Posted on 06/20/2012 7:05:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
During the French presidential election, it became clear that François Hollande, if he were to win the presidency, would try to align other Eurozone countries, particularly Italy and Spain, into a southern front against German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government—to fix the problems of the Eurozone à la française.
Now that he has won the election, he has set out on his pre-charted collision course with Germany. The war of words has already started. For the first time that I can remember, a French government is lobbing unvarnished and relentless verbal attacks across the Rhine.
But Hollande isn’t just on collision course with Germany. “We have the feeling that we live a grave historical moment, a moment of truth,” said Laurence Parisot, President of the MEDEF, the largest employer union and lobbying group in France, representing 700,000 companies. During a press conference on Monday, “the boss of the bosses” delivered her solemn words without trace of a smile.
[SNIP]
Hollande’s program item by item:
* Imposing a dividend surtax of 3% that companies (over 250 employees or €50 million in revenues) have to pay.
* Shareholders already pay steep income taxes on dividends.
* Raising company contributions for pensions, healthcare, work-injury and disability insurance, and other state programs.
* Raising the minimum wage, already at €9.22 ($11.60) per hour. Arch-competitor Germany doesn’t even have a minimum wage.
* Making layoffs even harder and more costly if they fall into the nebulous category of “abusive layoffs” whose sole purpose is to goose the stock price.
* Lowering the retirement age to 60 for those who started working in their teens, and funding it by increasing corporate and individual contributions.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The Teutonic nations need to leave the Euro ASAP.
I read somewhere that in order to gain France’s acceptance of German reunification, the Germans had to swallow the Euro. All along the rest of Europe sought to live a life of leisure on the back of the German economy. Now that reunification is a fact, the Germans can pull the plug on the Euro. Let the frogs and the other “southern European” states form their “bloc.” Once the Germans cut the lifeline, they will drown in their debt.
For over a century, the French have been fighting the forces of history that indicate that the Germans will dominate Europe. They were lucky that the first two times the Germans tried, the Germans tried it militarily, had idiots for leaders, and the French had lots of friends. Now, the Germans are going about it economically, and the French have no friends.
TFB.
Maybe the matter will be settled as the Europeans tend to do, by a good ol’ fashioned war.
They might have a “war” but it won’t be of the “good ol’ fashioned” variety. Not like they used to party last century. All the real men of Europe were killed off at the Somme, Verdun & Stalingrad. The whole reason these countries are in a mess is because they don’t want to work; they want someone else to work for them. If they won’t work, it’s far less likely they will fight. War is a lot more messy than an honest job. They might declare a war but it will be more like a sorority pillow fight than any real fighting & killing.
If Germany pulls out of the Euro zone and takes the Nordic countries with them, exactly who does France have left to prop up the currency?
Would the Benelux countries stay in the Euro zone under such circumstances? I highly doubt it. They may have relatively healthy economies, but they are just too small to shoulder the burden. Even Ireland would be likely to balk given that they are the most productive of those which would remain.
I'm not anxious for the economic turmoil which will result, but it would be kind of fun seeing the French workers forced to support Spain, Italy and Greece in order to preserve the Euro. Their egos of being the biggest player in the Euro zone might get them to go along with it for awhile. But, sooner or later, TSHTF!
France will become a 3rd world country ruled by Muslims as most producers will run from France.
The northern barbarians didn't call the Romans welshers for nothing :-)
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