Re: New EC Thread

[Angelina]

From what I've read, a lot of the Irish wanted to vote no but felt they had to vote yes

[Panda]

From what I've read, a lot of the Irish wanted to vote no but felt they had to vote yes

Hi Angelina, the Irish need a bail-out that's why they voted "YES" The 60 -40 vote wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement .

American Companies are afraid of what's happening in Europe so are not spending money on hiring or expansion. this has led to an increase in the
unemployed . One analyst says it is the old maxim, "fear breeds fear."

One analyst says it is essential to keep Greece in the Euro for 6 to 9 months for stability. This means Greece will get the money , incurring more debt
and default in a few months rtime so no one gets paid.....good thinking I must say.!!!

It's going to take a long time to sort out this mess, just have to await events .

[Angelina]

From what I've read, a lot of the Irish wanted to vote no but felt they had to vote yes

Hi Angelina, the Irish need a bail-out that's why they voted "YES" The 60 -40 vote wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement .

American Companies are afraid of what's happening in Europe so are not spending money on hiring or expansion. this has led to an increase in the
unemployed . One analyst says it is the old maxim, "fear breeds fear."

One analyst says it is essential to keep Greece in the Euro for 6 to 9 months for stability. This means Greece will get the money , incurring more debt
and default in a few months rtime so no one gets paid.....good thinking I must say.!!!

It's going to take a long time to sort out this mess, just have to await events .

I bet Ireland wish they'd never joined in the first place. Hasn't exactly done them a lot of good. It seems a good many people always thought the whole thing was flawed and it looks like they're now being proved right.

I feel sorry for the young, they don't seem to have much to look forward to. When I left school many moons ago jobs were ten a penny and if you didn't like one you just moved on to another. These days people need to hang on to the job they've got. There are too many people on the planet, especially in the UK!

[Panda]

Nicolas Vadot


In the June 17 Greek elections, the electorate is likely to reject those political parties too close to the technocrats and financial bodies that preach austerity and that, many fear, are supplanting democracy. This is why the Greek people must be supported, argues philosopher Slavoj Žižek.

Slavoj Žižek

Imagine a scene from a dystopian movie that depicts our society in the near future. Uniformed guards patrol half-empty downtown streets at night, on the prowl for immigrants, criminals and vagrants. Those they find are brutalised. What seems like a fanciful Hollywood image is a reality in today’s Greece. At night, black-shirted vigilantes from the Holocaust-denying neo-fascist Golden Dawn movement – which won 7 per cent of the vote in the last round of elections, and had the support, it’s said, of 50 per cent of the Athenian police – have been patrolling the street and beating up all the immigrants they can find: Afghans, Pakistanis, Algerians. So this is how Europe is defended in the spring of 2012.

The trouble with defending European civilisation against the immigrant threat is that the ferocity of the defence is more of a threat to ‘civilisation’ than any number of Muslims. With friendly defenders like this, Europe needs no enemies. A hundred years ago, G.K. Chesterton articulated the deadlock in which critics of religion find themselves: ‘Men who begin to fight the Church for the sake of freedom and humanity end by flinging away freedom and humanity if only they may fight the Church … The secularists have not wrecked divine things; but the secularists have wrecked secular things, if that is any comfort to them.’

Many liberal warriors are so eager to fight anti-democratic fundamentalism that they end up dispensing with freedom and democracy if only they may fight terror. If the ‘terrorists’ are ready to wreck this world for love of another, our warriors against terror are ready to wreck democracy out of hatred for the Muslim other. Some of them love human dignity so much that they are ready to legalise torture to defend it. It’s an inversion of the process by which fanatical defenders of religion start out by attacking contemporary secular culture and end up sacrificing their own religious credentials in their eagerness to eradicate the aspects of secularism they hate.

But Greece’s anti-immigrant defenders aren’t the principal danger: they are just a by-product of the true threat, the politics of austerity that have caused Greece’s predicament. The next round of Greek elections will be held on 17 June. The European establishment warns us that these elections are crucial: not only the fate of Greece, but maybe the fate of the whole of Europe is in the balance. One outcome – the right one, they argue – would allow the painful but necessary process of recovery through austerity to continue. The alternative – if the ‘extreme leftist’ Syriza party wins – would be a vote for chaos, the end of the (European) world as we know it.

The prophets of doom are right, but not in the way they intend. Critics of our current democratic arrangements complain that elections don’t offer a true choice: what we get instead is the choice between a centre-right and a centre-left party whose programmes are almost indistinguishable. On 17 June, there will be a real choice: the establishment (New Democracy and Pasok) on one side, Syriza on the other. And, as is usually the case when a real choice is on offer, the establishment is in a panic: chaos, poverty and violence will follow, they say, if the wrong choice is made.

