Greeks
are invited to compare their lot to the Argentine. Except unlike Argentina they
have no exports to sell.
Oh,
boy this is getting very nasty indeed, and it’s only Thursday night in Berlin.
A whole day to go tomorrow. Achtung hinunter. Pobre Sn de Guindos now. He’s
stating the bloomin’ obvious that has been apparent to all, other than those
who will not see (aka Euro-crats and fellow gravy-train travelers). “If
something cannot go on, it will probably stop”. He’s referring to his own
country. Welcher ist Hirsch, welcher Schweinwerfer?
M.
Arnaud Montebourg (French for Mountebank?), the French industry minister, says
markets are flying out of control because the ECB is failing to do its job (no
suggestion that it might be on account of unsustainable debt and Socialists
taking power in Paris). "Certain European
leaders, led by Mrs. Merkel, are fixated by blind ideology," he thunders
across the Rhine. Not a thought that Germany has a constitution Mrs. Merkel is
sworn to uphold, nor a Bundestag/Bundesrat to which she is answerable, nor a
Treaty creating the ECB that expressly forbids it to act as he commands, nor
even an electorate (what that?, Ed). Panique et afolement are clearly now
gripping the new équipe de l’Élysée and they don’t have little Snarkozy to calm
them all down. What will Ségolène and Valérie try next to divert attention from
the awful reality that the ECB appears not to comprehend that, treaties be
damned, it was always intended to be an extension of La Trésorie Française
(headed by a Frenchman) and its saintly Ministère. Who let an Italian in there,
sacré bleu! So the simple French answer is to yell at Frau Merkel that it’s all
her fault, du ideologue Boche! That should make Angela feel all warm and fuzzy
towards letting the ECB dogs off the leash. The Franco-Prussian war by other
means. Thank you Herr von Clausewitz. If Hollande has assez de cervelle, he’ll
fire up the Presidential Airbus and set off for Berlin and do some serious
groveling and promising the guillotine in the morning for M. Mountebank. But of
course Hollande has his own election for the National Assembly lap-dogs going
on and needs to keep his mistresses from gouging one another’s eyes out. C’ést
une farce (comédie) de boulevard en toutes langues.
At
least Alessandra is doing her best in Rome to offer a little light relief.
Happy memories of il mio nonno, Il Duce, and the trains running on time.
A
second dose of Ambrose E-P for the day – and it even sounds like he is starting
to panic. French ‘flu from across La Manche. He tells Angela what the Germans
must/should do to stop the rot. Swing all the levers of fiscal and monetary
policy from Stop to Go. Except as he admits, that will ensure the demise of
Angela and her CDM in the very near future. It also means that the German
taxpayer is going to be forking out durch die Nase für Zeit ewig. Which is
where Ambrose’s report of Mr. Dumas’ plea falls on deaf ears. The sting is in
Mr. Dumas’ tail. Greeks out next week, Dutch disease leads to change to an
anti-Euro government in the autumn (Gorgeous Geert), giving Germany the cover
to leave the benighted Euro behind as Club Med funny money. A bit like cowrie
shells round the neck. The Deuro it is – told you so.
The
G20 will meet next week in Cabo San Lucas, down Mexico way, land of the
industrial scale methamphetamine lab. Those Mexicans can sure teach us
something about exports. The smoke from Athens may still be rising and Crédit
Agricole may have walked away from its subsidiary HariKiri Bank but we can be
sure we’ll be treated to the same long list of euphemistic blather from the
assembled pols. There’ll be “headwinds” (blowing from and in all directions),
“kick-starting the economy” and “growff” in the same breff. (Where will they
apply the kick – the poor nag is prostrate?). No doubt “youff” will get a
mention, SME’s must be courted with more credit, and billions of highly paid
“Green” jobs will spring up anywhere that Cap & Trade or carbon taxes or
the cold wind from the North do bloviate. That should do it, Ciao – see you in
Bali next month. One can only hope and pray that the leaders of countries doing
some economic things right – Stephen Harper from Canada say (almost mentioned
little Welsh girl Julia Gillard from Canberra but she’s gone all in on Green
(aka broke) to body slam the virile Oz economy back into the Outback. Let’s
hope Tony Abbott is keeping his budgie smugglers handy). What a world when the
only economic sense being talked is from Canada, Poland and the Czech Republic,
not to mention Estonia. Dodgy Dave and Gorgeous George won’t cut much mustard.
The
only sensible recourse is to watching the US Open golf tourney from sunny San
Francisco, with a G&T at hand and hoping it all blows over. I suggest
staying away from Euro12. Nasty name associations and such blood sports can be
hard on sensitive stomachs. That’s assuming we get through Friday first without
any more French “statesmen” calling die gnädige Kanzlerin rude names.
Simon
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