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Euro: Currency Or Prison?
The following Wall Street Journal article deserves to be read in its entirety...
Authored by Vincent Cignarella, originally posted at WSJ Market Beat,
Is The Euro a Currency or a Prison?
Wearing the disguise of austerity, the euro has emerged as the gatekeeper of what is fast becoming a debtors’ prison.
The Troika of the ECB, IMF and European Commission acting in concert have become more like another Troika–of judge, jury and executioner–for any nation within the euro zone that dares not follow the letter of budgetary imposition.
The latest country bound by these handcuffs: Cyprus.
Like Lords of old, they gallop into town and demand of the serfs a levy on their lands, in this case deposits so they may remain within the realm and suffer the protection of the single currency regardless of the cost in pain and human suffering.
Monetary union, the vehicle to bring about peace and prosperity, has become the lash that tears at the fabric of the poorest of nations. In the case of Cyprus, it could easily push that nation into the arms of Russia and abandonment of the euro - the exact opposite result of what the single currency was designed to do.
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Read: Bernard Connolly - The rotten heart of Europe
http://www.pmbug.com/forum/f4/two-eye-opening-books-euro-crisis-1347/
It was designed as a debtors prison.
Which means it is time to storm the Bastille and let the prisoners FREE
European Revolution 1789 ... 2013
I'd prefer 1776 over 1789.
"Liberté, égalité, fraternité" is not what I want, especially not egalitarianism.
perhaps because you misunderstood them? read them as:
personal liberty (the basis of liberal parties)
equality before the law (and the basis of socialist parties, yes)
fraternity between citizens of a nation (the basis of conservative parties)
at the end, those are the three primary political colours, and nearly everybody has at least a little of them in his soul
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the EUR: a currency. common one between nations. and so one that can't be driven like a speedster car for electoral or other political reasons
let me see, when did we have something even remotely resembling the EUR? .... ah, yes: gold
and don't forget that we had debt crises even when debt was in gold - and they were remarkably similar to the Cyprus Affair
by the way, get some gold - you'll sleep better
Remind me: why do they re-open the banks (in Cyprus) on Tue?
let me see... WTF have the banks in Cyprus to do with the denomination of their assets and liabilities? note that when we had banking and sovereign debt crises in the 19th Century it was in gold - and nearly nobody blamed gold for being "a prison for debtors", or "too hard"
oh, wait... Lord Keynes did, or someone before him? or did it... Richard Nixon?
sure, printing with gusto solves every banking crisis - and you know what?
whenever you "just print and bailout", you don't have to reform or restructure banks - or jail corrupt, criminal bankers
isn't that swell?
"whenever you "just print and bailout", you don't have to reform or restructure banks - or jail corrupt, criminal bankers"
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So they aren't printing Euros then? There are no dollar swaps? Are you argueing for or against the Euro? I am confused.
swaps? remember that swaps are temporary - and then swapped back
sure, the ECB is printing - but what does it buy? compared to the FED's assets? (hint: FX-Reserves)
why do you think we eurozoners are so keen on balanced budgets? masochism?
no, it's because sooner or later everybody will have to balance budgets again, and the longer you wait the worse the consequences will be
Well then, if all the budgets are balanced, then there is no problem is there? Let Cyprus do whatever it wants then. By the way, the next time you want some oil or natural gas, please pay in Gold. Otherwise, you can pump it from under your own feet you arrogant piece of shit. Perhaps it would have been better to tether your future to the ruble eh? Consequences indeed.
what would you do with this crisis involving the sovereign nation called Cyprus if you were the government or in the parliament of let's say... Finnland? or the Netherlands?
If they are truly a sovereign nation I wouldn't be so arrogant as to think it was up to me. They made their bed, now they must sleep in it. For someone who speaks of consequences I am surprised that this simple concept escapes your grasp.
no, I agree with you
so...buy stocks right?
Larry Motherfucking Fink is buying Corrections Corp and debtor prisons
Indeed.'Leave it to the...hahahahahaha...."Wall Street Journal" to "blame the money." hey! Wall Street Journal! "money" is an inanimate object! It doesn't care what you, I or ANYONE thinks about "it." now imagine "a spiritual guide to wealth creation." hmmm.'interesting. In says right on YOUR money "In God We Trust." to which I ask..."do we?" no finer explanation of the "filthy lucre" of course. "would you like some F-35 fighter bombers with that?" NAME YOUR PRICE.