The mere possibility of a Syriza victory is said to have sent ripples of fear through global markets. Ideological prosopopoeia has its day: markets talk as if they were persons, expressing their ‘worry’ at what will happen if the elections fail to produce a government with a mandate to persist with the EU-IMF programme of fiscal austerity and structural reform. The citizens of Greece have no time to worry about these prospects: they have enough to worry about in their everyday lives, which are becoming miserable to a degree unseen in Europe for decades.

Such predictions are self-fulfilling, causing panic and thus bringing about the very eventualities they warn against. If Syriza wins, the European establishment will hope that we learn the hard way what happens when an attempt is made to interrupt the vicious cycle of mutual complicity between Brussels’s technocracy and anti-immigrant populism. This is why Alexis Tsipras, Syriza’s leader, made clear in a recent interview that his first priority, should Syriza win, will be to counteract panic: ‘People will conquer fear. They will not succumb; they will not be blackmailed.’

Syriza have an almost impossible task. Theirs is not the voice of extreme left ‘madness’, but of reason speaking out against the madness of market ideology. In their readiness to take over, they have banished the left’s fear of taking power; they have the courage to clear up the mess created by others. They will need to exercise a formidable combination of principle and pragmatism, of democratic commitment and a readiness to act quickly and decisively where needed. If they are to have even a minimal chance of success, they will need an all-European display of solidarity: not only decent treatment on the part of every other European country, but also more creative ideas, like the promotion of solidarity tourism this summer.

In his Notes towards the Definition of Culture, T.S. Eliot remarked that there are moments when the only choice is between heresy and non-belief – i.e., when the only way to keep a religion alive is to perform a sectarian split. This is the position in Europe today. Only a new ‘heresy’ – represented at this moment by Syriza – can save what is worth saving of the European legacy: democracy, trust in people, egalitarian solidarity etc. The Europe we will end up with if Syriza is outmanoeuvred is a ‘Europe with Asian values’ – which, of course, has nothing to do with Asia, but everything to do with the tendency of contemporary capitalism to suspend democracy.

Here is the paradox that sustains the ‘free vote’ in democratic societies: one is free to choose on condition that one makes the right choice. This is why, when the wrong choice is made (as it was when Ireland rejected the EU constitution), the choice is treated as a mistake, and the establishment immediately demands that the ‘democratic’ process be repeated in order that the mistake may be corrected. When George Papandreou, then Greek prime minister, proposed a referendum on the eurozone bailout deal at the end of last year, the referendum itself was rejected as a false choice.

There are two main stories about the Greek crisis in the media: the German-European story (the Greeks are irresponsible, lazy, free-spending, tax-dodging etc, and have to be brought under control and taught financial discipline) and the Greek story (our national sovereignty is threatened by the neoliberal technocracy imposed by Brussels). When it became impossible to ignore the plight of the Greek people, a third story emerged: the Greeks are now presented as humanitarian victims in need of help, as if a war or natural catastrophe had hit the country. While all three stories are false, the third is arguably the most disgusting. The Greeks are not passive victims: they are at war with the European economic establishment, and what they need is solidarity in their struggle, because it is our struggle too.

Greece is not an exception. It is one of the main testing grounds for a new socio-economic model of potentially unlimited application: a depoliticised technocracy in which bankers and other experts are allowed to demolish democracy. By saving Greece from its so-called saviours, we also save Europe itself.

This article first appeared in the London Review of Books

[Panda]

From what I've read, a lot of the Irish wanted to vote no but felt they had to vote yes

Hi Angelina, the Irish need a bail-out that's why they voted "YES" The 60 -40 vote wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement .

American Companies are afraid of what's happening in Europe so are not spending money on hiring or expansion. this has led to an increase in the
unemployed . One analyst says it is the old maxim, "fear breeds fear."

One analyst says it is essential to keep Greece in the Euro for 6 to 9 months for stability. This means Greece will get the money , incurring more debt
and default in a few months rtime so no one gets paid.....good thinking I must say.!!!

It's going to take a long time to sort out this mess, just have to await events .

I bet Ireland wish they'd never joined in the first place. Hasn't exactly done them a lot of good. It seems a good many people always thought the whole thing was flawed and it looks like they're now being proved right.

I feel sorry for the young, they don't seem to have much to look forward to. When I left school many moons ago jobs were ten a penny and if you didn't like one you just moved on to another. These days people need to hang on to the job they've got. There are too many people on the planet, especially in the UK!

Yes, in my day jobs were easy to find and in those days all the Manufacturers took on Apprentices , there is one small U.K. Engineering Company that
was saying last week that they are doing well but can't find engineers to fill their vacancies.

What is most worrying is the young leaving their Countries and going to work in non European Countries so that when the tide turns there will not be
enough qualified people to fill vacancies.

