Fed Reserve suggests quant easing for EU zone

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A top U.S. Federal Reserve official urged the European Central Bank on Tuesday to consider employing a U.S.-style quantitative easing programme to counter slowing inflation and recession in the euro zone.

The ECB has engaged in bond purchases in the past but has always withdrawn an equivalent amount of money from markets to ensure its interventions are neutral for the money supply, fearful of stoking inflationary pressures.

François Hollande calls for ‘European political union’ within two years

A beleagured President François Hollande went on the offensive today calling for an “economic government” for the Eurozone and “political union” in Europe within two years.

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In a two hour press conference at the Elysee Palace, Mr Hollande announced a string of new initiatives including a four point plan for rapid progress towards a more federal Europe.

EU: Bonino urges ‘United States of Europe

(ANSAmed) – Rome, May 15 – Italy’s foreign minister Emma Bonino has called for a ‘United States of Europe’.

“I am a confirmed federalist and so is this government,” Bonino said on Wednesday.

“Our objective remains the United States of Europe” and “a system that guarantees major results and also savings in the area of defence, research, major infrastructure and obviously foreign policy”.

Impact of the Crisis

Experts and analysts always say China, but it’s the one you never see coming that hits the hardest. They likely do not account for the fact that China, although ‘rising’, is not trusted throughout the world and will likely have a limited role instead of a leading one on the world stage because of this.

On the other hand, Germany’s stranglehold on and ever-growing control of the EU (the world’s largest economy) is also not accounted for. Couple that with the misguided appearance of being 100% pacifist since the second World War, yet it’s the third largest arms exporter in the world, you can give the upper hand to Germany. It’s a highly overlooked and dismissed fact.

BERLIN (Own report) – The EU crisis is causing a serious weakening of the EU’s foreign policy, concluded a recent study published by the Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. Not only are the member states’ financial outlays for foreign and military activities clearly diminishing, due to leeway shrinkage caused by budget cuts, but “conflicts between member states have grown” around how to handle the crisis, according to the SWP. This has stifled “joint foreign policy initiatives.” The think tank points out that the enduring crisis and the hard-line German austerity dictate have damaged the prestige of the EU and, therefore, also severely tarnished its global “soft power.” Particularly damaging are the cuts in the military sector, even ranging up to 30 percent reductions in defense spending of the smaller and medium sized EU countries, jeopardizing their long term capability of participation in EU wars. The option of instrumentalizing a common EU foreign and military policy, to reinforce German clout and eventually promote it to world power status, had always been an important motive in Berlin for the buildup and development of the EU.

France and Germany: A tale of two countries drifting apart

A political, economic and demographic divide has opened up between France and Germany. And, if that were not trouble enough, a new Pew Research Center survey suggests that these two countries, which have for decades been the driving force behind European integration, increasingly see the world through different lenses.

The Franco-German alliance was based on rough equality between these two continental powers. In the 1980s, West Germany’s economy and population were slightly larger than France’s, but not overwhelmingly so, and French economic growth actually exceeded its neighbour’s.

Europe’s Unemployed: An Army Waiting for a Leader

As Europe edges toward mass anarchy and chaos, the Catholic Church is emerging as the key mediator between Europeans and their leaders.

Europe’s unemployment crisis is one everyone knows about, but no one is thinking seriously about.

Cyprus-Greece agree to act in concert on defence matters

If you were, lets say, a sinister EU and you wanted to guarantee a supply of energy resources because you have none, how would you go about doing it?

Expanding on the relations between Cyprus and Greece pointed out by this article, one could say in a nutshell, this is how: The EU, which is ran by Germany via the “Troika”, subjugates Greece through forcing it to give up chunks of sovereign rights while simultaneously destroying the Cypriot economy for generations via bank depositor theft. While some control of both countries over their economies is retained, they forge natural relationships for a common cause (keeping Turkey and it’s revived Ottoman empire dream out of their region) that bring about resources that will ultimately be under the Fourth Reich’s EU control mechanism.

