Cyprus Poll After Deposit Grab: 84% Think "Crisis Is Fault of Country’s Political, Economic and Social Systems"

In other words, congrats, Germany, EU, ECB, IMF. You did it.

From Zero Hedge (4/28/2013; emphasis is mine):

One Month Later: What Cyprus Thinks In The Aftermath Of Its Bank Sector Collapse?

Curious what the Cypriot people think just over a month after the most dramatic European banking sector collapse in years, and subsequent first bank sector bail-in and depositor impairment ever? Courtesy of Bloomberg, which summarizes a poll conducted via Symmetron and posted in Kathimerini Cyprus we now have an idea of what the still stunned Cypriot population thinks.

The Cyprus financial crisis is fault of country’s political, economic and social systems, not foreign institutions such as troika, according to 84% of Cypriots in poll by Symmetron published today in Kathimerini Cyprus. Poll also showed:

• Of 800 people questioned, 68% said bankers were most responsible for crisis, 63% said politicians next most to blame, 48% said central bank

• 79% said previous President Demetris Christofias and his govt is more to blame vs 13% for current administration led by President Nicos Anastasiades

• 54% said it was mistake for parliament to vote against 1st loan deal

• 68% said they don’t have enough money to meet direct needs, pay financial obligations

• 70% said personal economic situation to worsen over next 12 months

• 92% no longer trust central bank

• 66% said current govt actions to confront crisis not enough

• 64% against exit from euro area

• 73% said faithful implementation of loan agreement won’t lead country out of crisis

• Symmetron conducted poll April 22-26; margin of error +/-3.5 percentage points

So, Cyprus citizens now say everyone's deposit should have been taken away, not just deposits above 100,000 euro. And no exit from euro. And "government is not doing enough!"

The Cyprus Deposit Grab will be a successful template if people elsewhere are like Cyprus citizens. As far as Germany goes (also posted by Zero Hedge), that's what any government should do to the citizens - grab citizens' assets to reduce the government deficit.

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Spain's Prime Minister Rajoy: EU Countries Must Accept to Give Up Sovereignty

We're all "global citizens", I guess. I'm sure he well represents his people.

EU über alles.

Germany wins, as its economy sputters.

From Zero Hedge (4/23/2013; emphasis is original):

Spain's Rajoy Yields To Merkel, Agrees That EU Countries Must Cede Sovereignty

In what seems like a bow to his overlords in Berlin, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has unleashed a somewhat remarkable torrent of terrible realization and truthiness:

• *SPAIN PM SAYS EUROPE ECONOMY WORST THAN FORECAST THIS YEAR

• *SPAIN PM SAYS ALL EU COUNTRIES ARE REVIEWING GROWTH FORECASTS

• *SPAIN PM SAYS MUST TAKE DIFFICULT DECISIONS FOR COUNTRY'S GOOD

• *SPAIN PM SAYS EU COUNTRIES MUST ACCEPT TO GIVE UP SOVEREIGNTY

• *EU countries’ giving up sovereignty to the bloc is crucial for its future

In other words, handing over your liberty to Germany is for your own good. It seems the German perspective (as we noted here) is winning out.

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Cyprus Utterly Rejects EU Demand for Deposit Haircut, ECB Says It Will Still Help "Within Certain Limits"

Whatever that means. The stock market algos liked this help "within certain limits", and Dow Jones Industrial ended up 3 points up for the day.

The amended "deposit tax" would have exempted accounts with less than 20,000 euros but taken money from all else. (More at Reuters.)

Cypriot Parliament vote on "deposit tax" (AP, 3/19/2013):

In favor: Zero
Against: 36
Abstentions: 19

Abstentions were from the ruling party.

ECB's comment (Reuters, 3/19/2013):

After Cyprus vote, ECB says ready to offer liquidity within rules

BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Central Bank said on Tuesday after Cypriot lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected a key element of a proposed bailout that it was in contact with its IMF and EU partners and remained committed to providing liquidity within certain limits.

"The ECB takes note of the decision of the Cypriot parliament and is in contact with its troika partners," the bank said in a statement. "The ECB reaffirms its commitment to provide liquidity as needed within the existing rules.

By the way, I think I know now why the reporting on the deposit confiscation in Cyprus has been very much subdued and equivocal in Japan. Japan is about the only country in the world that instituted the one-off, much more punitively progressive tax on wealth including bank deposits successfully, right after the World War II under the US occupation (GHQ) in 1946.

Anyone with the accumulated wealth (not necessarily in cash, but in goods and real properties) of 100,000 yen (probably today's 100 million yen, or about US$1.05 million) got 10% of it taken by the government. Unlike Cyprus, it was progressive, and the highest bracket was 90%. The 90% confiscation of one's wealth was justified by GHQ as "punishment" for profiting from the war. It didn't matter to them that most people whose wealth were confiscated had nothing to do with profiting from the war.

Roosevelt "New Dealers" in GHQ must have felt very righteous doing it, who went on to take away farmland from the large land-owning farmers in 1947 for the sake of "fairness". (Never mind that not all farmers wanted to be the land-owning farmers...)

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Germany's Angela Merkel on "Great EU Bank Robbery": "Those Responsible Will Contribute in" the Cypriot Bailout

The problem, Ms. Merkel, is that depositors and savers in Cyprus are NOT responsible for the banks' failure.

But with her domestic election consideration to appeal to German savers, she quite willingly throws foreign savers under the bus. Nice. I suppose those German expats and retirees in Cyprus would be more than happy to be run over by the bus to do their fair share.

So much for the EU solidarity.

The UK's Daily Mail says the UK government will compensate 3,000 British military personnel for the haircut but 60,000 other Britons who hold accounts in Cypress are on their own.

From Mail Online (3/17/2013):

The great EU bank robbery: British taxpayers to bail out victims of outrageous raid

UK taxpayers will have to compensate thousands of Britons hit by a shock raid on bank accounts in Cyprus.

The debt-stricken island, which is home to around 3,000 British military personnel and civil servants, is being given an £8.7billion EU rescue package.

But – in a move condemned as ‘robbery’ – Germany says it will not fund the emergency deal unless every saver with a deposit account contributes via a bank tax.

...In response to cries of outrage, Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades was last night trying to amend the bailout tax to limit the pain for small depositors.

