"The Fourth Reich"?

[maqroll]

[LondonLax]

The guy is full of shit. He's just peddling lazy steriotypes based on WWII.

The Euro project was a French idea. The Germans were very reluctant to give up their very powerful currency which had served them well and had to be convinced on the basis that it woul improve unity.

[Awol]

LL is right that the Euro was the price exacted by the French on Germany in return for their consent to reunification of east and west. The mistake made by d'Estaing and his ilk was to believe they could harness German economic power to support a French vision of the EU in perpetuity.

However his analysis that Germany is taking over via EU institutions is correct and the interest rates of the currency have been set to benefit the German economy, causing the economies of the peripheral countries to overheat and go bust due to artificially low interest on credit. It is also the German driven policy of austerity without devaluation that is killing Greece and will cripple all of southern Europe.

The fourth Reich stuff however is deeply misguided and needlessly offensive, Germany has simply acted in its own national interest but is now in a lose-lose situation. Either create a debt union and transfer wealth between states forever (as in the US federal model), or accept the Euro can't function as structured, withdraw and watch exports drop off a cliff as their new currency sky rockets in value.

He's also bang on about the collusion of Goldman Sachs in cooking the Greek accounts to allow them to join the Euro project. The EU didn't care because as with any empire, if it fails to expand then it begins to contract - anathema to the European federalists.

[LondonLax]

Look at that, I agree with AWOL

[JulieB]

he guy is full of shit. He's just peddling lazy steriotypes based on WWII.

Max Keiser might be a bit OTT but he's been remarkably correct on his assessments of what's going on in the financial world, as I've tried to explain in other threads. He's absolutely correct to say what has been allowed to happen to the assets of MF global is nothing short of a disgrace & outright corporate theft.

Let's get this straight Greece has been one of the most corrupt economies in the Western world for a long time, and the German's & everyone on Wall St knew that, so they knew EXACTLY what would happen, that their economy would collapse.

Germany IS with assistance of the traders making hay over the Greek crisis. The IMF are lending them money at ridiculous high interest rates to prop up their economy. If they were trying to help Greece, surely they would lend them money at LOW interest rates - like they are the banksters at ridiculous low interest rates.

Wall Street did indeed dump a load of toxic debts on Greece - when they entered the Euro, when Goldman Sachs cooked the books AND charged them $300M for doing so. What's more none of the investment banks give a hoot if Greece defaults because they have all taken out reinsurance anyway on their loans in the form of credit default swaps. They're also making billions on betting that Greece will default & collapse.

Germany is just sitting back as the major player in the Euro waiting like a predatory lion for the weakest victims to fall behind.

Not exactly a dictatorship in the ilk of the third reich, but an international Oligarchy of the elite, which seems to be growing more powerful by the day.

You can now rent an ancient site of historical antiquity apparently from the Greek government for weddings etc...they are so desperate.

What a mess this all is with the common people feeling the greatest pain .......meanwhile the banksters continue to make trillions

[JulieB]

Don't forget only a couple of weeks ago it all came out that the Germans were proposing that the Banks take over the running of the Greek economy.

Sacry stuff....when the commercial system as corrupt as the one we have in place at the moment is opnely coming forward to govern.

It's becoming more and more apparanent that powerful commercial forces have been manipulating matters from the sidelines using advisers, lobbyists and financial muscle to maintain control working behind the scenes. However now they are so brazen that this is being proposed to be done openly

[JulieB]

New York Times hits nail on head over Greece!

Banks Come First in a Greek Rescue Plan

It now appears that Europe is prepared to pay what it needs to pay to save its banks.

But not to rescue Greece.

Once again, there is optimism that a new round of European talks are going to result in an announcement of a Greek bailout. On Thursday, the Greek political parties caved in and agreed to a new austerity package that will satisfy the latest European demands.

When other loose ends are tied up, it appears the Greeks will have given up their principal bargaining chip — the threat that if they are allowed to collapse, they will take the European financial system with them.

If that happens, then at some point down the road, when it turns out that Greece has again fallen short of its deficit reduction targets, Germany will again demand more sacrifices. If the Greeks refuse, then the rest of Europe could be in a position to let Greece go.

It might or might not stay in the euro zone, but a bankrupt Greece would be left to fend for itself, with much of the rest of Europe saying — just as it did two years ago, when Greece’s distress was just becoming clear — that it is a small country of little importance to the rest of Europe.

Perhaps Europe, in its stumbling and sometimes disorganized fashion, will have accomplished a large part of what it set out to do. It will have put a fence around the Greek tragedy and preserved — most of, if not all — the euro zone. As for rescuing Greece, well, you can’t win them all.

The current European attitude was best captured by a document that was circulated as part of the now-abandoned German proposal to force Greece to accept a “budget commissar” to supervise its spending.

“Greece has to legally commit itself to giving absolute priority to future debt service,” said the document, said to have been circulated by German officials. “State revenues are to be used first and foremost for debt service.” Whatever money was left over could be used for other purposes, such as paying police salaries or purchasing hospital supplies.

That was shot down because it sounded so undemocratic and authoritarian, said Whitney Debevoise, a partner in Arnold & Porter with long experience in international bond negotiations. “Plan B is the escrow.”

Escrow does sound like something neutral. But it apparently means the same thing. European aid to Greece would go into an escrow account, to be released as Europe saw fit and withheld if Greece again failed to live up to its promises to cut its budget deficit. But of course the money would be released for debt payments on the restructured bonds. For at least a few years, banks and others that own the new Greek bonds would be assured of collecting their interest payments.

“The euro area will be able to call the bluff of the Greek government,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“Greece says, ‘If we default, all hell breaks loose,’ ” he said. “The reality is that the threat from Greek contagion becomes a lot less credible.”

The escrow system may also persuade more bondholders to go along with the “voluntary” restructuring. Anyone who did not, hoping that the handful of unexchanged bonds would be paid since the cost would not be that great, would run the risk that Europe would release funds to pay debt service on the new bonds, but not on unexchanged old ones.

There have been Greek rescue packages before, followed by new crises. But this could be different.

By the time it becomes clear that Greece cannot meet its new promises, the recapitalization of major European banks may be completed, and in any case they will have no immediate worry of a Greek default. The European Stability Mechanism, the new European bailout fund, will be in place, and perhaps the International Monetary Fund will have raised more capital. The much-talked-about “firewall” could be a reality, preventing contagion................

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