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Post by ray51 on Jun 8, 2011 11:10:26 GMT 1
If that happens , when the dust settles and the current and future euphoria dies down , many will see that this was not such a big deal ; and that the expectations of some rapid improvements , courtesy of the EU , were grossly exxegerated ; and who knows , whether the expected benefits of it will outweigh the many added costs and complications ? Many in the EU are making all sorts of U-turns , the metric laws are not anymore enforced in the U.K. , lots of countries want Schengen put on hold , in rational Finland you now have a very strong anti-EU movement etc .; In any case , I expect that , with or without the EU , the things remain much the same , for most ( look at Hungary , Rumania , Bulgaria , Latvia , Lithuania , Estonia , Malta , Greece , Portugal and any number of others ) i.e. Slovenes were always better off than Croats , under any system ; the Austrians always are better off than the Slovenes , EU or not ; the Swiss ( not EU ) are better off than the Austrians ...and so on . In U.K. , we have the similar : the deluded Scots scream blue murder about separation ( as if they could afford it ? ) , the Wales will always be green , Northern Ireland I don't even wish to start on and England always has some wonderful and some truly horrible parts , EU or not EU . And here in Belgium , the birthplace and the Capital of EU ? The arrogant , affluent Flemish threaten to cut off ( yeah , why not cut off your nose to spite your face and also lose 30-35% of your business ? ) ; Bruxelles booms on overpaid EU-bureacrats' extravagances , which the natives can't afford ; the Wallonians have already been assured that if the country is split , they can all join France in the Departement du Nord-Pas de Calais , until their own new Dept. de Wallonie is formed and administratively organised... The more things change , the more they remain the same ?
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Post by Madgolfer on Jun 8, 2011 14:16:53 GMT 1
Are the "differences" between countries not a large part of the attraction?
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Post by ray51 on Jun 8, 2011 14:40:07 GMT 1
Not so sure , anymore ! I admit that , for some 15 years , I was a great supporter and loyalist of the EU and of the common currency ; all my friends in England and Scandinavia thought I was a raving mad lunatic ( looking back , probably they were right , I was either mad or a stupid idealist and also ill-informed ) . In recent years , on every corner of NW Europe you can find someone who'll explain that that what used to seem a good idea at that time ( The Club of Rome , Maastricht , Euro-money etc ) has degenerated or been hi-jacked , in favour of hugely rich unelected political elites and the hordes of their overpaid pen-pushers . And how damaging the Euro-currency has been , to almost everyone , but the Germans , who fight tooth-and-nail to keep it at maximum .
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Post by Madgolfer on Nov 17, 2011 14:56:07 GMT 1
Stage one completed today. Now we just have to see what "the people" say after the elections........... The European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday adopted two documents important for Croatia -- a draft resolution on the Accession Treaty and a draft resolution on Croatia's EU membership application. The draft resolution providing for the consent to the signing of the Croatia-EU Accession Treaty was passed with 63 votes for, one vote against and one abstention at a meeting in Strasbourg. The resolution on Croatia's EU membership application, which is a legally non-binding document, was passed with 59 votes for, two votes against and three abstentions. This document welcomes the completion of the accession negotiations between Croatia and the European Union, underscoring that the job is not over yet and calling on Croatia to carry on with reforms. Both documents will be on the agenda of the European Parliament's plenary session on 30 November or 1 December. After the European Parliament gives its consent, the Accession Treaty is to be approved by the Council of the EU, which meets on December 5. The Treaty is to be signed on December 9, before a summit of the heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states when Croatia will for the first time attend a meeting of the European Council as an observer. Cant seem to find which countries voted against and who abstened.
