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A Union Divided: "More Europe" Means "More Germany"
The tense division in Europe's union are becoming increasingly evident. Between Greece's "no" vote, yesterday's EU Parliament outbursts, and today's German parliament commentary it is clear that, as Bloomberg reports, the centerpiece of Merkel’s cure for Europe - fiscal retrenchment - has catalyzed her in the eyes of many as despite her calm but firm entreaties, an economic bully. “The lesson of this crisis is more Europe, not less Europe,” Angela Merkel said in 2012 as the integrity of the region’s monetary union was threatened by financial instability, but many, like Greece, have come to understand "more Europe" means something different: "more Germany."
“The lesson of this crisis is more Europe, not less Europe,” Angela Merkel said in 2012 as the integrity of the region’s monetary union was threatened by financial instability, touched off by Greek debt, that was spreading through the euro zone’s weaker economies. By “more Europe,” the German chancellor meant a deepening of the continent’s noble mission—peaceful integration to ensure prosperity and democracy—of which the common currency, the euro, is the ultimate symbol.
In the intervening three years, Greeks have come to understand “more Europe” as something different: “more Germany.” That was one of the few clear messages sent in a referendum on July 5 that had everything to do with Greek voters’ views on how Merkel had imposed her vision of Europe on the zone and if their troubled nation would be better served as part of its grand project, or not.
The centerpiece of Merkel’s cure for Europe was fiscal retrenchment.
It was an almost maniacal drive for reduced budget deficits and debt levels—the targets for which were already enshrined in euro zone agreements—combined with reforms to labor markets and welfare programs. Merkel believed that such policies would strengthen the euro zone’s financial position and competitiveness. The medicine may be bitter, but in the end, like an ailing patient, Europe would rise from its sickbed with renewed vigor.
The result has been stagnation.
Merkel’s insistence on a hard line isn’t masochism, just politics. One poll released in early July showed that 85 percent of Germans surveyed opposed making concessions to Greece. Merkel has faced resistance to a softer line from within her ruling coalition. Amid the recent bailout negotiations, one lawmaker from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union derided the euro zone’s policy toward Greece as a “financial carousel.” Her hard-nosed finance minister, Wolfgang Schaüble, once said that Greece “cannot be a bottomless pit.” Such attitudes are fostered by a widespread perception among Germans that Greece is unworthy of their aid. “NEIN,” blasted a headline in the tabloid Bild earlier this year. “No more billions for greedy Greeks!” it insisted. Even the referendum results produced little sympathy. Shortly after the vote, Georg Fahrenschon, head of the association of German savings banks, said “the Greek people have spoken out against the foundations and rules of the single currency bloc.”
Such sentiments have hindered efforts to tackle the crisis from the start.
That German view—the euro zone’s problems aren’t of Germany’s making—has dictated Berlin’s approach toward the crisis. Merkel has played the unrelenting taskmaster, treating her beleaguered neighbors not as partners, but as spoiled children who could be set right only by the rod.
Last year, French President François Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi advocated greater flexibility in the austerity program to promote job creation. “If everyone does austerity, we’ll have even slower growth,” Hollande groused in October. Merkel would have none of it. “We have had times in Europe with very high deficits and yet no growth, so we must learn from the past,” she said. When some European leaders proposed “eurobonds,” instruments backed by the zone to ease financing costs on individual states, Merkel rejected the idea.
Even the IMF, in a June report on Greece’s finances, deemed the country’s debt load “unsustainable” and recommended relief. Merkel accepted only minor concessions to bailout demands, insisting that the Greeks impose further tax hikes and public spending cuts. She labeled her offer “generous.”
Is it any wonder, then, that the Greeks said no?
They may be only the first. Joblessness and recession have persuaded other voters in Europe to seek a new course. Gaining popularity in Spain, where unemployment is 22.5 percent, is the leftist political movement Podemos, which also seeks a fairer deal from the rest of Europe. “The problem isn’t Greece, the problem is Europe,” Podemos’s chief, Pablo Iglesias, said in late June. In Italy, Beppe Grillo, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, called for a referendum to decide if Italy should remain in the monetary union.
Europe’s leaders characterized a no verdict in the Greek referendum as a vote against the idea of Europe. In fact, the resounding no was a vote against the existing harsh reality of membership in present-day Europe.
As Bloomberg concludes, unless Europeans act as partners in their grand quest for solidarity, they will end up with less Europe, not more.
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If I were Mr Merkel I would rather jack off every night than take a dip in that Cesspool.
She'll have plenty of free time soon to engage to her favourite hobbies - whatever these might be
Merkel has the courage to put pressure/austerity on the downtrodden but not on the CBs and financial institutions that created the mess. For this she loses my respect.
Very well said.
obviously if you borrow a lot of money and can't pay it back - the immorality flowed from the bare act of lending, and the debt not only should not be repaid, but the lender should be forced to give the borrower even MOAR.
/s
European Union Morphs Into A ‘3rd Reich’ Using Germany As The Enforcer
I want interest rates like Germany
I want cars, machines, white goods ...you name it, like from Germany
I want to be organised and stable...like Germany
I want Germany to support me
but I do not want to be like Germany, I do not want to be in matrimony and I do not want a divorce either
Houston we have a problem
Hey, Stiglitz, what about Germany's humanity? If they want to be boss then they have to take care of the children and pay them their allowance.
HANG IT ON THE WALL STIGLITZ!
