“I’m wondering how much this society can endure before it explodes,” said Georg Pieper, a German psychotherapist who specializes in treating post-traumatic stress disorders following catastrophes, large accidents (including the deadliest train wreck ever in Germany), acts of violence, freed hostages…. But now he was talking about Greece.
Euro
Germany’s Favorite Rabble-Rouser Economist Lashes Out
by Wolf Richter • • 2 Comments
Hans-Werner Sinn, President of the German Ifo Institute and a thorn in the side of bailout politicians and eurocrats: The longer you delay the needed “radical measures,” the more banks and other private investors will be able to sell “their toxic paper without haircut to governmental bailout funds, and then hightail.” Taxpayers, retirees, and savers “in sound countries” will pay the price.
Sweden’s Euro Hostility Hits A Record
by Wolf Richter • • 3 Comments
As the Eurozone flails about to keep its chin above the debt crisis that is drowning periphery countries, and as the European Union struggles to duct-tape itself together with more “integration,” that is governance by unelected transnational eurocrats, Sweden is having second thoughts: never before has there been such hostility toward the euro.
Serial Government Defaults In The Eurozone
by Wolf Richter • • 2 Comments
“Private sector” is a rubbery term. Most of the bondholders that lost their shirts during the first Greek default last March, and during the second one currently underway, were banks, including banks in Greece, Spain, and Cyprus. They are now getting bailed out by the public. After nearly all of Greece’s debt was shifted to the public, a third haircut was announced. Now Portugal wants the same deal. The can has been opened.
Ten Big Fat Lies To Keep The Euro Dream Alive
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Ten Big Fat Lies To Keep The Euro Dream Alive
Every country in the Eurozone has its own collection of big fat lies that politicians and eurocrats have served up in order to make the euro and subsequent bailouts or austerity measures less unappetizing. Like in 1999: “Can Germany be held liable for the debts of other countries? A very clear No!” said the CDU, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Relentless Eurocratic Power Grab
by Wolf Richter • • 5 Comments
“The euro has profound economic advantages and is the most powerful symbol of European integration,” said not some wild-eyed dude with a joint between his lips, slouching in a café in Amsterdam, but the “Final Report” by the Future of Europe Group, composed of 11 European foreign ministers. It remains uncertain what they were smoking.
“The Euro Will Blow Up Europe Instead Of Bringing It Together”
by Wolf Richter • • 7 Comments
“I cannot be disillusioned because I no longer have any illusions about Europe,” muttered Euro Group President Jean-Claude Juncker last week after the horse trading over Greece’s bailout had failed once again. But he isn’t the only one who lost his illusions. “There are better alternatives to the bailout policies of Chancellor Merkel,” declares the man who’ll run against her in 2013; alternatives that “protect taxpayers and don’t only benefit the banks.”
Sacrificing The Will Of The People On The Altar of The Euro
by Wolf Richter • • 10 Comments
The Eurozone debt crisis is exacting its toll. Convoluted undemocratic taxpayer-funded bailouts of bondholders and banks designed to keep the Eurozone together can’t kick the can down the road far enough. But the price has been huge, and people have expressed their anger in massive protests. Now, these efforts are also tearing up the fabric of the 27-member European Union: the first one out may be the UK.
The Curse Of The “Irreversible” Euro
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
Young educated Greeks face a wall of unemployment. With little chance of finding a job in their field, they’re competing for any kind of job. Wages have plummeted. The economy has shriveled by 19.4% since 2007. Promises that education would open doors to a better future have evaporated. And Germans march around, telling Greeks how to run their country. Because the euro has become a religious dictum.
Germany’s Fear And Desperation Leak Out
by Wolf Richter • • 20 Comments
A hullabaloo erupted between France and Germany that both are trying to silence to death: it seeped out that the German Finance Minister broached an unprecedented topic with Germany’s Council of Economic Experts. Could they produce a reform concept for the troubled French economy? It revealed a threat that terrorizes the German government.