“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.
Euro
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.
The Bailout Of Russian “Black Money” In Cyprus
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
Timing couldn’t have been worse. Or more opportune. A “secret” report by the German version of the CIA, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, bubbled to the surface, asserting that the bailout of Cyprus would use money from taxpayers in other countries to bail out mostly rich Russians who have over the years deposited their “black money” in Cypriot banks that are now collapsing.
German Industrialist: Insolvency Procrastination And How To Confront The Coming Inflation
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on German Industrialist: Insolvency Procrastination And How To Confront The Coming Inflation
A blatant act of fear mongering: if Greece were allowed to exit the Eurozone, it could end up costing the world €17.2 trillion, the study said; it would be “incumbent upon the community of nations to prevent” that. The study was commissioned by the powerful Bertlesmann Foundation, propagating the doctrine that certain bondholders must always be bailed out to prop up confidence in the financial markets. “Insolvency procrastination” is how a quintessential German industrialist responded.
Spain Is Losing Its People, Catalonia Fights For Independence, And The EU Gets Pushed Into The Conflict
by Wolf Richter • • 6 Comments
“Do you want Catalonia to become a new state within the European Union?” That may be the question on the referendum that is causing a constitutional crisis in Spain even before the final wording has been decided. Efforts by Artur Mas, President of Catalonia, to pry his region loose from Spain are not only shaking up Spain but are pushing the European Union deeper into the conflict—just as Spain is plunging into a demographic nightmare.