however it was a tongue in cheek response to our sweet and sour dilettante's post above..
the person who claims that the EU has kept peace in Europe for 50 years, who can't differentiate the difference between one country and a group of countries yet accuses of others who do not subscribe to his failed ideology liars and that posting confirmed data is posting rubbish.
oh and by the way it was yours truly who started the EU HW thread.
when the post gremlins struck early dec 2011, long threads were cut and continued from the next post in the thread, the thread dates back to 2 years before that.. here: EU Politics - Hamsterwheel, there's another 54 pages of discussion there to delight and entertain.. also it proves interesting to re-read some of it.
in the last days of the old thread, you can see not only my own, but HB, Capetonian, OFSO, ORAC and others attempts at engaging in KAG in reasoned debate, but alas they were similar failures to a common currency without a comman fiscal policy and economy.
no one is re-writing history here to suit an agenda, but just laying out the course of events.. rather like the Euro...
And like the euro, we've been entertained and sidetracked into such conspiracy theories and odd postulations such as the UK is trying to devalue and undermine the Euro, the city of london could not have existed without the Euro (despite it predating it by a couple of hundred years plus some), the EU has prevented war in Europe for 50+ years, the brits ran away in Northern France in WWII.. etc etc.
Like with the Euro, there is only so much one can do to assist the deluded from understanding reality and when that is retrurned with more delusion, rhetoric and pushing personal prejudices, one simply switches off.
our sweet and sour dilletante's ramblings and promotion of the Euro 'success' will continue to fade into the background as the more serious players skip past and interact with more reasoned potential; again rather like the Euro.
Did I read something right, a potential bailout of Spain could clear €900 BILLION, and that's only the National Government debt and doesn't include the money owed by the regions?
That level of debt will have to be covered by the ECB, since Rajoy is now saying that he "might" go to the ECB for help (i.e. He WILL go to the ECB with the begging bowl), so how in hell's name will they pay that, pay Greece's debts, pay Italy's debts, etc? Where the hell will the money come from?
Premier Monti empfahl im SPIEGEL-Interview den Regierungschefs, sich ihre Handlungsfreiheit auch gegenüber den eigenen Parlamenten zu bewahren: "Wenn sich Regierungen vollständig durch die Entscheidungen ihrer Parlamente binden ließen, ohne einen eigenen Verhandlungsspielraum zu bewahren, wäre das Auseinanderbrechen Europas wahrscheinlicher als eine engere Integration."
Part of an interview given by Italian PM Monti to Der Spiegel.
In the above section, he is saying that national leaders should ensure that their freedom of decision-making is not limited by needing parliamentary approval as this makes a disintegration of Europe more likely than closer integration.
This is just intolerable when you've got this politician ( ex-European commissioner of course ) openly saying that further integration - being decided by a handful of pols - is so important that national parliaments should not be allowed to get in the way.
It's completely unacceptable to me, that someone with such an opinion, should be permitted to be a national leader. Who knows what he might dream up next.
Last edited by AlpineSkier; 5th Aug 2012 at 10:52.
In the above section, he is saying that national leaders should ensure that their freedom of decision-making is not limited by needing parliamentary approval as this makes a disintegration of Europe more likely than closer integration.
to break that down even further; to work, eurozone states must be dictatorships.
Your article was written on Thursday but on Friday the markets appear to have decided they got it wrong and rebounded.
As for Monti, it is surprising he was so open/naive (?) with Der Spiegel. Although the magazine has a left/centre tendency, the questions/interviewers are usually quite penetrating. The first thirty replies on the comments ( as far as I read ) were exclusively negative about his ideas of good decision-making ( dictatorship ) and the financing of the EU/Euro .
Last edited by AlpineSkier; 5th Aug 2012 at 12:46.
Two sketches of life here in Catalunia this weekend:
- Sitting at the café after gym Saturday morning in Empuriabrava and looking at the rows of 60' cruisers parked on the main canal, I realised 70% of them were British owned and registered (counting a couple of CI boats as sort-of British). Nearly all had occupants, so not just parked.
- Had a brief chat on Saturday afternoon with C. who with his wife runs *** Holiday Homes here, he was up doing change-overs on the villas they rent out (SP €2900 a week), Mrs OFSO asked "how many change-overs have you got today ?" and he replied "fifteen". Most of their villas are rented out from Easter to Autumn.
Conclusions: plenty of money about, and plenty of British money about.
Guido was not surprised to learn that the deficit deniers over at Left Foot Forward have gone into debt themselves, ending up £3,000 in the red this year. They’ve been forced to beg their niche readership for money:
“We’re still £3,000 short of what we need this year. We really need every Left Foot Forward reader to step up, make a small donation today and keep us successful. We now have scores of readers making small monthly payments to Left Foot Forward and hundreds making small donations every year. Can you join them and make a one off donation today?”
Turns out that magic money tree doesn’t really exist…
............... More than 80% of migrants entering the European Union do so through Greece, which is in the grip of its worst recession in decades.
So Greece 'deports' them, in other words escorts them to the only place from where they can have unrestricted travel to another Schengen state (Patras where they board a ferry for Italy) and then Europe is their oyster. Great solution.
German politicians from across the spectrum have reacted furiously to warnings by Italy’s Mario Monti that Bundestag control over EU debt policies threatens to bring about the “disintegration” of the European project.
One thing I do admire about the French is that they look after their own country first, and sod the rest. They make the laws and then put two fingers up at them. Bravo!
Like most of the stuff in the Daily Heil, the article is sensationalist and contains some inaccuracies, but the fundamentals remain correct.
A big Roma camp was dismantled near Aix-en-Provence earlier this year, and the crime figures in the area plummeted. Guess what happened in the area round Vitrolles that they moved to?
