http://www.marianne.net/Un-appel-franco-allemand-d-economistes-pour-une-...

Twenty years after the Maastricht Treaty, a “Maastricht 2.0″ Treaty is required, as soon as possible, so as to avoid a sad situation, in the near future, where the foreseen “European common home” becomes replaced by a true “European house of correction”. We need to build a true European Union through a cooperative European disunion:

http://building-a-true-european-union.blogspot.com

Do you feel lucky?
Robt,
PN were a stroke of genius. If we had to raise really money we would be in real trouble. There is a slim chance we negotiate a deal on these.

‘The line on exports and unit labour costs is simply nonsense

+1 Total nonsense. I had/may still have hopes for Stephen … slipping …

Imperialist is sufficient.

Conventional wisdom soundbites should always be viewed with caution!
The trade figures to not support the devaluationists. Of course the impact of the collapse of the financial soufflé on the trade figures can overstate the actual effect on the economy.

Looking behind the jobs data, reveals an interesting economic trend that is also evident in the US:

UK underemployment rises by 1m; Most new jobs growth at top and bottom of economic pyramid

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1025332.shtml

How Ireland Got Its Groove Back

First a reprise of the official line, reminiscent of bubbletime propaganda for international audiences:

The country’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, recently graced the cover of Time, accompanied by the headline “The Celtic Comeback,” and the Financial Times called Ireland’s finance minister one of the best in Europe. The nation’s largest banks can borrow again on the open market.

The interest rates on Ireland’s sovereign bonds — seen as key indicators of the probability of default — are rapidly falling. Rating agencies such as Moody’s and Fitch have upgraded their outlooks on the country and some of its banks.

The turnaround seemed nearly complete last summer, when the government held two successful sovereign bond auctions and planned many more for the next year. By late 2013 or early 2014, Ireland should no longer need the assistance it has received from the EU and the IMF. The economy is still growing slowly in terms of GDP, but it is far from collapsing. Exports have driven most of this growth, thanks to unit labor costs that have fallen faster than those of any other country in Europe. Irish banks are deleveraging — dumping bad loans, basically — in order to shrink their balance sheets down to a more manageable size. Ireland is still a haven for multinational corporations searching for low taxes and a flexible, young, skilled labor force.

The line on exports and unit labour costs is simply nonsense. The fantasy that Dell can fire 2,000 workers in Limerick and remain Ireland’s biggest goods exporter on paper, speaks for itself; Google’s Irish payroll in 2011 was €218m and the almost 20% jump in sales revenues to €12.4bn results from ‘falling’ unit labour costs? The real facts are that what is seen here is reverse causality.

Kinsella adds that domestic demand has flatlined:

All this suggests that the prospects for a robust recovery seem slim. Even if demand somehow bounced back tomorrow, Ireland would still have enormous amounts of debt to repay, which will hamper growth for the foreseeable future. Ireland, in other words, may have reached only the halfway marker in its lost decade.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138490/stephen-kinsella/how-ireland-got-its-groove-back

Oh my god.

You may bet on illiteracy. I do on intentional misquotation.

Sheesh. We are governed by either total idiots or cynical career bureaucrats who basically don’t give a toss.

I am too tired now to do the numbers but sterling silver at how many grams ?

I bet its a handy profit.

But it looks a nice coin - those Numismatics serve a different function anyway……

I am gone off the shiny stuff since 2011 , I hold some and forget about it.

It looks more and more like a deflation of titanic size……which means silver will most likely get hammered.

Who knows though ?

The CB like all banks does its double entry credit thingy turning it into debt or something.

Commercial banks do their credit money poison thingy & afterwards try to hoover up all that nice fiscal debt until you run out of tokens
Pumping & dumping you into infinity.

And then you can have commodity money……which is not good for paying the tax thingy but is nice & shiny.

Think of pure fiat as a King who waps his wad on the counter…….and then incrediabily wants it back again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-7v4qnHP8

I think there is an element of dog whistling: ‘look, I’ve mentioned, Keynes’, but it is coming out of each side of his mouth

The speech writer was quoting scripture to suit the devil’s needs and Yanis Varofakis noticed it too.

It is doubtful that Rehn is a big Keynes reader and that misleading and dishonest quote is a warning to progressives that the reactionaries are still ascendant and still strongly determined. Distasteful and boorish but also a helpful reminder of who is in charge.

@DOCM

Rehn has to move cautiously because of the ingrained unwillingness in Germany to see anything wrong with its approach to economic policy.