Currency crisises during the 19th century had there foundation in a leveraged gold standard, where warehouse receipts were in excess of their capital. You can revisit the corn laws, if that is helpful.
The type of gold standard is just as important as having one. When bankers and merchants are allowed to print currency with reckless capital requirements, it matters not what the capital is that backs it. When gold has a determined value, just as ridiculous.
The problem is the same: bankers in charge of currency with the police power of the state equals economic tyranny and crony capitalism.
equality before the law is of course something that does not apply to Corzine
Liberté, égalité, fraternité was a compromise between different factions (as you said). The French revolution was a total failure because of that. They couldn't keep the Republic and reverted back to imperialism (Napoléon).
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Comparing the Euro to gold is comical, gold doesn't need a central bank. Under the classical gold standard, debt levels and interest rates like we have them today were impossible. We also would never have gotten such extreme trade imbalances as we got them today within the Eurozone. And calling the Euro-project "Austrian" (as you did on other occasions) is absurd. It's monetarist facism while the US FED's path is a mixture of Keynesianism (full employment) and Monetarism (price stability) designed by MIT phds. Since Draghi took over from Trichet, the ECB somewhat adjusted it's course to the MIT model (instantly cutting the target rate back, LTRO, OMT, "do whatever it takes"), which is no wonder because Draghi is another MIT phd moron like Bernanke.
Cyprus is not just another domestic debt crisis. Their economy is healthier compared to other Southern Euro-states. It's a banking crisis that originated in the exposure of their banks to Greece. Who has been killing the Greek economy since 2010? The troika.
The Squid killed Greece. Cyprus is just an afterplay
you mean it's not Austrian because you know, Austrian feels good? Austrian is about giving to each according to his needs and so on?
I mean it's not Austrian because it's centralist and ultra-interventionist.
Time has forgotten the fourth: "ou la mort." Strange, since back in that era, more folks ended up with "la mort" than the other three.
Godless revolutions usually end the way that is expected.
They made Putin the most powerful man in the world right now. His choice of taking down the Euro or not.
http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2013/03/germany-warns-cyprus-b...
Not too sure about that.
3 possibilities:
1. He gets his money out and everyone else is taxed
2. Tax never actually happens
3. Tax happens but ECB reimburses him in another country for going along
He is not going to take down the Euro. Why would anyone so entrenched in the present system go against it?
Wasn't it the Freemasons that led the French Revolution?
Many European Banksters are Freemasons.
Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said major Cypriot banks were "insolvent if there are no emergency funds,” according to a BBC report, meaning savers might lose all their money if no deal was reached.
The "wealth" isn't real to begin with. "Mark to fantasy" forever...
Forever
This "deal" is to protect the banks investors not clients.
The proposed and rejected Cyprus deal was structured to protect the mainland investors (i.e., exisitng term creditors) at the expense of the bank customers...the depositors.
Probably, structured in such manner because that is the only remaining source of immediate value on the balance sheets, and much of it is owned/controlled by non-EU citizens.
Either way, the banks' equity investors get wiped out. With "the cat out of the bag," depositors take any remaining money and run when the banks re-open.
If and after a proposed deposit seizure/haircut (which was shot down in Parliament), the remaining "jumbo" deposits would have fled Cyprus in anger, and the banks would have become illiquid thanks to fractional reserve structuring.
If the Cypriot banks re-open, denominated in a different currency, then the bank run still occurs, albeit in a new currency, because the majority of value on the balance sheets is from elsewhere.
"...meaning savers might lose all their money if no deal was reached."
Well frankly, in the midst of an open-ended bank holiday, if you can't access it, protect it, move it or use it, did you really ever *have* any money in the first place?
"insolvent if there are no emergency funds"
That basically describes every tbtf bank.
ALL the banks and countries that bought into the CDS Toxic Sludge (Made in USA, and packaged & sold by GS) are caught in the Debtor's Prison. So, in typical Stockholm syndrome fashion, rather than looking at what really happened, the masses are all to happy to blame each other. Thus self-enforcing their respective roles as sheep.