But Angela Merkel insisted it was right that all depositors in Cypriot banks should share the responsibility of bailing out the state.

Addressing an election rally, the German chancellor insisted: ‘Anyone having their money in Cypriot banks must contribute in the Cypriot bailout. That way those responsible will contribute in it, not only the taxpayers of other countries, and that is what’s right.’

(Full article at the link)

Germany's Commerzbank suggests Italy be the next, skipping the periphery.

Japan's Nikkei opened Monday over 200 points down, and are staying down at minus 264. The US Dow futures is down 127, the UK's FTSE futures down 110 points.

By the way, Nikkei Shinbun calls this theft very mildly as "surcharge" (課徴金).

Nikkei down 324. Ouch.

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Germany, IMF Wanted 40% Haircut of Deposits in Cyprus, Settled for 9.9% Instead

(UPDATE) The vote is delayed till at least Monday March 18, as the government may not have enough votes to do the bidding of Euro overlords... The banks may remain closed on Tuesday.

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It's an outright theft, but since it's official government entities doing this, it's not called theft but bailout. The Cypriot government even calls it "a new beginning". (1984, anyone?)

In exchange for the 10 billion euro bailout for the Cypriot banks and supposedly saving 8,000 jobs, the EU demanded that the Cypriot government confiscate 6.75 to 9.9% of deposits at the banks and exchange it with the bank "equity" (what kind of joke is this?), and that the interest on deposits be charged with 20 to 25% tax. These thefts are supposed to raise up to 7.5 billion euros.

They did it after the last financial markets in the world (US) closed for the weekend. People cannot withdraw money over the weekend, as ATMs have been stopped. (Zero Hedge has more information on the theft, including this post.)

According to reports, Germany and IMF initially wanted 40% of deposit money confiscated, not 9.9%.

I think it's a trial balloon to see if they can get away with the theft, and if they do then to replicate elsewhere in the EU periphery, for a start.

From ekathimerini.com (2/16/2013; emphasis is mine):

Shock in Cyprus as bailout brings bank account haircut

The Eurogroup reached on Friday night an unprecedented decision for bailing out Cyprus that dictates a haircut on all bank accounts on the island’s banks with immediate effect, while cash withdrawals are not allowed for the time being, generating unrest.

Along with loans adding up to 10 billion euros from the European Support Mechanism, Cyprus will have to find another 7-7.5 billion euros from privatizations and from a 6.75 percent one-off haircut on all bank accounts with a balance up to 100,000 euros, rising to 9.9 percent on accounts exceeding 100,000 euros.

Already bank customers are gathering outside major and cooperative banks, Skai television reported on Saturday morning, as angry depositors demand their money.

Depositors will get shares of the banks they are clients of in return for the capital lost, of the same value as the haircut their accounts have suffered.

This is estimated to fetch some 6 billion euros to the state, bridging most of the gap between the 10 billion euros the ESM is offering to Cyprus and Nicosia’s requirements of an estimated 17 billion.

This is the first time in the eurozone that a levy has been imposed not on the interest of bank accounts but on the capital itself. In addition to that there is a levy on interest, too, and an increase in the 10 percent corporate tax that has been one of the main driving forces behind Cyprus’s financial progress after the 1974 Turkish invasion, generating growth by attracting foreign direct investment.

Notably, the account haircut does not affect bank accounts in Cypriot bank branches based in Greece, according to sources from the Greek Finance Ministry.

Tax on interest will amount to between 20 and 25 percent.

Changes will have to be ratified by the House of Representatives, the republic’s parliament within the weekend, while an emergency cabinet meeting is taking place on Saturday morning in Nicosia to assess the situation.

Finance Minister Michalis Sarris has postponed his official visit by two days and will now go to Moscow on Wednesday.

Cyprus state broadcaster CyBC reported on Saturday that German Finance Minister actually entered the Eurogroup meeting on Friday proposing a 40 percent haircut on Cypriot bank accounts. Sarris stated on Saturday that this had also been the proposal of the International Monetary Fund.

Sarris stated in Brussels that in view of the threat from the European Central Bank for banks in Cyprus to shut down and chaos to ensue, the increase in interest taxation and the haircut to bank accounts became necessary. “A disorderly default, that was a genuine possibility, has been averted,” he said.

“It allows our economy to proceed decisively to a new beginning.”

He also noted that after the dramatic meeting of the eurozone ministers a further slashing of salaries and pensions has been avoided and confidence in Cypriot economy is restored. He qualified the bailout funds loaned to Cyprus as sustainable and manageable and will not constitute an unbearable weight on the next generations. “It spreads the load on this and on the following generations,” he said.

IMF head Christine Lagarde said "the Fund has always said it would support a solution that is viable, and this agreement fulfills this condition, so my recommendation to our board will be for contributing in the funding of the package."

Opposition leader Antros Kyprianou, the General Secretary of leftist AKEL, accused the government of not consulting the other parties, saying that "the government bears full responsibility for developments in the economy as instead of choosing the road of consensus it has decided to go it alone."

Cyprus's parliament is set to vote on the measure on Sunday. The "threat" is the same old, same old, which was used by Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson when they demanded $700 billion to save the US banks in fall 2008 (at that time, extraordinarily big amount of money): "It would be chaos and catastrophe otherwise."

The governments world over say the same thing, with slight variations. In case of the Japanese one, the line was "We didn't tell you about core melt, or extent of damage at Fukushima I Nuke Plant because if we had done so it would have been chaos and panic...blah blah blah..."

The banks in Cyprus won't open until Tuesday.

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WSJ: Germany and Spain Move to Curb Green-Energy Supports

This kind of news is definitely NOT what the anti-nuclear people (who are almost all pro-renewable energy) in Japan want to hear. My followers will most likely completely ignore my tweets on this, because to them, Spain and Germany are the role models on how renewable energy should be pushed by the national government - on the small rate payers, to save the earth.

From Wall Street Journal (2/14/2013; emphasis is mine):

Germany and Spain Move to Curb Green-Energy Supports

More than a decade ago, Germany and Spain created similar laws to aggressively promote the adoption of renewable energy. The two countries were again marching in step on Thursday—this time to fix a web of subsidies and compensations they created for green energy that had the unintended effect of driving up household electricity bills.

