. The prime minister was accompanied by Evangelos Venizelos, his finance minister, and they were given the ultimatum that Greece would not receive “a penny more” in aid payments unless Athens convinced the EU that it was “ready to make the commitments that come with euro membership”.
On returning from the meeting, Mr Venizelos set about preparing the ground for Mr Papandreou’s departure and a new transitional national unity government involving the Right-wing opposition. By yesterday, the plot was well advanced, with Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice-president, tipped to be its head.
Mr Papandreou had for months resisted strong EU pressure to suspend normal parliamentary democracy for a unity government to impose austerity measures required to cut the country’s crippling debt, expected to reach 160 per cent of GDP this year.
President Sarkozy said yesterday that “things are progressing” towards a technocrat administration in Greece.
“I am pleased to see there are sufficient responsible politicians in Greece who have understood that message and who have been able to see the national priorities,” he said.

Hello Angelique

No it is not just you! It is getting to be a very worrying situation. The bullying is disgusting. Now they want to choose other countries leaders. It needs to be nipped in the bud that one or none of us will be safe.

They want papandreou gone but as the Greeks are saying, "What is the point of that, we still have the same problem" Papandreou in deciding to call a referendum signed his own death warrant as far as Sarkozy and Merkel are concerned. Referendums are a definate no no as far as they are concerned. They know which way it will go.

This is starting to get quite sinister as far as I am concerned. It is all so out of control . It is the acceptance of what they are doing that is really starting to worry me.

HOW BAD ARE THINGS GOING TO GET?

Badboy wrote:HOW BAD ARE THINGS GOING TO GET?

Hi Badboy, It"s not just that the EU has handled this badly, the World is in crisis and with the best will in the World even if Greece and Italy stick to a
severe austerity plan, where is the growth coming from for them to start making money? The only Countries which will continue to make money are the Oil
producing Countries. The more money printed to pay for Loans the more devaluation of a currency which in turn leads to inflation and higher costs, it"s a vicious circle. Trichet said it was as bad as the 1926 Depression, we havn"t reached that level yet but what is needed is good Leadership and for people
to realise they can"t spend more than they earn or this will be the result,, borrow more and more until you are unable to meet repayments.

That is the biggest problem with having a single currency. Countries cannot devalue when they need to. That is why it will never work, ever.

God only knows why they ever thought it would.