Category Archives: Germany

That’s not how it works.

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Those silly Hellenic types, for all this time they’ve been doing the democracy thing, (well except for when they were part of various occupations, empires or under the control of their own military dictatorships) and they’ve somehow formed the opinion that just because you’ve voted for something it means you stand a better than average chance of getting it.

Fools.

Now, I can’t comment on the integrity of Greek politicians, but I’m certainly not naive enough to think just because a particular candidate for PM gets in that s/he’s actually got the intention of delivering upon their promises, but I can’t blame the Greeks for chucking out the political parties that sold their nation’s sovereignty. The fact that they’ve decided to back a group that wants a return to the pre-crash days of money for nothing and your chick(pea based dip)s for free is neither here nor there, it’s their country and their decision to make.

Not everyone is of that opinion though:

Germany’s Angela Merkel has made clear that Greece’s reforms must go on.

Well how many people in Greece voted for Merkel? As mad as I think they are for wanting to carry on without paying the credit card bill, they would be just as mad to carry on with the status quo.

The arrogance of these people who think they have the right to dictate to a nation how they must conduct themselves is amazing. The Greek people have decided and that is an end to it. Who the hell do you think you are, Frau Merkel? Even if Europe needed a supreme overlord, I bloody doubt it would be you, you’ve your own election coming up, and seeing how leaders have been toppled all over Europe I don’t much fancy your chances of holding onto the big chair.

More to the point, she’s gone wading into French politics as well, Hollande has made it quite clear that France has had enough of all this austérité and will go back to pissing cash away like a sailor on shore leave.

Angela doesn’t approve.

Mrs Merkel said she would meet France’s next president next week “with open arms” but told a news conference that “we in Germany are of the opinion, and so am I personally, that the fiscal pact is not negotiable”.

Do as you’re told, Froggies. One of the most amusing things about the whole financial situation is that France thinks it is bigger than the markets, they are very, very wrong and they will find this out to their cost. Hollande’s plan to institute a French ratings agency is downright hilarious, the fact that he would actually expect the global markets to give it even the merest shred of attention is nigh on incontinence inducing.

People criticise France for looking out for themselves. I do not and never have, I applaud them for it. Their ignoring of rules, directives and diktats whilst remaining within the machinery of the EU is a policy of amazing footwork, I only wish we would do the same. I do not criticise their self-interest just because we don’t have the gumption to do the same. A degree of Gallic arrogance is something to be aspired to on occasion.

There is little doubt in my mind that the policies of Hollande will be the ruination of France, but once again like a family addicted to benefits, the French public just won’t accept the fact that there’s no money, it is almost like Chekov’s Cherry Orchard on a national scale, a grand old family fallen on hard times with no intention of, and no idea how to go about, rectifying the situation because they honestly believe something will magically turn up.

They are deluded in the extreme. But I’m delighted to see him win. Because they will hasten the demise of the Euro and the EU.

For ages Nigel Farage has been talking about how we’ve been shackled to a drowning man, I just wonder what will happen first? Will Germany come to the same conclusion and realisation that while they can trample all over Greece, their war guilt will never let them do the same to France, or will France storm off in a huff like a washed up old diva who hasn’t got her own way?

Things are about to get very interesting.

Punish debt with more debt.

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This whole Sarkozy and Merkel thing gets ever more sinister. Mary Ellen Synon gives a pretty bloody good overview of the mechanics, sleight of hand and general anti-democratic way of things.

I also find it laughable that Delors sees fit to lambast the implementation of a system that he was heavily involved in setting up. It’s not his fault, natch, it’s all the fault of the national finance ministers, it was they who strongarmed Greece et al into signing up, even though there was not a hope of them meeting even the laxest conditions. In fact, bugger Greece, Italy would never have met them, either. Come on, Jacques, do you really expect us to believe that if you’d been given carte-blanche that you’d have excluded one of the EU’s ‘big four’ on economic grounds? I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard the excuse that a little boy did it and ran away.

Really? You seriously want us to believe that the national finance ministers were falling over themselves to jump into the euro, and that if you’d been in charge things would have been more circumspect? You’re fooling no-one mate.