[Panda]

Jun 1, 9:26 AM EDT


Greek radical left seeks vote to cancel bailout

By ELENA BECATOROS and DEREK GATOPOULOS
Associated Press





ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The head of Greece's Radical Left Coalition, whose strong gains in last month's elections deepened concerns over his country's future in the European single currency, vowed Friday to cancel Greece's international bailout agreement if he wins an upcoming repeat ballot.

Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party came second in the inconclusive May 6 polls, said there was no way to partially implement the terms of the bailout that the heavily indebted country has come to rely on to pay its way.

Presenting his party's economic program, he said he would seek to repeal the bailout terms, which have included deep spending cuts and stiff tax hikes and have been blamed for Greece's prolonged recession.

The debt-strapped country holds its second election in six weeks on June 17. It was called after the center-right New Democracy party won the May 6 poll but without enough votes to form a government, and coalition talks collapsed.

"The first act of a government of the left, as soon as the new Parliament is sworn in, will be a cancellation of the bailout and its implementation laws," Tsipras said, as party supporters who packed an arts exhibition center to hear him speak chanted "the time of the Left has come."

The young leftwing leader - whose party is ahead in the latest pre-election opinion poll - has come under intense criticism from his political rivals, who accuse him of advocating unrealistic policies that will bankrupt the country and force it out of the 17-member eurozone and its treasured membership in the European Union's joint currency. Opinion polls have consistently shown an overwhelming majority of about 80 percent of Greeks want to remain in the euro.

"We heard today from Syriza how it will lead the country out of Europe and the euro," said New Democracy spokesman Yiannis Michelakis. "How the last businesses will collapse or leave the country."

Whether they have had New Democracy or Syriza ahead, all opinion polls since the May 6 election have shown that no party will win enough votes on June 17 to form a government on its own, and will need to form a coalition with another party.

Results of a poll published Friday - the last day before a two-week pre-election ban takes effect- showed Syriza pulling ahead, projecting it to win 31.5 percent of the vote compared to New Democracy at 25.5 percent.

The socialist PASOK party, which came to power in a landslide in 2009 elections, saw its support crumble on May 6, coming in third place with a meager 13 percent compared to ND's 18.9 and Syriza's 16.8 percent. Friday's poll projected it as performing about the same on June 17, with 13.5 percent.

Tsipras insisted his policies would not endanger Greece's euro membership, arguing that the continued implementation of the austerity measures imposed in return for billions of euros worth of rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund would be what would eventually force the country out of the currency.

"The false dilemmas of `memorandum or drachma' are being used to hide the only true equation," he said, referring to the bailout agreement. "The memorandum equals a return to the drachma."

The bailout agreement "is a mechanism of definitive bankruptcy and pushing the country to a voluntary withdrawal from the eurozone."

The terms of the country's rescue loans would be replaced by his party's "national recovery plan" which will focus on development and "fair fiscal consolidation," Tsipras said.

This will include canceling a law that cut the minimum wage by 22 percent and by 32 percent for young people up to the age of 25. The plan will restore the minimum monthly wage to (EURO)751 euros and unemployment benefit to (EURO)461.5 euros, while also extending eligibility from one year to two.

His plan also includes reducing consumer tax, which has increased to 23 percent, especially on basic food items and the tourist industry, and freezing or overturning privatizations - including for the Hellenic Telecoms company OTE and the Public Power Corporation.

Tsipras also pledged to nationalize banks that are being recapitalized. The plan seeks to cancel extra taxes imposed for those on middle and low incomes, as well as for the unemployed, those on low pensions and people living on the poverty line.

Funding for state income would come from taxing wealth and high incomes through a "radical reform of the tax system".

Tsipras predicted that under the bailout terms, Greece would be unable to return to the markets, from which it has been blocked out since mid-2010 by sky-high borrowing rates, during this decade.

"There is no more or less bad memorandum," he said, referring to the bailout agreement. "You either implement the memorandum, or you cancel it. ... We will cancel it."

Tsipras said that if he wins enough votes to form a leftwing government, he will "seek a Europe-wide deal to drastically reduce the debt payments, or seek a debt moratorium."

Friday's opinion poll, commissioned by Kathimerini newspaper and Skai television, was carried out by Public Issue on May 25-30. The company questioned 1,210 people and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

[Badboy]

I READ IN GUARDIAN THAT GREEKS HAVE WITHDRAWN SO MUCH MONEY FROM BANKS THAT THE BANKS WILL BE UNABLE TO LEND.

[Panda]

I READ IN GUARDIAN THAT GREEKS HAVE WITHDRAWN SO MUCH MONEY FROM BANKS THAT THE BANKS WILL BE UNABLE TO LEND.

I wouldn.t be surprised Badboy, it's all the wealthy Greeks who never paid their Taxes and are now buying expensive Houses in London. One thing this new sisiza Party Leader promises is to make sure the rich pay their Taxes.

