EU Leaders Can Talk Like Churchill, Kennedy Or De Gaulle But Putin Knows They Are Armchair Generals

 

 

The most significant exstential threat to the European Union is not the Ukraine war or other member states deciding to follow the UK out of the wannabe Federal Superstate of Franco - Germany but the sovereign debt crisis. The new, and largely imagined threat from Russia after the inevitable fall of Kiev, and the scramble by former military, now bankrupt, powers to rearm is a consequence of that as to a large extent is Putin's confidence that Europe poses no obstacle to achieving his objectives.

Their is a modern myth in Brussels, Paris and Berlin that former European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi single-handedly solves the EU's debt crisis when he told the world that he would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro and announced a 'backstop.' It is a convenient explanation because it assumes that the crisis is over.

But Draghi's apparent financial wizardry was nothing more than the removal of Eurozone borrowing limits, so member states were free to keep creating fiat money by issuing bonds underwritten by ... nothing. Thus the crisis could come back sooner than we think, in fact in many respects it has already done so with a vengance. Last time the Eurozone faced financial collapse, it was the southern Europeans who triggered it. This time, it is the northern Europeans with their burgeoning welfare spending and their relentless importing of vast numbers of unskilled, illiterate and innumerate third world migrants.

In 2010, a Greek deficit, overshot by some $20 billion, triggered an EU-wide financial crisis, a paltry amount compared to the extra defence spending European countries are about to commit: $500 billion, by my calculations, every year. The Greek deficit was a finance minister taking his eye off the ball, but our increase in military spending is a life sentence. After 10 years, we will have spent a cool $5 trillion. This is on top of what we are spending already.

To put this into perspective, when the UK Labour government cut off the winter fuel payments to pensioners, that saved them less than $1.8 billion. We all remember the furious political reactions, public opinion backlash and the botched U-turn that destroyed whatever iota of credibility Keir Starmer's government might have had. If the UK was really serious about meeting the Nato 5%-of-GDP target, the UK government would have to spend a cool $100 billion each year. That’s 55 times as much as the savings on the fuel subsidies. In fact, it is more than half of the UK’s entire welfare budget, excluding pensions.

But every West - European nation is in the same boat, numbers that are off the scale everywhere we look, and with the German economic powerhouse that has financially propped up the EU for three decades now transformed by woke policies into an economic shithouse. This week, Nato leaders will met in The Hague to agree the fiscally most impactful decision that politicians have ever committed to in modern history. They do so without an electoral mandate. 

None of them campaigned for election on a manifesto pledge to hugely increase taxes in order to return to cold war relationships with Russia, including those who came to power in the years since Putin invaded Ukraine, like Keir Starmer or Friedrich Merz. None of them received a formal mandate for rearmament from the parliaments, which are ultimately responsible for fiscal expenditures in Western democracies. 

They are doing this because Donald Trump just pulled this number out of a hat. It was just a number. He could just as easily have said four, or six percent. Nobody did a study beforehand on what Nato actually needs, and how the needed capabilities are best acquired. We are talking about the biggest fiscal programme in human history — because Europeans are dead scared that Trump will abandon us to the Russian bear.

We Europeans live in some of the richest countries in the world, and we are facing an existential threat. So who cares about the cost?  Our politicians believe it is important that we bolster our defences to disabuse Russian leaders of any idea that they could test Nato’s security guarantee with impunity. We should not talk ourselves into a war, as some hotheads are doing now. But we should be in a position to fight one.

It is doubtful the new Nato target will help us do this. Given the lack of any political willingness to pool our defence purchases, what will Putin make of our newly announced 5% spending target? He is already spending 6-8% of Russia economic output on defence, but the impact is much higher than those numbers suggest. 

European leaders  have belatedly realised what an incredibly weak position they are in. The rest of the world is laughing at our self-inflicted NetZero sabotage, inward migration, deindustrialisation and lack of resources. Watching European countries virtue signalling governments developing carbon-neutral eco-friendly, trans and queer inclusive woke, armies will be comedy gold.

The test for any joint European force will be if they can defend the Suwalki Gap, which, according to military strategist, is the most likely move for Putin.

