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The Summer Of Their Discontent
Submitted by Mark Grant, author of Out of the Box,
Every time I see your face,
It reminds me of the places we used to go.
But all I got is a photograph
And I realize you're not coming back anymore.
-Photograph, Ringo Starr
I suspect when the European Summit is over new conclusions will have been reached. I actually think that this Summit will be different; just not in the manner expected by many. As a matter of fact, for even those thinking it will be just one more go at it all with nothing done; I think even they will be surprised. This is likely to be the Summit marking the “Summer of Their Discontent.”
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
-The Bard’s, Richard III
While the European economies improved and while the people of Europe thought that some kind of Continental harmonization was in everybody’s best interest the great experiment proceeded and flourished but when virtually each nation on the Continent overspent and borrowed more and more money not only for new projects but to pay off old debt the reality of their engorging lifestyle eventually caught up with everyone and now they are faced with the rather harsh reality that the Continent is in recession and that the wealthier nations do not wish to and will no longer bailout everyone else as their economies also decline. To a great extent the politicians, the elite in Europe, came to believe their own nonsense and now they are finding out that the lyrics of the Three Musketeers, “One for All and All for One” is now the swansong for a Europe that is pulling apart both politically and economically.
The people living in Berlin, Vienna, Helsinki and Amsterdam et al are not going to watch their standard of living decline and be equated to those living in Athens, Lisbon and Madrid. The donations of Germany and the rest are about to stop as their economy flirts with recession while the other countries in Europe already find themselves mired in one and one that is worsening as the consequences of playing funny numbers with their books come around and take a bite from their rear ends as the penalty for such behavior. You may call things what you like and you may claim that there is plenty of money still left in the countinghouse but when your purse empties and you return to the vault to refill it only to find that the cupboard is bare then a reality of a different sort sets in.
The thirteen years that the European Union has been in place is but a mote in God’s eye. It is a trivial amount of time that is overshadowed by centuries of tradition and history of the tribes that inhabit Europe. The Greeks don’t want to be Germans and the French don’t wish to be Spaniards and certainly the Austrians don’t want to be Portuguese. It is neither wrong or right, better or worse; it is just different people with different mentalities that tried to forge a bond that is unworkable especially as all politics is local and Brussels, the creation of Germany to cover their dominant position, is elected by no one and accountable only to their own desires to rule by fiat which is close to dissolution as each tribe on the Continent rallies to protect themselves. It is self-preservation that always wins in the end and the platitudes of a harmonious existence have rusted and are collapsing as the desires of each nation conflict with the desires of their neighbors. Promises made can no longer be promises kept as the local consequences can no longer be borne.
This Summit is likely to be the one where the masks come off the revelers at the Ball and where the faces behind the masks are unveiled for all to see. I predict this weekend will be full of many “Oh My God” moments which will go unreported in the Press but where it dawns, with a wicked thump, that the wealthy nations of Europe are unwilling to pay for the poorer ones and that all of the make nice comments of the last thirteen years were no more than polite conversation in the European parlors. The ball of yarn is about to be unraveled and the quality of the cloth will be examined and found wanting.
Germany is running out of both patience and money and the people in Germany are beginning to become aggravated. The gloves have come off and Germany is staring down Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy and flatly saying, “No” and they mean it. Many, many people think that Germany will back down but the politics in Germany will not allow it and so they won’t as Ms. Merkel votes with her own people in the end and we have just about reached the end. I think this Summit will be an important one and will find a significant place in history just not in the manner that most people suspect. The rose will be off the bloom and the heat of the summer will cause more wilting than just the vegetation in the pastures.
“It was as if, at moments, we were perpetually coming into sight of subjects before which we must stop short, turning suddenly out of alleys that we perceived to be blind, closing with a little bang that made us look at each other--for, like all bangs, it was something louder than we had intended…”
-Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
All of this may seem rather complicated but it is not. This is a cut to the chase of those without adequate capital asking everyone else, anyone else with money to pay their bills. Think of a country club where different members have different incomes and where capital improvements were made with borrowed money and now the interest must be serviced and the loans repaid and the many members can’t afford it and are requesting the members with money to pick up their share of the costs. Ireland now wants the European Union to pay for the Irish banks and not just Ireland. Spain is screaming for the EU to lower their borrowing costs as well as Italy. France has joined the poorer nations as their economy declines and as Mr. Hollande wants to spend even more money as he pledged that in his election campaign and this Summit, I predict, will be noted as the gathering where Germany and the rest finally said, “No.”
This Summit will not be the end but it may well mark Churchill’s famous postulation that it is the beginning of the end. The cries of anguish are about to be met with refusal and the realization that “No” is actually “No” will produce, I fear, the exact same reaction of a six year old unruly child who throws himself on the floor in utter frustration when he does not get what he wants. It is still now, it is quiet; but it will not be soon!
“Three quiet days. This hell fiend is like a cat with a mouse. She lets me loose only to pounce upon me again. I am never so frightened as when everything is still.”
