Posted by seumasach on June 4, 2012
Protesilaos Stavrou
1st June, 2012
Much can be said about Wednesday’s, May 23, EU summit. Reporters will be busy in analyzing the diverging views between the French President Mr Hollande and the German Chancellor Mrs Merkel over the issue of eurobonds. Economists will be divided over the additional capital that needs to be given to the European Investment Bank and the actual leverage it can afford, to carry out massive investment projects across the area’s most hardly-hit regions.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: european construction | 2 Comments »
Posted by seumasach on June 2, 2012
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Posted by seumasach on June 1, 2012
31st May, 2012
Lagarde and the Greeks … a comedy, not a tragedy! Christine Lagerde, head of the IMF, recently told journalists that she had no sympathy for the difficulties encoutered by the Greek people and that they should pay their taxes rather than complaining.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Greek crisis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 30, 2012
There are other possible motivations for this kind of terrorism apart from that of provoking a full-scale war. Most obviously, NATO fears the shift in French foreign policy following the election of Francois Hollande and wish to constrain him within the Atlanticist framework laid down by Sarkozy.
30th May, 2012
A prominent political analyst says that NATO-backed armed gangs have been behind the recent killing of civilians in the Syrian town of Houla.
Posted in Battle for Europe, Syria | Tagged: hollande agenda | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 27, 2012
Jean-Paul Baquiast
20th May, 2012
Lorsque l’on constatent les agressions verbales voire diplomatiques incessantes auxquelles se livre le Premier ministre conservateur David Cameron contre l’euro, la France et même son nouveau président, on serait tenté de lui demander ce qu’il fait en Europe, alors qu’il serait si bien dans le rôle si fécond de caniche des Etats-Unis.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: bankrupt Britain, Whither Britain? | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 26, 2012
19th May, 2012
French and Greek elections have revived the discussions about political instability in the Eurozone and its consequences for the Eurozone economy. In the last year, change of governments in France, Netherlands, Slovakia, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, through elections or internal political crises, and the upsurge of extremist parties risk to exacerbate an already fragile economic and financial situation. We are likely to see more government changes, especially if the political block against austerity measures is gaining political support across the Eurozone. The institutional set-up is such that the political decisions at the European level will be determined by a few key players while citizens will cast their protest votes at the national level. This mismatch will heighten the tensions and makes a call for a renewal of the institutional set-up in Europe inevitable.
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Posted by seumasach on May 26, 2012
26th May, 2012
European Parliament President Martin Schulz said on Saturday an extension of the time frame for policy changes and budget cuts in Greece is «conceivable,» according to an interview with Tagesspiegel.
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Posted by seumasach on May 26, 2012
25th May, 2012
Sweeping reforms to shift the burden of rescuing failing banks from taxpayers to bondholders are to be unveiled by the European Commission, despite fears it will further rattle nervous bank investors.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: EU bank reform, financial regulation | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 22, 2012
19th May, 2012
In Athens, the homeless are on the streets in growing numbers, soup kitchens feed twice as many people as a year ago, and the poor are diving into garbage bins in search of scrap they can sell.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Greek crisis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 19, 2012
Quelle surprise!- Cameron, as Hollande has correctly pointed out, stands for City of London interests. His ability to exercise a veto on the FTT is another illustration of why Britain must be sidelined from the Euroland core. At the same time, Cameron knows that the UK economy, in as far as it exists, is doomed. He, therefore, needs Euroland as a scapegoat, blaming them for blowing “the recovery” off course. Behind all this, US/UK still hope to knock out the eurozone, or, at the very least, provide more of a breathing space for the dollar. This is why Obama tries to present Hollande’s strategy in neo-Keynesian terms- quantitative easing in Europe would allow Obama and Cameron scope for more of the same without precipitating dollar devaluation against euro. Interestingly SYRIZA echoes Obama’s calls and Tsipras praises Obama’s “stimulus measures” in a Wall Street Journal feature. But Hollande knows that off-loading the euro crisis onto the Global South through a money printing spree is a non-starter and seeks other means such as project bonds, enhanced role for European investment bank to rebuild real economy. Hollande is the man of the moment and will be subjected to almost unbearable pressure from the Wall Street/ City mob. In response, he will reach out to the BRICS countries for support: only this can safeguard his political future and that of Europe.
19th May, 2012
Barack Obama was caught between two competing European visions of how to solve the financial crisis at the G8 summit when David Cameron rejected outright a French proposal to raise €57bn (£46bn) through a tax on financial transactions.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: bankrupt Britain, financial transactions tax(FTT), hollande agenda, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 19, 2012
15th May, 2012
Germany has gold reserves of just under 3,400 tons, the second-largest reserves in the world after the United States. Much of that is in the safekeeping of central banks outside Germany, especially in the US Federal Reserve in New York. One would think that with such a valuable stash, worth around €133 billion ($170 billion), the German government would want to keep a close eye on its whereabouts. But now a bizarre dispute has broken out between different German institutions over how closely the reserves should be checked.
Posted in Battle for Europe, Financial crisis | Tagged: german gold reserves | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 