Monthly Archives: November 2010

        In 2001 I published “Just Say No:  100 arguments against the Euro”. It is timely to revisit some of  them, to see why the Euro is causing such trouble to economies like Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain.          I pointed out that the Euro was an “Exhange Rate Mechanism you could not get out of”. As [...]

Just as I feared and forecast, the second phase of the Euro crisis has hit us.  The first phase saw Greece at the centre of the storm. It ended with the announcement of a bail out for Greece, and the provision of general facilities in case any other country got into difficulties. The authorities told us [...]

           On June 22nd 2010 the new government rightly said they needed to take faster and stronger action to cut the deficit. They proposed  additional state  borrowing to  a total of £461 billion in the five years 2010-2015. This, believe it or not, was a substantial  reduction in the old plans. This was still more [...]

               The last week has seen a gripping struggle for power between the EU and one of the smaller member states. It began when Frau Merkel, probably for German political reasons, undermined confidence in Greek and Irish bonds by saying that Euroland “sovereigns” might have to cut the interest or capital they owed to [...]

                There is no perfect answer. In practice, in any democracy, independent arrangements only last for as long as they have broad politcal and public support. If the independent bodies  do the wrong things or if the public loses confidence, then the elected authorities will change them.               I do not favour relying on [...]

                      Angela Merkel started the latest phase of the rolling Euro crisis. She warned that Europe’s taxpayers could not be expected to carry the whole burden of bailing out countries that had borrowed too much. She felt that the bondholders, people and institutions who had lent money to the likes of Greece and Ireland, should [...]