Will he? Maybe. Will he invade Poland, or another non ex-Soviet country, and then take the whole of Western Europe? No. Why would he? Territory is one thing Russia is not short of. 

What resources do we have? We have some nice scenery, a varied cuisine, good scientists, great architecture and art, but what else is so valuable that it is worth the expense of trying to maintain control over a restive and already fracturing population? The road to Paris is no more feasible than the road to Moscow.

Curtis identified the driver of globalist policy after 9/11 in ‘The Power of Nightmares’, control of domestic populations through fear and a common enemy. It explains Iran’s ‘Great Satan’ rhetoric perfectly. Putin, who the media reliably informed me in 2022 (ad almost every day since,) was about to die of cancer after he invaded Ukraine, is the last candidate standing, now Iran has (allegedly) been removed from the threat picture. Strange that these alarmists never mention China.

If the US continues down the isolationist road, contrarians might argue that it is far more likely we will make peace with The Bear in a few years time and eventually be part of the same economic group, just as Taiwan will likely eventually choose to reunify with China once the US has internally replaced its chip dependency.

We could have been much further down the road to economic cooperation after 1991 but it would not have suited the US for that to happen, so it broke the informal, non - expansion agreement Bill Clinton made with Yeltsin and moved the buffer zone into NATO, and the rest is history. 

FROM THE ARCHIVE: 

Russian Long Range Missile Test Fuels Nuclear War Fears As NATO Pushed Ukraine To Escalate Conflict
Russia tested its latest intercontinental ballistic missile yeserday, the Satan II has a range of 10,000 miles and can devastate an area of 250,000 square kilometers according to military experts. Bizarrely commentators in mainsteam and online news services portrayed this as a sign of weakness by Russia, though the same people cheered when Joe (Dementiaman) Biden threratened a nuclear response if Russia crossed his 'red lines' in Ukraine ...

We The Good Guys Versus They The Bad Guys Reporting Does Not Make Sense For The Ukraine Crisis
Mainstream media reporting of the conflict in Ukraine has disappointed. Perhaps I was naive to suppose that lessons might have been learned from the hits their print sales and online traffic rates took as a result of their handling the COVID pandemic But instead of focusing on the most obviously newsworthy aspect of the build up to and escalation of the war, Russia’s view of NATO expansion into Ukraine and even further to Georgia and Kazakhstan, news reports have simply demonised Russia and portrayed Ukraine as the good guys.

Even If The War In Ukraine Ends, Sanctions Will Stay - So How Bad Will The Food Crisis Get?
Western leaders, desperate to show their own countries they were taking a firm stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were quick to impose economic sanctions ... so quick in fact that they acted before they had though things through. While freezing Russia out of the global finance system they have exacerbated the wests energy crisis, while Russia's retaliatory ban on raw materials (fertiliser) exports will create extra problems on top of those we already had ...

While Crazy Joe Biden Claims Victory Over Russia, NATO's Expansin Plans Have Been Derailed By PutinJoe Biden (or his handlers because we all know Joe's mind is gone,) have been trying to spin reports of Russian troops withdrawing from positions close to the Ukraine border as a diplomatic victory for the USA over Putin but in the geopolitical game things are seldom what they seem to be ...

Mainstream media's hyping of the threat to Ukrained posed by Russian aggression is the latest in a long line of attempts to lay blame for western foreign policy disasters at the feet of Russia. In fact had Joe Biden not started to babble about Russian aggression, talking up the threat of conflict, there would be no crisis ...

Is The Russian Threat To Invade Ukraine Real Or A Globalist Conspiracy Theory?
Continue reading >>>While Joe Biden's handlers in Washington and Boris Johnson In London talk up the threat of war should Russia invade Ukraine as they claim Moscow is preparing to do,Ukrainian leaders are dismissive, accusing the west of ramping up hysteria in a bid to divert attention from oither problems.

