Some
news from closer to home – The Peoples’ Republic of California. A polity
proving over the last decade that in a democracy, you sure get the “leaders”
you deserve. The Eponymous Gray Davis, the termed out Terminator – he of the
execrable English - and now for a second stint at breaking the greatest economy
in the world, the diabolical ex-Jesuit, Jerryiatric Brown. A man who has
single-handedly unpicked the life-work of his father. As I have said elsewhere,
a sovereign State that can give you Intel, HP, Google, Apple, Facebook,
Stanford University, Broadcom, Cal, UCLA, Yosemite, the Redwoods and the Hoover
Institute cannot be all bad (we’ll leave “Hollywood”, Richard Nixon and O J
Simpson out of the reckoning for the moment!). Plus of course USC and Tommy
Trojan.
Joel
Kotkin is a Dem and always worth reading. He knows the State well as does
Victor Davis Hanson from his Stanford tour d’ivoire.
El
pobre Mariano. Bad enough his banks are all busted to bits and now wards der
Kanzlerin und ihrer BuBankers, bad indeed to have Cristina de Kirchner in
Spanish America pinching all his Repsol stock, but to have Dodgy Dave (for it
must be he), fresh from poking the Spaniards in the eye with the Earl & Countess
of Wessex roaming the rock (he, the Earl, a descendant of Elizabeth’s I and
II), authorizing the projection of a massive portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II
all over la Roca de Gibraltar – so large indeed it can be seen from Madrid -
must be galling in the extreme. Those Gibraltarians seem determined not to
allow any renegotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht. They’ll hold the FCO’s feet to
the fire and send a message to those plucky kelpers in the Falklands to give
Cristina the royal salute.
Either
way, the Germans are telling the EU not to bother with any more plans for their
“banking union” whatever that is. Just another version of the three card trick
where the black queen always ends up in the BuBank one could guess. These
brilliant EU minds (Barroso et Cie) are untroubled by any appreciation that
unlimited debts, when spread over the strongest credit in the world, are
sufficient to bring the house (of cards that Jack built) down in a heap (see
the USA).
This
is a special piece by Simon Nixon in the WSJ for all unreconstructed
Thatcherites. His thesis, based on the sad event of a Greek suicide, is that
there is not a leader in sight “on the Continent”. With the possible exception
of Frau Merkel, and some Balts, Poles, Czechs even. But they’ll be waiting for
a very long time for anyone of Thatcher stature. Someone with the courage to
speak the unalloyed and painful truth for a change. We are all in a very deep
hole – Rule 1: Stop Digging. La Comédie Francaise de Paris must be
embarrassing; even to the French with their love of burlesque. There are two
big stories in the French press i) regarding Psychozy and reports of his
reaction to DSK’s nocturnal antics au voiture in the Bois de Boulogne, and ii)
the very public cat-fight, mud-wrestling match between Hollande’s two
mistresses; Ségolène in the red corner and Valérie in the Paris Match corner.
Heady stuff but it won’t keep the French state out of the Latin ditch.
Hard
not to have some sneaking sympathy for Mr. Tsipras. The only way to fight the
nonsense of the Euro and its infinite non-sequiturs is to offer countervailing
non-sequiturs in reply. We’ll do it our way and we’ll stay in the Euro. See if
we don’t! Lefty populism isn’t anything better than very thin gruel, and the
money will for sure run out quite soon. But how much worse is that than the
misery on offer from Samaras and Evangy and that deus ex machina, The Troika?
Ambrose
sees a crack in the German carapace, a chink of light for the down-trodden
masses of Club Med sanatoria. Debt pooling by the front door, but with a
committed sinking fund. It’ll take years to structure and everyone is
guaranteed to hate it by the time the small print emerges. Angela will have
been long retired and the debt will still be rolling up. Horses, over the hill,
stable door slamming, too little, too late. A bit of Prussian window dressing,
I suspect. Surely Ambrose has resorted to wishful thinking.
Which
brings us all back to the week from hell – at the end of which Cyprus is bust
and the Greeks will vote again – from which the emergence of stable government
is highly unlikely. Spanish bond yields are rising, dragging the Italians
upwards into the heliosphere where Icarus came unglued. The Spanish bank fix is
but words, prayers, good intentions, promises, fingers crossed and a very
tenuous connection to the real world of the Prussian taxpayer. Normal capital
flight service north will resume subito and continue until something nasty
breaks with a loud crack. We read the SDP and its unholy alliance with the
Greens (and probably with the Monster Raving Loony Party of Prussia) have
threatened die Kanzlerin that they’ll block the fiskalcompact ratification in the
Bundesrat if she doesn’t take her Jill-boot off Mariano and Mario’s respective
scrawny necks. The short answer should be “Have at it – machen Sie meinen Tag”!
Now
is probably a good time to get some rest, stock up on fortifying G&T
supplies and settle down for a respite weekend of US Open golf and brace
ourselves for a wild Athens Sunday. Come Monday there’ll be plenty of smoke in
the air and it’s doubtful it will clear for some while. After which the script
becomes very foggy and the players will be back where they started – ad libbing
like the Tower of Babel.
Simon
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