One of the most amusing ironies to ever emerge from the burgeoning European superstate is that it may well be the Germans who consign this thousand-year reign of corporatist “peace” to the dustbin:

So after weeks of Euro-bluff it looks ever more like an IMF rescue for Greece after all, and hence for any other eurozone nation driven to ruin by the wrong monetary policy.

Well, you can’t blame them all for trying. But ultimately, governments are beholden to their electorates. I wonder if there might be some more significant cracks in the EU hiding behind all this panic, as well. If countries still fear their electorates, perhaps it means that countries can withdraw from the EU as well?

There will be no inevitable move to fiscal federalism; no EU treasury or economic government; no debt union. It is Stalingrad for the federalist camp and the institutions of the permanent EU government.

Yes, it’s never too late to stick it to the Germans one more time, eh? Still, moving on…

EU leaders may yet rustle up a rescue package that keeps the IMF at bay, but alliances are shifting fast. Even Italy has slipped into the pro-IMF camp, knowing that rescue costs can be shifted on to the US, Japan, Britain, Russia, China, and the Saudis, lessening the burden for Rome.

Indeed, with every economy in the world under strain, why would even other EU members rush to Greece’s aid when the same result can be achieved without damaging their own economies? That’s always going to be a tough sell.

Besides, too much has been said over the last week that cannot be unsaid. Mrs Merkel’s speech to the Bundestag was epochal, a defiant warning that henceforth Germany would pursue the German national interest in EU affairs, capped by her call for treaty changes to allow the expulsion of fiscal sinners from Euroland. Nothing seems so permanent about the euro any more.

Days later, Thilo Sarrazin from the Bundesbank blurted out that if Greece cannot pay its bills “it should do what every debtor has to do and file for insolvency. This would be a suitably frightening example for every other potentially unsound state,” he said, pointedly excluding France from the list of sound countries.

I believe the only response to that observation is: “Ouch. Saucer of milk for table six!”

As for myself, as much as I want to believe that this is the beginning of the end, ultimately I believe that the EU is too deeply embedded in the political psyche and provides far too rich a gravy train. Politicians will never let all that consolidated power and easy money get disbanded.

This is, sadly, merely a hiccup in the Great European Project.

1
Roue le Jour March 24, 2010 at 08:21

Isn’t that Karl Lagerfeld? Doesn’t he play for the other team?

2
Bugger (the Panda) March 24, 2010 at 08:34

Thadd

I give you yesterday’s article from Der Spiegel.

It seems that Frau Merkel is in a state of near open warfare with her Finance Minister and by his proxy, the Eurobank and, of course, wee Sarko whose pet English speaking Finance Minister is suggesting that the Eoro’s problem is that Germany has become too efficient. Whilst everybody and the poodle has been awarding themselves annual wage increases and big holiday bonuses, the Germans have upped their productivity against everybody else and their exports, helped by the weakened Euro and caused by the profligate new Europeans, are booming.

I blame it all on the Germans for being too errr, efficiently German and not wanting to work even more years than they do before retirement in order to finance the lifestyle of any other nations.

If Britain were not an economic basket case it would be a TV drama worthy of action replays and constant retransmissions .

All I need now is to get in CHF

3
Bugger (the Panda) March 24, 2010 at 08:35

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,684968,00.html

Bugger!

and paid in CHF!!!

4
Thaddeus J. Wilson March 24, 2010 at 08:54

Roue, it is and I’m sure he does. But a thing of beauty is a thing of beauty.

5
Antisthenes March 24, 2010 at 09:08

The EU is at the beginning of its death throes. France has now decided it does not want to reform itself, which it so badly needs. The French voted in Sarky because they new their welfare state was unsustainable and dragging them down to economic oblivion but they wanted it without pain. Actually Sarky’s reforms to date have only caused a tingle but even that was too much for the French to bear. So it will be back to the same old ways; a bloated incomprehensible public sector, a large proportion of GDP dependent on the black economy and tourism, generous state hand outs for sitting on your backside and employment regulations that keep unemployment at unsustainable high levels. It wont be long before France becomes a complete basket case like Greece and the others and that will complete the demise of the EU.

6
Alan March 24, 2010 at 09:55

Angela Merkin’s got plenty of front herself.

Could it just be a way of funding Greece via the IMF backdoor so the Eurozone isn’t seen breaking it’s own rules?(Not that rules have ever stopped them before…)

The IMF could get away with imposing stringent requirements on Greece but The ECB/Germany could not.