With Spain in the grips of recession, the government wants to lower consumers' light bills. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel faces an election in September and hopes to win points with voters by putting a stop to rising electricity bills. The independent steps have been welcomed by German consumer groups, but have been slammed by businesses as German and Spanish politicians move to finance cuts for consumers by passing on the costs to companies.

Germany subsidizes producers of renewable energy such as solar and wind power in part by imposing a surcharge on household electricity bills. As the industry has grown, demand for the subsidy increased, driving the surcharge higher. In January, the surcharge, which amounts to about 14% of electricity prices, nearly doubled to 5.28 euro cents per kilowatt hour. Large energy-intensive industries are exempted.

That means ordinary consumers shoulder the lion's share of the costs for what the German government calls its "energy revolution."

Fearing a voter backlash from anger over the lopsided financing of green energy, Ms. Merkel's government on Thursday proposed putting a cap on the green-energy surcharge until the end of 2014 and then restricting any rise in the surcharge after that to no more than 2.5% a year. The government also plans to tighten exemptions, which would force more companies to pay, and achieve a cut in green subsidies of €1.8 billion ($2.42 billion). The plan is a quick fix pending comprehensive reform after the election, government officials said.

The proposal represents a compromise by the parties in Ms. Merkel's center-right coalition between taking small steps before the election and a more time-consuming comprehensive reform of the renewable energy law. The government now hopes to thrash out a bill with Germany's 16 states by the end of March, eliminating a potentially negative issue ahead of the election on September 22.

"We need a fundamental reform of the renewable energy law, but until we get there we don't want to make people wait and that is why there is this price cap on electricity," Economy Minister Philipp Rösler said Thursday after a meeting with representatives of the states.

The Spanish parliament took a similar step on Thursday, passing a law that aims to curb rising household electricity costs by cutting aid to the renewable-energy industry.

Renewable-energy producers "are going to receive less revenue, but these measures are better for consumers" said Energy Minister José Manuel Soria.

Among the changes in the Spanish system, the new law indexes certain subsidies and compensation to an inflation estimate that strips out the effects of energy, food commodities, and tax changes.

Until now, producers have been compensated using a full inflation estimate. The government said the law will cut the costs of the country's electrical system by €600 million to €800 million a year.

Renewable-energy companies said that the government was backing away from previous promises that it would ensure them a reasonable return on their investments.

"Spain's government is trying to smash the renewable-energy sector through legislative modifications," said José Miguel Villarig, chairman of the country´s Association of Renewable-Energy Producers.

Uh... The renewable-energy sector has been created and heavily subsidized by legislative modifications. But never mind that. Investors from the United States, Japan and the United Arab Emirates who have invested in renewable energy in Spain are already preparing to sue the Spanish government.

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11,000 Pupils Came Down with Food Poisoning, in Germany; Frozen Strawberries from China in School Lunch to Blame

Frozen strawberries served in school lunches in kindergartens and schools in Berlin and other cities in eastern Germany have been identified as the culprit.

Norovirus has been identified from the strawberries. The food distributor says frozen strawberries were imported from China, according to NHK News.

44 metric tonnes of them, according to Germany's Spiegel.

According to Spiegel, the company responsible for giving tainted frozen strawberries to kids is a French company Sodexo, who can provide school lunches at a rock-bottom price of 1.55 euros per meal. The article also points out that the rapidly growing school lunch catering industry is the result of the push by the German government for all-day schools, where children need to be fed. This continues, as no one wants to be responsible for fixing it. (Now that starts to sound familiar...)

From Spiegel International Online (10/9/2012):

Putting Profits Before Nutrition: The Dark Side of the School Meals Business

By Susanne Amann, Sebastian Brauns and Nils Klawitter

Experts now believe that frozen strawberries from China are behind a massive outbreak of the norovirus that recently affected thousands of schoolchildren in eastern Germany. The episode merely illustrates the deplorable state of school lunches, a problem no one seems willing to fix.

The first school lunch that Martha Payne photographed in May consisted of a croquette, a small pizza, a bit of corn and a muffin. The nine-year-old from Scotland gave the meal six out of 10 points for taste on her "food-o-meter" and four out of 10 for healthiness.

Her plan had only been to take a shot in order to show her father that the meal wasn't enough to fill her up, she wrote on her blog. After only a week, Payne had 25,000 hits on her blog, and now hundreds of thousands are reading it.

Whoever looks at the photos will not be surprised by the debate that has been raging in Germany for two weeks about what is actually served to children in school cafeterias. Much more amazing is the fact that it took so long to reach a crisis like the one that has happened in eastern Germany, where more than 11,000 schoolchildren were recently affected by gastrointestinal sickness -- most likely because of what they ate at school.

"We already calculated long ago that an episode like this would happen because the entire system is messed up from beginning to end," says Michael Polster, head of DNSV, an association that advocates healthier school meals in Germany. "Rapidly growing demand is running up against massive cost pressure (and) absurd bureaucracy in an altogether lawless area," he says.

A move by the German government in recent years to push forward an expansion in the number of all-day schools, has prompted explosive growth in the school catering business. Germany has 11 million children attending 45,000 schools, and the number of them being fed at these schools is rising. As a result, the school catering business is becoming highly competitive and growing at an annual rate of 5 percent. Already today, the five largest school catering companies generate combined revenues of some €160 million ($208 million) in the country.

By far the largest of these is the French company Sodexo. Last week, the company and its products quickly fell under suspicion of being at least partially responsible for the mass outbreak of illness in eastern Germany because many of the affected establishments were supplied by its industrial kitchens.

The self-described specialist in "quality of life services" offers an extremely broad range of services, from nursing care to cleaning to catering. The company's global sales are estimated at €18 billion, and its 391,000 employees make it one of the 25 largest employers in the world. The family of company founder Pierre Bellon is believed to be the richest family in France.

Insufficiently Heated Strawberries

After German reunification in 1990, Sodexo made significant investments in its Germany-based operations. The company took over a number of company cafeterias in the states that belonged to the former East Germany, including one in the city of Halle located right next to a former state-owned paint, varnish and flooring plant. To this day, plasticizers are stored in huge tanks in the courtyard near the kitchen, which is surrounded by rat traps. Signs warn about dangers to reproductive health.

The French quickly became sector leaders with rock-bottom prices of €1.55 ($2) per meal and many employees working at dumping wages, according to the NGG union. Today, 65 Sodexo kitchens supply 200,000 daily meals all across Germany.

