Free Republic

George Soros has put the matter nicely at the National Association for Business Economics in New York. If the world could somehow persuade Germany to pull out of EMU, Europe’s never-ending crisis "would disappear in thin air". The residual euro would fall to a level that better reflected economic fundamentals in Southern Europe. Competitiveness would largely be restored at a stroke, without the need for debt-deflation. There would be no further risk of large sovereign defaults. Mr Soros said — as he has many times before — that the current course is pushing euroland into a "lasting depression, and...

Vince Cable has warned that Europe could be plunged into war if the crisis in the eurozone results in the collapse of the currency. The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary said that the potential consequences of the failure of the Euro were "incalculable" and that there was "no automatic guarantee" that the continent would not disintegrate into conflict. … Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Mr. Cable said: "I think we need to take stock that if the eurozone were to unravel in a way that destroyed the European project—and there is a risk that could happen—the consequences would be absolutely...

The International Monetary Fund has demolished the intellectual foundations of Europe's debt crisis strategy. Drastic fiscal tightening in a string of interlinked countries does two to three times more damage than assumed, especially if there is no offsetting monetary stimulus. Pushed beyond the therapeutic dose, it is self-defeating. At a certain point it becomes pain for pain's sake. The error has long been obvious in Greece. The EU-IMF Troika originally said the economy would rebound quickly, growing 1.1pc in 2011, and 2.1pc in 2012, and on from there to sunlit uplands. In fact, Greek GDP contracted by 4.5pc in 2010,...

Large banks, toast. What about U.S. exports ? I hear this from the talking heads. We must be concerned about our exports ! EEEeek ! If Europe "collapses", we won't be able to sell them our goods and services ! Well, here are our top 15 export clients, according to census.gov: Rank Country Exports (Year-to-Date) Percent of Total Exports --- Total, All Countries 1,480.7 100.0% --- Total, Top 15 Countries 1,061.9 71.7% 1 Canada 280.9 19.0% 2 Mexico 197.5 13.3% 3 China 103.9 7.0% 4 Japan 66.2 4.5% 5 United Kingdom 56.0 3.8% 6 Germany 49.1 3.3% 7 Korea, South...

All of a sudden, the talk is of the breakdown, not just of the single currency, but of the parliamentary system on which it rests. Commentators across Europe fret that Spain, which emerged from dictatorship less than 40 years ago, might give up on multi-party politics. Every round of economic figures is worse than the last. The deficit is massively larger than forecast. A bailout of unprecedented size is becoming inevitable, even as the prime minister gives his countrymen a ‘one hundred per cent assurance’ that he won’t apply for one. (He said much the same thing a few days...

'Two-faced' politicians have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy, says Václav Klaus, the veteran Czech statesman. The new push for a European Union federation, complete with its own head of state and army, is the "final phase" of the destruction of democracy and the nation state, the president of the Czech Republic has warned. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Václav Klaus warns that "two-faced" politicians, including the Conservatives, have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy, in a flight from accountability and responsibility to their voters. "We...

anyone thought the bad blood between Germany and the rest of the insolvent proletariat, aka the part of the Eurozone which is out of money (most of it), and which has been now confirmed will be supporting Obama (one wonders what the quid for that particular quo is, although we are certain we will find out as soon as December), complete collapse of the Greek neo-vassal state of the globalist agenda notwithstanding, had gone away, here comes former ECB chief economist Juergen Stark to dispel such illusions. In an interview with Austrian Die Presse, the former banker said what everyone...

Wall street is being occupied. Europe is collapsing in on itself. Around the world, people are consumed by fear and anger, and one question is on everyoneÂ’s lips: Is the financial crisis over, or are we headed towards economic disaster? End of the Road is a 55 minute documentary film that chronicles the global financial collapse. Told in an entertaining and easy to follow style, the film tells the story of how the world came to be in such a state, from the seeds sown after WWII, to the current troubles facing us today, and to the possible future that...

So we wait for the Verfassungsgericht to deliver its verdict of life or death for the euro at 10 AM Wednesday, Karlsruhe time. The German constitutional court is not to be trifled with. Its ruling on the Lisbon Treaty in June 2009 was a thunderous defence of German national sovereignty, the greatest legal shock to the European order since the launch of the Project in 1957. The eight judges fired a cannon shot across the bows of Brussels and the European Court, asserting the supremacy of the German Grundgesetz over EU law as a permanent principle. They reminded those with...

