Father of the euro fears EU superstate by the back door

The great European project, The United States of Europe, is right around the corner — be it ‘back door’ or through democratic process.

 

Otmar Issing believes Germany would be better off staying in the euro Photo: AFP

 

Professor Otmar Issing has warned against handing over control of tax and spending before a democratic political union has been established

The euro’s founding father has warned that Europe’s latest plan for an EMU-wide finance ministry is a dangerous attempt to smuggle through political union, and breaches the basic tenets of modern democracy.

Professor Otmar Issing, the chief architect of monetary union through its early years, said it would be “dangerous” to transfer control over tax and spending to the EU federal level before full political union has been established first on democratic foundations.

Such a quantum leap in the constitutional structure of Europe – effectively the creation of an EU superstate, with a parliament comparable in power to the US Congress – is unthinkable in the current political atmosphere.

Collapse of Greece is Part of German Plan to Change Eurozone – Varoufakis

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has an ambitious plan to change the European Monetary Union and the collapse of Greece was part of it, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis wrote in an article.

EU Exit Will Now Be “Threat To Those Who Don’t Behave The German Way,” BofA Says

While the Greek “compromise” deal may have averted an outright economic collapse in Greece in the short-term (although one would be hard pressed to describe the current situation on the ground as anything other than a depression) and may for the time being allow EU officials to cling to the notion that the euro is “indissoluble,” the fraught negotiations that took place over the weekend in Brussels laid bare for all to see the unbridgeable gap between EMU nations.

If there were any doubts about who runs the show, German FinMin Wolfgang Schaeuble erased them on Sunday by pushing through a term sheet that effectively strips Greece of its sovereignty on the way to seizing state assets and relegates its people to perpetual debt servitude. If this is the meaning of a currency “union”, it’s not entirely clear why any state would want to be a part of it.

A Greek exit will establish Berlin as the new geopolitical player to reckon with

Every day, people are becoming more awake and seeing it for what it is, yet articles like these still miss the bigger picture: The Euro was designed to fail.

It was known this many countries with too many differing economies and cultures could not get along in one basket in the first place — nobody is this dumb. Therefore, let them in even if they don’t qualify anyways and watch a crisis unfold. Create the crisis, break the countries and provide the pre-determined solution that shapes them into the United States of Europe mold you longed for. The Fourth Reich has landed and all roads lead to Berlin. Within the next few years expect Washington to be pushed out of Europe, politically and militarily. This would also be the end of NATO, which will be replaced by a European Army. Politically and economically, Germany wants its continent back.

 

If European Monetary Authorities could prevent a Lehman moment in case Greece has to leave the Euro we expect the euro to surge the coming months. Greece exiting the European Monetary Union will establish Berlin as the new geopolitical player to reckon with.

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• Greece exiting the EMU will be a victory for German elite and establish German dominance in the European Monetary Union.
• A Greek exit will expose the relative weakness of the BRICS Bank versus European financial institutions like the EMU. The BRICS Bank fund will not be sufficient to rescue Greece. A BRICS bank not being able to help Greece will expose its relative weakness in comparison to the European financial institutions. It will be clear that only the ECB and the EMU have the financial capacity to solve problems of the magnitude of Greece.

EU warns of Armageddon if Greek voters reject terms

“Without new money, salaries won’t be paid, the health system will stop functioning, the power network and public transport will break down,” warns President of European Parliament

Greece risks a collapse of the medical system, power black-outs, and an import blockade, if the Greek people reject creditor demands in a make-or-break referendum tomorrow, the EU’s highest elected official has warned.

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said the EU authorities may have to prepare emergency loans to keep basic public services functioning and to prevent the debt-stricken country spinning out of control next week.

“Without new money, salaries won’t be paid, the health system will stop functioning, the power network and public transport will break down, and they won’t be able to import vital goods because nobody can pay,” he said.

Why the Euro Is Heading for an Earthshaking Crisis

Because the article has so many good points, a majority of it will be left up, as has been done here in rare cases.

