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Merkel Has A Dream
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel set foot in the European Parliament for the first time since 2007 and addressed the only democratically elected European institution—by design, an emasculated one that cannot even originate its own laws, though it is allowed to vote on proposals by the other European institutions. There, she laid out her plans to bring European nations together to where their budgets and other matters would become part of her “domestic policy.”
But first, the current problems should be focused on, she said to the drumbeat of economic deterioration—a day when Greece reported that unemployment jumped to 25.4% in August from 24.8% in July and from 18.4% August last year. It was 7.5% in August 2008 when borrowed euros were still growing on trees. Young people got slammed: 32.9% of the 24-to-34-year-olds and 58% of the 15-to-24-year-olds were unemployed. Revolutions have been triggered by the utter frustrations in those age groups.
So, as tens of thousands of Greeks filled the streets in protest, Parliament approved the austerity package demanded by the bailout gang from the EU, the ECB, and the IMF, the beloved Troika. Another €13.5 billion in spending cuts and tax increases would be imposed on the people so that the next bailout payment of €31.5 billion would wash over the land—actually, most of it would head straight back to the ECB to service Greece’s existing debt.
The Troika should have sent the money in June, but after the election chaos, it sent its inspectors instead. They’d write up a big report behind which all politicians could take cover. In August, Greece ran out of money, and desperate measures began [ Greece Prints Euros To Stay Afloat, The ECB Approves, The Bundesbank Nods, No One Wants To Get Blamed For Kicking Greece Out ].
The report would be finished by September, and if it said so, Greece would get the €31.5 billion. Then rumors surfaced that the White House wanted to have the report delayed until after the election. So the meeting of the European finance ministers on November 12 became the decision date. Turns out, the report still won’t be ready, and the next decision date might be November 26.
Greece might not make it that long. It ran out of money months ago. The government is delaying payments to its suppliers, businesses are shutting down, the healthcare system is cracking... and unemployment in November will be much worse than it was in August.
Even in the previously calm core of Europe, the ground is shaking. Thursday, it was the lifeblood of the German economy, exports. They fell 2.5% in September; exports to the Eurozone plunged 9.1%. And industrial orders, which had been skidding for months, caught up with industrial production in September, dragging it down 1.8%.
Hence, today’s corporate austerity programs: Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, might chop off 5,000 to 6,000 of its 56,000 employees; and Siemens announced that it would shave off €6 billion in costs over the next two years and trim its workforce of 410,000 people—due to the “slowing global economy and more headwinds,” explained CEO Peter Löscher.
Accompanied by this drumbeat, Merkel explained her dream to the European Parliament. It was all about a big power shift from democratically elected national parliaments to European institutions. The European Commission of bureaucrats and appointed politicians would become the actual government of Europe with executive powers over national budgets. The European Council, similarly composed of bureaucrats and appointed politicians, would become an “upper chamber,” she said. And she threw a bone to her listeners: the European Parliament would receive a bit more power as well.
“We need to be ambitious and demanding and should not shy away from a change in the contractual foundation,” she said. So treaty changes. Or just treaty violations, which has been one of the strategies so far. The new system would “coordinate more strongly” a variety of national prerogatives, such as taxes.
Then the instincts of the powerful political animal broke the surface: she proposed a fund to deal with the pandemic of youth unemployment. Because “Europe is all of us together,” she said. “Europe is domestic policy.”
Her domestic policy. The Greeks, for example, didn’t vote for her, and they might not want her to run their show. They didn’t vote for the European Commission either. They might despise Greek politicians, but at least they’re their politicians. Merkel’s dream had no such room for doubts. Together, she said, Europeans would create “a Europe of stability and strength” where some day all European countries would have the same currency. And why not with her on top of the heap?
The EU has already created a ballooning superstructure of governance manned by 41,000 bureaucrats and mostly unelected politicians. But now, the European Court of Auditors released its annual report—a damning document that outlines how up to 4.8% of the EU budget seeped through the cracks and disappeared. Read.... The Art Of Siphoning Off EU Money.
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If all these More / Greater Europe suggestions of hers are covers that she doesn't expect to be actually implemented, and her real plan is to exit the euro when they fail to pass, she's doing a brilliant job of avoiding blame when the dominos hit the fan.
I thought about that as well.
She surely is a hack, just like all the others, but she is not stupid.
She knows that all the shit she told her electorate in the past 3 years will hit her in the face shortly, because what was obvious then (tax moniez being Corzined) is MORE than obvious now. If she wants to avoid being tarred and feathered after the shtf (eu-wise), she better comes up with some even better cover to get us out of this mess.
Maybe thats just wishful thinking on my part though...
As Zuckertard said: most people are dumb fucks.
After addressing the European Parliament, Merkel transmitted orders to the Wehrmacht to implement Krystal Nacht II, the plan to invade Greece and bring true austerity.
Was that supposed to be funny or are you just retarded?
