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The Euro Does Not Have A Problem... It Is The Problem
By Liam Fox MP, Conservative MP for North Somerset and former Defence Secretary, originally published in the Telegraph
The Euro Does Not Have A Problem... It Is The Problem
There will be a temptation to gloat over the Greek crisis over the next week and a queue of people waiting to say “I told you so”. Both would be unwise.
Whether Greece exits the eurozone or not (and it is an increasingly absurd charade), there remain a number of uncomfortable truths that the rest of the countries of Europe, whether in the eurozone, the EU or neither will have to confront. The first is that Greece is a failing state, something that will have implications far beyond the merely financial. Long before the financial crisis hits the global economy in 2008-09, Greece was in trouble.
The combination of structural economic weakness and high structural deficits were compounded by a culture where tax evasion and corruption are both widespread and, to a large extent, acceptable.
In the six years from 2004, Greek output increased in nominal terms by 40 per cent, while government spending rose by 87 per cent and tax revenues rose by a mere 31 per cent.
A man walks past graffiti reading "Free Greece from the European prison" written on the wall of an abandoned house in Athens
The European authorities charged with overseeing the single currency should have acted then. Their failure to do so has been partly to blame for today’s crisis.
It does not matter how much money is now thrown at Greece, Thessalonica will not be Düsseldorf any time soon. The cultural gap between the hard-working and profit focused north of Europe could not be more different from this southerly neighbour where masseurs can retire early on a state pension because it is regarded as hard and damaging physical labour.
A Grexit will be no panacea, and might even create its own array of difficulties. Even if Greece leaves the single currency, it will still have phenomenal financial problems, at least in the short and medium term, which need to be addressed and the danger is that it will suck in both Chinese and Russian money, becoming a strategic liability for the rest of Europe and the Nato alliance more widely. Russia is, for example, keen to have allies who will block the renewal of EU sanctions over Ukraine.
But the Greek euro-tragedy is part of a wider problem. Last week, on a visit to Macedonia, I saw African and Middle Eastern migrants walking through the country to try to get to an EU state. The fact that they hadn’t even bothered to stop in Greece spoke volumes about how it is viewed internationally.
The second uncomfortable truth to be faced is that the euro is a fundamentally flawed project. This, of course, comes as no surprise to those of us who have been predicting from its very inception that it spells trouble. The haste in which it was created and the fact that it was always more a political project than an economic one, has built chronic instability into its architecture.
We have now reached the point where the euro does not have a problem – the euro is the problem. De-risking it should be a priority for European leaders, as it now poses a chronic risk to global financial stability. Either the outliers need to leave or the countries inside the eurozone needs to move down the pathway to full political, economic and monetary union.
A woman walks past a graffiti called 'Death of Euro' by French street artist Goin in central Athens (AFP)
The first option is unpopular because to see the riskier southern European economies leave would be a huge setback to those who hold the concept of ever closer union as an almost religious concept.
For the other outlier, Germany, to leave (a logical if politically unrealistic option) would deprive it of the use of a currency hugely undervalued for its own economic strength.
It is one of the unspoken truths of the euro project that while German politicians and tax payers complain about the cost of maintaining some of their weaker economic partners, it is Germany itself, which has benefited enormously from the value of the euro in terms of its international trade.
As for closer union, this would first involve persuading the peoples of Europe that it was a good idea, which would be no mean feat, followed by the treaty change to which European leaders are so averse, as our own government is discovering.
Alexis Tsipras speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin at an economic forum in St Petersburg (AP)
The lack of appetite for either solution in European capitals is testament to the failure of real leadership at a time when it is much needed. Instead, they are content to play a game of explosive pass the parcel, hoping that they will not be there when it finally goes off.
This fundamental threat to financial stability will not be cured by a Greek exit – it is ticking time bomb that no one is willing to defuse. One day it will go bang.