Courtesy of The Trumpet:

 

And why the euro is incompatible with democracy

European leaders are in a panic. Greece’s banks are closed. Experts warn the global economy is under threat. And it all hinges on Greece’s place in the eurozone.

Fears of rioting and mass panic, dormant since the Greek fires of 2008, are rising again.

It shows just how fragile the eurozone is. In April 2014, the Greek government was able to borrow money on the normal financial markets at the relatively high, but not appalling, rate of 4.95 percent. As far as lenders were concerned, the euro crisis was over. Greece was no longer dangling over the edge of a precipice. Instead, it could borrow money just like any other normal nation.

“The Collateral Has Run Out” – JPM Warns ECB Will Use Greek “Nuclear Option” If No Monday Deal

In Athens on Friday, the ATM lines began to form in earnest.

Although estimates vary, Kathimerini, citing Greek banking officials, puts Friday’s deposit outflow at €1.7 billion. If true, that would mark a serious step up from the estimated €1.2 billion that left the banking system on Thursday and serves to underscore just how critical the ECB’s emergency decision to lift the ELA cap by €1.8 billion truly was. “Banks expressed relief following Frankfurt’s reaction, acknowledging that Friday could have ended very differently without a new cash injection,” the Greek daily said, adding that the ECB’s expectation of “a positive outcome in Monday’s meeting”, suggests ELA could be frozen if the stalemate remains after leaders convene the ad hoc summit. Bloomberg has more on the summit:

Dorothea Lambros stood outside an HSBC branch in central Athens on Friday afternoon, an envelope stuffed with cash in one hand and a 38,000 euro ($43,000) cashier’s check in the other.

She was a few minutes too late to make her deposit at the London-based bank. She was too scared to take her life-savings back to her Greek bank. She worried it wouldn’t survive the weekend.

“I don’t know what happens on Monday,” said Lambros, a 58-year-old government employee.

Defiant Greeks force Europe to negotiating table as time-bomb ticks

EMU creditors have Greece’s Alexis Tsipras by the scruff of the neck, but he has a knife to their throats

Europe’s creditor powers have started to wobble. Berlin, Paris and Brussels are coming to the grim conclusion that Greece may not capitulate as expected, and time is running out fast.

Athens is now warning openly that the “moment of truth” will come on June 5, when the country faces default on a €300m payment to the International Monetary Fund, unless the EU authorities hand over the next tranche of bail-out cash.

ECB risks crippling political damage if Greece forced to default

If Greece is forced out of the euro in acrimonious circumstances – a 50/50 risk given the continued refusal of the creditor core to acknowledge their own guilt and strategic errors – the country will not only default on its EMU rescue packages, but also on its “Target2” liabilities to the European Central Bank.

In normal times, Target2 adjustments are routine and self-correcting. They occur automatically as money is shifted around the currency bloc. The US Federal Reserve has a similar internal system to square books across regions. They turn nuclear if monetary union breaks up.

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A Greek default – unavoidable in a Grexit scenario – would crystallize these losses. The German people would discover instantly that a large sum of money committed without their knowledge and without a vote in the Bundestag had vanished.

Germany faces impossible choice as Greek austerity revolt spreads

As oft said here, it was known in advance the Euro would fail. You don’t make mistakes affecting millions of people and entire countries like this by accident. The Fourth Reich has landed and within time will have its predetermined solution to the engineered crisis.

 

EU elites who forced a currency experiment on countries not ready for it have only themselves to blame

The political centre across southern Europe is disintegrating. Establishment parties of centre-left and centre-right – La Casta, as they say in Spain – have successively immolated themselves enforcing EMU debt-deflation.

Spain’s neo-Bolivarian Podemos party refuses to fade. It has endured crippling internal rifts. It has shrugged off hostile press coverage over financial ties to Venezuela. Nothing sticks.