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Post by crojoe on Nov 17, 2011 15:45:51 GMT 1
Stage one completed today. Now we just have to see what "the people" say after the elections........... The European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday adopted two documents important for Croatia -- a draft resolution on the Accession Treaty and a draft resolution on Croatia's EU membership application. The draft resolution providing for the consent to the signing of the Croatia-EU Accession Treaty was passed with 63 votes for, one vote against and one abstention at a meeting in Strasbourg. The resolution on Croatia's EU membership application, which is a legally non-binding document, was passed with 59 votes for, two votes against and three abstentions. This document welcomes the completion of the accession negotiations between Croatia and the European Union, underscoring that the job is not over yet and calling on Croatia to carry on with reforms. Both documents will be on the agenda of the European Parliament's plenary session on 30 November or 1 December. After the European Parliament gives its consent, the Accession Treaty is to be approved by the Council of the EU, which meets on December 5. The Treaty is to be signed on December 9, before a summit of the heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states when Croatia will for the first time attend a meeting of the European Council as an observer. Cant seem to find which countries voted against and who abstened. Probably those d**n English again. Hehe!
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Post by Madgolfer on Dec 9, 2011 9:30:00 GMT 1
He He He.... ;D
We wait years for the day that Croatia finally gets officially accepted into the EU and its the same day that the UK government tries to collapse it.
You couldn't have written the script for this.... ;D
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Post by ray51 on Dec 9, 2011 11:43:26 GMT 1
Yeah , the historic occassion , on the day HR signs acceptance of voluntarily surrendering to EU-slavery , as dictated from Berlin and put into written legislation by their spineless deceitful Macchiavellian collaborators in Bruxelles , Paris , Rome and elsewhere , those shameless traitors and quislings , all serving their individual interests first ! Just like in the WWII , there remained today also only one U.K. , proudly and firmly standing against the Axe of the Forces of Evil and the Berlin/Clichy/Madrid/Zagreb/Rome "friendships" . Well done to Tories , on the historic veto and the immediate temporary sinking of the Euro to below 1,33 to US$ !
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Post by Carol on Dec 9, 2011 11:47:59 GMT 1
is there going to be a referendum in Croatia?
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Post by ray51 on Dec 9, 2011 11:55:53 GMT 1
What do you know ? In keeping with the EU's blatantly anti-democratic positions , the new Gov't has already postponed the promised referendum ; there are 2 options remaining , namely : - cancel it alltogether ( preferred option to the powers in Berlin and Bruxelles ! ) or - put enough new money in a propaganda Campaign for a "YES" , at any cost/s , now and 4ever !
P.S. A long-standing ( but : so True ! ) joke about most of the African "democracies" : One Man = one Vote , Once ! ( ( And therefter , never again , the Gov't will remain in power for life , or longer , unless a successful war is waged ! )
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Post by Kaskader on Dec 9, 2011 15:43:22 GMT 1
Even if Europe is looking primarily after their own interests I doubt they can do more damage do Croatia than Croatian politicians can do. I'd rather have Rompoy or Pompoy have his say than Kerum and the likes.
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Post by Kaskader on Dec 9, 2011 16:25:51 GMT 1
Eurozone crisis fundamentally is not in any shape or form worse than the US one. For US it is, of course, welcome distraction and profitable as the fear of euro-break up drives the sale of US bonds, not because US bonds are any better, but because at the moment everyone is afraid to buy any other bond.
Alone of all the nations ostensibly “targeted” by the IMF’s new PLL fund, the US government is the only one which has made no moves whatsoever towards imposing “austerity” of any type on its borrowing and spending. On August 1, 2011, the US Treasury’s official “debt to the penny” stood at $US 14.294 TRILLION. On November 15, the “debt to the penny” breached the $US 15 TRILLION level. Even on an official level, this debt is rising at a rate of $US 200 Billion a month. The only way it can still be “absorbed” is if the rest of the world is too scared to buy anything else. And right now, the rest of the world IS too scared to buy anything else. That is a VERY risky basis on which to base a fiscal policy. It is also one which cannot last. The US “powers that be” know this. So do the ones in Europe.
