One very good reason why capital will be scarcer soon and for the next decade or two …… If currencies which shall be nameless, fall over as well! None of which augurs well for the general economic climate. We still cannot afford the slimmer version of NAMA …….. As time passes that becomes ever more evident! A breathing space and a thinking space. Now we need some hard decisions. We cannot afford more borrowings of any kind.

Should be easy!

DOD
Do not read this. It suggests a large rise in interest rates …….. Capital is scarce, ya know!

March 15, 1965 prelude to the cosmopolitan take from South Boston on March 17, 1965 noted above. (tranlation of echt Gaelic in above here - Doin OK these Kantian Pragmatists (-; few of them at the White House tmro methinks)

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0315.html#article

what is your direction…centre left aka the politics of the fairy tale?

Yes - radical debates - there is an acceleration taking place in this zeitgeist - and much further than I would have expected as I’m used to the slow, really slow, laborious, painstaking, 1000 page reports of the Commission - but all this is healthy … CDU_Green: the times they a changing. The socialists also gave Sarkosy bit of a hammering in locals, far right back above 10% hence left will prob win in France next time - so less than two years for leading centre right ……… and the centre left in EU are, mostly if tacitly, letting the centre right run with this ……. not insignificant. I’m optimistic enough on all of this ……… going in my direction ……..

There is a real worry that the Club-Med will be a significant drain on German taxpayers so this is not just a little game among different German parties - I doubt you will find one openly in favour of a bailout. What has struck me is the seriousness with which some of the more radical ideas are being debated.

The Solidarity Bond will hold. I have argued this from the beginning of this one - A new order is in emergence, and needed.

After NorthRhine_Westphalia The Chancellor will have leeway to ‘act’ as distinct from ’speak’ or allow ‘proxies’ to speak for her - and if election goes reasonable she will be strong enough to rein_in her ‘out of control’ minor partner, or dump them and get another one. We would all be better off imho re decision_making if we still had the previous German coalition.

@Pope ePopt
“… echt Gaelic neoliberalism and fiscal fetishism” - the enemies within (-; Quite!

Regarding bondholders - yes there will be some German ones among them, but public opinion in Germany is probably more hostile to them than to the Greeks (what do they say about killing two birds with one stone?). No seriously, this is an issue that will worry Schäuble, and lets face it bankers have some influence in Germany too, and indeed some banks have always been in public ownership (and many of those have been in big trouble for some time).

It could be that the Greeks have figured out that the Germans and the French have a bit of a problem now. If the Greeks were to threaten to default it would not go down well in the board rooms of Frankfurt and Paris. Moreover German politicians might then have to explain where their voters savings went to.

The IMF hitman speaks. Banking as a weapon. Get the suckers to work for you sort of thing.

Edgar
Yes. Quite right. But the Germans dominate and have a surplus led economy and some cohesion would be cool and might even get more to claim they were “European citizens”. I have to say that they are in no way to blame, but they have enlarged their markets rather neatly. Besides are you saying none of the “foreign” bondholders who stuffed our goose were German? Without that, we could not have over-indulged so much. Indeed, as a weapon, it might be very effective indeed, see Thos Jefferson, some old economist type.

Munchau warns ‘be careful what you wish for” - I am not so sure that exchange rate volatility with Club-Med countries worries German exporters all that much. Their key markets are the stronger EU members and countries outside the EU, and in relation to competition this will not be much different to facing competition from the new member states.

If this is really what they are after it will shake the EU foundations very hard as this would indicate a withdrawal of solidarity. On the other hand Schäuble might simply be preparing the ground for some tough rules attached to bailouts for the Club-Med countries. Of course there might be something completely different going on e.g. EU foreign policy.

One way or another Schäuble has never been the kind of politician who worries overly about causing a bit of a stir if it gets the desired results.