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble questioned on Tuesday how the United States could deal with its high levels of government debt after November's presidential election.

Even as Greece desperately tries to avoid defaulting on its debt, American companies are preparing for what was once unthinkable: that Greece could soon be forced to leave the euro zone. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has looked into filling trucks with cash and sending them over the Greek border so clients can continue to pay local employees and suppliers in the event money is unavailable. Ford has configured its computer systems so they will be able to immediately handle a new Greek currency. No one knows just how broad the shock waves from a Greek exit would be, but...

Spain said Monday it is urgently injecting 4.5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) into Bankia, a state-rescued lender still losing billions of euros. The state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) said its governing board had agreed to pump in the capital "with immediate effect" to restore its balance sheet. Bankia lies at the heart of Spain's financial sector crisis, which led to eurozone members agreeing in June to extend a rescue loan to Madrid of up to 100 billion euros. The FROB said it would inject the money by subscribing to a capital increase by Bankia, stressing that the decision...

Even as Greece desperately tries to avoid defaulting on its debt, American companies are preparing for what was once unthinkable: that Greece could soon be forced to leave the euro zone. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has looked into filling trucks with cash and sending them over the Greek border so clients can continue to pay local employees and suppliers in the event money is unavailable. Ford has configured its computer systems so they will be able to immediately handle a new Greek currency. No one knows just how broad the shock waves from a Greek exit would be, but...

French government to rescue mortgage lender CIF France’s government plans to intervene to rescue Credit Immobilier de France after the struggling mortgage lender was hit by a liquidity crisis following a recent downgrade by credit rating agency Moody’s, Le Figaro newspaper reported Saturday. CIF’s board met Friday night and formally demanded government help, the newspaper said, without naming its sources. The lender, which has about 300 branches throughout France, did not return a phone call seeking comment. The government was not available for comment. As a condition of a state guarantee backing the group, the government demanded the resignation of...

Even as Greece desperately tries to avoid defaulting on its debt, American companies are preparing for what was once unthinkable: that Greece could soon be forced to leave the euro zone. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has looked into filling trucks with cash and sending them over the Greek border so clients can continue to pay local employees and suppliers in the event money is unavailable. Ford has configured its computer systems so they will be able to immediately handle a new Greek currency. No one knows just how broad the shock waves from a Greek exit would be, but...

It is bad, of course. More than three years with more than a (rather generously calculated) eight percent unemployment rate is unacceptable and egregious. But things can still stand to get a whole lot worse — and they will, if we continue to follow the proffered example of debt accumulation that Europe has laid out for us. Bloomberg reports: Euro-area unemployment rose to a record and inflation quickened more than economists forecast as rising energy costs threaten to deepen the economic slump.The jobless rate in the economy of the 17 nations using the euro was 11.3 percent in July, the...

Market News International is reporting that the German Finance Ministry may ask Greece to exit the euro "temporarily" while it straightens out its finances. From MNI, citing unnamed "senior eurozone officials" as sources: The officials said that in the view of German Finance Ministry officials mulling the plan, it is now the most likely scenario. But it is not a done deal. There is strong opposition to such a plan among some key European officials, and no decision is likely at least until the end of the year. “It is another working scenario which is not new but has emerged...

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Germany’s director at the European Central Bank has thrown his weight behind mass purchases of Spanish and Italian debt to prevent the disintegration of the euro, marking a crucial turning point in the eurozone debt crisis. “A currency can only be stable if its future existence is not in doubt,” said Jörg Asmussen, the powerful German member of the ECB’s executive board. He signalled full backing for the bond rescue plan of ECB chief Mario Draghi, brushing aside warnings from the German Bundesbank that large-scale purchases would amount to debt monetisation and a back-door fiscal rescue of insolvent states in...

Lord Rothschild has taken a near-£130m bet against the euro as fears continue to grow that the single currency will break up. The member of the banking dynasty has taken the position through RIT Capital Partners, the £1.9bn investment trust of which he is executive chairman. The fact that the former investment banker, a senior member of the Rothschild family, has taken such a view will be seen as a further negative for the currency. The latest omen follows news in The Daily Telegraph late last week that the government of Finland is already preparing for the euro’s break-up. RIT,...