The only good thing about the EURO parliament is Nigel Farage's speeches before it. Too bad they don't have a Q&A period where national leaders had to appear and take questions from members. Would have loved to have heard Nigel posing questions to Angela.
the national leaders have their own, more important national parliament in front of which they have to appear and answer questions. and if the parliaments are not happy with the answers, they can send them packing and form a new government
Yeah right, what are you smoking?
the above is correct. except in cases like France, where they elect directly a president
They did have a brief exchange on Wednesday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w5VsW1W2Zek
Yesterday I heard from a doughty & brilliant German biz person with the highest technical degrees (PhD Physics with post-grad at the highest of physical science levels in western world) and truly successful leadership of young cross-ocean tech companies (we are unusually close from a variety of personal-family health challenges).
He was borderline scared for the first time I can remember
Is it beginning?
Only 4.8%?
Buncha pikers.
The OMB estimated some 20% of the federal budget was waste, theft and fraud several years ago.
Seen anybody address that statistic?
480% more like it
the whole EU budget is btw around € 150bn
Wolf Richter is talking about a "waste" that does not exceed € 10bn
(http://ec.europa.eu/budget/figures/2012/2012_en.cfm)
I'm at loss in expressing my sarcasm properly
Just because Wolf doesn't address the approx. 1 billion EUR that lobbyists pour into Brussels' bureaucratic pockets, doesn't mean it's not an issue...
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?
I'm guessing wolfy of got a couple of hundred bucks from some lobbyist to write this stuff.
Thats what happens in a financial market where lying is profitable and honesty is not, dont blame the wolf for being dishonest, (he's smart enough to know he's lying) blame the system he's trapped in just like the rest of us.
Ahhhh......Big hugs for wolf X-X-X
As Horace once said,
"Make money, money by fair means if you can, if not, by any means make money."
oh, I agree. 10'000 lobbyists spending €1bn is a serious issue. but I don't see Wolf complaining about them
I read him complaining about a waste on a budget that is miniscule compared to the US Federal one of $ 2'400bn
I read him making hay out of those "unelected" memes around the EU, feeding prejudices because it fits the views he pushes
and that number of €1bn is understood as the expenses in "showing how bright this idea is blablabla", including the salaries of the lobbyists, their expenses, their offices, etc. not what ends "in the pockets of...". or am I wrong? We don't have that number
I once read a novel that went like this as related by the young protagonsit about his youth :
...My grandfather had a good joke when as a young adolescent I would tell him as benevolent family elder, (not like my dad), about my feminine successes; like smooching in a cinema etc. (I was 13); and he would tell me by looking at me thru one eye open and the other closed :
"Your adolescent little john is now awake, but its little "eye" is not the one to use when you look at life; God gave you two beautiful eyes, use those first!" ...I was impressed by the reasoning even if secretly I felt little john was a great guy...
Wolf gives the impression he loves looking at life thru his "little eye" when discussing europe, and seeing monstrous giants walking around. Little John and Friar Tuck.
Now where's Robin Hood? Bull's eye expert!
lol - long little eye
just to remind the perspective in this discussion: Wolf Richter is talking about €13.5bn spending cuts and tax increases "imposed on the people" so that the next bailout payment of €31.5bn "would wash over the land" and/or "head straight back to debt service". He complains, he has no numbers on what stays and what goes back to the creditors, but I don't read any proposed "fix" from his side. At least he could be candid enought to say: default, bitchez
Ok I´m gonna ask now:
Is that you, Jean-Claude?
:D
let me ask you this way: do you really believe that in an EU area with half a billion pop everybody has the same opinion as Nigel Farage or Wolf Richter? Who are a Brit that wants a BriXit and an American, respectively?
I am a continental european and a fan of ZH. oh, and I deeply dislike lies and bullshit
my bigger, more extensive rant about this article is btw in a different part of the thread, here 2963651
btw, gold, bitchez. buy every month phyz, relentlessly. call it saving
Just poking fun dude, you are as much entitled to your faith in the EU project and the parliamentary charade as I am to despise it.
I just marvel at the notion that any change in the composition of parliaments would foster a change in EU policy. At least for my country (GER), that would preclude alternative policies by the status quo parties, which is about as likely as Wolf Richter buying GGBs.
Cheers mate.
Terp, most people have difficulties in understanding that there are two different regimes in their lives: the setup of their countries (or in our case the EU) and their corruption
You can have a perfect republican and democratic setup and still be up to your eyeballs in corruption. Or, on the other side of the spectrum you can have a country like China, completely authoritarian including one party (and have corruption, too)
Just ask yourself: how many Germans want a different setup? Of course you could also write which German party - if any - somewhat conforms to your views and wishes... btw, how much interest did you ever have in how the EU really works?
Nevertheless, IMHO if while protesting and fighting corruption you lose the current setup you do, as the saying goes, "throw the baby with the bathwater"