Olli Rehn meant what he said and what he said could have come out of the mouth of Merkel, Schäuble or any other Christian Democrat blowhard in the Eurozone’s creditor bloc (or any banker).

Of course “Pacta Sunt Servanda” Rehn parroted the German line verbatim because he believes it and intends to enforce it, the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro is every bit as radically right wing (and wrong) as Merkel.

@David O’Donnell

Angela: A Portrait (worth reading …

That article on Merkel is indeed worth reading.

I like to refer to her as our Teutonic Thatcher and I think that because of the affection most Irish feel for the Germans we have tended to misjudge just how radical (and dangerous) the politics of their premier are for Ireland.

And as for her approach being “pedagogical imperialism” I am not sure the pedagogical is required…..

They might keep it together for another Christmas….

The French are getting a bit desperate with their celebrations though…….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exvq97gYQD4

Still they now have more useful stuff (for the other side of this monetary event) then us poor Irish.
We made the ultimate sacrifice to keep Europe from imploding……….

Hold on , I think I am going to cry………

Eamon Eamon EAMON

HSJ.

They produce credit

There is a mountain of credit chasing yield where there is none……….

Their free trade schemes used to bypass labour on a local & global scale has really produced a mountain of externalties.

Its about to blow me thinks

Silver trade balance UK (£ millions)

Y2002 : -165
Y2003 : -3
Y2004 : -80
Y2005 : +87
Y2006 :-577
Y2007 :+232
Y2008 :+1,169
Y2009 : -1,560
Y2010 : -108
Y2011 : -451

Ok now look at Y2012 so far – a different beast, so far at least.
Q1 : -473
Q2 :-1,372
Q3 : – 1,256
October : -440

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/uktrade/monthly-review-of-external-trade-statistics/october-2012/index.html

12/12/2012
A Cold Heart for Europe
Merkel’s Dispassionate Approach to the Euro Crisis
By Konstantin von Hammerstein and René Pfister

Chancellor Merkel has more power in Europe than any of her postwar predecessors. Yet there is little passion in her relationship with the EU, preferring instead a strategy of what can only be described as pedagogical imperialism. She sees the bloc primarily in terms of euros and cents — and worries that it is rapidly losing relevance.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/analysis-of-chancellor-merkel-euro-crisis-approach-a-872195.html

Now where did I put Wittgenstein’s Poker? (the one he brandished at Popper!

Riding on the UK’s coattails has its limitations!

The spirit of compromise seems to be breaking out all over.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fd51e37a-4489-11e2-8fd7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Em62xS3Y

Sweden still against EU banking union
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=2054&grupp=3575&artikel=5377412

Unfortunately, your finance minister appears to agree with you.

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=3304&grupp=6240&artikel=5378859

More dirty linen being washed in Deutsche Bank.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/verdacht-auf-geldwaesche-bei-der-deutschen-bank-im-kreis-drehen-und-dabei-reich-werden-1.1549115

The oldest trick in the book! A VAT carousel! Exports within the EU are “zero-rated” i.e. there is no genuine internal market when it comes value added taxes.

The domestic Irish version can be heard at many petrol stations; “Would you like a receipt with that?”.

Alway say yes!

EBA? No need to monitor Swedish banks as closely as we currently do as the cost of a failure to regulate will no longer be paid for solely by us, the cost will be spread out over all of Europe….
It may or may not be what is intended but it is still the likeliest outcome.

A long time ago, during my time in the military service, I was taught that spreading responsibility meant that no-one ends up being responsible. So, even in a two man group, one man was always told that if things go wrong then YOU will suffer the consequences. The one who happened to be the ‘you’ then knew he’d be in trouble if there were to be problems, so he made sure he did everything he could to stop things from going wrong.
An Irish example : It is said that everyone in Ireland partied and as a result not a single person in Ireland is responsible for anything that happened in the banking crisis. Whatever is happening with the investigation of possible wrongdoings in what used to be INBS and Anglo?

Laxer regulation of the banking industry does seem to be very beneficial for some. But for the rest of us who are not making out as bandits during good times and sticking others with the bill afterwards it is something else entirely.

EBA is a bad idea. Problem in banking was excessive risk-taking and the EBA does not address that problem at all.

Hallelujah!

Schaeuble - it seems - heads his nemesis off at the pass.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6563e42e-447e-11e2-8fd7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Em62xS3Y