Within hours of the refusal by the German version of the US Treasury’s “primary bond dealers” to buy all the “bunds” on offer, headlines splashed across the global mainstream media had a common theme. The one in the UK Telegraph newspaper is typical: “Death of a currency as Eurogeddon approaches!” The “solution” being screamed for - both globally and by the German opposition and coalition parties in the Bundesrat is crystal clear. “If we can’t borrow our way out of trouble we’ll have to print our way out!” Almost alone amongst the financial and political potentates of the world, the German Chancellor, a handful of her ministers and the new ECB boss are pointing out that this is not a “solution” to anything. Everything in both economic theory and history backs them up. But they are spitting against a hurricane of unleashed terror from those who have bet the global system on the ridiculous belief that an asset which is somebody else’s liability is “risk free”. If the debt is defaulted upon, the “asset” is gone. If the debt is allowed to be valued on the “market”, the markdown of the debt equals the markdown of the “asset”. It is as simple as that and no amount of yelling, screaming or appealing to orthodox policy can change the fact.
Thus far, the German government has refused to print and has rebuffed attempts to go on pretending that sovereign debt issued by any nation - including its own - is risk free. Since the BoE and the Fed started monetising their government’s debt nearly three years ago, this pretense has been the bulwark standing between the global system and a financial meltdown. The problem for the rest of the world’s financial powers that be is that they have resolutely refused to countenance any discussion of an alternative to government debt-backed “money”. The problem for Ms Merkel, the dwindling number of other European heads of state who still support her and the ECB is that they too have presented no alternative to the debt backed Euro. The world’s financial potentates have printed themselves into an ever shrinking corner while locking their exit behind them. They don’t dare admit the magnitude of their failure. The establishment in the US - and both political parties - know full well that if Europe goes, they will follow. There is no difference whatsoever between the debt paper created by the US Treasury and the debt paper created by the Euro nations or any other nation in the world. The US government bought time with their “super committee”. That time is up. The world’s bankers and governments - through the “markets” - have put gargantuan pressure on Germany to play the game. The time for that is all but up too. The final fallback is for the IMF to “take over”. The contingency plans have just been announced. And the Iran sanctions reported at the beginning of this section? That is the final contingency. When any government, but in particular a government which runs an empire, is facing a political and/or financial problem too big to be hidden any longer, they always reach for the same distraction. WAR!
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Post by ray51 on Dec 9, 2011 19:07:53 GMT 1
Finally , a truly informative and valuable contribution , though it might just be ever-so-slightly above the comprehending capacities of some EUro-enthusiasts on this illustrious Forum ( ? ) . In more simple terms : The Dream has gone Busted , in more ways than one , sooner or later there'll have to come the time to admit it and pay the piper , one way or another , the pain notwithstanding ! Fortunately , I am at 7th age of my life and thus the lack of perpectives and hope for EU and the U.S. is/are among my lesser priorities ! Woe betide the younger , better , more deserving ones amongst us !
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Post by Kaskader on Dec 9, 2011 19:39:09 GMT 1
WHAT'S COOKING INSIDE THE UNITED STATES
COULD YOU WRITE A CHECK FOR $US 15 (AND A BIT) TRILLION?
On the US Treasury’s website, there is an obligatory Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. The funniest thing on it - besides the total for US Treasury “funded” debt - is the following: “How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?” “There are two ways for you to make a contribution to reduce the debt: You can make a contribution online either by credit card, checking or savings account at Pay.gov. You can write a check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and in the memo section, notate that it's a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public.” Of course, any of us (assuming we still maintain a checking account) could write a check in the exact amount of the official US Treasury “debt to the penny” as of November 22. No problem there: Pay to the order of: The Unites States Treasury Fifteen Trillion, Forty-Seven Billion, Nine Hundred and Ninety-One Million, Five Hundred and Four Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Nine Dollars and Thirty-Seven Cents. $US 15,047,991,504,929.37 Writing the check would be the easy part. Getting anybody - up to and including the US government - to “honour” it might be a bit more tricky. The entire thing is a farce, of course, forgive us the whimsy. What we wonder is if any Americans actually do send “contributions” or “gifts” into the Treasury.