[Badboy]

while on my twitter account,I READ A LINK ABOUT TOURISM IN GREECE,A PERSON WAS SAYING THAT GREECE IS A VERY GOOD BARGAIN THIS SUMMER WITH VERY LOW PRICES.

[Panda]

Bloomberg via Getty Images


In the midst of an economic crisis still in constant flux, it would be pointless for the Irish to vote Yes on the May 31st referendum on the fiscal compact, which for the moment is but a collections of penalties for misbehaving signatories. Come back later, argues Fintan O’Toole.

Fintan O'Toole

You get a call from a solicitor – let’s call her Angela. She summons you to her office. She shows you the penalty clause of a contract, the one that specifies the punishments you’ll face if you break the terms.

She tells you to sign it right now or you’ll be in big trouble. “But,” you ask, “where’s the rest of the contract?” “We’re still working on it. It’s none of your business. Just sign here.”

This is a pretty good analogy for the absurd situation we’re in with the fiscal treaty. The treaty, as practically everyone now acknowledges, is not the new political contract that will get the European Union out of a potentially terminal crisis. It is just the penalty clause. It makes no sense unless and until we know what the deal itself will be. Asking us to sign it before we know what the rest of the contract contains is an act of utter contempt.

In the face of such contempt, the only rational course for the Irish people is to fall back on their considerable resources of evasion, equivocation and circumvention. The hour for our artful dodgery has come at last.

In 1066 And All That, WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman remark that whenever the English thought they had an answer to the Irish question, the Irish would change the question. In the context of Anglo-Irish relations, the joke is rather facetious. But when it comes to Europe, changing the question is actually well-established Irish practice. We’ve done it twice, with the Nice treaty in 2001-2002 and with the Lisbon treaty in 2008-2009.

Given the choice between Yes and No, we’ve voted “No but yeah”: go away, come back to us, ask a somewhat different question, and we’ll say Yes.

[Panda]

Greek Leftist Aims to Void Austerity Plan



ATHENS — With most of the latest polls showing that his left-leaning party was in a tight race with the New Democracy party for Greece’s election this month, Alexis Tsipras detailed his economic platform Friday, promising his first act would be to annul the terms of the country’s financial rescue packages.

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Mr. Tsipras, 37, was only a minor character in Greek politics until recently. But he appears to be rallying this battered nation around his call to fight off Greece’s foreign creditors.

In an hourlong news conference, he described a dozen measures he would take if elected, ranging from extending unemployment benefits to nationalizing banks and delaying payments to creditors. He said he would replace the bailout plan with “a national regeneration plan,” adding that the goal was to reach a “just and viable European solution.”

“We don’t claim that there is plenty of money,” he said. “Greek people are not asking for money. They are asking for work and the ability to make a living.”

Mr. Tsipras’s surprising success in the last elections on May 6, when he came in second, set off a wave of concern across Europe. European leaders responded by all but endorsing candidates from the more mainstream parties that had negotiated and signed the terms of Greece’s bailout.

Three new polls were published on Friday in Athens newspapers. Two showed Mr. Tsipras’s party, Syriza, and the New Democracy party basically tied, while one put Syriza slightly ahead of the conservatives. In the Public Issue poll, published in Kathimerini, Syriza is backed by about 32 percent of the voters and New Democracy by 26 percent. In contrast, according to the poll conducted by Kapa Research for Ta Nea, 26 percent said they would vote for New Democracy, statistically insignificant from the 24 percent for Syriza. Similarly, the Rass poll conducted for Eleftheros Typos found the voters closely divided: about 27 percent for New Democracy and 24 percent for Syriza.

Those are the last surveys expected before the June 17 balloting, as Greek law prohibits opinion polls in the two weeks before general elections.

One measure of the changing landscape here — and Mr. Tsipras’s effect on it — is that his proposals are no longer sounding so far out of the mainstream.

In May, center-right New Democracy and the Socialist Pasok maintained that Greece had no option but to abide by the terms of the bailout or be thrown out of the euro zone. But these days they are sounding more like Mr. Tsipras, who has always said that the deal could be renegotiated without Greece giving up the euro.

Both New Democracy and Pasok are now calling for renegotiating the terms of their agreement with the country’s foreign creditors, known as the “troika” — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — and making other similar proposals. For instance, the leader of the New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, has also called for extended unemployment benefits and a reversal of the reduction in the minimum wage.

Speaking to reporters in Washington late on Thursday, a spokesman for the International Monetary Fund said the group was willing to hear “any ideas” that the next Greek government might have for meeting the fiscal targets of the debt deal.

The program set out by Syriza on Friday, though, is unlikely to find a receptive audience.

