Netherlands Goes Greek

Stacy Summary: Methinks the Netherlands did protest too much; seems their foundation of debt is just as shaky as the Greek, Spanish, Portugal, French foundations of debt.
Read more at http://www.maxkeiser.com/2013/11/netherlands-goes-greek/#J73iCP3XL7s0pW61.99

EU Common Criminals

Years ago, Mrs Thatcher recognised the truth behind the European Project. She saw that it was about taking away democracy from nation states and handing that power to largely unaccountable people.

Knowing as she did that the euro would not work she saw that this was a very dangerous design. Now we in UKIP take that same view and I tried over the years in this parliament to predict what the next moves would be as the euro disaster unfolded. 

But not even me, in my most pessimistic of speeches would have imagined, Mr Rehn, that you and others in the Troika would resort to the level of common criminals and steal money from peoples' bank accounts in order to keep propped up this total failure that is the euro. 

You even tried to take money away from the small investors in direct breach of the promise you made back in 2008. 

Well the precedent has been set, and if we look at countries like Spain where business bankruptcies are up 45% year on year, we can see what your plan is to deal with the other bailouts as they come. 

I must say, the message this sends out to investors is very loud and clear: Get your money out of the Eurozone before they come for you. 
What you have done in Cyprus is you actually sounded the death knell of the euro. Nobody in the international community will have confidence in leaving their money there.

And how ironic to see the Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev compare your actions and say, ' I can only compare it to some of the decisions taken by the Soviet authorities.' 

And then we have a new German proposal that says that actually what we ought to do is confiscate some of the value of peoples' properties in the southern Mediterranean eurozone states.

This European Union is the new communism. It is power without limits. It is creating a tide of human misery and the sooner it is swept away the better.

But what of this place, what of the parliament? This parliament has the ability to hold the Commission to account. I have put down a motion of censure debate on the table. I wonder whether any of you have the courage to recognise it and to support it. I very much doubt that. 

And I am minded that there is a new Mrs Thatcher in Europe and he is called Frits Bolkenstein. And he has said of this parliament - remember he is a former Commissioner: 'It is not representative anymore for the Dutch or European citizen. The European Parliament is living out a federal fantasy which is no longer sustainable.' 

German people never supported the euro in the first place

(Reuters) - The political establishment has dismissed Germany's new anti-euro party as a fear-mongering populist aberration that could implode even before a looming federal election.

But the first congress of the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) showed that the movement, launched only a few months ago by a group of renegade academics, journalists and businessmen, is striking a chord with voters and may prove an influential force come September.

Over 1,500 AfD supporters from across Germany packed into the Intercontinental Hotel in central Berlin on Sunday to elect the party leadership and formally approve a policy program that has one objective above all: an end to the euro and return of the deutsche mark.

The meeting was not without the sort of hitches one would expect from a new party that is virtually devoid of experienced, professional politicians.

A speech by party founder Bernd Lucke was interrupted at one point by a man waving a German flag. And delegates interjected repeatedly to remind AfD leaders gathered on the stage about proper protocol as motions were voted on.

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Savers with €100k to lose if bank fails

Investors and depositors with over €100,000 in savings will in future lose their money first when a eurozone bank fails, EU finance ministers have agreed, as part of a major step towards creating a banking union.

EU funds will be the last resort when winding up or sorting out a troubled bank, and this is likely to come into force in 2015, three years sooner than expected. 

The ministers took giant steps towards a banking union at their meeting in Dublin Castle, urged on by fears that the euro crisis could escalate after the Cypriot bailout catastrophe. 

Germany had been reluctant to push forward on the union but has now taken its foot off the brake and, as a result, arrangements on two essential elements of the banking union are expected to be finalised by the end of June. 

The first is the creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) where the ECB will be in overall charge of supervising the more than 6,000 banks in the EU, with a role for national supervisors. 

There was unanimous political agreement on this at the meeting and, once this is achieved, the European Stability Mechanism — the EU’s €700bn rescue fund — will be in a position to provide finance directly to banks experiencing difficulties, rather than taxpayers’ money being used to bail them out. 

However, there will be a hierarchy of who loses money first, which Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier listed as shareholders, junior debt holders, senior debt holders, then depositors over €100,000 and then the resolution fund. 

ECB policy director Jorg Asmussen insisted that this was not the same as happened in Cyprus — which he described as ‘unique’. It was important, he said, to have clear rules that are known across the globe, and he believed it was preferable to have the bail-in rules and pecking order operating from 2015 and not 2018 as originally suggested. 

Berlin is still pushing for a change to the EU treaties to ensure the independence of the ECB is maintained, and got an undertaking that in any future treaty change, the SSM will be included. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said: “Treaty change will be given careful consideration in relation to separating the supervisory role of the SSM.”

He told journalists after the discussions yesterday evening that banking union was key to stability in the eurozone.


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