The Great European Depression

Jobless levels in the eurozone were at 12pc in February, the same rate as in January, according to Europe’s statistics office, Eurostat. It estimated that 19m people in the eurozone were unemployed in February, a 33,000 rise on the previous month.

Eurozone unemployment levels are horrifying. Greece and Spain now have levels far worse than the United States during the Great Depression. In order to save the fortunes of an elite fiat currency, millions of Europeans are being forced in poverty and obscurity just to appease the Bundesbank.

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Be warned. The Eurogroup is after all European deposits

A few hours ago, the Eurogroup President has admitted the Cyprus bailout is an experiment and should be used a “template” for the rest of the Eurozone. If anyone has €100,000+ in a Eurozone bank then I would be very worried right now. You might be about to finance a very expensive and painful bank reconstruction across Europe.

Snatching bank deposits is the new EU bailout model, apparently. This bloke shouldn't be let out in daylight uk.reuters.com/article/2013/0…—
James Chapman (Mail) (@jameschappers) March 25, 2013

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The European destruction of Cyprus has begun

In a moment of sheer insanity, brutality or just economic incompetence, the European Union has destroyed the Cypriot economy and left untold destruction. The off shore banking system is in ruins and the domestic credit supply has been broken into pieces; capital controls effectively suspend Cyprus from the internal market and only the German Parliament will get a vote on the bail out terms. Not the Cypriot politicians who are forced to agree with unfair and draconian terms.

 

Between now and 2017, the Cypriot economy will lose 20% of its GDP in a designed depression to rescue the banking system and prevent bankruptcy of the country. Anyone with deposits over €100,000 in Cypriot banks will help pay for the bailout – regardless if you’re actually a millionaire or a pensioner, who saved up for retirement. In the eyes of the Bundesbank and the German Finance Ministry, you’re paying for it. Not them.

 

Brussels have decided the unravelling of the Euro and the wider European Project is unthinkable; in order to save the post-World War II consensus, principles and agreements are now void. The Euro must be saved at all costs. Merkel has resigned to accepting the end will justify the means; a banking and political union must occur, regardless of the path of misery that awaits the periphery. A promise of co-operation, mutual respect and European democracy is currently suspended. We are discovering a disturbing reality of the European Union not being this equal playing field. Transforming smaller members into slave states, dependent on ECB funding, is a dangerous experiment which could create generational hatred towards Brussels and most notably Germany.

 

The hubris nature of the European Union and its contempt for national parliaments is quite telling. Ordinary citizens of Cyprus will have no say in whether or not these terms are fair and acceptable to them. If the people don’t like it, they can leave the Euro – which is precisely what the Eurogroup told the Cypriot President. It is unnerving that the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize winner now resembles a 19^th Century imperial power and not a regional body which was meant to offer a brighter future to a war-torn continent. I struggle to understand those who still defend the actions of the European Union after the untold economic damage to Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and now Cyprus. The pro-European arguments are sounding like apologists, who refuse to recognise a broken system in need of reform or to be halted altogether. There is nothing pro-European about terrifying levels of unemployment, poverty, economic collapse and misery; yet, EU advocates still celebrate the bailouts and punishing terms.

 

What is remarkable, though, is how the European Union has managed to achieve all of this with little or no opposition. There would be riots in northern European countries or the United States if their respected governments tried to transfer private savings into the hands of the banking system; those nations would become ungovernable in a matter of hours. Yet, the European Union managed to persuade the Mediterranean into submission; Rome had to use thousands of Legions and slaughter people in the tens of thousands to achieve a similar result. That is quite impressive and horrifying. I hope Brussels know what they’re doing.

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Socialist France is dying, along with the Euro.

This chart, via zerohedge, pretty much sums up the problems in France…

As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote in the Telegraph, the “French state is gobbling up 55pc of GDP, similar to Sweden and Demark but without their free market system. Nothing is being done to tackle this.”

The French are not very good when it comes to reforms; in fact, it is the only major Western country with a majority sceptical towards enterprise and markets. An inability to understand the state cannot manage everything is becoming a reality in France, yet the public are still hostile to reform.

The bond market have passed a death warrant: France has a matter of months before the Great Euro Debt Crisis stops in Paris. Capital flights have started, unemployment is over 3 million and business bankruptcies have accelerated since the election of Hollande.  A promise of an alternative, a zero austerity future has been abandoned; President Hollande is sticking to the deficit plan of Sarkozy – the Socialist strategy was not affordable. Increased spending risked a collapse in confidence.

If France fails then so does the Euro….

