Open Europe has just published a useful guide to what pro Euro advocates have said over the years. (www.openeurope.org.uk) It includes such gems as
Angela Merkel 1st March 2010 ” We have a Treaty under which there is no possibility of paying to bail out states in difficulty”
Greek Finance Minister 1999 ” We must enter the euro with a clean sheet on all the criteria”
Mr Barroso 5 Feb 2010 “The euro is a protection shield against the crisis”
Will Hutton 2003 “Although there are worries about one exchange rate and one interest rate for a whole continent, the advantages more than outweigh the disadvantages ” etc etc
November 30, 2010
The sceptics are being proven right on the folly of the single currency. The really bad news is that they’re right on Europe becoming a corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship too.
November 30, 2010
Yes but similar people still hold the power now and only people who toe the EU line will get near to the power.
You cannot get rid of the Kinnocks, Pattens, Brittons, Mandelsons, Barossos and the like they keep floating back to the top of the pit regardless.
November 30, 2010
You left out the Shamerons, Osbournes, Cleggs and most of the current H of C members.
November 30, 2010
Great stuff, thanks
November 30, 2010
The Euro project was always a Socialist dream come true – but consider where it has taken us.
1. The ECB has facilitated profligate behaviour on the part of the Eurozone governments, enabling the periphery countries, in particular, to borrow at record low interest rates, much lower than the market rates that they would have faced on their own.
2.The ECB’s low interest rate policy also encouraged banks around the Eurozone to go on a credit creation binge, resulting in unsustainable property booms in Ireland and Spain, and to a lesser extent Portugal and Greece. They are still at it, by the way. Property prices in Paris have recently hit record highs as the French banks fall over themselves to offer 3.5% 15 year fixed rate mortgages.
3.The Bank of England was put under pressure by British companies to keep interest rates lower here than was prudent because they could see their competitors in the Eurozone being able to borrow at more advantageous (for which read ‘lower’) interest rates. This in turn led the UK banks to indulge in irresponsible borrowing and lending practices, resulting in our own unsustainable property boom.
4. Most of the major UK and Irish banks would have gone ( and some would argue ‘should have gone’ ) bankrupt without the support of the taxpayer. Supposedly private sector losses have in this way been taken on by the state/taxpayer.
Thus, we are left in a situation where instead of individual banks going bankrupt, individual nations may eventually be forced to default on these debts.
In the meantime all the money printing going on at the ECB ( and, of course, the B of E ) has left the Eurozone (and the UK) taxpayer with rapidly depreciating currencies. It is no accident that gold is at record high prices in Euro and Sterling terms.
So that was a success then !
November 30, 2010
if there were no legal tender laws and monopolies given to banks to issue this legal tender and if there was a free market and participants were free to choose the currency that they transacted in, then they would sooner or later all use gold and silver. Because they would use the currency that has the most moentary properties(portability, durability, fungibility, divisability, non-counterfeitable, not all used up in industry, etc), it would have constant marginal utulity and would be that which held its value best over the long term so that they could save. There would be a one world currency and it would be a bimetal gold/silver. It has always reverted to being this way for 5000 years, after various currency manipulation schemes always failed. So, one currency is not the problem. The problem is a) when that currency is created and controlled by one entity, and b) when that currency is paper and has the major flaw of being counterfeitable in unlimited amounts by the monopoly entities, whether it is the Euro, the £, $, CHF and all the rest. The currency is the flaw, you should not be able to inflate it insanely to start with and then you will never have to face these types of busts.
November 30, 2010
Just goes to show how silly some people can be
November 30, 2010
And Will Hutton is still pontificating. He was sarcastically pouring very cold water over the recent findings of the OBR just a couple of days ago. Things never change.
November 30, 2010
Darned if I can find the guide! Can anyone post a link to it, please?
November 30, 2010
Nothing much changes:
“In Geneva, officials of the Central Clearing Banks met with Herr Voleschtadt of Poland to discuss non-returnable loans on a twelve-year trust basis for the construction of a new zinc-treating works in the Omsk area of Krakow, near the Bulestan border. The Board of Trade has ratified a Trade Agreement with the Soviet Union for the sale of 600 low gear electric sewing machines. The President of the Board of Trade said he hoped this would mark a new area of expansion in world trade and a new spirit of co-operation between East and West. There has been a substantial drop in Gold Reserves during the last twelve months. This follows a statement by the Treasury to the effect that the balance of imports situation had not changed dramatically over the same period. (cut to lorry hurtling through London with newsreader still reading news on the back (facing backwards); cut to lorry hurtling through country lane and flashing past camera) Still no news of the National Savings book lost by Mr Charles Griffiths of Porthcawl during a field expedition to the Nature Reserves of Swansea last July. Mr Griffiths’ wife said that her husband was refusing to talk to the Press until the Savings Certificate had been found. (cut to gang hoisting him on to the back of an open lorry, still in desk etc.) In Cornwall the death has been announced today of the former Minister without Portfolio, General Sir Hugh Marksby-Smith. Sir Hugh was vice-president of the Rotarian movement. (a long shot of a jetty; we see the gang still pushing the newsreader still on his desk along the jetty; they reach the end and push him over into the sea) In the match between Glamorgan and Yorkshire, the Yorkshire bowler Nicholson took eight wickets for three runs. Glareorgan were all out for the thirty-six and therefore won the match by an innings and seven runs. Weather for tomorrow will be cloudy with occasional outbreaks of rain. And that is the end of the news.”
Nudge, nudge, wink,wink – Monty Python was meant to be satire, not a forecast of the real world.
November 30, 2010
Thank God Norman Lamont and John Major failed in their attempts to join the European ERM.
Assuming that was there intention.
Perhaps they didn’t fail in their objectives. Good for them.
December 1, 2010
The EU project has been a total con from day one. It has been foisted on a lazy electorate by a ‘bien pensant’ elite who consider voters ‘à la Marie Antoinette’. I’ve lived in France and Spain and have seen the arrogance of the European gravy train. Anyone who objects to the EU is a heretic. Th Irish said ‘No’. The elite said vote again until you get it right. Spain is awash with signs proclaiming the munificence of EU funded projects. But no-one stops to think where the money actually comes from. Every town hall in Spain is broke, as are their regions. There is an awful lot more mileage left to run in this crisis. John, you, and a few others have been correct about the economic madness of the EU since its inception. Sadly, there were too many weak people in positions of power to stop the juggernaut.