The EU banks that had little to no exposure to GS-Sludge (Germany) were sucked in nonetheless, thanks to the EU Solidarity group-think at high levels.
It's time that people did their homework, so they won't fall prey to charlatans peddling false-flag arguments that act as diversions from everything but the truth.
ALL the banks and countries that bought into the CDS Toxic Sludge (Made in USA, and packaged & sold by GS) are caught in the Debtor's Prison. So, in typical Stockholm syndrome fashion, rather than looking at what really happened, the masses are all to happy to blame each other. Thus self-enforcing their respective roles as sheep.
The EU banks that had little to no exposure to GS-Sludge (Germany) were sucked in nonetheless, thanks to the EU Solidarity group-think at high levels.
It's time that people did their homework, so they won't fall prey to charlatans peddling false-flag arguments that act as diversions from everything but the truth.
ALL the banks and countries that bought into the CDS Toxic Sludge (Made in USA, and packaged & sold by GS) are caught in the Debtor's Prison. So, in typical Stockholm syndrome fashion, rather than looking at what really happened, the masses are all to happy to blame each other. Thus self-enforcing their respective roles as sheep.
The EU banks that had little to no exposure to GS-Sludge (Germany) were sucked in nonetheless, thanks to the EU Solidarity group-think at high levels.
It's time that people did their homework, so they won't fall prey to charlatans peddling false-flag arguments that act as diversions from everything but the truth.
CRAP!!! TD, please delete multiple postings. I had connection problems, saying that the site was offline.
Thanks for telling me. I thought I'd been hitting the Sterno too hard again.
"Monetary union, the vehicle to bring about peace and prosperity...."
The WSJ is a rag. What a load of utter horseshit.
according to the WSJ we continental europeans should just had to adopt the USD, and so have even moar peace and prosperity
So there are no dollar swaps covering Euro printing then? Wake up, you have had and will get moar peace and prosperity.
.
Does it matter what currency you adopt, since all of them are worthless and printed into eternity? There are zero GOOD currencies, they are all debt instruments. Why don't you adopt the elimination of legal tender laws and let your people decide what is money?
100% agree.
The euro allowed the south to borrow more and at lower rates than what they otherwise would have. There can simply be no doubt about this. The tradeoff is that the governments in the south cant decide to print money to dilute their debt. Saying that this is the lash of serfdom forgets that no one would have given Cyprus, Greece, Spain or Italy money otherwise.
Stealing deposits to fund a "stability fund" was just full frontal fractional reservist bullshit. Only a complete moron could believe such a story. Face it, ECB, if you don't want to provide liquidity in the event of a bank run, then why do you exist?
Europe and Obummers Amerika are no different that communist China now. Same evil politicians. At least Europe has Grillo, Farange, Gerd Wilders and a few others.
F TV, F Hollywood and F massmedia who keep the evil elites in power and fool the pubic.
Freddie, I maintain that we have Grillo, Farage, etc. because of our electoral systems - think about that
Get out of paper while the getting out is good.
http://jimroger.blogspot.ca/
i.e. EUROpeons
Two excerpts from Connolly's book:
That was written in 1995!
So I guess he was right.
"Like Lords of old, they gallop into town and demand of the serfs a levy on their lands, in this case deposits so they may remain within the realm and suffer the protection of the single currency regardless of the cost in pain and human suffering."
We hit you because we love you baby.
"'It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."
So Cyprus says to Europe, take a hike.
The Cypriot banks go insolvent, which they are anyway. It's they go insolvent without the EU, or they go insolvent with the EU as soon as they reopen. Either way, they are dead meat.
Cyprus, you might as well go with the Russians. At least you know up front you are dealing with out-in-the-open criminals . . . and you get to keep your banks open too.
-30-
I don't see Russia handing Cyprus 10 Billion.
Cyprus, like Greece, Spain and Portugal would be mad to leave the Euro ... they are getting hand out after hand out.
Only Ireland was raped really, their government is a bunch of traitors.
Russia and Putin look less evil than Obummer, EUSSR and the Chinese communists.
Go live there then.
Please elaborate on your logic. So that others can shoot it down, blindfolded.
I think they might pay 10 billion for a warm water Naval port and an international banking center. Just turn on the 'Ruble press' and pay it with their version of funny money. Thats what 'the debt' is denominated in anyway.