The third uncomfortable truth is that the Greek crisis has profound implications for the EU itself and for its democratic structures. Indeed, it had become a political catch 22. If Greece were to be allowed to continue to spend vast amounts of money that it does not possess, then others would quickly be in the queue, including Spain, Portugal and Italy. Clearly, this would have a profoundly destabilising effect because neither the European institutions (nor more importantly, German taxpayers) could contemplate such an outcome. Equally, it has given proof to Eurosceptic voices across Europe that their fears were correct.
To a large extent, it no longer matters what voters want or how they cast their ballots in national elections. As long as they are members of the eurozone, they will be forced to accept the economic orthodoxy emanating from Berlin. This is not to say that such an orthodoxy is in any way wrong in itself, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the current model risks creating the very forces of nationalism and resentment that the EU was set up to diminish in the first place.
Those obsessed with the ever closer union project have brought economic risk and political instability to the European continent. If they break, it is because they will not bend. The skies are darkening over the continent with euro-chickens coming home to roost.
Liam Fox is the Conservative MP for North Somerset and former Defence Secretary
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The Greeks don´t have a problem ... they are the problem.
Throw those pathetic Greek deadbeats out of Europe already.
EU is the problem, not Greece.
A Twelve Step program to free the EU mindset from denial is in order.
The EU has no problem at all the moment the Greeks are out.
As I'd mentioned, denial is a problem
Liberalism and NWO ideals are mental illnesses
Fine piece, but one quibble.
Germany did not benefit from a weak currency. For years the Euro was unaccountably strong, given the fundamentals, and a weak currency never benefits anyone for long.
True. Unless you introduce the same currency in industrially and economically inferior counter parties, too. Say, you have Germany on one side and Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland on another and behold the magic: all goods are flowing one way and all the deficits another! :-)
Trouble is, in this Universe infinities work only if you are flying at the speed of light or if you are in the black hole.
Creating "money" out of thin air, and fractional reserve lending are the problem. Doesn't much matter what country is issuing the currency, or making the rules - it's still a ponzi fraud and is inherently unsustainable.
GOD has spoken to the people of Puerto Rico, I told them to study Greece. The good people of Puerto Rico will never have to work another day in their lives.
Dude, that souvlaki must have been served really cold?
BTW, nah. Don't throw Greece out. Split Germany again. EU was just fine before it united and pushed for Euro, so that Deutsche Bank can create money from the thin air and shove expensive credit to bribed Southern Europe politicians which in turn would buy overpriced German industrial goods and services that they actually didn't need. All of this without asking the populace of the Southern Europe.
Germany almost achieved with credit manipulation what it couldn't with armies it two WWs - but Greece showed it stiffie.
So, fuck off you tiresome troll!
The one thing I despise more than Nazi types is Nazi-Light types like you. The former at least have some courage to be jerks openly.
Nonsense.
.
yep, that's about the size of things.
Fiat currency issued by Central Bankers is the problem. The people in their respective countries are the victims.
The Euro is a scapegoat. Hard currency is not inherently bad. The real problems are:
1) The unstoppable urge of European governments to spend beyond their means, piling up deficits and debt to the moon.
2) The belief propogated by dimwit politicians and their pet economists that a Eurozone European govenment could (during good times, way back when) borrow 3% of GDP forever, because they would grow at 3% per year forever, because hard currency and fiscal stimulus would guarantee 3% growth forever.
European (especially southern European) countries have always been prone to crisis because of their overspending, chronic inflation, and lack of political cohesion and will to arrive at a set of policies for living within their means. Remember how many zeros on a lira note? It's true that the Euro has turned those endless series of small episodic national crises into one big, permanent, continental crisis. But still it's unfair to blame the Euro itself. It's like saying cars are evil because four-year-olds are not capable of driving them safely.
The solution is to get hard-assed about the hard currency. Message: if you are by nature a confetti-money country and culture, get out of the Euro. Hard currency has benefits, but requires discipline. If that's not for you, don't join the Euro. Hard currency, like sobriety, has benefits but does not work magic.
