Free Republic

History has shown that when a government wants to solidify its power, it has to turn its subjects into taxpayers. The Roman Empire demanded high tribute payments from every tribe it had newly conquered. And the United States developed from a commonwealth to a federal state when, in the 18th century, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton achieved uniform duties and taxes for the entire union, initially on whiskey, because it was so lucrative. Politicians in the eurozone are now seeking to emulate the historic model from the early years of the United States. The unnerving bargaining over the latest Greece bailout...

Through all the haggling and hair-pulling in the past months over more austerity, fewer creditors getting their money, and a dreaded “Grexit”—a scenario in which Greece would leave Europe’s currency union—at least four prominent economists in three major American publications have casually and quietly suggested there may be a third way: A German exit. That is, Germany should exit the euro, and clear the way for countries in the south of Europe—notably, Greece, Italy, Spain, and probably Portugal—to reconcile their debt with a greatly depreciated currency and maybe finally get a handle on their economies. The latest thinker to suggest...

Nearly 25 years after Margaret Thatcher’s keep-Great-Britain-free-from-one-government-one-currency-one-Europe sentiment helped force her resignation, the Iron Lady has been proved right yet again. Most prime ministers are generally forced out of office over failure, like failure to win an election or failure to effectively lead their government. But Mrs. Thatcher won all three of her elections and effectively led the governments she formed. It was not failure that helped do her in, but the fear of her peers that she might win another election and effectively keep England out of the experiment to unify Europe governments. One of her convictions that got...

The situation in Athens seems to have calmed down, but former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke thinks Europe has an even bigger issue to worry about: Germany. In a blog post on Friday, Bernanke wrote that the failure of the eurozone as a whole is very much related to the "highly asymmetric outcomes" among member nations. In other words, Bernanke is attributing Europe's woes to the fact that countries like Germany are benefiting at the expense of the monetary union's weaker members, like Greece, Spain, and Italy. Bernanke points to unemployment rates as a clear sign of the disparity in...

And probably leave the Eurozone too. If you want to know what happens when a nation absolutely refuses to reform its insane spending - even when it finds itself at the brink of fiscal collapse - I give you Greece. Not that you want it. The International Monetary Fund doesn’t. The Eurozone doesn’t. The Greek banking system is now shut down, and we’re a day away from Greece defaulting on its IMF bailout loans. When the Europeans presented Greece with an ultimatum - reform the spending now or be cut off - the most the Greek politicians were willing to...

BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras summoned an urgent meeting of his cabinet on Friday after euro zone partners warned Athens it had until the weekend to accept a cash-for-reform deal or plunge towards default. Despite angry rhetoric and accusations of "blackmail", negotiations were continuing in Brussels to find a last-ditch compromise to keep Greece in the euro zone to avoid a political train-wreck, economic chaos and financial market disruption. ... He said there was no foundation for the increasing speculation in Athens that Tsipras could call snap elections if a deal cannot be reached. ... In a...

German and French politicians are calling for a quantum leap in how the EU’s single currency is run, proposing an embryo eurozone treasury equipped with a eurozone finance chief, single budget, tax-raising powers, pooled debt liabilities, a common monetary fund, and separate organization and representation within the European parliament. They also propose that all teenagers in the EU be given the chance to spend a subsidized six months in another European country. In an article published in the Guardian and other European newspapers, Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s social democratic leader and vice-chancellor in Angela Merkel’s coalition government, and Emmanuel Macron, France’s...

Germany and France have agreed to forge closer Eurozone ties without reopening the bloc’s treaties, a report in France has claimed. The move is seemingly designed to undermine UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s attempts to renegotiate his country’s ties to the EU. France’s Le Monde newspaper revealed this week that French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed to forge a tighter political union among those countries in the single currency. […] It comes as the UK Prime Minister is due in Paris and Berlin later this week as part of his charm offensive to convince the...

Reports claimed the government was prepared to reduce at least three different VAT rates to one, and limit exemptions. Prime minister Alexis Tsipras had opposed the move, claiming that the change would hit poorer people. The country will also press-on with privatisations it had also previously vowed to block, according to reports. However, Syriza has said that demands by creditors to reverse an increase in the minimum wage and cut pensions remain "red lines" that the leftist leadership is unwilling to cross... Mr Sakellaridis said that failure to reach an "honest compromise" with creditors would most likely lead to a...