“Capture of the political system by small interst groups is probably less likely in large democratic countries (emphasis on democratic) than in small countries …”

On small countries - there is more than probably sufficient evidence around here at the mo to support this proposition. stat sig ***

… not forgetting the progressive social legislation that most of our time_serving, ultra conservative, hierarchical, inward looking legislature would have been incapable of thinking, let alone implementing.

Wolfgang Munchau not too impressed - FT via EuroIntelligence

http://www.eurointelligence.com/article.581+M57cab78df7a.0.html -

this is an intensely political battle - but imho an unavoidable one ………

As for the leadership qualities of Angela Merke, she is not without critics, particularly in the last few weeks, but in order to win elections in Germany one has to respond to the (current) interests of the public (not necessarily the public interest as economists would define it). Capture of the political system by small interst groups is probably less likely in large democratic countries (emphasis on democratic) than in small countries, although it can’t be said that ‘peculiar’ decisions are not taken in Germany.

Down with this cosmopolitan sort of thing!

Let’s stick to echt Gaelic neoliberalism and fiscal fetishism in this forum pulleeease!

We Irish have a brass neck looking for scapegoats elsewhere.

There are 16 countries in the EMU — the ones in trouble have had one consistency: an appalling standard of governance with a high tolerance for cronyism and corruption.

In 2013, 40 years after joining the then ECC, we will become a net contributor to the EU budget — in cash terms over €40 billion of foreign aid.

When the proceeds of the bubble gave us the arrogance of the nouveau riche, we saw ourselves closer to Boston than Berlin.

There is nobody perfect but wouldn’t Ireland be lucky to have a leader with the personal integrity and political standards of an Angela Merkel?

@tull mcadoo - how long would you give the EURO if Germany left it? As for your other comments that are clearly aimed at causing offence I would recommend that you thought a little harder before making them - a good history book might also help.

Just as the Irish mess is homemade the Greek mess is even more so. Schäuble would much prefer not to have to deal with the Greek tragedy or any other tragedy among EURO members. Of course it does not help that the Greek prime minister was trying to use extortion tactics.

Greece is looking for a bailout and the Germans are expected to pick up the bill - why should they? If they are going to pay the piper they will also call the tune - nothing jingoistic about it. Likewise, if some countries can’t manage the discipline required to stay in this monetary union they might be better off outside - nobody is stopping Greece trying to leave the EURO, but as has been discussed here before it’s not going to make their problems go away. As I wrote above “self-fulfilling market panics and speculative attacks” might be exactly what Schäuble has in mind.

Jon Livesey
Not a great defence of media bias! Try harder? Kevin O’Rourke’s point does go to the heart of the matter? The article was infantile as the central point, quoted by Kevin, demonstrates. Well done, Kevin! Bias eventually degrades the product itself.

David O’Donnell
Any relation to that great Irishman Brendan Behan? He was a tad sensitive too? As Tull has made abundantly clear, thanks to your concerns, Germany is well able to defend itself. Ireland is the one in trouble, in part because of German economic policy which is very successful! We are competing…? Identify your enemies?

Why should I?. It is a historical fact that there is a tendency on the right wing of the German political continuum to want their own way on things. If not they tend to throw the toys out of the pram. Ask the French in 1870, Europe in 1914 or 1939. Shcauble’s article is just another form of German jingoistic tub thumping.

With that last sentence, you insult European citizens such as I. Withdraw it.

Then of course, the Germans could just re-invade Poland or the Balkans or even France if they so wish.

1. Smaller eurozone / break-up.
2. Federal union.

This is as much a sign of the annoyance in Germany about the lack of disclipline among the Club-Med countries as it is a signal to the local voters. The race for the elections in Northrhine-Westfalia is heating up.

It is interesting to note that there is some debate among some German economists about the merits of this proposal - it certainly seems to be treated as a serious proposal. By the way Schäuble is very close to Merkel.

On Background:
http://www.boston.com/ae/events/st_patricks_day/2005/gallery/1960?pg=8