Memo to national politicians: Look at the evidence, you’ll be left to do what you want, as long as what you want to do is what the Commissars want you to do. Even when you’ve done what they want you to do, if it goes wrong you’ll be held up as the blame figure, and if you don’t do what the Commissars want, you’ll be removed from power. Either way, elected or technocrat, you’ll get the heave ho from them eventually because they are spiteful and arrogant, and because they’re dumber than a bag of hair and will make more catastrophic mistakes than a photosensitive epileptic surgeon operating in a theatre lit by strobe light.

Anyhow, back to ‘Merkozy’ as we’re supposedly calling them now. They’ve decided that it’s a great plan for all eurozone countries to submit their budgets to them for approval. Wonderful, someone who comes from a nation of inflationphobes and a man with a Napoleon complex who cannot accept that France is no longer a world Imperial power but at the same time would sell France to an Algerian umbrella salesman if he thought it would make him look tall. And good. But mainly tall. (I understand that France is going to change its name, it will soon cease to be the République Française and will instead be known as l’Allemagne de l’Ouest. Still, what do I care? It’s your country, Pierre.)

Not only that, but they also have plans for countries that break the financial rules (as far as I can make out from the parameters this includes everyone, including France, except Germany and Finland). Yes, if your country is in debt, they have a plan to . . . fine it.

Riiiiiiiight.

So, a country comes and says ‘look, Germany, this budget you set us is probably fine and dandy if you’re a northern European industrial power, but it hasn’t worked for us and we’re broke’ then the answer is to go in and take more money off that broke country to teach them a lesson for being broke? Are you verrückt? Because we all know that no government has any money of its own, it is all taken from the taxpayer. So, in effect, you set the rules, and when they don’t work, you then penalise the people living in that country for your failure.

Way to win friends and influence people.

Can we leave yet?

Oh shut up you silly little man.

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A day before Prime Minister David Cameron is due to visit Berlin to meet Merkel, the deputy leader of her Christian Democrats (CDU) in parliament also criticised Britain for lecturing the euro zone on what steps it should take to solve its crisis while not actively contributing towards a solution.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the EU to a tee. Give us your damn money and shut your damn mouths.

We shouldn’t have to be like the parent bailing out the profligate child who has overspent, but I would expect any parent doing that to deliver the rescue cash with a lesson on financial prudence.

Pointing to populist tendencies across Europe, he drew a parallel to the period before World War One, saying all countries needed to “assume their responsibilities.”

“One hundred years ago, nobody wanted war. But all the governments seized on nationalist sentiment,” he said, noting that decades of instability ensued.

And here’s this line from the Germans again. They seem desperate to equate the collapse of the Euro with the outbreak of war. Is it because they are desperately afraid of this happening, or is it a threat?

In the same vein, Meister expressed concerns about the political situations in Italy and Greece, despite the introduction of technocratic governments committed to reforms in both countries.

“We have new leaders, but it’s clear that the old political forces are still trying to pull the strings in the background,” he said.

The old political forces? You mean, like the ones who were democratically elected? (Guess how many people in the new Italian cabinet were democratically elected. I’ll give you a clue, it is somewhere between one and minus one.)

Meister urged quick progress in finding ways to boost the firepower of the EFSF through leveraging. He also voiced support for accelerating the introduction of the EFSF’s successor fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Nope, still won’t back the ECB as the guarantor then. Visions of the Weimar Republic and wheelbarrows full of cash to buy a loaf of bread.

Well, you signed up for it mate. Your lot were convinced it was the way forward, your lot belittled and criticised us for staying out, and now we’ve been proven right you have the audacity to come knocking at our door, cap in hand, while continuing to have a pop at us?

I’ll tell you what, Buddy. If you find our foresight so offensive do feel free to fuck right off without taking any of my money, it’s really no skin off my nose.

You might as well just rename it.

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Soooooooooo. Sky News breathlessly report good news that Italy’s bond yield as of about 1700 GMT has dropped to 6.58%. That’s hardly saving us all, Britain’s bond yield stands at about 2.2%, so that’s a huge gap.

However, even more astounding is the gap between the real €uro big boy and their biggest little brother, as the difference between German rates and French rates now stretches to almost 1.5%, and growing. This is what is meant by a two-speed Euro; Germany and everyone else, and as total and catastrophic disaster may be avoided in Italy, settling for just an enormous disaster, the markets nervous eyes flick to the next victim. So the fact that French 10-year bond spreads reached euro-era highs above German yields yesterday could be very bad news.