Questioning of patients and analyses of the supply chain provided indications tracing the cause of the recent epidemic of diarrhea and vomiting to a supplier who provided Sodexo and at least two other catering companies with frozen strawberries from China. The batch involves 44 metric tons of the fruit that were imported into Germany via the port of Hamburg.

According to the findings of a working group composed of state and local officials, "at least 10" of the Sodexo kitchens in eastern Germany had processed and failed to sufficiently heat the frozen strawberries from this delivery. Sodexo describes the episode as a "regrettable isolated case" and says that use of the goods in question was "blocked" after it was announced that the strawberries might be to blame.

Late Friday evening, Sodexo's German operations issued a press release saying that it was "shocked" by the outbreak. The company added that it apologized to all affected children and families and that it hopes that the children have gotten better. In addition to pledging to improve quality control and to take other preventative measures, the company said it would "compensate those affected for the unpleasantness that occurred."

On Tuesday, Germany's center for disease control, the Robert Koch Institute, declared that the contaminated strawberries had been identified and removed, but it also confirmed that one batch of the frozen strawberries had tested positive for the highly contagious norovirus.

(Full article at the link)

School lunches seem to be dumping grounds for cheap and/or unwanted food items, also in countries other than Japan. I'm a bit surprised that this happened in Germany.

Sodexo, Inc.'s website says it is the world leader in "Quality of Daily Life Solutions". There is Sodexo South Korea, but none in Japan. So far.

Speaking of frozen fruits, some cities in Kanagawa Prefecture continue to serve frozen mandarin oranges even if they have been already tested and confirmed to have radioactive cesium. Why? Because the contract with the vendor is more sacred.

It seems Japan will be a great fit for the French company.

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German Chancellor Welcomes Japan's Zero Nuke Policy, But Noda Admin Drops It After Protest from Big Business Lobby and Doubt from IAEA

Oops. Ms. Merkel should have waited one more day.

On September 18, as Jiji Press (English) reported the Chancellor's comments on September 17:

Vienna, Sept. 17 (Jiji Press)--German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed on Monday a new strategy of the Japanese government to lower dependence on nuclear power to zero in the 2030s.

Merkel said at a news conference in Berlin that she expresses respect for Japan's decision and that she hopes the two nations will strengthen cooperation in converting to renewable energy sources.

Since the nuclear accident in March 2011 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 power plant, Germany has worked closely with Japan on energy policy, Merkel said.

She said Germany is pleased to continue cooperation with Japan and that Japan must be looking for stronger cooperation.

The chancellor said Germany hopes to share information with Japan on energy efficiency, the introduction of renewable energy and the expansion of power grids.

But one day later on September 19, the same Jiji Tsushin (Japanese) first reported:

原発ゼロ、「閣議文書に入らず」＝枝野経産相

Zero Nuke is "Not in the Cabinet document", says Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Edano

　枝野幸男経済産業相は１９日の閣議後記者会見で、２０３０年代の原発稼働ゼロを目指す「革新的エネルギー・環境戦略」について、「閣議決定の文書には入っていないが、閣議でオーソライズされた」と述べた。

In the press conference after the cabinet meeting on September 19, Yukio Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry said that the new energy and environmental strategy that aims at zero nuclear power plant operating in 2030s "is not mentioned in the document for the cabinet decision, but it was authorized in the cabinet meeting."

If you scratch your head and wonder aloud what the hell Mr. Edano meant, here's the minister in charge of national strategy, no less:

新エネ戦略、閣議決定見送り＝政府

The administration put off the cabinet decision on the new energy strategy

古川元久国家戦略担当相は１９日、新エネルギー戦略の閣議決定を見送ったことを明らかにした。

Yoshihisa Furukawa, minister in charge of national strategy, said that the cabinet decision on the new energy strategy had been put off.

So, with the Keidanren's chairman threatening to resign from the national strategy council over the zero nuke policy and IAEA expressing doubts about the implication of zero nuke on the production of plutonium, the Noda administration simply drops the zero nuke strategy which they embraced reluctantly anyway to win popularity in the coming Lower House election.

And guess what. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is expected to win the Democratic Party of Japan's leadership election in a landslide.

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Spiegel Interviews Tsipras: "If Greece Is Destroyed, Angela Merkel Will Be Guilty"

Mr. Alexis Tsipras, the Syriza leader, promises Greece will stay in euro, and no he won't abide by the austerity diktat. If anything goes wrong in Greece, it will be Angela Merkel's fault, and other European forces.

He probably scoffs at IMF Chief Christine Lagarde too, who told the Greeks to "pay up".

In the interview below, the Spiegel reporters don't sound too happy.

From Spiegel Online International (5/28/2012):

Greek Leftist Leader Alexis Tsipras 'It's in Europe's Interest to Lift the Austerity Diktat'

Alexis Tsipras, head of the leftist Syriza party, wants an end to austerity in Greece. Ahead of Greek general elections in mid-June, he speaks with SPIEGEL about the dangers his country poses to the euro, the failure of economization measures thus far and why Chancellor Angela Merkel would be to blame if the Greek economy collapses.

Tsipras, the 37-year-old rising star in Greek politics, lays his Ray-Ban sunglasses on the table. It's Tuesday afternoon, and he looks exhausted. Indeed, he has a packed schedule: first Paris and then Berlin, where he met with Gregor Gysi and then with Jürgen Trittin and Sigmar Gabriel, senior officials in Germany's Left Party, Green Party and Social Democratic Party, respectively. Tsipras was the surprise victor when his Radical Left (Syriza) party took second place in May 6 general elections in Greece. Because leaders were unable to form a coalition government, a new election will be held on June 17. Most believe that Tsipras will attract even more votes in this second election.

Tsipras' tour through "Europe's two most important capital cities," as he put it, was primarily about cultivating his image. The civil engineer, already politically active in high school as a member of the Communist Youth of Greece, numbers among the strongest critics of the EU-International Monetary Fund (IMF) strategy for Greece, which calls for radical budget cuts and austerity in return for international aid. Should he win the June 17 election, Tsipras plans to ditch the terms of the bailout agreements struck with its creditors. On the campaign trail, one of his slogans has been that Greece is in danger of becoming a "German colony." But he toned things down in Berlin, saying: "We want to persuade, not blackmail."