On Thursday morning, we took an in-depth look at what the progression of events is likely to be in the event a cash-strapped, negotiation-weary Greece finally, for lack of will or for lack of options, fails to scrape together enough cash to pay its creditors. As BofAML notes, a missed IMF payment and/or failure to make interest payments to either the ECB or private creditors over the coming weeks would likely lead to default within 30 days, at which point "mark-to-fantasy" becomes mark-to-market and then "mark-to-default" in very short order. Although Greek officials came out midday with a “categorical” denial...

In an interview with Spiegel, celebrated French economist Thomas Piketty speaks about Alexis Tsipras’ election victory in Greece, Europe’s inability to fix its financial woes and what EU leaders can learn from the United States. […] “We may have a common currency for 19 countries, but each of these countries has a different tax system, and fiscal policy was never harmonized in Europe. It can’t work. In creating the eurozone, we have created a monster.” […] “We need a fiscal union and a harmonization of budgets. We need a common debt repayment fund for the eurozone, like the one proposed...

Brussels- European leaders agreed on Friday to extend Greece's bailout for four months after weeks of terse negotiations.

Once again the crisis in Greece is threatening the unity of the entire euro zone. Many analysts are asking what must be done to restore viability to the Union's weakest link. Lost in this discussion is that modern Greece, formed in 1830, has never really been required to stand on its own. Generations of support from abroad, typically given for strategic reasons, has created a false sense of prosperity in the country and has prevented the Greeks from accepting the realities of their current situation. When Greece fought for its independence against the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s, the struggle...

<p>Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed Greek Diplomatic Offensive Is Failing.</p> <p>Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc in parliament has agreed not to give in to any “bad compromise that “defacto adds up to a debt writedown,” Hans-Peter Friedrich, a deputy leader of the caucus, said in an interview today.</p>

In 2014 there were six eurozone countries whose debt-to-GDP ratio went over the 100% threshold. Two additional countries will pass that barrier in 2015. The Maastricht Treaty on which the euro was founded was designed to keep "sound fiscal policies", with debt limited to 60% of GDP (not 100%), and annual deficits no greater than 3% of GDP." Every country in the eurozone, including Germany, has been in violation of those rules. Let's take a look at the biggest violators as reported by El Economista. Data is from second quarter of 2014 (undoubtedly worse now). 100% Debt-to-GDP List Italy 133%Portugal...

The eurozone experienced negative inflation for the second month in a row, according to a flash estimate published today (30 January) by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office. Inflation is expected to be at −0.6%, with consumer prices falling further than economists had forecast. The fall represents the biggest decline in prices in the history of the euro. […] The drop was driven by the fall in energy prices (−8.9%, compared with −6.3% in December). […] The deflationary spiral comes as Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), is trying to tackle deflation with a policy of...

The European Union’s executive Commission said Monday that membership in the euro bloc is “irrevocable” but left it open to what extent Greece could renegotiate the terms after elections on Jan. 25. Greece’s left-wing Syriza party leads the polls ahead of the elections and is in favor of changing the conditions of the country’s international bailout deal. That would likely anger the rest of the eurozone, which has given Athens the bulk of the rescue loans. […] EU spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said Monday that if the Greek elections call for a need to reconsider the conditions of Athens’ membership within...

It did not take long. The game is very much in play. Greek voters are being bombarded with warnings about what is at stake when they go to the polls on 25 January. There is little that is coded in these messages. When a country has been bailed out to the tune of €240bn (£187bn; $286bn) there is no such thing as non-interference in Greece's internal politics. Most of the European political establishment does not want Greece to elect the radical left party Syriza led by Alexis Tsipras. The party is currently narrowly ahead in the polls. Mr Tsipras is...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is prepared to let Greece leave the eurozone if Greeks elect a government that jettisons the country’s current austerity course, according to German media reports. The report in the Der Spiegel daily, which cited sources close to the German government, comes as polls show a radical leftist party leading the field three weeks ahead of a snap election in Greece. The Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras has pledged to reverse reforms imposed by Greece’s international creditors and renegotiate its bailout deal. …

Lithuania joined the euro zone at the stroke of midnight on Thursday, hoping to anchor itself in Europe as its former master Russia flexes its military muscle in the region. The first Soviet republic to declare independence, in 1990, Lithuania is the last of the three Baltic states to join the currency union and will be the last country to do so for the foreseeable future, with remaining European Union members at least two years, and probably much more, away. "Myself, and I think, many of you feel sad that (Lithuania's currency) the litas, which has served us well for...