What a shitshow...at what point do sheeple begin to lose faith in all this financial nonsense??? Arrrgghhhh...
Ben is printing free money. Better for Cyprus to go with the Americans.
Less expensive for USA to buy Cyprus Natural Gas rights, instead of cost of war.
Its a plantation/prison.
Private sector has high productiviy. Private sector is gradually stolen by kleptocracy. Gradually productivity decays until they have to resort to forced labor to get anything at all. The nation(?) either reasserts itself or is destroyed by internal/external enemies. Cycle repeats.
Nothing like a daisy chain of criminal psychos setting policy; kinda like a homo neo-fascist candidate getting elected President. The original vetting process of the elites, if fimed, would easily make the gay porn hall of fame.
Peelites
Perfect...just like sharecroppers....they get paid so they can buy stuff at the company store. But they can never leave and are captive to the plantation owners.
Slavery in all but name. Where's my food stamps!
Cyprus is being served up to Russia on a silver platter as a consolation prize for losing Syria.
You think they lost Syria ?
Assad may disagree with that, and Putin certainly would.
Russia will ner let Assad fall,whatever they say,watch what they do.
A PIPELINE RUNS THROUGH IT: At the risk of having another Afghanistan deja-vu moment, I think that most of us know the true value of Syria to the US and its oil/energy interests... Run a pipeline through Syria, to Turkey and the EU. Thus neutralizing Russia's pipelines and their dominance on EU's energy supply.
/ "The isolation of China and Russia must continue, to ensure path forward to NWO." /s
Cyprus is certainly being served up to Russia, but from Russia's perspective it is more than a consolation prize.
If you were the Russians, would you prefer your Mediterranean port and military bases to be in a European country small enough to easily control or in one full of Muslims always wanting to fight someone and with no shortage of right nutters with bombs?
And would it be a plus that the same country had substantial offshore gas assets?
and the Dollar and the Petro Dollar and the Reserve Currency Dollar are not prisons???
The US is a "better" prison.
We give our inmates baseball, football, basketball and hockey to watch for diversion.
Their prison only has football.
For an avowed libertarian blogsite that is strange logic shown by this poster!
the EU ostensibly now applies the Ron PAul formula to ALL its members, having forgotten the bank solidarity meme : sink or swim, but at our terms; or leave.
No country in principle is too big to fail!
You choose your destiny...Its a confederation with delegated responsibility for common currency to the ECB that can be reneged at the decision of any sovereign parliament...
What more can a sovereign state ask for?
If Cyprus wants to bed Russia so be it! If Cyprus wants to go belly up so be it!
If Cyprus wants to get ECB support they accept the terms of ECB and pass the legislation to make that procedure legal.
They have decided not to activate the fast track withhold tax. Nothing stops them from legislating that all citizens pay a one off tax by end of March 2013 to ensure that their remaining money can be guaranteed by the government, with ECB support lines open and the debt deal done, provided that citizens agree to pay the sum on that date.
Sovereign governments worth their name should have a plan B ....or they should leave the EU.
I don't see the rationale of this ZH poster's logic.
In the final analysis you want the cypriots to get the best of both worlds like protected citizens; that is not libertarian ideology, thats socialism by your own definition.
Who said they will be allowed to, despite all rhetoric. But i assume the attempted spinoff of the bank branches in Greece hints at this tale's resolution.
magpie, "allowed to" what? the military basis of Cyprus is British, remember?
so we should expect a military coup in Britain, a Vivat Regina and the pound sterling rides in to the rescue scattering the venal Eurocrats and Russian mafiosi in one fell swoop.
Lets play devil's advocate :
This ECB position could be considered as a monetary blocus used by ECB : "you are not liquid banks, we won't fund you." Whence the forced closure upto Tuesday of local banks.
Either the Cyprus govt. capitulates or finds a Ruski solution or it leaves EU.
Now, the things become interesting, if they leave. The EU could then IMPOSE an ECONOMIC BLOCUS on Cyprus as punishment !
That would be totalitarian play; 'cos a EU country that leaves the Eurozone and is still part of the outer family is still european.
That would be the acid test. BTW : Cyprus has a good economy and bad banking system.