SPIEGEL: Mr. Tsipras, is Berlin really as bad as you always say back home in Athens whenever you rail against the evil Germans?

Alexis Tsipras: Berlin is my favorite capital city in Europe. It's too bad that I'm always here only briefly. I'd like to have more time.

SPIEGEL: You might be Greece's prime minister the next time you come to Berlin. If that happens, will Greece still be a member of the euro zone?

Tsipras: Of course. We'll do everything we can so that Greece can retain the euro. We're trying to convince our European partners that it's also in their interest to finally lift the austerity diktat. We need policies that don't destroy the Greek economy but, rather, allow for renewed growth. If the austerity course isn't changed, it will result in the complete destruction of the Greek economy. That would indeed be a danger to the euro.

SPIEGEL: But even some parts of Syriza, the leftist alliance you lead and which came in second place in the May 6 election, have been calling openly for a return to the drachma.

Tsipras: That's only a minority. In each party, no matter whether big or small, there are different orientations, different opinions. Then there will be a vote, and the majority decides. What's more, this minority among us isn't in favor of an exit from the euro, for example; it just wants to ensure that Greece can also survive, with the help of another currency, for example, if others have completely ruined our national economy.

SPIEGEL: Which "others" do you mean? The Greek economy is already in a shambles.

Tsipras: What I mean by that is if our economic foundation is completely destroyed and the decisions of an elected Greek government are not responsible for it but, rather, certain political forces in Europe. Then they too will be guilty, for example Angela Merkel.

SPIEGEL: Are you seriously claiming that the reforms which Europe is demanding as a precondition for loan assistance are the reason for Greece's miserable situation?

Tsipras: If we are once again pushed and blackmailed into an austerity program that has so obviously failed, then it won't be long before Greece is in fact no longer capable of paying its creditors. The result will be a halt in payments, one into which we were practically forced. This would not only be dangerous for Greece, but for the entire European economy. These days, the financial systems of all countries are so closely intertwined with each other that one can't limit the crisis geographically. It's a problem of all countries and of all national economies.

SPIEGEL: If Greece ultimately exits the euro, you will also bear some of the blame. You promised your voters the impossible: retaining the euro while breaking Greece's agreements with the rest of Europe. How can such a plan find success?

Tsipras: I don't see any contradiction in that. We simply don't want the money of European citizens to vanish into a bottomless pit. The fact that there is financial assistance is the principle of European solidarity and a mark of being part of a community. That's good. But we think these resources should also be put to sensible use: for investments that can also generate prosperity. Only then will we in fact be able to pay back our debts.

SPIEGEL: For you, other people are always the scapegoat. It's other people's fault that the economy is languishing, so other people also have to rescue it …

Tsipras: That's not correct; we naturally also take a critical look at ourselves. We bear significant responsibility for our situation. We've accepted politicians who have destroyed our country's manufacturing base and created a corrupt state. We have elected the very people who have stashed their money away abroad and not only allowed tax evasion to occur, but also fostered it. Of course we are responsible for that; we allowed it all to happen. But we also have the responsibility to change exactly that right now.

SPIEGEL: Given your dependence on financial support and your rejection of vital structural reforms -- such as that of the public administration -- already agreed on, how do you propose doing so?

Tsipras: We're not opposed to reforms. We're only saying what so many economists, what many German newspapers and what even former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt are saying -- and what the OECD has now reconfirmed in a study: The austerity policies we've been implementing for two years -- the policy of solely relying on drastic belt-tightening -- have failed. We now find ourselves in the fifth year of the recession. This year too, our economy will once again contract by at least 6 percent.

SPIEGEL: Is that the complete truth? Even Alekos Alavanos, your old mentor and the former Syriza floor leader in parliament, has called on you to finally be honest with your fellow Greeks.

Tsipras: Alavanos left the party some years ago because he didn't share our conviction about remaining within the euro zone. It's fairly odd that I now have to justify myself for the fact that we -- like the vast majority of the population, incidentally -- want to stay within the euro association.

The political reality is simple: The austerity programs, as constructed thus far, have failed, partly because they've been based on a false model, namely, that of domestic devaluation. But we're not an exporting country. It is much more the case that most of what we produce, we consume. Our ability to compete doesn't only depend on labor costs, as so many people say; they also depend on other parameters, such as the infrastructure and the mind-set of people and politicians. We really do long for a bit more meritocracy …

SPIEGEL: The concept of merit-based remuneration hasn't made it all that far in Greece. Instead, there's widespread corruption, cronyism and clientelism -- not exactly an advantage when it comes to competitiveness.

Tsipras: I am aware of the problems the Greek state has. It was systematically run down by the politicians of ours who were in power. And many Greeks share in the blame: They've supported this system; they've sustained it by continually electing the same politicians. But this can't be the cause of the crisis but, rather, at most it is a symptom. The financial and debt crisis isn't purely a Greek problem -- otherwise, there wouldn't be high government deficits in other countries, as well, such as in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. So there must be other causes. That's why we have to analyze the structure of the community, its architecture. Also that of our common currency, the euro.

SPIEGEL: Do you see in François Hollande, France's newly elected Socialist president, a new ally in the battle against the austerity diktat coming out of Germany?

Tsipras: Hollande is clearly a great white hope for us. Now, ideas and arguments that haven't been listened to will once again be heard and discussed, such as a stronger role for the European Central Bank or the introduction of euro bonds. We can't just treat symptoms, or we really will stumble over Greece. That doesn't help anyone. If our country exits the euro zone, all of Europe is in danger. We mustn't fool ourselves about that.

SPIEGEL: The most recent talks in Athens aimed at forming a government failed because you refused to join in any coalition. At the moment, opinion polls indicate that your Syriza alliance is running neck and neck with the conservative Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy) party. Who would you like to partner with after the new elections on June 17?

Tsipras: We would, of course, like to have a left-wing coalition. And we'll do everything we can to make things add up in our favor this time.

Interview conducted by Julia Amalia Heyer and Manfred Ertel

Translated from the German by Josh Ward

Zero Hedge, where I took the link to Spiegel article, says "Well, in the US, it is all Bush's fault".

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Germany's ZDF Poll: "Solt Griechenland Weiter Am Euro Beteiligt Bleiben?"