British Government Laundered Fake U.S. 'Intelligence' On Ukraine
The British government on Saturday accused Russia of organizing a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, as the Kremlin masses troops near the Ukrainian border. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office gave relatively little information about the intelligence unveiled Saturday other than to say that the Russian government was considering trying to make a Russia-leaning former member of Ukraine’s parliament, Yevhen Murayev, the country’s new leader. Continue reading >>>

War with Russia? The latest scare story
As the COVID narrative crumbles under the weight of evidence that the vaccines do not work, masks are useless and lockdowns kill more than they save a new scaremongering narrative - or a revamped old one - is emerging as the threat of war with russia is the latest fear and panic vehicle to scare the people into compliance with tyranny. Continue reading >>>

Russia - Ukraine crisis: Western foreign policy failures
Mainstream media's hyping of the threat to Ukrained posed by Russian aggression is the latest in a long line of attempts to lay blame for western foreign policy disasters at the fet of Russia. In fact had Joe Biden not started to babble about Russian aggression, talking up the threat of conflict, there would be no crisis ...

Is The Russian Threat To Invade Ukraine Real Or A Globalist Conspiracy Theory?
Continue reading >>>While Joe Biden's handlers in Washington and Boris Johnson In London talk up the threat of war should Russia invade Ukraine as they claim Moscow is preparing to do,Ukrainian leaders are dismissive, accusing the west of ramping up hysteria in a bid to divert attention from oither problems.

British Government Laundered Fake U.S. 'Intelligence' On Ukraine
The British government on Saturday accused Russia of organizing a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, as the Kremlin masses troops near the Ukrainian border. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office gave relatively little information about the intelligence unveiled Saturday other than to say that the Russian government was considering trying to make a Russia-leaning former member of Ukraine’s parliament, Yevhen Murayev, the country’s new leader. Continue reading >>>

British Government Laundered Fake U.S. 'Intelligence' On Ukraine
The British government on Saturday accused Russia of organizing a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, as the Kremlin masses troops near the Ukrainian border. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office gave relatively little information about the intelligence unveiled Saturday other than to say that the Russian government was considering trying to make a Russia-leaning former member of Ukraine’s parliament, Yevhen Murayev, the country’s new leader. Continue reading >>>

One Of The Weaker NATO Members Goes Off Message To Prevent War With Russia
Mainstream media has been singing in unison on the Ukraine crisis, just as it has been over the vastly exaggerated risks posed by the manufactured pandemic crisis. Russia bad, war good has ben the mantra throughout the last couple of weeks as the ruling elites tried to turn up the the fear-and-panic generator to eleven [...]The whole Ukraine scare is as false as the pandemic ...

Putin has got Biden over a barrel with Ukraine – and markets know it
We’ve had a number of armed kerfuffles in Europe fairly recently but these were mostly centred on The Balkans and were local affairs [...] The threatened bust up between Russia and the west over Ukraine is much more serious – potentially the worst inter-regional conflict since the cold war, with far reaching consequences for both geopolitical and economic stability if mainstream mediaeports are to believed.

Storm Clouds Gathering Over Ukraine - Or Just The Usual Geopolitical Games
25 January 2022: As the COVID-19 Killer Virus Pandemic narrative crumbles under the weight of evidence that the vaccines don't work and therefore vaccine passports are irrelevant, masks are useless, and lockdowns only trash national economies and destroy businesses, the elites are desperately looking for another scare story to distract public attention from the godawful mess they have made with their globalisation plans, green energy follies and open borders insanity.

Russia Responds To UK's "Very Dangerous" Coup Allegations
23 January 2022: Russia has blasted this weekend's allegations by the UK government that it's planning to install a pro-Kremlin puppet leader in Ukraine. "We have information that indicates the Russian Government is looking to install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv as it considers whether to invade and occupy Ukraine," the UK statement published Saturday began ...

Europe's Energy Crisis Exposes Green Fraud
Vladimir Putin has been celebrating the recent and much reported European energy crisis, knowing that withouout his doing anything, thanks to the obsessive pandrering to Greta Thunberg and the green lobby political leaders ion the UK and EU member states Russia has been handed control of European markets, with the option of manipulating supply chains and prices at the same time. In the meantime the European nations have failed to sufficiently diversify supply.