-Sherlock Holmes
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-Hank Paulson
And if this french royalocommunist (they all try to mimic Louis XVI, from the revolutionaries and napoleon onwards) continues with the "solidarity" trashtalk BS, Angela can sing him "Imagine"
Imagne our roles are swapped,
would you pay all the debts...
And the discussion is over.
Global financiers have played (and continue to play) the politicians like grand pianos. Got them backed into a corner with no way out. They are the next patsies. After that, the people will take the blame. We are the final and ultimate patsies. Divide and conquer.
Remember the steps: Financial crisis = sovereign crisis = political crisis. Along the way, focus and blame are shifted away from the parasitic banking sector.
The usual narrative I see. Kudos on your consistency. Shame it's fiction.
Dial up the Bernank, he's got a printing press runnning "only" on half-speed.
the bernank will bail them out. in the usa the gubbermint doesn't give a flying fuk what the people want or think.
Bernanke is not going to bailout the pigs ... The US banks with exposue to the pigs? ... Oh yeah, they're getting bailed out.
It's over for the pigs. Time to hit the reset button.
Bernbank gonna bail out the EU too? I'm going to enjoy watching all you fools with money in this market cry when your delusions are shattered.
Come to anticipate of it, the aforementioned did appear here, afterwards the Stanley Cup final game, if adolescence rampaged in city Vancouver. Again, what did they hit? The bounded shops, which they looted.I wouldn’t be afraid to see their depression spread. We waited too long. We cared too little. And now we’re paying the price.
jogos online
"This Summit will not be the end but it may well mark Churchill’s famous postulation that it is the beginning of the end."
well, that would make abouit the 1,000th beginning of the end event i've read about over the last year.
@bigdumbnugly
It has dragged on for much longer than I think necessary, but each day is like another step down the staircase into the basement. The beginning of the end started long ago, but this summit will mark a significant milestone.
It was a misquote. Churchill said it was "the end of the beginning," early in the war.
And in this context, makes much more sense. There's far more to come.
e.g. seeing sovereign debt measured in the QUADrillions.
a few yrs from now when the euro is gone we will wonder why the dragged out its death for 5 yrs..from 08 to 13??
It was dead for about as long as it was alive - it truly is the night of the living dead.
Wheels have fallen off the Euro vehicle!
I think we need more cars crashing into that VW hippie bus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcosvnoQPPc (must see TV)
after this weekend all that's going be left is that hulking wreck
of a VW crashing to the street... (kudos to Peter Bogdanovich)
why does almost every article miss the shell game of this?
it is not about the rich countries paying for the poor countries.. it is about the rich countries being tricked to bail out loans to shit endeavors.
Change the narrative to say that the rich countries will pay the poor ones DIRECTLY without the banks and see how quick this charade ends
Exactly. Is nothing more than wealth transfer from sovereign nations to banks to cover bad bets and maintain power under the guise of mutually assured financial destruction if anyone so much as thinks about rocking the boat.
I find the parallels between the US and Eurozone interesting. German taxpayers are reportedly getting tired of bailing out other countries. Similarly, US taxpayers are increasingly getting tired of their money being shoveled to non-productive political cronies (think LightSquared or Solyndra) or to subsidies to illegal immigrants (as one example). Sooner or later either the transfers from taxpayers to others will end or will be enforced by use of force, I fear.
nailed it! wish i could give 1000s of up votes
Head. Sand. Fingers in ears. I'm not listening! Blah Blah Blah
Okay everyone...let's ditch him!
No, this time will be different, this summit will fix everything!
R E P E A T !!
Kick the debt can down the road.
... and kick harder this time.
Who filled my can with sand?!
Nice article Mr Grant, but if you're going to quote Churchill at least get it right.
yeah, egregious.
The crisis starts at the end of June when the Germans say kein pfennig mehr. The various European governments will dither around for the better part of a month as it sinks in that the Germans really mean it. The opposite sort of "blank check" - with a -0- on it - as yesteryear. What will happen on 1 August? Will the Germans march (out of the Euro)? Lay in the popcorn!
Or, we could go back almost another century - the restored-by-popular-demand statist leader of France mobilizes the forces of the Revolution and leads them against the Germans and the English....
Perhaps the Germans would consider bailing out the French in exchange for Alsace and Lorraine?
This Summit is likely to be the one where the masks come off the revelers at the Ball and where the faces behind the masks are unveiled for all to see. I predict this weekend will be full of many “Oh My God” moments which will go unreported in the Press but where it dawns, with a wicked thump, that the wealthy nations of Europe are unwilling to pay for the poorer ones and that all of the make nice comments of the last thirteen years were no more than polite conversation in the European parlors. The ball of yarn is about to be unraveled and the quality of the cloth will be examined and found wanting.
--> OMGWTFBBQ week-end coming!!1!
"I wish I knew how to quit you." - Greece
"Oh that's just what we call pillow talk, baby, that's all." - Germany
In the Spanish language, Plata means both silver and money.
Same thing in French.
interestingly, in Russian this word means "payment"
As this turd keeps circling it reminds me more and more of my kids:
No
But dad!