"Hard currency" (whatever that is) needs to be product of the economy it represents, not some other economy.
THERE HE IS! GET HIM!
tough people those Greeks. So few and yet so dangerous...
keep telling yourself that. As we all know, reality changes. You only have to wish and it'll happen. =))
Prohibits the Fed print green toilet paper and you will see who is the deadbeat ...
hehe.
Wolferl,
I wondered where you'd got to today.
One of your respondents summed it up very well yesterday. "Fuck off".
DavidC
I was in Greece about 2 years ago and I saw something that really bothered me. I saw a professional looking man in a nice suit begging on the train. I guess it bothered me because I can blow off a darelect begging in the streets as lazy,crazy, druggy etc. but this guy looked sharp and well spoken. I hope like hell these Greeks give the banksters and bureaucrats the middle finger soon.
Repostiing from the previous thread since this strengthens my hypo-thesis...
So, as a slightly obtuse view, what is being pincered is not Russia but the EU!
Look:
1) Greece: In Deep Trouble, Spain : In deep trouble, Italy : Been tottering for the longest time, Turkey : ODDBALL NATION IN ABOUT FIFTY RESPECTS AT THE MINUMIM.....
So, Southern and southern bordering nations of the EU is a giant fricking mess.
The heart of Eurpoe was pierced long ago with immigration, both legal and illegal and the consistent pigeon-holing, under-educating, drug pushing, barrio and ghetto living conditions for them.....time bomb....
Everything the UK touches is poisoned, just by assosiation...people FUCKED HARD, royalty just fine.
Gas suppy is a major issue, the winter is not too far the way time has accelerated.
And now, the north-eastern part is literally and figuratively aflame.
Ringfenced by created hot zones, impregnated with US bases, nukes......
So, unless the Eu finds a quick answer to it's socio economic issues, it can be thrown into flames so easily.
Like they do here in India, a couple of dead pigs in a mosque, a slaughtered cow in front of a temple and suddenly old neighbours are at each other's throats.
Neither the Eu nor the completely socialist USSA will last too long in a conventional war. Their core is deeply rotten....
This is perhaps a Russo-Chinese master-stroke.
Greece is the red herring...
Verily Ori, its like watching a game of worldwide Go, near its end.
A cornered animal is very unpredictable and dangerous, but hubris is blinding Uncle Scam from
the reality of the situation, for the moment.There is very little time for Pax Americana to do
anything that might possibly change the course of the Great Game thats unfolding.
A rapidly closing window.Once the gas pipelines and Silk roads are finished,its done.
I suggest the window is now shut Winston, for Amrica as we know it....
This might sound too touchy feely for some, but in spite of so many reasons to come visit, there is like a giant *No one except sheep welcome, get ready to get your nut's fondled or your nude x-ray taken" sign on all American Entry points.
And that shit starts right here in India, at the US Embassy.
Water's getting hot mate....
Very astute analysis - I take it you've spent a lot of time in Europe? BTW the immigration policy in the UK is retarded. Back in 1997 a Hong Kong Chinese friend of mine tried to get UK citizenship - he has dual first in Engineering and Economics and a 1st in CompSci from Imperial College. Sorry no dice - nothing for him.
On the other hand, literally illiterate losers from Africa are fished out of the water 1000s of miles away and shipped in. Someone really hates Europeans and or Smart people like my friend. Their doing their best to trash the place.
Oh Regional Indian
You more or less accurately describe the present situation,
and then
quite wrongly offer a bizarre conspiratorial suggestion:
"This is perhaps a Russo-Chinese master-stroke.
Greece is the red herring.."
As though the "West" was not responsible for self-inflicting its problems.
