Free Republic

Not everybody's into techno music. Some folks are a little bit country; others a little bit rock and roll. But under what one Brussels wag recently called the EU's 'techno-party' strategy—replacing elected representatives with technocrats and an end to consideration of fiscal policies by parliaments in favor of fiat by civil-servant 'experts'—nobody has any choice any more about what kind of music they want to listen to. Economic policies will be decided for them, by the experts, by, if you will, those bangin' bureaucrat and banker DJs in Brussels and Frankfurt. … But technocracy is not to be limited to...

Hardly a week goes by, without a major summit between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, trying to devise another clever scheme to save the Euro. Yet after 1-½ years of trying to contain the wildfire, - the Euro-zone’s debt crisis is more dangerous than ever. The collapse of Greece’s €360-billion bond market, now trading at 26% of face value, has triggered contagion sales from periphery of the Euro-zone - Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and into the next upper tier of the Euro-zone, namely, the bond markets of Spain and Italy, which together owe €3-trillion of debt....

As every major developed economy hits Bass's Keynesian Endgame, the status quo is set to change dramatically. Nowhere is this climax playing out louder than in Europe and the implicit solution of Germany-uber-alles (while seemingly inevitable though nevertheless lengthy in execution) is likely to not sit well with many of the EMU nations. To wit, The Telegraph today reports that Britain's Foreign Office is advising its overseas embassies to draw up plans to help expats should the collapse of the Euro turn explosive. Almost incredibly, a senior minister has revealed that Britain is now planning on the basis that a...

SEARCY, Ark. (AP) -- An Arkansas woman who cashed $1 million lottery ticket may have to give up the winnings to a woman who threw away the ticket after she bought it. A judge ruled Tuesday that Sharon Duncan is entitled to the prize money, not Sharon Jones, who claimed the prize money after she took it from a trash can of discarded lottery tickets at a convenience store in Beebe.

At Italy's first invitation for an audience before the Franco-German duo that powers European decision-making, Prime Minister Mario Monti made it clear that he backs the German position on eurobonds. Meanwhile, little advanced at the meeting of the EU triumvirate, with Germany refusing to discuss whether the European Central Bank (ECB) should intervene more robustly to defend the eurozone. … It was the first time an Italian leader had been welcomed into the Franco-German tent, although little emerged on Thursday apart from an announcement from Sarkozy that Paris and Berlin will propose their own modifications to the EU treaties. "We...

French appeals for Germany to sanction extra powers for the European Central Bank have been firmly rejected, despite warnings from politicians, economists and even the Vatican that it is the only way of "averting a catastrophe". Italian premier Mario Monti (right) pledged to balance the budget by 2013 - but failed to prevent the country's 10-year bonds from closing in the danger zone again at 7.13pc Angela Merkel was unmoved by another roller-coaster day that saw Portuguese debt being downgraded to junk status, Italian bond yields pushed into the bail-out zone, and doubts cast over France's AAA rating: the German...

THE RALLY COLLAPSES IN EUROPE: Stocks Slide, Italian Yields Shoot Back Above 7% Joe Weisenthal Nov. 24, 2011, 9:29 AM Tower of Pisa It looked initially like today might be quiet in Europe, a merficul gift to those of us in the US who were hoping for a quiet Thankgiving. In fact, there was a pretty solid rally across the board, with yields down and stocks much higher. But all that's changed. At a press conference with Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, and Mario Monti, talk of an unlimited ECB bailout for all of Europe was downplayed. Since then markets have...

The Coming European Superstate That Germany Plans To Cram Down The Throats Of The Rest Of EuropeNovember 20, 2011 A lot of people were puzzled about what German Chancellor Angela Merkel meant when she recently stated that the ultimate solution to the financial crisis in the EU would "mean more Europe, not less Europe". Well, now we are finding out. A leaked internal German government memo entitled "The Future of the EU: Required Integration Policy Improvements for the Creation of a Stability Union" actually proposes the creation of a "European Monetary Fund" which would be given the power to run...