Cyprus' "good economy" is dependent on its banking system, since the export component of its economy is primarily providing financial services to external depositors in its banks. Merkel and the EZ have now destroyed that business model whether Cyprus stays in the EZ or exits UNLESS it exits with strong Russian support so depositors don't lose money and don't fear losing money.
So there is only one option, ie throwing in its lot with Russia, with whatever terms Russia requires (ie military bases, control of offshore gas, etc), that does not end in the absolute impoverishment of Cyprus. A brilliant strategic coup by Merkel and co.
Oye! A sexy tyrant is coming, he is me.
There's no such thing as 'confiscation' when talking about money that you stole yourself! Ah, esta bien. It's not like you didn't know what was coming. You have to dig into your savings (the gringos call it 'capital' but its really debt) to live? Me siento. I thought you were a luchador, act like one. Are you gettin' self-conscious because some self-righteous preacher out in the 30th row is calling you 'a parasite on the system'? Chinga! Recuerdo... this wealth me luchador is as illusory as your hard-on after 2 botttles of mescal. You earned your stash on the back of my in ring performance, my slaughter, my luchador thievery from the rest of the world, my running of drugas for other wrestlers, and my dinero laundering. These were my efforts...fucking ingrates. you should be thanking me for throwing the party. You knew I was slipping mickeys into the punch pendejos. Smug cabrones, thinking that the value created and put in your pantalones pocket, that really was stolen from the labor of others, is yours to keep without a fight!
Now, there's nothing wrong with our system, or our methods. The only problema is you've forgotten how to entertain humanity, put the world in a headlock, and use the guillotina in the ring. What the hell is your problem paisanos? I am your Lord and Saviour Luchador, so listen up. All you see is me best estudiantes, the IMFighters, EUnuchs and ECBlaster luchadors who actually admit they are Luchadors - and they are winning the fight, whether they appear to win or not. These are kick ass students of mine. You can do it too! Learn from them.
Now that we have made our intenciones clear as running sweat, only a small part of the audience will protect themselves. This is un opportunidad grande for us. The audience will never change, they will keep their dinero in our bancos, they have that desire to feel your hot moist sex parts swell as they kneel before El Luchador! They mean nada to us, but energy to be stolen. As we dial up the angst, the chihuahua and caballo show, we solidify the temporal realm. Have you forgotten that it's more than their dinero we're after? Los rulachos, chompin on their nachos will never get their money out of the bank, o get out of the arena. This is how we generate low vibrations for us to use to insure the lucha libre fighting ring always exists.
Luchadors, you think when the slam down comes that the F-DICk insurers are gonna cover you? Ha! no one's dinero is safe. Why..because it's not their dinero! Do you safely store someone elses money in someone else's bank? After all, that guy who was stabbed by Brutus, his money had his face on it. Aye aye aye. The audience were suckers from the get go, and you are not the audience. All this talk about 'their' dinero is like a jumping beetle in a bean screaming its their bean. This is debt money, created from the thin flatulence that comes from our nalgas, and soaked in blood that you may have attachments to. Lose the attachment, we will create more. Creations upon creations y illusions upon illusions. Savers are to be spanked in public for their belief in dos illusions. The most basic one being that their currency, their unit of value, their storage of wealth was more than a debt note! You deserve what you get, if you let yourself get into a rear naked choke. The second mistake of the audience, me luchadors, is that they thought the very platform that this 'money' trades on has substance... it doesn't! I love it when I see the great learning experiences available to all the baby nino luchadors here. This is a great time to grow from your Los Minis size. Si... when you're that small, it smarts to be kicked in the huevos, but no more painful than the trick I have up my briefs. And no worries, because you'll be able to teach su ninos how to reboot the system (depends on the seating chart). Some of you are thinking my world will breakdown into a anarchistic combate with the audience y los luchadors all brawling. Others think that the top luchador will come out and be one hell of a mean tyrant. Callate, this is how Im going to work it out... primero, I'm gonna have lots of carnage, then, I'm coming back as the messiah to save you all. Dressed as 'je' Zeus... I'm going to use the duality principle to lock you, su ninos, your esposas y abuelas fiat souls into a temporal reality that is never escaped from.
You lose a few fights and you start wimpering and crying like a puta barata, a cheap whore.