What makes the news worse is that the powers that be in EU steadfastly refuse to admit that anything that has happened is in any way linked to their actions. Indeed they actively poke fun at those who had the good sense to stay out of their insane project. It smacks of a fallen dictator ranting to tame media outlets about the fate that awaits their opponents, they are just unable to grasp the fact that the whole thing has been a disaster. Not only that, but they then work to make sure that those who are unfortunate enough to live in a country that has buckled under the stress of marching to the beat of the drum of Germany’s industrial might now find themselves living under what is little more than a Viceroy as two new Prime Ministers (Mario Monti in Italy – former EU commissioner and Lucas Papademos in Greece – former VP of the ECB) are pretty much imposed on the countries and are utterly in the thrall of those who have brought about this crisis in the first place.

It seems ironic to me, on this day of all days, that the Euro may just as well be renamed. They may just as well call it the Reichsmark.

Schnell! Kerzen kaufen!

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So, the Euro, then. Those on the fringes are starting to drop like flies, this increases the strain on the bigger member states who are going to have to paddle like stink to prevent the ship from going under.

Not since the 1950′s has German industry been so important, and not just to Germany now, who are going to have to ensure they have the financial clout to prop the currency up, but also to the others who are relying on that clout to ensure they don’t end up eating out of dustbins.

Thankfully, German industry is one of the most efficient industrial programmes in the world, a real powerhouse, the envy of the rest of Europe.

Obviously, doing anything to damage that industry would be madness.

Wouldn’t it?

Well, the German government has announced it is embarking on the biggest programme of industrial sabotage the world has ever seen.

Germany’s coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country’s nuclear power plants phased out by 2022.

Riiiiiiiight.

There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March’s Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.

Which is kinda like the residents of a small town in the middle of Australia hitting the streets in panic about a flood in Cumbria. Earthquakes and tsunamis just aren’t going to happen in Germany. But never mind, why let something simple like that get in the way of a good panic?

Mr Rottgen said the seven oldest reactors – which were taken offline for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis – would never be used again. An eighth plant – the Kruemmel facility in northern Germany, which was already offline and has been plagued by technical problems, would also be shut down for good.

Six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022, he said.

Of course, by doing this, Germany has ensured that it is immune from any nuclear issues at all, should something happen in France (which is almost entirely reliant on nuclear power, sensible Froggies) any fall out will stop at the border. The town of Saarbrucken will be unaffected.

There’s still a way to extract guilt money though, still a means to demand the tithe to the Great Green God.

Mr Rottgen said a tax on spent fuel rods, expected to raise 2.3bn euros (£1.9bn) a year from this year, would remain despite the shutdown.

So, you’re going to continue taxing an industry which will have no means of generating any income? Thereby costing the private investors and pension funds millions, at a time when you’ve got no cash.

Smart.

But how will they power their industry? The greens in the German coalition are going to be a bit sniffy about coal and gas fired stations, aren’t they?

“The various studies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. . .”

Oh, this is going to be good.

“. . . show that renewables could deliver, basically, global electricity by 2050,” he said.

“Germany is going to be ahead of the game on that and it is going to make a lot of money, so the message to Germany’s industrial competitors is that you can base your energy policy not on nuclear, not on coal, but on renewables.”

Making a lot of money? This is the same renewable energy industry that sucks up public money like an industrial pump and then pisses it all up the wall? That renewable industry?

A tip; if you want a BMW, Mercedes or VW car, make sure you buy one in the next ten years, because they’ll not be making them in Germany before long.

Sell Euros, the currency is screwed after this, take the money and invest it in German candle sellers. They’ll make a bomb.

I hope you enjoy going to bed at 6 o’clock.

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I blogged the other day about the moves by the German greens to jump on the quake and tsunami and impose their vision on the country.

Well, guess what:

Germany has temporarily shut down seven of its nuclear power plants while it reconsiders its nuclear strategy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said that all reactors operational before 1980 would be taken offline, and safety checks carried out on the remaining plants.

The move comes after concerns about radiation leaks at a Japanese plant after last Friday’s earthquake.

