11 Comments

1. john in cheshire says:
   February 13, 2012 at 9:56 pm

   The problem for us, the normal citizens of European countries, is that these people show no sign of being fearful of us. Until that changes, then they will continue along the path that they have mapped out.
2. AndyW says:
   February 14, 2012 at 12:35 am

   It really makes your fucking blood boil!
3. Bill Sticker says:
   February 14, 2012 at 4:11 am

   They don’t really have a clue, do they?
4. RAB says:
   February 14, 2012 at 4:16 am

   Yes it does AndyW, but that blood is about to boil over. The News Channels tried to play it down, but the violence on the streets of Athens was not a little bit of discontent, it was flat out revolution. The rioters and firebomers were not fuckin about, and it is only going to get worse.

   Greece will have to default and leave the Euro, and then the rotten pack of cards will collapse. First Portugal, then Spain or Italy and on and on, even to mighty Germany and poodle France itself.

   Greece has promised to fire 150,000 civil servants. Does anyone believe they will do that? Will anyone in their right mind lend them any more money? No.

   If the Coagulation tried that in Britain, the protests would make the Poll Tax riots look like an outbreak of Apathy.

   If our ruling elites are not very careful and very clever( and I think we all know they are not) then it is really going to be piano wire and lamposts time for them.

   The irony is that the very thing they have vaingloriously boasted of, namely keeping the peace in Europe by their very existence, it is their very undemocratic existence that may lead to wars that would never have happened without them.
5. Kevin B says:
   February 14, 2012 at 4:45 am

   Victor Davis Hanson, in a long piece at PJM points out some more possible, (probable?), results of the lack of accountability in our EU Lords and Masters. (Oh, and Ladies and Mistresses of course)

   Did Euro visionaries not see that the efforts at utopian pacifism on a continental scale were not merely doomed to fail, but destined to a failure of such magnitude that the resulting acrimony would be far worse than had the silly project never been tried in the first place? The Greek and German papers now engage in a level of stereotyping, caricature, and national hatred not seen since the 1930s, and far in excess of anything in the pre-EU days of the 1970s and 1980s. History’s antidote to a failed utopianism is not merely a return to nationalism, deterrence, balance-of-power alliances, and all the ancient methods of keeping the peace, but more to pandemic disgust and eventually to strife.

   It seems I’m fortunately destined to live out at least most of my life between mass european conflagrations.
6. RAB says:
   February 14, 2012 at 5:39 am

   Excellent article Kevin. Thanks for the link.
7. Paul Marks says:
   February 14, 2012 at 11:15 pm

   In Greece and so on it was Welfare State spending that was out of control - leading to bankruptcy (covered up by bailouts).

   But in the Republic of Ireland it was PRIVATE BANKS.

   Anglo Irish Bank (and so on) should have been allowed to CLOSE THEIR DOORS - no bailout from the Irish govenrment.

   Thus the Irish government would have needed no need for a E.U. bailout.

   “But that would have had terrible consequences for German banks and so on”.

   Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

   The freaking “financial system” is going to collapse anyway.

   No matter how many bailouts there are.
8. John Galt says:
   February 15, 2012 at 5:36 am

   @Paul Marks:

   Yes - this was the fundamental error of the Irish Government’s support for the banks.

   By publicly announcing they would support the banks themselves and guarantee all depositors, they effectively put the Irish people on the hook for the foolish actions of the Irish banks and also their European trading partners (French, German, Spanish banks, etc.).

   What they should have done was to announce that they would support individual investors to the tune of €100,000 per institution and left it at that. This would have allowed the Irish private banks to go bust, have their capital offset by their capital / loan books, assets, etc. and the rest would have been lost.

   The Irish government could have handed over the day-to-day operation of the banks to a suitable liquidator, but ultimately would only be on the hook for a fraction of their current debt.

   Sure commercial creditors would have been hosed and anyone with more than €100,000 in an institution, but that is the way capitalism works. Tough shit - them’s the breaks.
9. John Galt says:
   February 15, 2012 at 5:39 am

   Sorry - need to engage brain.

   Capital = Debt - you get the picture…
10. Ian B says:
    February 15, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

    Heh
11. Fred Z says:
    February 17, 2012 at 4:22 pm

    A different view from a lender, namely me:-

    How about the lack of accountability of the Irish and Greek deadbeats who borrowed money based on fraud, lies and stupidity and now riot or threaten to when asked to pay it back. Screw you. With bells on.

    The great pity is that the Germans no longer have the Wehrmacht with finally a true and honest project: debt collection from those whom we in the credit and lending business have a technical term: “assholes”.