Perhaps this is too ahead-of-the-curve, but it is a very plausible outcome. Europe in general does not wish to remain dependent upon the Russian bear for all of its energy resources, nor the Middle East. This would be a life saver for them. They have no fear of economically or politically, openly raiding and plundering countries as shown in the last three years. Even if it doesn’t come under EU control, it’s also within the realm of possibility that the energy resources will be sold at very cheap prices to the EU in return for paying off country debt and regaining some sovereignty. Either way, you can look forward to the EU getting in on the action. Expect Israel to also fit into the equation as it also is a deterrence to Turkish aggression.

The Cyprus issue, energy security and the exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone were examined during a meeting in Athens between the Defence Ministers of Cyprus and Greece, Fotis Fotiou and Panos Panagiotopoulos, respectively.

Fotiou also discussed with Panagiotopoulos the situation in the wider south-eastern Mediterranean region and Turkish threats against Cyprus with regard to oil exploration.

He thanked the Greek government and its people for supporting the Republic of Cyprus and for being the firm and permanent supporter of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cyprus and its economy, adding that “with hard work by both governments we can support one another and give hope and prospects to the people”.

BREAKING: European Commission to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants not registered with government

As oft heard, Socialism is only a bridge to Communism. Today’s modern ’Troika‘ attempting to grab full control over what Europeans can grow in their own backyards illustrates the direction it’s going as the cycle of history repeats itself. Given the fact Cyprus and Greece (Italy/Spain/France next) can be subjugated by today’s Fourth Reich (Germany) running the EU via economic warfare through the Troika, one shouldn’t be surprised if they have enough leverage to pull this one off — especially since sovereign nations haven’t shown any backbone whatsoever in saying enough is enough.

(NaturalNews) A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it  illegal to “grow, reproduce or trade” any vegetable seeds that have not been “tested, approved and accepted”  by a new EU bureaucracy named the “EU Plant Variety Agency.”

It’s called  the Plant Reproductive Material Law, and it attempts to put the  government in charge of virtually all plants and seeds. Home gardeners who grow  their own plants from non-regulated seeds would be considered criminals under  this law.

Turkey Sees Future in Asia With Joining SCO

ISTANBUL — Frustrated in its attempt to join the European Union, NATO-member Turkey last week signed up as a partner with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the security bloc dominated by China and Russia that includes the Central Asian states. But, Ankara still has major differences with China and Russia that need to be ironed out.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described the signing of the SCO cooperation agreement as an historic day for his country, saying Turkey is the first NATO state to establish such a relationship with the SCO.  “If we look from a Cold War perspective,” he said, “these may seem like mutually exclusive institutions. However, the Cold War has ended. Turkey won’t be a slave of the Cold War logic.”

German euro founder calls for ‘catastrophic’ currency to be broken up

Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called
for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning
that the current course is “leading to disaster”.

“The economic situation is worsening from month to month, and unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt,” he said.

“The Germans have not yet realised that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later,” he said, blaming much of the crisis on Germany’s wage squeeze to gain export share.

Europe Has Become A Totalitarian State

Cyprus is absolutely the template for Europe now. It is just that the template is far worse than what is narrowly imagined.

It is not the small nation of Cyprus nor is it that the specifics of the criminality that was transacted in Cyprus which is any sort of template. This is not the center of the issue. It is what Cyprus means and the horrible implications of what took place. 

I cannot issue a stern enough warning here. No words that I write will adequately embrace the transgression that has taken place in Cyprus. Any thought that you have that the Cyprus experience is a lone and isolated event that will not be repeated, in some form in the future, is going to be proven wrong.

What happened to the European dream?

The European Union no longer exists, at least not as we know it. And the question is not what will be the form of the new Union, but rather why this Europe, which was the focus of so many of our dreams no longer exists. The answer is simple: today, all of the pillars that served to build and justify the existence of the European Union have collapsed.

Chief among these was the memory of the Second World War. A survey of German secondary school students in the 14-16 age bracket, which was published a little over a year ago, showed that a third of these young people did not know who Hitler was, and 40 per cent were convinced that human rights had been respected to an equal degree by every German government since 1933. This in no way implies that there is a nostalgia for fascism in Germany. No, it simply means that we now have to contend with a generation that has nothing to do with this history. Today the conviction that the EU continues to derive legitimacy from its roots in the war is in an illusion.