No
Dad!
No
Come on!
No
Please!
No
But dad!
...
I dunno ... maybe they'll decide to really double down on the European unity thing rather then watching the Euro fly apart. I would just love to be a fly on the ceiling at the summit watching the debate.
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
...
Everywhere
So prepare, say a prayer
The yanks are sending the FED with Dollars, over there.
"Many, many people think that Germany will back down but the politics in Germany will not allow it and so they won’t as Ms. Merkel votes with her own people in the end and we have just about reached the end."
Sure would be nice.
Let's get this party started right. Blank slate. Bring it down and build it back up. There is no alternative really. I get tired of watching this charade yet I still do. I'm beginning to think it's a personality flaw.
Waaahhh...I want my debt binky!!! ;-)
Frau Merkel will do what is required to protect Big Money, and happy yodeling lederhoseners will pay for it obediently.
Ya wohl meine Frau Merkel!
As long as the primary analysis is from the false premise of sovereign nations negotiating with each other (like this article), the analysis will miss the mark.
The reality is the Central Bankers are attempting to manipulate nations and peoples as they see fit, using elected officials as puppets to do their bidding. When the analysis includes this over-bearing reality, it has a chance of being on target.
My money is the summit will produce another round of can-kicking.
...and if you want to know what is REALLY going on- go one level higher.
...and if you want to know the ULTIMATE REALITY- go up one more level.
God (His universe)
Satan (prince of the earth/world system)
Global Banksters/Ilite (Rothchilds, Bilderburgers,Rockefellers,etc.)
politicians/bankers/media
general public
Here is an "Oh My God" moment:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/93652234/Cease-Desist-Order-to-UBS-BIS-Evidence
“It’s the way I heard it when Great-Aunt Deborah pronounced Weltschmerz.”
“What’s that?”
“A goose walking over your grave.”
Steinbeck, John . The Winter of Our Discontent
To central planners, everything is viewed as
A central planning problem, to be fixed with more centralization. Can kicking is progress. It is a good thing. The White Mans Burden. To them they are not malinvesting, the are building the new order. They are heroes in their own eyes.
What is next for these "saints"?
Ah, but the rich countries were quite happy to loan to these countries to build all that useless shit. And also to buy weapons from Germany.
It was a classic vendor financing scheme.
In the end someone will have to print the money or the whole banking system collapses. If the ECB is not willing to print, then the FED will.
QE to infinity.
I'm tired of eurobashing. I can't help but think it's a distraction away from the real elephant in the room: the US. Besides that cheap excuse of "different people can't get together" as some sort of de-legitimization of the whole concept of the EU. Then what about Switzerland? What about other multi-racial, multi-ethnic countries? They're all fakes?
Uhm, then you're not going to like Mark's past fifty other articles. Nor his next fifty articles for that matter.
You should pause and reflect here, it is possible that a narrative is being fabricated without you noticing it.
It's either I'm believing a fabrication, or I'm denouncing the fabrication.
you are not supposed to talk about the elephant in the room! you are not...
jokes aside, a lot of things are happening in the EU, so it's understandable that lots of papers are published on the matter.
The EU is embarking on a very strange journey: the concept that the Government is supposed to spend only what it gets in by taxing. Strange and shocking and against every shred of common sense, eh? ;-)
Globalization is an alternate way of saying, the banks have fucked us all.
From what I can recall, the world seemed to be doing business with different currencies, and keeping their sovereignty.
lol this "treatise" sucks. does anyone honestly think the banks are going to allow Germany to say no? our only hope is that Germany actually does say no! then Europe might be able to reset.
Beautiful piece, all but poetical.
Every fiber of my being agrees and shere logic dictates that this article is correct that Germany will not put out another pfenning. Of course logic also dictates that this whole EU monetary system was a fiasco from day one. A socialist pipe dream that should have never seen the light of day. But it did and the European politicians are not going to let this thing die if there is the merest wisp of a hope they can sustain it for another day, hour, or minute.
We are so far past logic and common sense that there will most assuredly be another massive bailout. The fine print of the deal will remain hidden from the hoi poloi as much as possible but "They" have no choice. This can kicking with the hope that some "event" will intervene must continue until said event (large scale war?) happens or complete and total meltdown occurs. All the Wesern bankers and politicians are way too invested in the status quo. Not to mention the fact if they don't it will be an admission that they simply don't want to (can't) make.
The author Mr Grant (whom I highly respect) says that "a reality of a different sort sets in" when "you return to the vault to refill it only to find that the cupboard is bare." I agree but these are politicians we are talking about here and they will root around picking up scraps, pawn these scraps, sell the cupboards, furniture, Grandma's jewelry and use the funds as collateral to get a 9th mortgage on the house which they will promply leverage to the nth degree and the game goes on.
Hopefully I'm wrong. But as an onlooker who didn't think we could get this far down the road, I don't think so. Buckle up boys and girls. Churchill's quote "the end of the beginning" is not only very apropos here, but is literally upon us and the "fun" is just startin'.