November 2011:
Ja: 41%
Nein: 49%

Jetzt:
Ja: 31%
Nein: 60%

(ZDF, via Zero Hedge)

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Donation via German Red Cross Used to Build Library, Nursery School for Evacuees in Koriyama City in Fukushima

I'm not really sure that's how German people who donated to the German Red Cross for the disaster relief for the March 11 earthquake/tsunami wanted the money to be spent.

The library and the nursery school are for people evacuated from Kawauchi-mura in a planned evacuation zone to Koriyama City. Koriyama City is in high-radiation "nakadori" (middle third) of Fukushima Prefecture, where pre-schoolers were found with 0.11 millisievert external radiation in one month in November 2011, with the maximum 0.66 millisievert. Certainly not a place where any nursery school should be.

But the donation from Germany was used to build a facility to keep the villagers from Kawauchi-mura in Koriyama City together.

(The photo is the German embassy official Claus Eilrich with Kawauchi-mura's village chief in the tape-cutting ceremony.)

From Kyodo News (1/6/2012):

原発事故を受け全村避難している福島県川内村の住民が身を寄せる同県郡山市の仮設住宅に、図書室や保育所などを備えた交流施設が６日、オープンした。ドイツの赤十字社に寄せられた義援金約４千万円を使い建てられた。

A facility with the library room and the nursery school opened on January 6 in the temporary housing in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture where the residents from Kawauchi-mura lives after having evacuated from their home after the nuclear accident. The facility was built with the money of about 40 million yen (about 408,000 euro, US$520,000) donated via the German Red Cross.

　住民同士の交流の場を作ってほしいとの村側の希望と、義援金で日独友好の記念にもなる支援をしたいというドイツ側の要望が一致し実現した。

The village wanted a place where the residents could mix, and the Germany side wanted to provide a support that could symbolize the friendship between Japan and Germany.

　施設は広さ約２６５平方メートルの木造平屋建て。村の教育委員会が管理し、村営の保育所や学習塾のほか、住民の健康相談などに使われる。住民が村に帰還する際には、分解して川内村に移設する予定。

The facility is a single-story wooden building of about 265 square meters. It will be managed by the village's Board of Education, and will be used as the nursery school, the tutoring school, and a place for health consultation for the residents. When the villagers go back to Kawauchi-mura, the facility will be dismantled and brought to the village.

The happy result that satisfied both the village people and the German Red Cross was to build a "box" (hakomono in Japanese, a construction project) that will be managed, of all entities, by the Board of Education.

Ever since the nuclear accident started in March 11, 2011, the Board of Education in many cities and prefectures in Japan has done everything in their power to expose children to radiation - having them eat beef and drink milk with radioactive cesium, making them harvest green tea in the rain, making them gargle with green tea, making them clean the yard of dead leaves and sludge, taking them to summer schools in the high radiation areas in northern Kanto.

Of nuclear experts, only Professor Kunihiko Takeda of Chubu University spoke against these school "traditions" mindlessly carried out all over Japan.

The night is deep.

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Germany's "Heute Show" Making Fun of TEPCO, Japanese Government

The clip below is from their show in April, making fun of the NISA, TEPCO and the Japanese government over their handling of the Fukushima I Nuke Plant disaster. A very popular video in Japan now. Some are wondering why none of the comedians in Japan is able to do the same.

(English translation by 007bratsche (Viola) and captioning by Tokyo Brown Tabby)

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Germany Economy Grew By 2.2% in Q2, Best in Two Decades

unlike the US economy whose Q2 GDP growth may be reduced to mere 1%.

For more on Germany's second economic miracle since the World War II, read my post from July.

From AP (8/13/2010):

BERLIN (AP) -- Official data show that the German economy -- Europe's biggest -- grew by 2.2 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous three-month period. That was its best performance since reunification two decades ago.

Preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed Friday that growth surged from 0.5 percent in the first quarter -- a figure that was revised up to more than double the initial reading of 0.2 percent.

An improving global economy has fed demand for German exports, while industrial orders and business confidence have been rising.

Second-quarter gross domestic product for the full 16-nation eurozone are due later Friday.

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Israel Trains German Air Force on Afghan Drones

Irony is not lost on participants, but Germany is now a "very, very good friend, if not the best friend of Israel today in the world".

German drone pilots eye Afghanistan... from Israel
(Dan Williams, 7/27/2010 Reuters AlertNet)

"EIN SHEMER AIR BASE, Israel, July 27 (Reuters) - As World War Two raged in the years before Israel's founding, colonial British planes were scrambled here to fend off German forces. Now the German Luftwaffe is back, preparing for a far more remote fight with the modern equipment and expertise of the Jewish state established after the Nazi Holocaust.

"Worried by insurgent ambushes on its soldiers in Afghanistan and return fire that sometimes kills civilians or local allies, Germany last year ordered a small fleet of Israeli Heron spy drones designed to provide real-time images above a battlefield.

"That has brought German jet pilots to coastal Ein Shemer air base for accelerated retraining on the unmanned propeller planes, already daubed with their flag and Iron Cross emblem.

"...Israel is a pioneer of combat drones, having deployed them in Lebanon in the Palestinian territories. Heron's manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), says it is also used by Canadian, French and Australian forces in Afghanistan.

"Yet the fact Israeli know-how may now be saving German military lives offers up a unique historical irony lost on none.

"The Defence Ministry in Berlin declined to allow the Luftwaffe trainees to be interviewed about such symbolism, but one of them described how they took time off to visit the central Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Dressed in civilian clothes while in Israel, trainees on an earlier course stood at attention for annual commemorations in April of the six million Jews killed in the Nazi genocide.

"As a Jew, I felt very proud at this specific moment," said Tomer Koriat, deputy director of the IAI training programme, who praised the Germans' mastery of the Heron within intensive courses lasting just three-and-a-half weeks.

"All of us have learned that today we are talking about another Germany than what we used to know ... A very, very good friend, if not the best friend of Israel today in the world."" [The entire article at the link above.]

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Spiegel Claims Germany a Keynesian Success

That's got to be the first, a Keynesian success...

Germany's New Economic Miracle - A Keynesian Success Story
(7/19/2010 Spiegel Online)

"During the worst of the global financial meltdown, Berlin pumped tens of billions of euros into the economy and spent hundreds of billions propping up German banks. Now, the country is reaping the benefits as Germany is once again Europe's economic motor.

