Posted on 12/12/2011 1:17:39 PM PST by Qbert
Time to let the whole thing slither down the sewer of history. First of all it is more and more clear that Europe should have let Greece default and instead of pumping bank money via Greece, they should simply have shored up those banks that would take losses.
The banks would still take a haircut, but come out on the other side w/o Greece.
Naturally this would remove Greece from the Eurozone and it would have to use the Euro or the US $ (without policy control over them) or renew its own currency.
Secondly, setting up an emergency fund is akin to a field of dreams Build it and they will come to dip into it. Instead, each country should build its own emergency funds, not depend on other countries.
Thirdly, you cannot trust other countries, esp. those in the south, to be fiscally responsible.
(Excerpt) Read more at ireport.cnn.com ...
“None of their neighbors are mooches.”
Well, that’s good to hear- I’m sure the austerity measures will be welcomed with open arms then...
You could have refrained from using a nonsequitur. The austerity measures are a power play to gain control over those countries and nothing else besides. If you think that Germany was doing this with an eye towards allowing those countries to remain independent, think again. One country couldn’t keep it secret that the Bundestag was reviewing their national budget before its home government got to see it; how many more countries are successfully keeping that secret?
“If you think that Germany was doing this with an eye towards allowing those countries to remain independent, think again.”
No, I don’t believe at all that they have a goal to keep those countries independent- that’s the point. The other countries got themselves into this mess through failed socialist policies- so what other options do they really have?
They either submit to greater control, or they get out. Either way, they will have to adopt different spending policies to survive.
You’re making over-generalizations, and cherry picking facts- but even so, how does any of what you argue counter the point of the article, that the EU, and eurosocialism has been a failure?
Funny how you can't demonstrate how. Especially in the face of your own overgeneralizations.
Youre making over-generalizations, and cherry picking facts
Who said I was countering it? Germany is still practicing eurosocialism, and the only way it can be continued is via dictatorial means, which means that it is a means to an end after all. Germany is not where it is today via practicing capitalism.
how does any of what you argue counter the point of the article, that the EU, and eurosocialism has been a failure?
"Funny how you can't demonstrate how. Especially in the face of your own overgeneralizations."
Yeah, it has nothing whatsoever to do with absurd debt-to-GDP levels in the other nations, the fact that they lag in exports and making products that people want to purchase, the fact that they have a ridiculous retirement age for certain employees, and so on. It's all due to "manipulated" interest rates to favor one nation so they can finish their quest to conquer all of Europe and re-impose the Third Reich, or whatever the h-ll it is that you're driving at...
One nation put a gun up to the heads of all the others and forced all those things to happen....
You're mistaking Germany for a capitalist free-market nation again; they're an anti-capitalistic social-market country. Germany is a consistent violator of that unattainable Stability and Growth Pact (about time we got around to discussing that; thanks for reminding me). They are insisting that everyone else in Europe cut themselves to the bone to attain a spending level of 3 percent of GDP and under, and meanwhile they've been at 6 percent consistently. That's called a double standard.
Yeah, it has nothing whatsoever to do with absurd debt-to-GDP levels in the other nations
Those quotation marks must not be around the word manipulated. It's already a matter of record as to what the ECB has done. There can be no other way that a "sick man of Europe" can dig itself out from under while clinging to the social market economy.
It's all due to "manipulated" interest rates to favor one nation
Anglo-Saxons, that's rich. Do you even know who the Anglo-Saxons are or where they came from? You rail against Germans and get this, Anglo-Saxons are/were GERMAN. AND presently there are three German Saxon Länder (states) Niedersachsen, Freistaat Sachsen, und Saxony-Anhalt.
Didn't they teach you European geography/History in your Irish schools? Oh, by the way Ireland was historically dominated the English Germanic Anglo-Saxons.
Since we are Anglo-Saxons
NEWS FLASH! The Irish are Celts!
Nope. Bloodlines are way different. Try again. And that sure doesn't make it unracist to talk about Anglo-Saxon capitalism that shows how the social market economy pushers despise it. Modern Germans certainly don't see themselves as the brethren of the former Angles.
Anglo-Saxons are/were GERMAN
Olog,
Do you know if the UK has a safeguard in their constitution that treaties cannot supercede their constitution?
The scary thing is, the US does not. Case law has set the precedent that the US Constitution supercedes treaties, but it isn’t clear and all it would take is 5 Elana Kagens to overturn it.
"Are you defending the very socialism that you claim to decry? because by this consistent defense of anti-free-market Germany, you make yourself appear to champion socialism indeed."
There are two types of socialist countries: There are the tiny handful, that for a variety of reasons, are relatively prosperous- but would be a lot better off if they were pure capitalist (Sweden, Germany), and then there are the overwhelming majority that are complete disasters. Don't confuse the two.
And it seems really telling that you evaded addressing any of the factors that I mentioned that account for the differences between Germany and most of their flailing EU neighbors. (But when you're only on some kind of European nationalist kick, I guess that sort of thing happens).
“So you are defending socialism then... I evaded nothing.”
Don’t they teach reading comprehension over there?...
Well, I can assure you I have no “imperialist kick” for a foreign country.
Thanks for clarifying that. Germany’s elites have quite the opposite in mind, regrettably.
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