What Has The US Congress Achieved Lately?: Actually, they have “achieved” a number of things. On November 17, by a nearly three to one margin, the House passed a “continuing spending resolution” bill which will keep the US government operating - until December 16. The Senate passed the bill on the following day, so the government did not hit the end of its latest permission to go on spending money on November 18. Meanwhile, back in the House on November 18, a proposal to amend the Constitution to require a balanced budget was voted down. There was actually a 261 to 165 vote in favour of the proposal, but the count fell 23 votes short of the two-thirds majority necessary to pass it on to the Senate. If the proposal had passed the House it would have had to be passed by the Senate too. If it had done that, it would have had to be ratified by three-quarters of the States. And even if all that had been accomplished, it would not have become “law” until 2017. As it stood before its demise, the proposal stipulated that even if the Constitution had been amended, Congress would still be able to put the budget into deficit by the vote of a simple majority - in the event of a “serious” military conflict. As you know, both sides of politics in the US take the “war on terror” very seriously indeed. There are certainly no plans to end it in the immediate future.
What the US Congress didn’t have to do is to consider any proposals to ease up on their spending. That was shunted off to the “super committee” back in early August. Now that the “super committee” has admitted defeat, the Congress is staring straight at yet another round over the Treasury’s debt limit. That one could conceivably begin before the end of the year but is more likely to be in full swing in early 2012.
Just In Case We Need A War:
No sooner had Mrs Clinton and Mr Geithner appeared together at the State Department to announce tougher Iran sanctions than the US “Defence” department got into the act. The aircraft carrier George HW Bush has been moved from the Straits or Hormuz to the Syrian coast. Syria is an Iranian ally. An invasion there on a pretext of toppling the Assad government would demand Iranian retaliation.
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Post by Kaskader on Dec 9, 2011 19:41:55 GMT 1
INSIDE CHINA
THE BULLS ARE LEAVING THE CHINA SHOP
By the end of next year, the US may or may not have a new president. It will however have a new government, all duly put in place during the vote which takes place (or at least is scheduled to take place) on November 6, 2012. There will be a “vote” taking place next year in China too, but the Chinese people will not be taking part in it. Late in 2012, the central committee of the Chinese Communist party will elect a new head of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC). The successful “candidate” will succeed Hu Jintao as the Chinese head of state. Then, in early 2013, the other officers of the PSC will be up for “re-election”. It must never be forgotten that, regardless of the face it shows - China is a communist dictatorship - the last one standing which matters in the world. What must also never be forgotten is that the Chinese communist government did what the Soviet Union shied away from doing in 1989. While Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of state of the Soviet Union, was refusing panicky pleas from his East German satellite state to send in Russian troops to put down “unrest”, his Chinese counterpart was ordering the military to quell the protests which were taking place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and in most of the other major cities in China. In the Soviet Union, the dictators “blinked” and thereby signed their own political epitaph. In China, the dictators did not blink. Nor have they yet. But - by the way they are reacting to their out of control economy - they are preparing their own political epitaph. The Chinese economy-runners have absorbed all the bad fiscal and financial “habits” of their Western counterparts.
The IMF Has Gotten Very Busy Lately:
It would seem that the debt debacle in Europe and the potential one in the US are not the only reasons for the establishment of the IMF’s new Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL) fund (see the Global Report). In June this year, the IMF conducted its first ever review of the Chinese financial system. On November 15, it released the report. The “core” findings of the report read as follows: “The existing configuration of financial policies fosters high savings, structurally high levels of liquidity and a high risk of capital misallocation and asset bubbles, particularly in real estate.” With the exception of the bit about “high savings”, the report could have been about any “developed” nation in the years leading up to the GFC. But now that the economies in all these nations have crashed and burned, China is about the only nation left which fits this much too late IMF warning. Apparently, the IMF report was prepared in collaboration with the Chinese central bank and the regulator of China’s major commercial banks. This of course means that the Chinese government permitted their financial agencies to go along. It does not, however, mean that the Chinese government is willing to give much credence to the IMF’s findings. The Chinese central bank has raised an “official” eyebrow at the report: “The government’s sway over financial markets has already evolved from direct intervention to asserting influence through regulation of financial companies”. A loose translation would be: “We don’t tell them what to do any more, we just tell them how to do it.” They did not add the: “OR ELSE!”