Yeah, because Germany is regularly rocked by earthquakes and you can’t get around Hamburg because of all the tsunamis that hit it.

Look, these stations have been in a massive quake, and have been hit by an enormous tsunami, and five days later they still haven’t gone bang. Bloody hell, how much safer do you want them to be?

Salted Slug has the tech nerd details over at his gaff. He intends to swim over and declare himself King of Fukushima. I intend to use a motorboat so I can beat him to the punch.

The green lobby really won’t be happy until we’re living in yurts and using tallow candles, the health nazis won’t be happy until we start getting diagnosed with cases of the vapours brought on by bad air creating a miasma. We’ve seen Concorde scrapped and the space shuttles decommissioned.

Why the hell are we moving backwards? Is this what is meant by the term ‘progressive’?

Give me strength.

UPDATE:

The Filthy Engineer also has a decent idea of what he’s talking about. 

UPDATE THE SECOND:

The BBC’s disappointment is almost tangible here.

The One That Is Looking Through The Cracks. . .

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The usual preface when I start writing about finance: I am no economist. It is highly likely I’ve misunderstood some painfully dull yet hugely important item of detail in this little bunfight. If that is so, then I apologise.

Anyhow, a couple of interesting articles yesterday and today in the Torygraph.

The first details Greece’s efforts to deal with their profligacy of the last decade, and could easily be held up as a mirror to what is going on here. The second is about an attempt by some German academics to stop a shed load of their money heading east to prop up this land of retirement at 61 with a national pension pegged at 95% of earnings.

The first article raises an interesting conundrum:

One option would be to follow the example of Britain, which managed to erode much of its debt by allowing the pound to fall by a quarter. If the powers-that-be in Frankfurt were persuaded to allow the entire euro to fall enough, thus driving up inflation in Germany, they could avoid both Greek default and the break-up of the currency. This would right the balance between the two countries (in Germany prices are too low, in Greece they are too high, and producers too uncompetitive). The problem, again, is the scale: the euro would have to more than halve in value and Germans would have to accept inflation of around 14 per cent for five years to make the adjustment. Not something politically feasible given the country’s history of hyperinflation.

A point occurs to me, aren’t there about two dozen other countries using the Euro beyond Greece and Germany? What do they think about this idea of allowing the value of the currency to fall by up to 50%?

And here is the problem with the EU in general and the Euro in particular, what might suit urbanised and industrial northern Europe is certainly not what is wanted in rural agrarian southern Europe.

What if these German professors manage to get the plug pulled on the Greeks? What if the Portuguese who also seem to be teetering on the brink finally slip into the abyss? What then? The economic weaknesses of two small peripheral economies could drag down the economies in Italy, France, Netherlands and Germany. Millions upon millions of people with savings and pensions wiped out, because of the inefficiencies, and certainly in the case of the Greeks, corruption of one constituent part of the grand project.

Many would argue that is a good case in support of centralised cross-continental economic policy, but heaven knows it is hard enough to deal with the geo-financial inequalities in the UK, let alone those spread over a whole continent.

I can only imagine what the fallout of the collapse of the Euro would be. One thing is for certain, it would be huge blow to the EU project, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the empire builders are determined to create a single pan-continental nation in their own image, we have a flag, an anthem (of sorts), a parliament (of sorts), a President (supposedly) and a currency. If the currency were to wink out of existence then it would make it very hard to continue to persuade people that a single nation is possible and sustainable.

Secondly, such a collapse would most likely lead to a number of the current member states questioning why they are in the project. The public of France, Germany and Italy are quite rightly going to ask why their financial wellbeing has been wiped out by this country that has brought nothing to the party. Unlike in the UK where we just mumble and write letters to The Mail (and blogs), the French and the Italians especially would be out on the streets, demanding change and bringing their countries to a grinding halt until they get the changes they want. The politicians would have no option but to give in. The smaller, less economically secure nations are likely to look at the big players and wonder what the point is if they don’t come to their aid, rather than looking out for themselves.

Those countries not in the Eurozone are well out of it, as it is possible we could be spared the worst, should the worst happen.