As though the the phoney and aggressive "wars on terror and drugs" did not create blowback (e.g the emigration from Central America and Africa). As though the past and present economic and financial pillaging of the globe have no blowback (e.g emigration again). As though the the trade policies, and the misdirected resources to militarism and a wealthy elite do not cause internal problems in the West.
"Perhaps" you ought to have used a sarc tag for your suggested conclusion.
rwe2, have you heard of the socialization of America by Comerade Yuri Bezmenov? Highly recommend watching his interviews back in the 80's. If you feel so called....
The creation of the free shit army is a plan, cloward piven was always a wolf in wolf's clothing, no?
You may want to look up when Russia and China started the SCO.
The seven P's;
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Fiat currencies have led to too much borrowing and debts that can never be repaid.
So Central Banksters are trying to fix this problem by printing and buying bonds and creating ZIRP and NIRP. About 14 Western economies had NIRP recently which does not make sense at all.
Trying to solve the problem of excess debt by more debt is as futile as trying to evade death. And the death of Western fiat currencies is not far, as is the death of global bond markets which have sustained bubbles in stock and real estate and art markets.
The dollar with US debts and unfunded liabilities of over $1,400,000 per US taxpayer, thanks to sky-high medical costs, is a bigger problem than the Euro.
I blame it on the banks taking on to much risk.
Catch 22, if the banks had not taken on the risk, the money would not have appeared out of nowhere so the economic system would not have inflated ... theis game really rocks don't it?
Just the poorest everywhere are screwed out of everything in this game.
Another failed fiat, and it won't be the first time the EU failed at it.
Base money on something of value instead of political agendas.
Smaller European nations signed their own economic death warrants
when they relinquished their individual sovereign right and ability to
regulate their national economies by control of their own currencies
and rates of exchange, thereby laying themselves wide open to
wanton exploitation by more powerful nations with stronger
economies.
Similarly they bacame instant vassal puppets of the West when
they signed their national security responsibilities over to Brussels .
Basically Brussels wants to be like Wash D.C and tell all the ''states'' what to do.
Basically, Brussels=Washington/AIPAC
=ZOG. It's a Weimar World.
Basically Brussels wants to be like Wash D.C and tell all the ''states'' what to do.
Basically Brussels wants to be like Wash D.C and tell all the ''states'' what to do.
What about Greek corruption? What about Greek tax evasion? What about Greek spendthrift ways? Your argument falls apart by assuming all would be well for Greece if it just had not joined the EU. Nothihng could be further from the truth. The EU bailed out Greece and tried to set Greece on a sustainable financial course and maybe get their money back. Greece has not made progress in escaping the welfare state it has become.
Now there are those, such as you, who villify the EU for having done so. I suppose you would villify me for giving a poor beggar a meal rather than teaching him to fish.
The problem with one side of this debate is that it has no sense of how things came to be in this pitiful situation, i.e. conveniently forgetting the historical events that led to this. They (you) look at the present state of things and look back no further. They would rip your argument to shreads in a court of law.
Greece had productivity growth from 1960 till 2001. Somehow, after they joined the EZ, amnesia hit and they all forgot to work. Right?
All of your hand-waving doesn't change the fact that the german and greek economies are vastly different and their economic policies should be different. The core of Europe needs the Euro to compete globally, but Greece is not a real competitor in the global economy and therefore benefits much less from the arrangement.
There are winners and losers in the EZ, and it will sow discord, a little here now, more over time, and ultimately it will acheive precisely what it states to avoid.
What ez / eu advocates fail to understand is basic concepts of system design. Homogeniety is unstable. The fact that a country can default, fuck up, and be isolated is a point of strength, not weakness.
What about Greek corruption?....ROFLMAO.....
What about IMF and Brussels megacorruption ???
Not At all MANAZE, the EU bailed out the banks!. The loan`s Greece has had so far went directly to German/French banks so to prevent them going bust,Greece has seen very little of this so called financial aid but enjoyed the increased debt whilst following the IMFs advice on how to reduce it
Yes, that terrible Greek tax evasion. They don't want to give their money to corrupt politicians to use to feather their own nests and waste on any number of useless schemes.