Same Methods - Same Results:
Western governments manage their economies and markets behind a cloak of carrying out the “will” of the people in a democratic state. The Chinese government pretends that they have substituted a “market” economy for a command economy. But where it counts - in both the West and China - there is little if any difference in the way that the economy is run by the government. The West is printing in an effort to keep its welfare states functioning and its people pacified. China doesn’t have a welfare state. It is printing to keep its economic boom going and its people pacified. China’s government doesn’t have any “unfunded liabilities” - except its hold on dictatorial power.
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Post by Kaskader on Dec 9, 2011 19:44:36 GMT 1
INSIDE THE EUROPEAN UNION
CONTINGENCY PLANS - ON BOTH SIDES OF THE CHANNEL
Amongst the swelling carnage in their bond markets and amongst their governments, the Europeans do manage to get the odd “rebuttal” into play. Such a rebuttal came from the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Mr Michel Barnier, on November 15. Mr Barnier announced that the European Commission (EC) is about to “crack down” on credit ratings agencies. The proposals are to impose “stricter rules” and demand greater “transparency” in explaining their ratings. There is even a proposal that the ratings agencies be liable for making compensation when mistakes occur. As Mr Barnier pointed out, the big three - Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch - account for 95 percent of what he called the global ratings market. Clearly, Mr Barnier and his European Commission associates are not happy about the exclusive attention of the ratings agencies on European sovereign debt and the almost daily downgrades of same that are now the fodder of the global financial press. He says that he wants more “competition” amongst the agencies. What he does not say (but it has been said by many Europeans) is that he wants the ratings agencies to stop downgrading European sovereigns for stated reasons which are equally applicable outside Europe as they are inside Europe. Needless to say, the ratings agencies were not amused by Mr Barnier’s suggestions. Moody’s instantly protested that it would limit the “quality and independence” of the ratings process. Moody’s president went on to say that the European proposals - “reflect an obsession to challenge the ratings process itself and to hold rating agencies responsible for the European debt crisis”. The Europeans - especially those in Germany and the ECB - don’t hold the agencies responsible for the crisis. But they DO hold them responsible for the fact that the markets have been “induced” to focus their attention on Europe and ignore the obvious fact that the debt crisis is global.
Contingency Plans - From Dover To Calais:
On Monday, November 28, a report is scheduled to be published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In it, the OECD will warn of the likelihood of declining “economic growth” on both sides of the English Channel starting in the first calendar quarter of 2102. On the Dover side, the report will predict a very “mild” and short-lived recession. On the Calais side, they will predict a “damaging” recession - because the Europeans are refusing to “address the crisis” - by printing Euros. In the UK, this pending report has reportedly hit the UK Treasury and the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street like a lightning bolt. While “approving” of the present British government’s “austerity” drive, the OECD is reported to be urging a “Plan-B” to ease up on spending cuts. The British government is about to announce a series of steps to do just that. On November 29, the UK Chancellor will announce what is being called his “growth strategy”. The plans will include up to 50 Billion Pounds in new “infrastructure spending”. The government will “encourage” UK pension plans to “invest” in these projects. There is a also a scheme to force British banks to accept “government money” which will be injected into them on the condition that they turn around and lend it to small and medium business. And the Bank of England (BoE) is expected to back it all by increasing their “quantitative easing” next year. As is the case in the US, so it is in the UK. In the face of another looming “recession”, all pretense at paring debts and deficits are being jettisoned. The situation in Europe is, of course, the complete opposite. We do know that banks all over the world are now seriously examining “contingency plans” for what they see as the increasing likelihood of a Euro breakup. We don’t know what the powers that be in Germany and at the ECB have at the back of their filing cabinets. But we do know that they know that the end game for ALL debt-backed currencies is approaching. Do the Europeans have a “radical” alternative? As they say in political circles everywhere - “nothing can be ruled out".
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