THIS IS FIGHT CLUB ROUND ONE!!!
https://goo.gl/AgTCFE - The problem is beyond Democrat or Republican.
The financial crisis that started with mortgage fraud in the land of the free succeeded in destroying the fragile financial coalition in Europe. Now it is virtually impossible to put it back together as debts are too high and growth is too slow. So tensions in the EU will continue to mount. Merkel will get a lot of the blame which she will repudiate.
Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.
what are the odds that german federal elections happen before the planned date in 2017?
not needed to change the party leader (see how Thatcher was removed)
Fundamentas bitches http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=NG&p=m5
Supply is at the top of the past 5 year range
WAIT! WAIT!
ACRIMONIUS HAS SOMETHING TO SAY!
If Germany wants more Germany, then good, Greece can default on their external loans like Germany did a half dozen times...
Something tells me they just want to keep all the benefits of being part of an international coalition to themselves...
Did they think their export-boosting cheap currency would be free?
Germany needs to pay its fair share
The 4th Reich Rises
If only. Get a clue.
"Greek deal in sight as Germany bows to huge global pressure for debt relief"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11730086/Greek-deal-in-sigh...
Due to cash shortage and the restriction on money transfers outside of Greece bussinesses are going to crash by the end of the month. It's tax month in Greece btw.
Democracy?
The EU has shown, over and over again, its deep contempt for Democracy.
The EU is for bankers, oligarchs, and globalist whores - not for the peoples of Europe.
And that's all.
They must have some very interesting intercepted stuff (Text, Audio, Videos) on Merkel, to have the strings attached
Germany will give all these countries nothing but a common currency forever set at the value that is good for Germany - its insane to stick around - get out - the only long term answer and devalue competitively below the rest with new currency and new rules
there will never be a discount on the debt that is sustainable for long term growth -
take short term pain for long term gain
People of Greece, here is what you are dealing with. Beware. A quote from my previous comment.
I think you mean ubermensch (Supermen). The rest of you are the untermensch. (Goys, or cattle)
Your are right. I am not German speaker so I mixed up those two.
A long time ago the German currency was starting to stabilize,and political stress was decreasing,then....The Austrian banking authority forced a Rothschild bank,Kredit-Anstalt,to absorb two smaller,insolvent banks.The French were pissed off about Austrian Customs union with Germany,so the French pulled financial support for Austria,Kredit-Anstalt failed,the Austrian economy was toast,two northern German banks failed at the same time,and Germany was back on the road to hyper-inflation.Guess what happens next? People like order in their lives,the bills paid,etc. Oddly enough,during the 1930's,much US capital was invested in German bonds because they were paying a solid 5% return,directly supporting the rise of Hitler.Once again the bankers thought they could control him.
The first thing a person such as Hitler would do today is shut down the internet.
What's going on with the DAX?
' . . . . despite her calm but firm Butt(ress) . . . '
FACTS are that contrary to opinions that Germany paid few reparations to those they murdered (the Greeks for example ) they instead have had to make these payments to Vichy DC, the Shity of London and French Banks over the Decades.
Very clever are the Money Changers.
Merkel singing as Jim Morrison:
"Ve vant our money and
Ve vant it... (drum roll)
NOW!."
-When The Music's Over-
more Germany, good, if that means you welfare parasites take responsibility for your own future... I am always hoping meritocracy thrumps entitlement
The agents of the Fourth Reich will not back down, even when Greece is licking their jackboots.
Everyone should have know this in 1999. Can't believe the currency has lasted as long as it has.
If I remember correctly Annenberg series Economic USA predicted in 2002 program that Euro will not last and by 2015 will be gone since it has no economic foundation.
A very good irony, this ambiguity :
“The lesson of this crisis is more Europe, not less Europe,”
Complete bullshit!
The cause of stagnation is debt load, the cause is not Germany, and the cause if not a mere currency, the cause is 100% the result of high debt growth.
Because if you take away 90% of all the debt --> AND CHANGE NOT ONE THING ELSE <-- economic activity and trade will rush back so fast that it will make your head spin.
It is the bankers and harlot media that want everyone to think it's something other than unaffordable debt, owed to thus rendered INSOLVENT BANKS that's 100% of the economic stagnation, and also the tendency to geopolitical destabilization.
Germany and "more Europe" (whatever that is supposed to mean) has nothing at all to do with the reason for economic stagnation, settling-in, all around Europe, and the globe, and the conflict that associates with it, and is exploited by people looking to do that.
Anyone telling you the cause of the malaise is something else, someone else, some currency, some state, is talking complete bullshit, to try and distract from the clear and obvious reason that it has occurred - UNAFFORDABLE DEBT GROWTH.
Germany being branded as "the problem" is pure red-herring and concerted mischief-making, at best. There is a potential good Germany, and a potential bad Germany, and I prefer the good one, thanks, I don't want to see Germany pissed-off and disenfranchised again, for entirely false, fraudulent and malicious reasons (i.e. trolls and provocateurs).
90% global haircut = zero stagnation anywhere = demand everywhere = trade out the wazoo
Anyone telling you otherwise is a deceiver.
More Europe means
more granny porn
----
Live with it
Do you honestly think that the Rothchilds are letting the Germans control their banks? Realistically, you just have to laugh when Wolgang Schauble or Angela Merkel are blamed for financial tyranny. They're patsies.
Do you honestly think that the Rothchilds are letting the Germans control their banks? Realistically, you just have to laugh when Wolgang Schauble or Angela Merkel are blamed for financial tyranny. They're patsies.