“I had in a previous career a diplomatic post where I helped bring down the Soviet Union. So maybe there’s another union that needs a little taming" - so mused Ted Malloch recently. He is allegedly President Trump's preferred choice for US Ambassador to the EU.
The response came from the EU parliament in a letter to the EU Commission: “The prospective nominee expressed his ambition to ‘tame the block like he brought down the Soviet Union’, eloquently supported dissolution of the European Union and explicitly bet in the demise of the currency within months".
Malloch's views seem to be current thinking in Washington because President Trump himself had recently said similar things in an extensive interview.
This could be terrible news for the Eurozone. Or - it could be excellent news!
Whether it is a family, a state, a currency union or a political union - they may internally be torn by infights but as soon as there is a threat from the outside, they typically close the ranks and become unified. What if the new attitude out of Washington brought the EU elites to senses and made them realize that they have to take some real decisions if they want the Eurozone to survive?
And if they hadn't wanted the Eurozone to survive before, after the musings of President Trump and Ted Malloch, they should now certainly feel fired up! If for notother reason than to show the bullies in Washington that Europe has teeth, too.
The response came from the EU parliament in a letter to the EU Commission: “The prospective nominee expressed his ambition to ‘tame the block like he brought down the Soviet Union’, eloquently supported dissolution of the European Union and explicitly bet in the demise of the currency within months".
Malloch's views seem to be current thinking in Washington because President Trump himself had recently said similar things in an extensive interview.
This could be terrible news for the Eurozone. Or - it could be excellent news!
Whether it is a family, a state, a currency union or a political union - they may internally be torn by infights but as soon as there is a threat from the outside, they typically close the ranks and become unified. What if the new attitude out of Washington brought the EU elites to senses and made them realize that they have to take some real decisions if they want the Eurozone to survive?
And if they hadn't wanted the Eurozone to survive before, after the musings of President Trump and Ted Malloch, they should now certainly feel fired up! If for notother reason than to show the bullies in Washington that Europe has teeth, too.
There will be no closing of ranks by Greece in aiding its mortal enemy germany.
ReplyDeleteAnd imagine if Trump pulls the US weight inside IMF and refuses to continue with the sharade!!!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-03/the-imf-should-get-out-of-greece
I think Trump should do this and make Schauble pay up for his mistakes.
DeleteHowever, the US only controls 17% of the IMF vote. The players who can make the difference in IMF decisions are China, Russia, Brazil and countries like Turkey.
But it doesn't - have teeth, too.
ReplyDeleteAny strength is this ==>> The Guardian: Grexit? Greece again on the brink as debt crisis threatens break with EU
the current standoff looks like shadow-boxing.
Delete-the IMF want to get out of the program, they've (understandably) had quite enough of the politics subverting the restructure program.
-the Greek Government want the IMF out of the program. They're the toughest negotiators, plus their loans are way more expensive than those interest-free, pay back in forty-years sums from the ESM.
-the creditors want to hide from their electorates that, far from hanging tough on debt relief, they've already quietly given the relief, in the form of longer terms, interest holidays, ultra-low rates, and so on.
It's just political theatre. But I think the IMF will exit. It just all takes a long, long time to play out.
Traumatized by the electoral appeal of fascism, post-World War II European states were constructed in a top-down manner 'so as to insulate almost entirely the political class from populist pressures.' As a result, the establishment has 'come to regard the electorate as children.'
ReplyDeleteSecond, the Soviet menace during the cold war prompted American leaders, impatient with Europe's (and Canada's) weak responses, effectively to take over their defense. This benign and far-sighted policy led to victory by 1991, but it also had the unintended and less salutary side-effect of freeing up Europe's funds to build a welfare state. This welfare state had several malign implications.
· The nanny state infantilized Europeans, making them worry about such pseudo-issues as climate change, while feminizing the males.
· It also neutered them, annexing 'most of the core functions of adulthood,' starting with the instinct to breed. From about 1980, birth rates plummeted, leaving an inadequate base for today's workers to receive their pensions.
· Structured on a pay-as-you-go basis, it amounted to an inter-generational Ponzi scheme, where today's workers depend on their children for their pensions.
· The demographic collapse meant that the indigenous peoples of countries like Russia, Italy, and Spain are at the start of a population death spiral.
· It led to a collapse of confidence that in turn bred 'civilizational exhaustion,' leaving Europeans unprepared to fight for their ways.
To keep the economic machine running meant accepting foreign workers. Rather than execute a long-term plan to prepare for the many millions of immigrants needed, Europe's elites punted, welcoming almost anyone who turned up. By virtue of geographic proximity, demographic overdrive, and a crisis-prone environment, 'Islam is now the principal supplier of new Europeans,' Mr. Steyn writes.
Arriving at a time of demographic, political, and cultural weakness, Muslims are profoundly changing Europe. 'Islam has youth and will, Europe has age and welfare.' Put differently, 'Pre-modern Islam beats post-modern Christianity.' Much of the Western world, Mr. Steyn flat-out predicts, 'will not survive the twenty-first century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most European countries.' With even more drama, he adds that 'it's the end of the world as we know it.'
This is just infantile and right wing US crap hostile to the European welfare state approach. The USA has the most appalling welfare system in the developed world, where healthcare costs are massive proportion of GDP yet cannot cover anything like 100% of its population. The US approach always has been, let the rich prosper and the poor can fuck off and die. With their black slave population -- still in existence -- this is also a clear racist approach.
DeleteEurope is a different culture, and one that needs to protect its civilised traditions. The Germans and the eurogroup are failing to do so. All that Trump will do is damage the EU very badly, in order to promote his own business interests in Turkey, Russia, the UK, Saudi Arabia etc. This piece of human excrement is going to be the cause of the next world war.
YOu know I am just finishing reading King Arthur/the sowrd in the stone....if the Bear of Britain could not unite all the petty kings against the Saechsen invaders, I don't think an external boogeyman will save the EU from its own inadequacies.
ReplyDeleteHi All,
ReplyDeleteGuess what. Our creditors are asking for more new measures. Do you have as a guess as to what? Yeap! More taxes. More Pension payments. More pension reductions.
The no structural changes, just more taxes.
The myth that we, or our politicians are putting these taxes forward is a farce or they are simply part of it, as i have stated so many times.
That which is 100% sure is that the tax free thresh hold will go to below 6,000 euro annually. IMF asks for 4,000 euro. Way below the poverty limit.
I bet you all if Greece is still in a program by 2020, there will be no tax free limit.
Good job creditors! Good job. Geniuses!
Sincerely,
V
Go and pray in your stupid greek orthodox church and the other Byzantine slavery nonsense and see if things improve a little for you.
DeletePlease, continue with your historical dissertation, simpleton!
DeleteThe world needs to know!
Germany and its satellite states deserve an unspeakably cruel end. And so they will get it.
ReplyDelete