EU has squandered last chance to make euro workable, warns Ex-Bundesbank chief

Further integration is always the answer Germany gives as it continues to takeover Europe piece by piece. It portrays continual integration as key to survival, but then chips away at the national sovereignty of other nations in exchange for being part of this ‘elite club’. If they choose not to continue membership, then it will lead to full-blown civil unrest as receiving no aide will cause economies to go into full depression. This doesn’t bode good for member states such as Greece where the political leadership wants to hold on to its power, yet ironically gives it up at the expense of citizens.

It’s quite clear by now that the ‘European Project’ was never going to work, but that was the intention from conception. In the end, guess who’s back? Germany. All roads lead back to Berlin and the Fourth Reich is here with a smarter approach.

 

The former head of the German Bundesbank has warned that the European Central Bank (ECB) will not succeed in raising inflation for years to come and is almost powerless to revive the fortunes of the eurozone on its own.

Axel Weber, now chairman of UBS and widely-regarded as Europe’s most influential private banker, said Europe’s leaders had squandered the chance to rebuild the eurozone’s foundations when the going was good and markets were calm.

In an ominous sign, he appeared to lose confidence in the euro altogether, cautioning that monetary union will be tested repeatedly and may not survive unless EMU leaders agree to bite the bullet on full fiscal and political union.

World braces as deflation tremors hit Eurozone bond markets

‘The forces of monetary deflation are gathering. Global liquidity is declining and central banks are not doing enough, either in the West or the East to offset the decline,’ warns CrossBorderCapital

Eurozone fears have returned with a vengeance as deepening deflation across Southern Europe and fresh turmoil in Greece set off wild moves on the European bond markets.

Yields on 10-year German Bund plummeted to an all-time low on 0.72pc on flight to safety, touching levels never seen before in any major European country in recorded history. “This is not going to stop until the European Central Bank steps up to the plate. If it does not act in the next few days, this could snowball,” said Andrew Roberts, credit chief at RBS.

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Calls for action came as James Bullard, the once hawkish head of St Louis Federal Reserve, said the Fed may have to back-track on bond tapering in the US, hinting at yet further QE to fight deflationary pressures and shore up defences against a eurozone relapse.

France rebels against austerity as Europe’s recovery collapses

France’s finance minister sends tremors through European capitals with a defiant warning that his country would no longer try to meet deficit targets

Eurozone strategy is in tatters after economic recovery ground to a halt across the region and France demanded a radical shift in policy, warning that austerity overkill is driving Europe into a depression.

Growth slumped to zero in the second quarter, with Germany contracting by 0.2pc and France once again stuck at zero. Italy is already in a triple-dip recession.

Yields on 10-year German Bunds fell below 1pc for the first time in history, beneath levels seen during the most extreme episodes of deflation in the 19th century. French yields also touch record lows. Much of the eurozone is replicating the pattern seen in Japan as it slid into a deflation trap in the late 1990s.

It is unclear whether tumbling yields are primarily a warning signal of stagnation ahead or a bet by investors that the European Central Bank will soon be forced to launch quantitative easing, buying government bonds across the board.

Recovery stalls in Europe as austerity grinds on

Growth wilted across large swathes of the eurozone in the first quarter, dashing hopes of durable recovery and prompting demands for shock and awe action from the European Central Bank.

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Bourses tumbled across Europe, with Milan’s MIB index down 3.6pc, led by a plunge in bank stocks. Madrid’s IBEX was off 2.35pc and France’s CAC fell 1.25pc.

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Prof Charles Wyplosz, from Geneva University, said the relapse should not be a surprise. “Austerity has been reduced but it has not stopped. Countries are still being told to reduce their deficits and they should not be doing that right now,” he said.

Italy’s president fears violent insurrection in 2014 but offers no remedy

Events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on.

Those living on the margins are being drawn into “indiscriminate and violent protest, a sterile lurch towards total opposition”.

His latest speech is a veritable Jeremiad. Thousands of companies are on the “brink of collapse”. Great masses of the working people are on the dole or at risk of losing their jobs. Very high rates of youth unemployment (41pc) are leading to dangerous alienation.