Measures imposed by the troika, including a 22 percent reduction to the minimum monthly wage of 751 euros, or about $930, and the abolition of collective labor contracts, would be revoked, Mr. Tsipras said. And a moratorium would be imposed on the repayment of Greece’s debt and interest payments until growth is restored. He pledged to stabilize public spending at 43 percent of gross domestic product — below the euro zone average of 46 percent but above the 37 percent demanded by creditors — to raise revenue by taxing the wealthy, to abolish dozens of tax breaks, and to scale back the value-added tax, which falls disproportionately on the poor. “We must stop taxing poverty in this country and start taxing the wealthy who evade tax,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 2, 2012, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Greek Leftist Aims to Void Austerity

[Panda]

1 June 2012

Presseurop
Libération, Les Echos Comment


“Is ACTA soon for the sack?” wonders Libération, noting that “support for the highly controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement continues to wane”. On 31 May, large majorities in three European Parliament committees – Civil liberties, Industry and Legal Affairs – voted to reject the text.

Having explained that the vote “is not binding,” Les Echos remarks“that it nonetheless speaks volumes on the apparent shift in the power struggle over a text, which has prompted growing opposition and criticism of its incompatibility with civil liberties in parliament”. The business daily recalls that in recent months ACTA’s “highly controversial measures with regard to the Internet brought thousands of young people out on the streets in demonstrations across Europe.”

As it stands, 22 of the EU’s 27 member states have signed the accord to protect patents and brands, covering a vast range of sectors including generic medicines, crop seeds, culture and on-line downloading. But opposition to the text is growing. On 29 May, MPs in the Netherlands petitioned the Dutch government not to ratify the accord in its current form. Libération reports that last week, the Romanian Prime Minister announced the suspension of the ratification process, and requested that the European Parliament provide guarantees on respect for privacy in the implementation of the agreement. Europe’s citizens will have to wait for a vote in July’s plenary session of parliament for more conclusive news of the fate in store for ACTA.
==============

Is there any part of British Governance not affected by the EU regulations? We never signed up for this, we signed up for a Common Market!!!!!

[AnnaEsse]

...to Avert Collapse of Power Grid and Natural Gas System

When the political and economic systems of entire nations collapse the consequences are devastating.

Earlier this year pharmacies and hospitals in Greece were unable to provide life saving medicines due to a shortages caused by a freeze in the flow of credit from manufacturers to distributors to patients. A collapse in the country’s economy has forced many Greeks to turn to black market barter economies and has left millions financially devastated, with no hope of finding an income stream for the foreseeable future.

The credit system of the entire country is in shambles. So much so that reports are emerging about food shortages and hunger within the Greek prison system, suggesting that serious problems in the food delivery chain have begun to materialize.

As Nigel Farage warned recently, we are beginning to see the rise of extreme political parties as a consequence of the total and utter desperation of the populace.

Today the news gets even worse. Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) announced an emergency meeting to deal with what can only be construed as a tell-tale sign that this crisis is very rapidly reaching critical mass and may spiral out of control in the very near future:

Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country’s electricity and natural gas system.

“RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,” the regulator’s chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters.

RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.

Source: Reuters

You may have thought the financial collapse of 2008 was bad.

That was just a warm up. The main event is staring us in the face, and the whole of Europe has front row seats.

We’ve repeatedly warned about what author James Rawles portrays in his fictional yet prescient account of the effects an economic collapse has on a society. In his book Patriots (and his follow up Survivors) Rawles details the loss of confidence in a nation’s currency and credit, a collapse of basic services, the emergence of bartering, the collapse of power grids and supply infrastructure due to lack of money and labor, the rise of political extremes, and even the civil unrest and war that follows.

Do you still think this can only happen in fiction novels?

We are now seeing the first signs of this happening inside of the European Union – the largest economic zone in the world.

If there’s is one thing we can surmise based on the last four years, it’s that the contagion is spreading and it cannot be contained.

Today it’s Greece. Tomorrow it could be your hometown.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/greece-power-regulator-calls-emergency-meeting-to-avert-collapse-of-power-grid-and-natural-gas-system_06032012

[Badboy]

I HAVE BEEN THINKING THAT PERHAPS WE WILL SEE HOW THINGS ARE GOING IN A MONTH TIME

[Panda]

By Simone Meier - Jun 1, 2012 10:49 AM GMT+0100 Facebook Share LinkedIn Google +1 10 Comments
Print QUEUEQ
Euro-area unemployment reached the highest on record as a deepening economic slump and budget cuts prompted companies from Spain to Italy to reduce their workforces.

The jobless rate in the 17-nation euro zone was at 11 percent in April and March, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s the highest since the data series started in 1995. The March figure was revised higher to 11 percent from 10.9 percent estimated earlier.

Enlarge image Euro-Area Unemployment Reaches Record 11%, Led by Spain, Italy Denis Doyle/Bloomberg
People wait outside an employment office before it opens in Madrid, on Jan. 4, 2012.

