In These New Times

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.

Guardian

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.

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