Oh jes, you're all so surprised. you've been here the whole time. so lets get something straight.. how do you join me fiesta? How does your fiat soul strive for eternity? Oye, me and you... we're gonna rule the world!
They don't call me Chumba 'Cruz' por nada!
http://askchumba.com/2013/03/05/patsies-and-expendable-cucarachas/
The Euro is debt slavery for everyone other than the elite. Germany is just a little bit behind Greece.
Wait till the New Latin Currency Union sticks Deutschland with a €500 billion TARGET2 tab.
Peace of Versailles, bItCHeZ. You lose again.
This just in (from Euromoney):
Great to know the rating agencies are on the ball, protecting bond investors with a timely heads-up.
What a wake-up call. We're reviewing our Cyprus exposure right now!
Limassol is awfully quiet even though businesses have been open for two days. There's a lot less traffic on the highway and the city streets. Grocery stores were very quiet today and all the carts I looked at had hardly anything in them. Not scientific data I know but my eyes are telling me that something has changed and we've downshifted since the vote the other night.
Very good article, euro-scepticism is growing in Europe and it seems more people every day aknolodge that you can't have the same monetary policy with different fiscal policies, and that a bunch of bureocrats can't determine the faith of nations. The smoke and mirrors are about to fade
The EU to Europe: "We will bury you". And so it seems. Bankers and Bond Holders must be made whole, if this requires debt slavery for the masses, then who are we to complain?
Keep the banks closed until the people start to get "really hungry".
Then re-convene the parliament for a second vote.
Guaranteed it passes the second time.
Or a few "representatives" get eaten. win-win.
another fool in diapers bam man
are you tone deaf or just a big sucker
"Euro: Currency or Prison?"
"DOLLAR: Currency or Prison?" There, fixed it for you.
Stop the diversions & bag of Fed tricks! The Fed is the Root of All Evil. And GS is 'the Antichrist'. We'll settle for the dollar's repair -- if possible (but doubtful) -- or its demotion to a 'regular' (non-GRC) currency.
russia may not be so bad .. they will back the currencys with gold along with china .
those who think the west is the center of the universe are fools in a big diaper
EU is absolutely a medieval fiefdom. The supranational Eurocrats/bankers are claiming super-sovereignty over everyone and everything within the EU dominion. They are violating every law and limit the EU had heretofore prescribed. As an antecedent, they even cheated and cooked the books for subprime countries to get into the EU. It was a ticking time bomb from the jump. And they're still just getting started.
Europe is now colonized by a malevolent mercantilist class of neo-monarchs(read bankers)the same way the British colonized India and forced them to use British paper money in exchange for real goods... or else.
If the elites want to go medieval on the masses then turnabout is fair play. Bankers should immediately be publicly hung with extreme prejudice for debasing currency, as was customary, as a deterrence to others. The penalty for being outright traitors is less pleasant.
Prima Nocta, Bitchez!
America... from cotton plantations and chattel slavery to minimum wage plantations and wage slavery.
The South was right!
The hilarious irony in the Euro, is that it's essentially suffering from the same problems as a gold standard currency operating in a fiat-world. Except that it's even more restrictive and suffers from even more of the problems associated with gold. It's effectively a gold standard with a central authority having the power to debase and fractionalize holdings at will. It's pretty funny to watch.
"... the exact opposite result of what the single currency was designed to do."
It was designed to do exactly what it's currently doing. Someone is misreading spin as intent.
I'm guessin' the White House isn't paying much attention to this crisis, what wif Rufus and Reggie doin' der "brackets" all week in the Situation Room. "Reggie, whadya say we goz and takes us a steam..." Priorities and leadership at their finest....CB
In Curlys voice..."hmmmph, I'll take the currency"
Ireland joined the proto euro in 1979.
Soon we entered a massive deflation.
After 1987 the banks went into credit hyperinflation mode.
A general characteristic of the euro is the destruction of rational domestic demand / local commerce for international trade flows.
A country becomes hollow on the inside as the surplus created via austerity gets transferred to credit banks who then waste it on grot production.
The Euro area wants another bout of private lending / grot production it seems.
To get this it must subtract the wealth of citizen serfs one more time.
Every fiat currency is a FICTION and a SCAM.
Every central bank is a FICTION and a SCAM.
What do people expect? Wake up, get real!