People wait outside an employment office before it opens in Madrid, on Jan. 4, 2012. Photographer: Denis Doyle/Bloomberg
Europe’s companies are under pressure to lower costs to protect earnings as the worsening fiscal crisis erodes exports and consumer spending. Euro-area economic confidence dropped more than economists forecast last month and manufacturing output contracted. Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA) said on May 30 that it may cut as many as 1,000 jobs at LSG Sky Chefs, the world’s largest inflight caterer, in a bid to lower costs through 2014.

“The labor-market recession in the euro zone continues to spread and deepen,” said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Bank in Amsterdam. “We currently see the jobless rate peaking at or slightly above 11.5 percent, under the assumption that the euro-zone economy starts to emerge from its double-dip recession later this year.”

The euro was lower against the dollar for a fourth day, trading at $1.2327 at 10:35 a.m. in London, down 0.3 percent on the day.

Greece, Spain
In the euro area, 17.4 million people were unemployed in April, up 110,000 from the previous month, today’s report showed. In the year-earlier month, the jobless rate fell in 11 EU countries and increased in 15 with Ireland reporting an unchanged rate. Greece had an increase to 21.7 percent from 15.2 percent in the year through February, according to today’s report, which didn’t include more recent Greek data.

Spain, whose government is struggling to contain a banking crisis, had the bloc’s highest unemployment rate at 24.3 percent, up from 24.1 percent in March, today’s report showed. In France, the jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent from 10.1 percent, while Italy reported the same increase. Portugal’s rate reached 15.2 percent, up from 15.1 percent.

Adding to signs of a deepening slump, European economic confidence dropped more than economists forecast in May and manufacturing output contracted for a 10th straight month. In Germany, business sentiment fell more than economists had forecast in May, posting the steepest decline since August.

Reorganizing Operations
Companies from Lufthansa to Carrefour SA (CA) and Peugeot SA (UG) are reorganizing operations to counter lagging growth as the economy at home and across the euro area slows. Merck KGaA (MRK), the German maker of the Erbitux cancer drug, on May 15 reported a drop in first-quarter profit.

A gauge of euro-area manufacturing output dropped at the steepest rate since June 2009, with a German indicator reaching a 35-month low, Markit Economics in London said today. A gauge of new export orders had the biggest decline since November, with countries from Spain to Germany reporting weaker demand.

The situation is “deteriorating at an alarming rate,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit Economics in London. “Euro-zone manufacturers reported a deepening downturn in May, indicating that the damage to the real economy caused by the region’s financial and political crises continues to spread across the region.”

Latest Projections
The European Commission said on May 11 that the euro-zone economy may shrink 0.3 percent this year, with countries from the Netherlands to Italy and Greece in recession. The European Central Bank, which will publish its latest projections when council members meet on June 6, currently forecasts a contraction of 0.1 percent in the euro area.

The euro has dropped 7.3 percent against the dollar over the past two months to near a two-year low as investors grew more concerned about a fracture of the currency area. Spain, which nationalized its third-largest lender last month, is trying to buttress its financial system even as borrowing costs approach levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to ask for external aid.

The ECB, which lowered its benchmark interest rate twice in the fourth quarter to 1 percent, matching a record low, and injected more than 1 trillion euros of liquidity into financial markets to avert a credit crunch, has signaled that it is up to governments to contain the turmoil. ECB President Mario Draghi said yesterday that it’s “not our mandate” to “fill the vacuum left by the lack of action by national governments.”

Interest Rates
“We doubt the ECB will be willing to cut interest rates at their June 6 policy meeting and will prefer to see what happens with the Greek elections” later this month, said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight in London. Still, “pressure on the ECB to take interest rates below 1 percent sooner rather than later is mounting from the current deteriorating euro-zone economic environment.”

The April euro-area unemployment rate was in line with the median forecast of 28 economists in a Bloomberg survey.

[Panda]

3:52am UK, Monday June 04, 2012

Jason Farrell, Sky News correspondent, in Madrid

Madrid will this week replace Athens as the focus of European efforts to save the euro after Spain bungled attempts to bail out its fourth-largest bank.
Until recently, uncertainty over the Greek elections had held the attentions of Europe's politicians - but now the future of the single currency could rest on Spain deciding how to rescue Bankia from a 23.5bn-euro hole in its accounts and whether more banks need assistance.

Bankia's troubles stem from toxic property assets left to it following the collapse of the country's housing market.

:: Much more on the eurozone crisis on our dedicated topic page

Sky News visited one town where Bankia, among other lenders, has been lumbered with property it has been unable to sell.


When Lehman Brothers collapsed, what happened? We're all still here aren't we? We should let Bankia fall.

Rouo Fernandez, protester
Valdeluz was built towards the end of Spain's frenzied property boom - and while the satellite town is linked to Madrid by the high speed rail network, its gleaming station is quiet.

When the property bubble burst in 2008 many developers in the area went bust leaving their lenders in possession of thousands of over-valued homes. There are currently fewer than 2,000 residents living in a town with over 9,000 properties.