Oh those terrible Greek tax evaders. Where is their sense of civic responsibility?
except that at least some were totally rotten and doomed to bankruptcy already even before joining in (like italy) and they were already all vassal of the US.
Europe can be described as a set of nations which agree to join their road networks so as to give access to each other but where they forget to tell the participants that the road rules must be in common otherwise there will be crash after crash.
Either the roads must close or the rules must become uniform.
The next problem is that Greece has crashed so badly that it no longer has a car economy. It has crashed so badly that its economy is now represented by slow moving donkeys which are causing mayhem for the rest of the European road system.
Europe now has the expectation that Greece kill its donkeys off as well in the hope that Greece can heal. The reality is that if Greece follows the European prescription it will become a pedestrian without the ability to even cross or travel along the European road.
The sad reality is that common values and systems cannot be promoted or imposed in the face of unsustainable debts.
Finding that old 1889 book "The Great Red Dragon: Foreign Money Power In The United States" in an antique bookstore in Detroit, around the time of the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, was an O-M-G moment. I had no idea how bad things would become. It's almost like having a bad dream, and then seeing it play out for real. Talk about curses and blessings.
http://www.biblestudysite.com/reddragon.htm
I think part 3 is missing though.
Only weak minded fucktards believe the Buybull bullshit.
GROW UP and start using your brain.
full text here: https://archive.org/details/greatreddragonor00wool
Please god bring this all to an end soon. Amen.
Had you only used the crucial capital letter, it might have.
Now, thanks to your careless punctuation oversight, we're all screwed.
This is true. It is not polite to disrespect Mother Nature.
"the hard-working and profit focused north of Europe"
Statements like that make me chuckle, so the north of europe was dealing profitably with little green aliens from space bullshit. The profit of the north came from Greece, Spain, Portugal etc. etc. so IF THEY HAD NOT BORROWED AND SPENT WHERE WOULD THE PROFIT FOR THE NORTH LIKE GERMANY AND FRANCE CAME FROM.
So now remove that northern profit, preventing the southern debt because they could not get hold of the money in effect the north has serious financial problems.
By allowing the debt, the north staved of dealing with its financial problems also.
All went swimmingly well for a time, just like Japan after its banks to all intents and purposes went bust but now the global economy is slowing Japan is in a whole load of financial hurt and will not be resolved peacefully this century for sure.
If Greece goes .... who will be the new Greece .... and the unending shakedown begins again ! Socialism sucks, doesn't work, is unmanageable, spreads misery, punishes good people, rewards useless crappers .... at it's very core .... it is constructed around THEFT .... it has a rotten moral center .... and the people who profit from Socialism are more hideous .... than the worst Capitalist pig cariacature ! Keep repeating that .... until it sinks in !
The nations of Europe are digging their own graves as fast as they can, with no interest in anything but self-indulgence and delaying as long as possible their day in the Court of the God they insist does not exist but know in their hearts will condemn them to hellfire. They refuse to have children, and would have nothing but unpayable debt to leave them if they did.
Greece is merely making the most melodrama out of it, lining up her children in front of the grave and machine-gunning them, before jumping in and emptying the last German-made cartridge into her own skull. If she thinks that will impress her Creator, she should have read her New Testament more carefully. She doesn't have the excuse that she might have misinterpreted it. It was written in Greek, on a level so very easy that even a slave could read God's Word, and believe.
Israel, one of the very few developed nations whose civilized population still bother to be fruitful and multiply, will be the last one standing, and will bury them all, the way she buried Rome, Egypt and all her other tormentors before them, all the pagans and perverts and princes and potentates who said in their hearts, There is no God, and who treated His Word as a fairy tale for children.