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The Eurozone enters “the point of no return”

Euro area government debt hit €8.52 trillion (£5.32 trillion) – 90.0 per cent of the seventeen countries’ total GDP – in the second quarter of 2012, Eurostat said, up from 88.2 per cent of GDP in the first quarter of the year.

Debt 90% of GDP is widely viewed as the point of no return; it is incompatible with AAA status and paints a worrying future. The Eurozone is playing a very dangerous game, which can end at any moment; failure could result in the collapse of the monetary union.

France wants more federal spending, the UK doesn’t. Germany has no intention of financing a major bailout package; Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy are demanding more flexible austerity packages – the EU has said no. Britain has threatened to veto the EU budget and Germany might cancel the next summit.

There is still no agreement.

Time is running out.

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Meanwhile in Spain….

Source, credit to Aljazeera

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Euro Crisis: The Death of A Generation

I understand the frustrations and anger, I really do. After all, I’ve defended and given vocal support to the Occupy Movement; even if my views will differ on some elements, I whole heartedly object to corporate welfare and the banking system holding taxpayers hostage.

Countless individuals of this generation are out protesting on the streets everyday – in reality, it is the only thing they have left. Young people have discovered the great truth of life and we don’t live in a utopia; the economy was built on a giant ponzi scheme, government is incompetent and senior politicians just want your vote.  It is understandable, then, that young people are rather angry. They’ve been told a great, great lie.

Especially young Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese and Irish.

The aspirations and hopes of this generation, including its freedoms, have been substituted and negated by the  requirement of preventing the collapse of German and French banks. Greek bailouts are not provided to ensure public officials get paid, hospitals afford medication and the lights remain on across the country – the ‘aid’ is to meet debt requirements. Majority of it held in Frankfurt and Paris.

The greatest tragedy, after the human cost, is the lack of prosecutions. During the Great Depression, several bankers and investors faced federal investigation for insider trading, corruption, financial manipulation and fraud. Fred Goodwin was just stripped of his knighthood and slapped on the wrist. That’s it. Whilst Athens, Madrid, Lisbon and Dublin burn, Brussels still demands obedience and loyalty to the ‘grand project’; a project that is failing, and failing very rapidly. The Commission still enjoy lucrative salaries, pensions and power.

A Union of Europe has failed to achieve its primary goal: improving the lives of Europeans. Young Germans might enjoy relative good levels of employment,  but their Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish counterparts cannot get a job. How is that the foundation for a strong, vibrant and productive economy union? it’s a recipe for social unrest, not unity.

And a bigger threat is now on the horizon: markets have turned their attention to Italy. Even the IMF, let alone the ECB, cannot afford a financial package to rescue Rome; the Italian economy is just too big to bailout. The core of the Eurozone will be breached.

Collapsing currencies never end well and the disintegration of monetary unions-throughout human history-has always ended with civil wars and the rise of authoritarian regimes. And it is this generation, the young people of Europe, who are the sacrificial lambs in this financial slaughter.

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The euro has destroyed Greece.

The cradle of democracy has become a nation of peasants, and I mean this in the most polite terms possible. The Greek Orthodox Church has seen such an increase in its food and clothing aid, that the stocks are now plummeting; a service once designed for the minority is now the only life support for a growing majority of Greeks.

These people have nothing. And I mean nothing.

The country has been stripped bare and government is bankrupt. Debts cannot be guaranteed, and the liberty of its people has literally been vetoed by the European Central Bank and the European banking system; predominately German and French banks. With the children of Greece being put into care, because their parents can no longer afford to provide for them, I struggle to understand how the German Finance Minister can justify this suicidal membership of the euro.

This is no longer about economics and global finance; to hell with the European banks, this is now about the basic principles of humanity. The only thing the Greeks have left is their dignity; and the euro is set to claim that, too.

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The EU is no longer a benevolent dictator; it’s malevolent

(source: http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2012/02/12/20/34/ehfSD.St.4.jpg)

The most pro-European party in the country can no longer be nonchalant to what the European Union has become; it is an uncontrollable monster, willing to save a failed fiat currency at any price. We are endanger of creating generational hatred towards Europe, especially Germany, in Greece and other indebted countries.

Keeping these countries in the euro is more of a threat to regional peace and stability than letting them exit and default.

All parties in Greece must accept bailout terms, before any cent is facilitated into their accounts. So what is the point of democracy and elections, then?

Revolution is inevitable in Greece. And whatever political vanguard assumes power, it will be hostile. If the European Union starts questioning democracy, then so will individuals and political parties, too.

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George Soros on UK GDP figures (interesting quote)

To expect a rebound is unrealistic. But Britain is benefitting from not being part of the euro. The outlook for the euro is truly dismal. The EU is undemocratic to the point where the electorate is disaffected and ungovernable.

 

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