Banners offer properties for sale at cut prices, despite the fact the Valdeluz is only a quarter built based on the original plans.

Miguel Angel San Miguel, the town's only taxi driver, told Sky News: "In 2008 they just stopped building. The planned shopping mall called 'The Towers' is just a pile of bricks. The local school is a building site."

Cafe-owner Dennis Krigt said: ""There was over development across Spain and this is just one example of it. It is very quiet but now prices are down more people are coming."



A protester makes their feelings clear outside Bankia's Madrid HQ

In contrast to the quiet of Valdeluz, Bankia's headquarters in Madrid have become the focus of noisy protest. This weekend, around 200 demonstrators expressed their opposition to the government's plans to use public funds for a bailout.

Bashing spoons against pots, protesters chanted: "This is not a crisis, it's a fraud."

Psychologist Alejadra Hoenicka said: "It's not fair to ask for our money. Why should I pay for their mistakes?"

Her friend, Rouo Fernandez, added: "When Lehman Brothers collapsed, what happened? We're all still here aren't we? We should let Bankia fall."

Those with fixed-term deposit accounts in the bank fear that they are unable to access their money which they now want to pull out of the bank.

Raquel Millan Afeclada told Sky News: "My mother has 35,000 euro in Bankia and they have kidnapped her money."

According to a poll published this weekend, 95% of Spaniards are in favour of investigating Bankia's finances.

An independent audit of all of Spain's banks is due to report this month on whether other lenders require significant financial injections.

The Spanish banking system may need around 100 billion euros to prop it up according to the EU.

Investors fear that the Spanish government will be unable to afford to rescue its banks, forcing the country to apply for help from the European Bailout fund and the IMF.

[AnnaEsse]

All indications suggest that basic services in Greece have begun to break down, with reports from several Greek prisons and military installations indicating that prisoners are malnourished and starving. Food shortages caused by austerity related spending cuts and truck stoppages are also reportedly reducing daily rations for soldiers stationed in the area of Corinth, Greece.

We may very well be seeing the cracks in a society on the verge of complete meltdown.

At a time when the entire country is being tested by the economic crisis, some people are quite literally on the verge of destitution and hunger. At a time when the empty state coffers can not support any concept of a welfare state, with “frozen” financing towards education and health, the prison system could not be an exception.

The financing for many prisons has decreased to a minimum for some months now, resulting in hundreds of detainees being malnourished and surviving on the charity of local communities.

The latest example is the prison in Corinth where after the supply stoppage from the nearby military camp, the prisoners are at the mercy of God because, as reported by prison staff, not even one grain of rice has been left in their warehouses. When a few days earlier the commander of the camp announced to the prison management the transportation stoppage, citing lack of food supplies even for the soldiers, he shut down the last source of supply for 84 prisoners. The response of some Corinth citizens was immediate as they took it upon themselves to support the prisoners, since all protests to the Justice ministry were fruitless.

…

The prisons in Patra and Alikarnassos have also been experiencing food supply problems lately, as the prisoners who cannot afford to buy food from the prison canteen are left without food.

Source: Proto Thema News

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/destitution-and-hunger-in-greek-prisons-not-even-one-grain-of-rice-left-in-warehouses_062012

[Panda]

Until the General Election to be held in Greece on 17th June everything is on hold. There is talk that this result will not give an overall majority to any
Party .

Spain wants a fiscal policy for all Euro Countries , Rajoy is willing to to cede some Sovereignty, but Merkel is adamant this cannot happen until the Euro
Countries have stabilised and wants Spain to accept a bail -out instead.

Cyprus warns it may need a Bailout.

Ireland also may need help.

Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate in Economics says the Euro is flawed because there is no Governing body to create new banking rules and a fiscal policy.

The Chinese slowdown continues to affect the rest of the World, even Australia is feeling the pinch. A Danish Investment Manager says the slowdown in China started a while ago but the Euro crisis has escalated China's woes and the slowdown is Global now.

Merkel rejects debt sharing which is what ceding Sovereignty would mean. There would have to be a Central Banking System, a Banking Union and
a Department overseeing the Banks and Stock Exchanges , something like our FSA.

Judging by the snails pace the EU have acted one analyst says it would take a long long time before such a dramatic change could be implemented and
wonders why all these considerations were not thought about when these Countries signed up to the Euro.

[Panda]

George Soros says three months to save the euro Mr Soros believe the German public will soon tire of bailing out the Greeks Continue reading the main story


Billionaire investor George Soros has warned European leaders they have a "three-month window" to save the euro.

He said he believed Greece would elect a government willing to abide by loan conditions imposed by the EU in this month's elections.

But he said the German economy would begin to weaken in the autumn, making it much harder for Chancellor Angela Merkel to provide further support.

He said leaders did not understand "the nature of the crisis".