7
Blink March 24, 2010 at 10:40

I’m with Salma Hayek on this

8
Elby The Beserk March 24, 2010 at 10:40

That’s a splendid sight. Thank you so much

9
Antisthenes March 24, 2010 at 11:01

I do have to keep coming back to this blog and there a couple of reasons for doing that but enough of that.

The German taxpayer would not be happy about bailing out Greece so Alan is right (The IMF could get away with imposing stringent requirements on Greece but The ECB/Germany could not.)

Also it deflects criticism of the EU by the Greek people if they were to step in and police a bail out however less stringent it would be because it would still hurt.

10
Bugger (the Panda) March 24, 2010 at 11:19

The photo of Angela Merkel looks like she is a Monk undergoing a sex change

11
Bugger (the Panda) March 24, 2010 at 11:21

Just had a look at Lagerfeld’s photo again.

Is he looking for Toto?

12
Thaddeus J. Wilson March 24, 2010 at 11:24

Alan, the frontage is lovely. Unfortunately, a glance up upwards has a rather “cooling” effect.

13
Thaddeus J. Wilson March 24, 2010 at 11:25

Bugger, they’re certainly much younger looking than the face, aren’t they?

14
Old Slaughter March 24, 2010 at 11:47

I just come here for the pictures.

15
circus monkey March 24, 2010 at 12:35

So countries can withdraw from the E.U.? Oh, Anna, SAY ITS SO!

16
Anna Raccoon March 24, 2010 at 12:36

Old Slaughter,

Otherwise known as ‘only here for the leer’……

17
Alan March 24, 2010 at 12:37

From September last year: EU to mull boosting IMF contribution

“European Union finance ministers will discuss on Wednesday a French-German proposal to increase Europe’s contribution to IMF funds to $175 billion (108 billion pounds) from $100 billion pledged in March, EU sources said.

The increase is a consequence of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) industrialised and emerging countries tripling, rather than only doubling as initially expected, the amount of IMF funds to $750 billion at their last summit in April.

“This is not new money, this is international burden-sharing of the money that was agreed in April in London,” one source involved in preparations for the ministers’ meeting said.”

Germany will still be footing some of the bill but it will be more shared around than if it had been Eurozone only or even EU only, the IMF taking any Greek flak for difficult but necessary decisions and any German taxpayer flak for propping up a spendthrift economy.

Thaddeus,

How about the view from behind?

18
Dave H. March 24, 2010 at 13:20

‘geifern’ is the verb, though as others have noted, they’re hardly his cup of tea.

Unlike a few other commenters, I still find Ms Hayek’s face rather agreeable. It must be down to my advancing middle-age.

(only here for the leer)

19
Roue le Jour March 24, 2010 at 13:56

Same here, Dave H. Any woman, like Ms Hayek, born after I out grew short trousers is a mere slip of a girl.

Makes me wonder if Thaddeus might not be quite as venerable as his avatar suggests.

20
Alan March 24, 2010 at 18:32

Thaddeus,

How about the view from behind?

21
Alan March 24, 2010 at 18:43

Apologies for the quick follow-up post,

UK, Germany to press for global bank risk tax.

The gits. It is this kind of group think of finance ministers that got us into the mess in the first place. Everyone doing the same thing means everyone is at risk and contagion can spread quickly. Legislative competition between jurisdictions and regulators would lessen that risk.

22
Bugger (the Panda) March 24, 2010 at 18:50

@Alan

Jever is absolutely First Class beer.

The glass size is about right too.

23
Thaddeus J. Wilson March 24, 2010 at 20:25

Alan, that was most uncalled-for!

24
Nein Nein Nein March 24, 2010 at 20:44

Perhaps the dumkopfs think they remember something about the days when you turned up at work with a wheelbarrow so you could take home your day’s wages at lunchtime and buy three lumps of coal before tea-time (if you were lucky) before the price went up again and the paper in your barrow became worthless. And they think this might happen again if governments spend a lot more than they get in through taxes, ‘cos they think that’s maybe what happened last time. Which might tempt them not to hand over even ein pfennig to wastrels. None of this needs to be true of course, only believed – and acted on at a ballot box. Frau Merkel may be smart enough to work out which side of her bread might be buttered.

Of course I may be a simpleton, lacking the sophistication to follow more nuanced analysis.

[I love that word “nuanced” – it almost makes the inability or unwillingness to distinguish between opposites into the height of intellectual achievement.]