The vengeance of Israel is her Lord's. Her enemies' own iniquity and vanity will be their undoing. In the end she will not need to die with the Philistines. She will watch from afar the spectacle of the emptying of the great cities of the pagans, as their populations die out or scatter.
Israel will live, and her children will recount the deeds of her Lord.
There is hope. Just not for Europe.
You don't understand what "Israel" is.
Read Galatians 3, and pay attention:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3
True Christans are Israel, and the promise made to Abraham is inherited by any and all who put faith in Christ, no one else.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+2:28-29
http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=134
LOL. Israel is a tent in the middle east reliant on Europe and USA to exist - without EU/US it would not exist. It consists of Tel Aviv, Haifa and half of Jerusalem, if SHTF you think it wont get nuked? All the rich people in Tel Aviv live on the road to the airport...go figure.
You just had to slip in the anti Russian bit in you arsehole Fox or did the White House write this article for you.
Sooner European nations regain sovereignty, secure their borders, and make the tide of millions of "asylum seekers" stop, the better. Let's see how many boat people Italy is bringing ashore when they all stay in Italy instead of moving to Sweden and the U.K. due to secure borders.
Is no one questioning the economic output numbers (pre 2014 or otherwise) posted by Greece in all these articles? I cast a skeptical eye on any number posted by Greece as being all that accurate. You can say that about a lot of coutries of course.
Article: Greece is a failed state.
Me: ALL states are failed states.
Nial of the nine, I suggest you read Showdown in Jerusalem.
Israel was not sanctioned by God. It was brought into being by murder, intrigue, and the action of Zionists. Zionism in turn is in league with Kabala.
Christian Zionists are well meaning, but have been duped through historical propaganda. Zionism is funded by usury on money, a biblical sin. In Christian theology, this sin is on the same order as murder. Ergo, Christian Zionists are guilty of murderous sin, and ignoring injunctions in the bible against usury.
http://www.eaec.org/newsletters/2008/vol_8/showdown-in-jerusalem-digest.htm
God was not the one who created the political state of Israel in 1948; it was the work of sinful men. Most of the people in the Zionist movement were atheistic, agnostic or followers of the occult Cabala or Talmud.
Moses Hess, Theodor Herzl and other Zionist leaders never mentioned that God had spoken to them to undertake this project. Instead, they were driven by communism/socialism. What they didn’t know was that the force which drove them was the Devil himself. (Revelation 13:1-2)
IS GOD THE FOUNDER OF MODERN ISRAEL?Why Hitler and his Jewish followers decided to destroy the Jews in Europe is a mystery that won’t be fully known until the Great White Throne Judgment. All that we know is that the Nazi’s and the Zionists entered into an unholy alliance of death and murder which caused pain on a scale that humanity had never before experienced. Theodor Herzl’s book written in 1896, “Der Judenstaat,” spelled out the destruction of some Jewish communities in order to motivate other Jews to move to Palestine.
Something is wrong in the way that history has been written since 1945. The sanitized history that Hitler and his Nazi’s were all stupid and didn’t know what they were doing doesn’t make sense! Hitler was ambitious and intelligent, he understood that killing off the German Jews and their businesses would have been a suicidal disaster for the struggling economy.
If Hitler really hated the Jews, it would have been smarter to hide his hatred and build up the military power economy first, then attack the different nations, and then afterwards, turn on the Jews. Therefore, a power much stronger than Hitler, the Zionist movement with its blue print laid out by Theodor Herzl, and forced him into the policies he made.
For your further reading, I suggest Hoffman's book.
http://www.amazon.com/Usury-Christendom-The-Mortal-that/dp/0970378491
Even further, Israel was wiped out in 79AD and all Levite Priesthood lineages were erased. Modern Judaism is not Israel, it is a new religion formed after 79AD The Oral tradition of the Pharisees became written down in Talmud, and this oral tradition is not Mosaic Law, it is illuminist Cabala..