Archive for the ‘Battle for Europe’ Category
Posted by seumasach on March 26, 2013
It’s either the banks or the real economy and Europe has just outlined a new approach completely divergent from that of the Anglosphere. In US/UK the survival of the banks is a categorical imperative and the means to achieve this is bailout without end via QE or money-printing. This statement from Europe signals that the banks are to allowed to go under or rather, implicitly, a new banking system, Euroland regulated and subordinate to general economic development is to created. This is a welcome development and any Anglo-Saxon schadenfreude regarding the inevitable pain accompanying it will prove to be misplaced. The QE approach is painless only to the banks: it has already seriously depleted deposits and can only lead to falls in both the pound and the dollar with devastating consequences for economies based on importing essential goods.
Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief
Telegraph
25th March, 2013
The new policy will alarm hundreds of thousands of British expatriates who live and have transferred their savings, proceeds from house sales and other assets to eurozone bank accounts in countries such as France, Spain and Italy.
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Posted in Battle for Europe, Financial crisis, UK economy | Tagged: bankrupt Britain, dollar collapse, failing banks, stop the bailout | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 21, 2013
John Helmer
Asia Times
21st March, 2013
MOSCOW – The United States, Germany, Turkey and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies think they have almost all the ordnance required to produce regime change in Syria, as they had in Libya. But they don’t appear to have the 5 billion euros (US$6.5 billion) required to do the trick in Cyprus, after the regime change the Cypriots themselves had voted into power a month ago.
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Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 6, 2013
If bankers leave the country, it would be no loss
Simon Jenkins
Guardian
6th March, 2013
The peasants are revolting across Europe. They want bankers’ blood and mean to get it. Until now, public response to the credit crunch has been one of general bafflement and wrist-slapping. The banks persuaded the world it was all an act of fate. As it was, they were too big to fail and their leaders too saintly to atone for it. For four years, British banks were showered with nearly half a trillion pounds of public and printed money. They duly recovered and stayed rich, while everyone else went poor.
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Posted in Battle for Europe, UK economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on March 5, 2013
Olaf Cramme, director of Policy Network, a think tank sympathetic to his center-left Labour Party. Labour’s leader Ed Miliband is a “Continental European Social Democrat” with fundamental sympathies for bonus caps and the redistribution of wealth
First hint of a move in Britain’s sclerotic political class?
Excess Under Siege: Europe Gains Momentum against Corporate Greed
Spiegel
4th March, 2013
Moves to contain salary excesses in big business by the EU and Switzerland have emboldened social democrats across Europe, who are calling for battle against greed in a financial world “gone wild.”
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Posted by seumasach on February 28, 2013
UK has been battling to stop the Basel III accord on capital requirements, fearing the impact on the City of London as the EU’s leading financial capital.
City of London interests- that’s what our anti-European stance is really about
Independent
28th February, 2013
European Union chiefs have agreed a package of financial laws that includes capping bankers’ bonuses at a maximum of one year’s basic salary.
Posted in Battle for Europe, UK economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 18, 2013
Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
18th February, 2013
I write this on February 17, the fifth anniversary of Kosovo’s “independence.” I’m putting the word in scare quotes because Kosovo is anything but an independent nation: it is, in reality, dependent on NATO, the European Union, and the US for the most basic functions of a state: keeping order and maintaining a judicial system. A multinational force known as KFOR, numbering some 6,000 troops – including 1,447 American soldiers – keeps a semblance of order in the former Serbian province, if one interprets the word “order” quite loosely.
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Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Kosovo | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 16, 2013
Hague’s “never say die” approach is increasingly out of line with international opinion which understands that the Syrian rebels are losing and haas no illusions about a “moderate opposition”. Anyway here another reason for us to oppose Europe: they are inhibiting our sponsorship of international terrorism!
Telegraph
15th February, 2013
British and French attempts to lift the EU arms embargo that is hampering the flow of weapons to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad are being blocked by powerful states including Germany.
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Posted in Battle for Europe, Syria | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 25, 2013
Germany, France and nine other EU countries approved tax on financial transactions
Mercopress
25th January, 2013
The Times reported that EU finance ministers gave their blessing to the scheme, which will apply to anyone in the 11 countries who makes a bond or share trade or bets on the market using derivatives.
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Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: financial transactions tax(FTT) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 20, 2013
Cailean Bochanan
20th January, 2013
Every cloud has a silver lining and the terrible events in Algeria at least enabled David Cameron to postpone his long-awaited speech on Europe. He must be hoping he could call it off altogether and that the leaking of its contents by dribs and drabs would steal some of its thunder and render its eventual delivery a relative non-event. But what has got him into such a quandary? “Events, my dear boy! Events!”
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Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Obama agenda, Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 18, 2013
The shift in US policy is now clear. Realism has dictated that Assad will not be overthrown in Syria and that the euro will not collapse. By relaunching the “war on terror” against Al Qaeda Washington signals a diplomatic settlement in Syria and , at the same time, seeks to reforge its alliance with Europe and strengthen NATO.Hollande’s Mali campaign and Cameron’s travails over Europe both flow directly from Washington’s new stance.
Guardian
18th January, 2013
The outgoing US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, has said there must be a fundamental change in the transatlantic alliance, as the west faces challenging global threats, including that from al-Qaida terrorists.
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Posted in Battle for Europe, Syria | Tagged: "War on Terror", Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 10, 2013
The British ruling class is in total disarray. They expected, not without good cause, that they could build a closer alliance with the USA and integrate themselves into the Anglosphere. But Obama has has brought about an historic policy shift towards realism, a shift whose full ramifications will only become fully evident with time. But already he has ended the assault on Europe and he is about to negotiate a settlement with Syria which will not involve the departure of Assad. The humiliation of Cameron and Haig will be complete.
Guardian
10th January, 2013
The Obama administration issued a direct challenge to David Cameron over Europe, on Wednesday when it warned of the dangers of holding a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
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Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 