The Five Presidents’ Report

Here.

The submissions from the Irish government are here and here.

My own submission is here.

19 replies on “The Five Presidents’ Report”

‘… improving debt sustainability clears the path for the adoption of new long-term governance system for the euro area.’ (P. Lane)

Debt, odious and profligate, is where it is at.

With a properly functioning EuropeanCB, and a few savvy high infants in the room, this could be sorted with a few strokes of a quill.

The present state of governance by the likes of the matrixsQuid is the road to serfdom.

‘Ireland supports the rules …..’

Nuff said. The intellectually supine supports the fairy tales …. sad!

This is again a concept of eternal stagnation. There is a lot about fiscal policy, sanctions etc., but not a single word where the growth should come from.

All the sanctions are only for small countries, while Germany can have 8% trade surplus without any sanctions.

The classic UK outsider view?

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ccc05ef8-18c1-11e5-8201-cbdb03d71480.html#axzz3dbhv36ja

Considering its many supposed faults, it is rather curious that the euro is the second international reserve currency and that those countries using it – even, it seems, a majority of Greeks – wish to stick to it through thick and thin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Reserve_currency

Could it possibly be because it is a successful and stable currency?

At last, a Competitiveness Council for the entire Eurozone!

I confess I never thought of this, nor has anybody else.

The Five Prezzies are setting the pace.

@govs from Latvia

If you actually are from Latvia, you’ll know that the Latvian economy grew by 18 per cent (in real terms) between 2010 and 2014. Hardly ‘eternal stagnation’. Maybe Greece can learn from Latvia?

Latvian economy nosedived -25% between 2008 and 2010. This was a clear banking crisis, like in Ireland, with consequences to building sector etc. The only thing Greece can learn from Latvia and Ireland is that should they decide to bail out banks inside of a monetary union (in case of Latvia it was a currency pegged to monetary union), they have furhter -25% to go!

fyi Back to Reality

Greek crisis: Merkel placing investors above democracy, says Habermas

German philosopher accuses chancellor of undermining EU and its common currency

‘German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has accused Angela Merkel of undermining the European Union and its common currency by putting investor interests above democratic concerns and thus prolonging the Greek crisis.
European leaders had degraded themselves in the crisis, he said.
Rather than correcting euro shortcomings exposed in the crisis by launching a push for full political and economic union, he said they were now acting like “zombie” creditors.’

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/greek-crisis-merkel-placing-investors-above-democracy-says-habermas-1.2260499

Well Fancy That!

Latest from Wikileaks – US spooks were spying on France and reported as follows (relates to the 2012 Greek crisis, not the current one).

‘French President Francois Hollande has approved holding secret meetings in Paris to discuss the eurozone crisis, particularly the consequences of a Greek exit from the eurozone. On 18 May, Hollande directed Prime Minister (PM) Jean-Marc Ayrault to set up a meeting at the Office of the President (the Elysee) for the following week. Hollande, Ayrault, and “appropriate ministers” would attend, and special emphasis would be given to consequences for the French economy in general and for French banks in particular’

@ CmcC

Can’t wait to read about Sarkozy’s secret meetings. Private sector bailouts via other sovereign citizens. That you then get to pontificate to about reforms. While not reforming yourself. Great work if you can get it. Ugly stuff.

‘ a complete EMU is not an end in itself. It is a means to create a better and fairer life for all citizens, to prepare the Union for future global challenges and to enable each of its members to prosper’.

One never gets the impression that the above is the case- EMU appears to be an end in itself rather than the means to an end.

It’s highly amusing and extremely unusual to see our government getting its collective knickers in to such a twist about these “competitiveness authorities”. It appears that it felt it didn’t urinate sufficiently copiously on the idea in its first contribution and needed another, more powerful and better directed jet in its second contribution. The usual approach for Irish governments is to assume that other larger and more influential Member States will be opposed to proposals of this nature that might discombobulate powerful and influential domestic special interest groups. This allows Irish governments to free-ride hypocritically and to avoid adopting a position for as long as possible.

The willingness of this government to break cover and to express its strong opposition to these proposed institutional changes that don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being implemented in any meaningful way is damning and incontrovertible evidence of the power of these influential special interest groups in Ireland, of the serious economic damage they cause and of the extent to which governments fear them.

All exponential series (ie: our good olde “growth”) that have a growth rate greater than 1.0 (that is, any positive growth rate), will over sufficient time inflect toward a maximum, then decay. I’d opine that dY/dt -> 0 is close and d2Y/dt^2 is approaching also.

Now who said that economists were mathematically challenged folk? Ah! Yes. I know. But do ye?

There is no such thing as “sustainable economic growth”. None! – well not in the realm of real math. Wishing something will not make it so. Someones better try harder – like real quick.

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