Tweet The take-up by the eurozone banks of €489bn from the European Central Bank (ECB) ought to be good news as a sign that the ECB is now at last, having refused to do so in 2011, ensuring eurozone banks can fund themselves adequately next year. The ECB believes they will need €720bn of loans [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Eurozone’
European Union: gamechanger for the left
Dec 12th, 2011 by David Osler.Tweet I’m sure Milton Friedman would have appreciated the irony. The neoclassical economic prescriptions developed by him and others in the name of competition and freedom of choice is about to be awarded a continent-wide ideological monopoly, by force of state decree. If Merkel and Sarkozy get the new treaty they need to save the [...]
The EU summit is another failure for austerity
Dec 12th, 2011 by Michael Burke.Tweet The outcome of the EU summit has widely been hailed in the British media as a triumph for David Cameron. It is rare that a complete rupture and isolation in multi-party negotiations is regarded as a triumph – but this is a function of the dominant and still growing xenophobia of the British press. [...]
Is this the end of the European project: German hegemony in an age of austerity?
Dec 12th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Tweet The European project began at the end of the World’s most devastating war because Germany (with the support of France) wanted to put its past behind it. Now an age of austerity is being inscribed into the foundation of a European super-state because Germany (with the support of France) wishes to put its future first. [...]
Cameron marginalises Britain for no gain at all
Dec 11th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Tweet It is almost surreal that Cameron exercised his veto when (i) there had been no serious or detailed examination of EU financial services regulation at the point when he did so, (ii) financial services regulation was not a central issue on the agenda at all, and (iii) there had been no discussion on the [...]
Standard & Poor’s is right, ‘austerity’ has no economic clothes
Dec 8th, 2011 by Ann Pettifor.Tweet So European politicians want to shoot the messengers? Sure, ratings agencies haven’t always been reliable, decent or honest. And sure, like Eurozone politicians Standard & Poor is just following events, not shaping them. But on this occasion S&P’s analysis, if not their solution, is right. Credit Crunch 2.0 is fast accelerating and squeezing life out [...]
Not much grand about this EU bargain
Dec 8th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Tweet The praeternatural calm that has descended on the financial markets after Merkel-Sarkozy declared a ‘comprehensive’ bargain on Monday is unlikely to survive the Friday summit as the details sink in about what is involved, and even more about what is left out. Meanwhile back in Britain there is sound and fury from the Tory [...]
The cost of Frau Merkel
Dec 5th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Tweet There are basically two ways to resolve the Euro conundrum. One is the provision of Eurobonds, jointly provided by all the Eurozone members, to underwrite the debts of those Euro countries that get into big trouble through lack of competitiveness or for any other reason. The problem with this is that the Germans, now [...]
The temporary popularity of Euroausterity
Nov 22nd, 2011 by David Osler.Tweet Just months ago, Spain was convulsed by the M-15 mass movement, which mobilised hundreds of thousands of protestors against the appalling privations facing the nation’s youth. Last weekend, it returned a centre-right government. That’s not the whole story. The hard left alliance Izquierda Unida doubled its vote to poll 7%, although that is still [...]
The terrifying intentions of Eurozone technocrats
Nov 22nd, 2011 by Ann Pettifor.Tweet As the world economy fails to recover, and instead threatens to implode we are now witness to political and social developments in Europe that are deeply alarming, even if inevitable. It is important that we understand and prepare for the implications of recent events. The good news is that both politicians and official policymakers [...]