"It was just the sort of photo-op German Chancellor Angela Merkel urgently needs. Peter Löscher, the CEO of electronics giant Siemens, was sitting on a throne-like chair in the governor's palace in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Contracts were being handed to him in brown leather folders, and every time Löscher signed one of the documents with his malachite green pen, the chancellor clapped with delight. The procedure took place four times, and by the time the round of contract signing ended, Siemens had secured Russian orders worth about €4 billion ($5.2 billion).

"The real purpose of Merkel's five-day visit to Russia and China last week was to hold political talks with the two countries' leaders, but the most important message of the trip was meant for the German people. Look, Merkel seemed to indicating to German citizens, German industry is in demand worldwide, even if the government at home is divided and lacking direction.

"The German economy has indeed come roaring back to life this summer. Two years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, the auto industry is adding extra shifts once again. The machine building, electronics and chemical industries are all reporting a rapidly growing number of orders. Total unemployment is expected to drop below the 2.8 million mark this fall, the lowest level since 1991.

"For the first time in decades, the former "sick man of Europe" is back to being an engine for economic growth. According to an internal government assessment, the country's gross domestic product increased by more than 1.5 percent in the second quarter of this year. In their last prognosis, completed in April, government officials had predicted only 0.9 percent GDP growth. Production in the manufacturing industry increased by 5 percent over the previous quarter. The government assessment also shows that exports grew by more than 9 percent in May." [Emphasis is mine. The article continues.]

The article defends the government spending and guarantees, even though they were ill-spent (bridge to nowhere, building a school only to have it shut down, etc.) and often unnecessary (loan guarantee to solvent companies who kept the money just in case). The article claims the government action kick-started the economy, and the economy took on its own momentum and started to grow.

With the numbers like these in the article above, it is understandable that the Spiegel wants to attribute success to Keynesianism.

Angela Merkel's coalition government has provided 480 billion euro stimulus (US$620 billion), 400 billion of which is loan guarantees and $80 billion for assisting banks in recapitalization. About 38% of the money has been actually spent so far.

In the US, the government has done way more, to the tune of $12 trillion in various programs and loan guarantees, but hasn't got much to show for it other than some inventory build-up.

What does Germany have that the US does not? And what does the US have that Germany does not?

Germany continues to manufacture things that countries around the world want, even at a premium - automobiles, machinery, electronics, chemicals.

The United States has Obama.

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More on George Soros

from LRC Blog at Lewrockwell.com, by David Kramer (entire post), who can probably say things that others, like Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (see my previous post) would not or could not dare say:

Billionaire George “Göring”* Soros, Part Zwei

Posted by David Kramer on June 24, 2010 06:23 AM

Billionaire Socialist George “Göring” Soros is back in the news again with his big Bolshevik mouth. Now Soros declares that it is bad that Germany is trying to get its economic house in order by cutting its budget.

“Right now the Germans are dragging their neighbours into deflation, which threatens a long phase of stagnation. And that leads to nationalism, social unrest and xenophobia. Democracy itself could be at risk.” [Right, George "Göring" Soros—it was "deflation" in Germany in the 1920s that set the stage for the rise of your economic predecessors, the National Socialists.]

Here’s another economically-ignorant gem from George “Göring” Soros:

“Germany is globally isolated … Why don’t they let their salaries rise? That would help other EU states to pick up.” [Uh, Hermann George, for an economy to grow and for people to improve their standard of living it is necessary for more goods to be produced against the "low" salaries already in place—not artificially raising one of the costs of production, i.e., salaries.]

Socialist Soros also thinks that it is bad that a fraudulent fiat currency, the Euro, might collapse. (Hmmm, I wonder how much Soros has invested in this currency?)

“German’s budget savings policy risks destroying the European project and a collapse of the euro cannot be ruled out, billionaire investor George Soros said in a newspaper interview released on Wednesday.” [What "European" project, George? The "European" euro project is just a precursor to bringing on a One World fiat currency controlled by the One World Government which you and your Bankster friends have been planning for decades.]

Of course, perhaps this is why George Göring Soros is so upset:

“Ms. Merkel on Monday defended her budget cut plans after U.S. President Barack Obama preached patience in clamping down on public spending.” [Merkel is obviously at odds with Banksters/Soros Puppet-in-Chief Obama's atrocious economic policies which are only prolonging the economic recession/phony recovery that the United States is currently experiencing.]

By the way, for those of you who think I’m being insensitive in referring to my landsman Soros as a Nazi, here’s an interesting transcript from a 1998 60 Minutes interview in which this Jewish man admits to being a Nazi collaborator to save his own life during World War II.

____________________________
*I’ve decided to change from referring to George Soros as George “Goebbels” Soros to George “Göring” Soros because I feel that some readers may inadvertently think that I am comparing Soros to the late, great comic George Gobel rather than a premier National Socialist, Joseph Goebbels—whom Soros seems to emulate more and more each passing day. Hermann Göring is an excellent National Socialist replacement for Joseph Goebbels.

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Evans-Pritchard: Soros tells Germany to step up to its responsibilities, or leave EMU

According to Soros, those responsibilities include increased debt issuance and debt purchase by the German government (which he calls as "growth strategy"), and they are vital to "democracy".

Soros tells Germany to step up to its responsibilities, or leave EMU
(Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 6/23/2010 Telegraph UK)

"Legendary investor George Soros has called on Germany to leave the euro unless it is willing to embrace a growth strategy, describing Berlin’s austerity doctrine as a threat to democracy and political stability in Europe.

""German policy is becoming a danger that could destroy the European Project. A collapse of the euro cannot be excluded," he told the German weekly Die Zeit.

""Unless Germany changes policy, its withdrawal from the currency union would be helpful for the rest of Europe. At the moment Germany is pushing its neighbours into deflation: this threatens a long phase of stagnation, leading to nationalism, social unrest, and zenophobia. It endangers democracy," he said.

"Mr Soros saw the political effects of wage cuts first-hand during the Great Depression, and narrowly survived the Holocaust as a Jewish boy in Nazi-controlled Budapest. He has since dedicated much of his wealth to philanthropic works promoting freedom and pluralism across the globe, mostly through Open Society institutes.

"His comments reflect growing alarm in influential circles on both sides of the Atlantic over the 1930s-style policies of wage cuts and debt-deflation being imposed up the Club Med bloc, Ireland, and parts of Eastern Europe by the EU authorities, at the behest of Berlin." [The article continues.]