He said that while European leaders were focusing on debt levels, the crisis was "more of a banking problem and a problem of competitiveness".

For this reason, he said they had "applied the wrong remedy".

"You cannot reduce the debt burden by shrinking the economy, only by growing your way out of it," he added.

Mr Soros, speaking at a conference in Italy, was referring to the drastic austerity measures that have been implemented across Europe, measures that are now being questioned by a growing number of politicians and commentators.

Weaker Germany

Without policies to boost growth, which would enable governments to raise revenue to pay down debt, Mr Soros said time was running out for the euro.

"I expect the Greek public will be sufficiently frightened by the prospect of expulsion from the EU that it will give a narrow majority of seats to a coalition that is ready to abide by the current [bailout] agreement," he said.

However, this would provide only temporary respite, he warned, as the German public becomes less willing to continue bailing out its weaker European neighbours.

"The crisis is likely to come to a climax in the [autumn]. By that time, the German economy will also be weakening, so that Chancellor Merkel will find it even more difficult than today to persuade the German public to accept any additional European responsibilities.

"That is what creates a three-month window."
More on This Story
Eurozone crisis

[Angelina]

Don't panic, it was 6 months ago they said we had only 6 weeks to save the Euro. Not much seems to have changed, things have just got a whole lot worse.

I really don't think anyone knows how to stop this slide into the abyss. God help us all, we are going to need it.

[Panda]

Don't panic, it was 6 months ago they said we had only 6 weeks to save the Euro. Not much seems to have changed, things have just got a whole lot worse.

I really don't think anyone knows how to stop this slide into the abyss. God help us all, we are going to need it.

The EU is completely ill equiped to make any headway on this crisis, 17 different Nations all speaking different languages and ways of Governing their
Countries , the Northern States more efficient, the Southern States inefficient. After 2 years with the ECB buying 3 yr Bonds from Countries in trouble will not be repaid and everyone wants Greece to accept the bail-out to save themselves, not Greece.

Britain thought it was signing up to a common Market, not to be regulated to such an extent that our Governments don,t Govern any more, they obey.
Remember David Cameron at one of the conferences saying a Transaction Tax on Shares bought would prove disasterous for Britain which is the second
Largest Stock Exchange . a bit later on France decided to raise money by implementing a Transaction Tax. Now all EU Countries are to do the same.
What will Cameron do, call a referendum???

[Angelina]

Don't panic, it was 6 months ago they said we had only 6 weeks to save the Euro. Not much seems to have changed, things have just got a whole lot worse.

I really don't think anyone knows how to stop this slide into the abyss. God help us all, we are going to need it.

The EU is completely ill equiped to make any headway on this crisis, 17 different Nations all speaking different languages and ways of Governing their
Countries , the Northern States more efficient, the Southern States inefficient. After 2 years with the ECB buying 3 yr Bonds from Countries in trouble will not be repaid and everyone wants Greece to accept the bail-out to save themselves, not Greece.

Britain thought it was signing up to a common Market, not to be regulated to such an extent that our Governments don,t Govern any more, they obey.
Remember David Cameron at one of the conferences saying a Transaction Tax on Shares bought would prove disasterous for Britain which is the second
Largest Stock Exchange . a bit later on France decided to raise money by implementing a Transaction Tax. Now all EU Countries are to do the same.
What will Cameron do, call a referendum???

Well, George Osborne is already hinting about it so I suspect it's a strong possibility.

[Panda]

angelina, the problem is the coalition. The LibDems are pro EU but the general public in the U.K. are fed up with the rules and regulations imposed by the EU and this crisis has proved just how ineffectual they are. We had a good relationship with our Commonwealth Countries before, that's gone now.
Whoever the Government Trade Minister is, he is doing a lousy job in trying to get business for the U.K. The French have recently won a big Contract
to produce Aircraft for a Foreign Country !!!

I think you are right, we are heading for another 1930's Depression , when it is over , after we are dead and buried (LOL) will Governments learn a lesson nd never again give the Banks such power. I remember the days when Banks had to have 11% Liquidity and you could not borrow more than
two and a half times your Salary to purchase a house.

[Angelina]

I do wonder whether the coalition will make it full-time to the next election.

Lib-Dems are supposedly already to be in talks with Labour again. Could they be planning to walk away earlier than expected?

[Panda]

I do wonder whether the coalition will make it full-time to the next election.

Lib-Dems are supposedly already to be in talks with Labour again. Could they be planning to walk away earlier than expected?

It's very possible, the Press were commenting the other day that Cameron and Osborne made 9 changes to the Budget after it was announced. I can't
stand Ed Milliband though, in fact there is not one Politician I would vote for and Cameron will not serve a second Term anyway . In fact, I didn't see
him at the Pageant yesterday, but Boris was there waving a Union Jack. Actually , I quite like him, at least he got voted in again as Mayor.!!

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