One thing is beyond doubt, empires always fall. They always have, they always will. It is only human arrogance and hubris which declares thousand year reichs and the like. They all fall. Whether it is because the empire crumbles because the military muscle isn’t there to keep the regions in line or defended (Romans, Soviet Union) or because it is politically and/or financially impossible to keep it running (British, Soviet Union), they all fall. The EU will be no different, and in my opinion will come to an end sooner rather than later. One can’t help the feeling that critical mass was reached some time ago and that the chain reaction is now well in motion, the result of that is certain.

POST SCRIPT

I’ll take this opportunity to add my voice to the myriad of those expressing their sadness at the revision of the Devil’s Kitchen. I’m not surprised that Brillo took the tack he did, it’s par for the course when a small party gets shoved into the spotlight, it’s normally little more than a freak show where the worldly wise can roll their eyes at the nutter.

The fact that Chris was attacked over his blog, rather than his policy I think speaks volumes about the latter rather than the former. In an election where no-one knows who they want to win, but everyone wants them all to lose, I feel it is important to take the opportunity now to show you are really, properly, different to everyone else. DK’s blog was a fine outlet for that, and it was reading him and Leg-Iron that motivated me to do this blogging lark for myself.

My advice, for what it is worth, should you ever read this Chris, is dare to be different. Show how angry we are. Show we’re not afraid to use the occasional naughty word. Show that we attack people and policy because it is the right thing to do, not the expected thing to do. Attack without mercy and without fear of reprisal. Show that people can look as long and as hard at us as they wish, for we believe in what we say, we do not say what we think people wish to believe.

Polarise opinion, stand out. If people do not agree with us, then that’s fine. The trick is to persuade more people to agree with us than disagree. If we can’t, well, that’s democracy. I’d hate for us and for you to become conformist.

The One That Bets They Don’t Get The Chance. . .

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Jose Manuel Barroso after the Germans throw out the Lisbon Treaty.

According to Open Europe, 77% of Germans want a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

I’ve a shiny €10 note that says they don’t get it.

Let’s look at some of the quotes attributed in this report:

German press agency DPA reported this week that “nobody expects a complete ‘No’” from the judges, adding that “a ‘yes, but’ is considered a possibility.

Errr, no. Try Yes or No. Simple as that.

Irish Europe Minister Dick Roche said in the aftermath of the Irish ‘no’ vote that “the first thing to learn about referendums – is to avoid them.

The first thing to learn about Dick Roche is to kick him very hard. In the head. Every ten minutes.


Former Commission President Jacques Santer added: “A referendum is good for democracy; it is not always good for a country. We need to make a distinction between democracy and what is good for the country.

News flash, Jacques, you detestible merde petit, the EU is not a country. Fucktard.

Valery Giscard d’Estaing, has explained the reason why it was renamed the Lisbon Treaty, saying: “Above all, it is to avoid having a referendum.

Because referenda look likely to tell us that the electorate don’t like our plans, and that won’t do, that won’t do at all. If we don’t ask them, they can’t tell us.

However, there is hope:

Bavarian Minister-President Horst Seehofer has said: “We want the population to be asked before German competences are irrevocably transferred to Brussels.

Nice one Horst, fancy pointing that out to Angela?

Silvana Koch-Mehrin, leader of the German liberals in the European Parliament, said: “Without a referendum in Europe the growing gap between the EU and its citizens will keep on growing.”

Although the cynic in me must point out that Silvana doesn’t say if that is a bad thing or not.

Reporting Judge Udo Di Fabio said: “One has to ask soberly: What competences are left with the Bundestag in the end?” He also bluntly asked “whether it would not be more honest to just proclaim a European federal state”. On the transfer of powers to the EU, he said: “Is the idea of going ever more in this direction not a threat to freedom?”

To answer those points; None. Yes, but there would be millions on the streets (but not in the UK, the BBC would show an Eastenders special, before C4 announce a surprise eviction on Big Brother). Yes, yes it is a very direct threat to freedom. I kinda think that’s the point.

We’re not dead yet, but we’re not at all well. The Czechs and Poles have yet to sign, I’m unsure about the Danes’ state of play, and perhaps the Irish will be persuaded by the no camp that the EU thinks they are all stupid bog trotters who should do as they are fucking told. Perhaps we can send them a picture like this?


It may not be flattering for us in England, but it’ll allow the Irish to get the message.