Cutting the government spending and lowering wages ARE a "growth strategy" for a country like Germany, which has many things to export to other countries that people actually want and even want to pay premium to get them. Cutting the government spending frees up capital which otherwise goes to the government coffer to be squandered in bureaucracy (look no further than the US's TARP, so-called stimulus packages) to be directed to wealth-creating private enterprises. Lowering wages means input cost will be lower for their export products.

No way, says George Soros. He says that would destroy other eurozone economies like the Club Med. According to Evans-Pritchard,

"Mr Soros said Germany was treating the deeply-flawed Maastricht Treaty as it were a "sacred text", warning that monetary union cannot endure for long as a narrow construct based on debt and deficit ceilings. He said wage rises in Germany are imperative to help lift the whole eurozone, allowing peripheral economies to claw their way out of trouble without fighting the extra headwinds of deflation."

In other words, Mr. Soros is calling for self-immolation by Germany in order to save Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and possibly France. I guess he wasn't expecting resistance.

The article also mentions the US economist an Nobel Prize winner (as well as a candidate for Obama's new budget director) Paul Krugman, who basically said the same thing to Germans recently and pissed off the entire nation. (Some sweet snippet from Zero Hedge: "Germany daily Handeslbatt, which ran an interview with the "economist" in which Krugman stick not a foot, but an entire SS-20 nuclear warhead armed ICBM, in his mouth". To read the article, click here.)

Germans are more than happy, I suspect, to leave the EMU and get their Deutsche Mark back. One of the large financial portals in Germany, BoersenNews.de, has started to quote in Deutsche Mark alongside euro.

Great Britain, which is outside the EMU, may be embarking on the unthinkable - drastically cutting the government spending and raising taxes to achieve fiscal solvency.

Evans-Pritchard ends the article by recalling the famous George Soros maneuver on British Pound in the 1992 when George Soros' fund shorted pound sterling against Bank of England intervention to prop up the currency:

"Investors are likely to pay close attention to the views of Mr Soros, whose Quantum fund played a key role in the crisis of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992. He famously pounced on sterling and the Italian lira after a top Bundesbank official described both currencies as over-valued, an invitation for a speculative attack.

"The crisis proved a blessing in disguise for Britain, which was liberated early from a destructive policy of job wastage. Mr Soros yet to receive a a knighthood for his services."

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Germany Bans Naked Shorting, and Euro Tanks

Germany announced the ban on naked short selling of financial stocks, and on holding CDS on euro sovereign debt without holding the underlying bonds. So the investors are expressing their negative view by selling the currency, euro.

Let us all blame the 'speculators', shall we? That will solve any problem, won't it?

Germany to Ban Naked Short-Selling at Midnight (5/18/2010 Bloomberg)

"May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Germany will temporarily ban naked short selling and naked credit-default swaps of euro-area government bonds at midnight after politicians blamed the practice for exacerbating the European debt crisis.

"The ban will also apply to naked short selling in shares of 10 banks and insurers that will last until March 31, 2011, German financial regulator BaFin said today in an e-mailed statement. The step was needed because of “exceptional volatility” in euro-area bonds, the regulator said.

"The move came as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition seeks to build momentum on financial-market regulation with lower- house lawmakers due to begin debating a bill tomorrow authorizing Germany’s contribution to a $1 trillion bailout plan to backstop the euro. U.S. stocks fell and the euro dropped to $1.2231, the lowest level since April 18, 2006, after the announcement.

"“You cannot imagine what broke lose here after BaFin’s announcement,” Johan Kindermann, a capital markets lawyer at Simmons & Simmons in Frankfurt, said in an interview. “This will lead to an uproar in the markets tomorrow. Short-sellers will now, even tonight, try to close their positions at markets where they can still do so -- if they find any possibilities left at all now.”" [The article continues.]

Here in the US, we know what happened after the SEC banned not just naked short selling but also short selling of 'financial' stocks (which included GM and IBM).

The embattled German Chancellor said "In some ways, it’s a battle of the politicians against the markets” and “I’m determined to win. The speculators are our adversaries."

Pols and technocrats vs evil speculators. Place your bets.

Gold reversed hard upward on the news, US Treasuries gained more. Euro reversed downward on the news, and it continues to tank. Right now, euro is 1.2170. When they announced the $1 trillion rescue plan, it was around 1.28. Next support is around 1.20.

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Cartoon I Saw on Zero Hedge Says It All

The cartoon appears at the end of the article titled "The Selling Out of Germany" by Michael Krieger Of KAM LP, which appeared on 5/13/2010 on Zero Hedge. (I got to it through Lewrockwell.com.)

In the article, Mr. Krieger says the $1 trillion bailout plan of multinational bankers just increased the likelihood of Germany leaving the EU in a few years, and that's why euro didn't respond much at all to this new stimulus.

I agree.

He also reports that "Muenze Oesterreich AG, the Austrian mint that makes the best-selling gold coin in Europe and Japan reported that buyers had purchased 243,500 ounces of gold since April 26, compared with 205,300 ounces in the entire first quarter". He says that's how Germans riot - dumping fiat paper currency and buying gold.

How about you? Got gold?

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Is Euro Trashing Since Monday What They Wanted All Along?

Now, what if this trashing of Euro since the introduction of the supposed rescue plan has been THE PLAN all along?

(Tinfoil hat please!)

Cheaper euro would help the area's exporters (mainly Germany I suppose), stronger US dollar would help Geithner's Treasury to attract foreign buyers for the auctions, which would keep the rates low. (How about the US exporters? Oh we thought all the meaningful jobs have been shipped outside the US anyway..)

Win-win.

And as Bank of England's Mervyn King says, the EU now has to have a tighter fiscal union (meaning saying goodbye to the last shred of "sovereignty") in order to save the monetary union.

Never mind as to why the EU has to save the monetary union.

Mark my words. The monetary union was (and still is) for the rest of the EU to step on Germany and keep stepping on. As Jim Rogers said, euro is (and always has been, IMHO) a political currency.

PIIGS governments are hurrying to offer one austerity measure after another. Portugal will introduce "crisis tax" on businesses and individuals. No joke. Taxing more on a contracting economy is a sure winner.

US, UK, and the rest of EU had better remember what happened the last time they all ganged up on top of Germany.

(OK, tinfoil hat off.)

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