Man’s conquest of Nature, if the dreams of some scientific planners are realized, means the rule of a few hundreds of men over billions upon billions of men.- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man   In Greece and Italy two unelected prime ministers, with banking backgrounds similar to members of our own government, have sworn to rescue their countries for the Euro Liberty, Fraternity and Currency!And they will save their countries by bringing to bear the expertise of every “non elected pipe smoking and tweed wearing university don,” in the Daily Mail’s derisive phrase, to tackle the problem of the Great European...

Germany has drawn up secret plans to prevent a British referendum on the overhaul of the European Union amid concerns it could derail the eurozone rescue package. German chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to tell David Cameron that Britain does not need a referendum on EU treaty changes, despite demands from senior Conservatives for more powers to be repatriated to Britain. The leaked memo, written by the German foreign office, discloses radical plans for an intrusive new European body that can take over the economies of beleaguered eurozone countries. Germany is also preparing for other European countries, which are too...

Gathered around Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, a small group of unelected EU officials have been assigned the task of governing the eurozone and removing leaders who fail to toe the line, writes the British conservative weekly The Spectator. Fraser Nelson The Old Opera House in Frankfurt – once Germany’s most beautiful postwar ruin and now its most stunning recreation – has become a symbol of European rebirth. And it was here, last month, that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy met the EU’s bureaucratic elite in what would, in another era, be described as a putsch. They had grown tired...

The relief rally from technocrat takeovers in Italy and Greece has already wilted, once again reviving the elemental question of whether Germany will go beyond rhetoric and commit its full strategic power to halt Europe's debt crisis. Yields on Italy's 10-year bonds jumped back up to 6.7pc after Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann dashed hopes for muscular intervention by the European Central Bank to stabilise bond markets and buy time for the new government of Mario Monti. "Monetary policy cannot and must not solve solvency problems of states and banks," he told a Frankfurt forum, calling for a halt to incessant...

Italy's cost of borrowing has touched a new record, a day after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would resign once budget reforms are passed. The yield on Italian 10-year government bonds reached 7%, the highest since the euro was founded in 1999. The debt was pushed up as a clearing house asked for a larger deposit to trade Italian bonds - to cover the increased risk of non-payment. Investors fear that Italy could become the next victim of the debt crisis.

The remarkable success of Prime Minister Mario Monti, feted as a hero both at home and abroad, has created turmoil among Italy's discredited politicians and is likely to provoke radical shifts in the political landscape over the coming year. Some analysts say the impact of Monti will spark a political revolution comparable to the "Clean Hands" corruption probe—whose 20th anniversary is this week. That scandal swept away the old order, sending hundreds of politicians to jail and forcing Bettino Craxi, the dominant figure of his era, into exile in Tunisia where he died. "The whole Italian system is in transition,...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Sunday rejected talk of a euro crisis and said Rome was open to the idea of a tax on financial transactions championed by France—but only if the measure was part of an EU-wide effort. "The euro is not in crisis, the currency has solidly maintained its exchange rate with the dollar," Monti said on RAI 3 public television, adding that Italy's "banking system is not under threat". "The problem we are facing is that some EU countries have a public debt crisis," he said. "Our crisis is a systemic crisis." Monti, a former European...

Not on even a Sunday is the headline barrage over: MARIO MONTI ASKED TO FORM NEW ITALIAN GOVERNMENT MONTI TO MAKE COMMENTS AFTER ACCEPTING OFFER TO LEAD ITALY MARIO MONTI THANKS NAPOLITANO FOR OFFER TO FORM GOVERNMENT MARIO MONTI SAYS ITALY MUST BE PROTAGONIST IN EUROPE MARIO MONTI SAYS HE'LL ACT TO SAVE ITALY FROM CRISIS And so the international advisor to Goldman Sachs drones on. In the meantime, the €300 billion in BTP sales is set to resume in just over 13 hours. Yet the reason why the EURUSD is less than jubilant on the news is that Silvio...