Recommded real news: Back to business as usual on COVID - 19 (8 April 2020)
Today: COVID-19 Computer Models Continue To Deteriorate; Covid-19 drags French economy into deep recession the likes of which it has not seen since 1945; Oil Prices Tumble As Russia Balks At Proposed US Production Cut; Kissinger says ‘even US’ can’t defeat Covid-19 alone. His solution? Global NWO government,

[ War ] ... [ Humanitas ] ... [Living within the conspiracy ] ... [ Russia catalogue ] ... [ American empire ]

EXPLORE: [Daily Stirrer] ... [ Our Page on on Substack ]... [Boggart Aboad] ... [ Greenteeth Home ] ... [ Greenteeth on Minds.com ] ... [ Latest Posts ]

The Never-Ending War On Cash

 

In the last few decades the global elites have been pushing, particularly in the developed nations, to shift financial activity from cash and paper cheques towards a “cashless world,” a trend that continues to be promoted by government, financial institutions, big business and the media. Physical currency is under constant attack and the majority of the world’s money supply exists in intangible electronic form. Governments and financial institutions are actively promoting a cashless society, raising concerns about individual financial freedom and our ability to protect our saving and assets from seizure by spendthrift governments and predatory bankers.

The US Federal Reserve’s latest update on physical currency use reported about 2.2 trillion dollars in physical cash supply. This includes physical coins (dimes, quarters, dollars) and green Federal Reserve notes. Nevertheless, there has been a rapid shift towards electronic funds. In the current era, the total global money supply is predominantly composed of electronic funds, with physical currency representing a diminishing percentage.

A similar trend could be observed in UK and mainland Europe until 2022 when cash staged a modest recovery over 2021, with the number and volume of cash transactions increased slightly. With the recovery of cash expected to continue for 2023, suggested reasons for this reveral include citizens concern about their privacy in an increasingly digital world, and people finding it easier to plan and control expenditure when using cash.

The concept of creating Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) to replace physical cash over the past year is now being discussed openly. IMF Director Kistalina Georgieva commented in a speech last year that CBDCs have already been introduced in The Bahamas, Jamaica, and Nigeria, with over 100 additional countries (including the European Union, the United States and the UK) currently in the planning and design phase of creating their digital currencies.

This relentless progress towards a cashless society is often justified on grounds of enhanced security, with politicians and executives of NGOs like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), various United Nations agencies, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) and World Economic Forum (WEF) all support claims that electronic transactions deter terrorism, money laundering, and counterfeiting though this is clearly bollocks as there is no computer systemIt is much easier to perpetrate cybercrime than real world crime, and cycber crime is more difficult to detect.

So what is the push to go cashless really about? Under close scrutiny it becomes apparent that the primary objective is an attempt to gain control of all financial assets and bring citizens savings and pension funds within the control of national governments and banking systems. Reduced reliance on physical cash facilitates increased surveillance of financial transactions, centralised planning of economic activity and greater use of coercive methods to fore citizens to comply with unpopular and undemocratic policies..

It is worth noting that in both Europe and North America face value of the highest denomination banknotes produced by the Central Bank is diminishing. In the US the highest note is the $100 bill, in the EU the €500 note is no longer issued and in the UK though the £50 note is still the highest value it has remained so for over 100b years despite the rampant inflation of recent decades.  Another sign of the bid to remove cash from circulation is the imposition of strict limits on the amounts one may deposit withdraw in cash from a bank account in a single transaction or per day.

Governments aim to benefit from a cashless system as it allows for more draconian enforcement of unfair taxation and the extension of central planning, while banks see opportunities to increase fees and impose naegative Interest Rates.

A cashless society results in larger bank deposits, contributing to an expansion of the money supply through fractional reserve banking but the move towards a cashless world raises concerns about individual control over our personal wealth.Remember, at the annual World Economic Forum for billionaire psdychopaths at Davos a couple of years back, that organisation's president, Bond villain lookalike Klaus Schwab promised us, "In the future you will own nothing and you will be happy."

THE GREAT RESET LIBRARY

Is Switzerland About To Become First Country To Outlaw A Cashless Society?
As in neighboring Germany and Austria, cash is still king in Switzerland albeit a much diminished one. But the Swiss will soon have the chance to vote on whether to preserve notes and coins indefinitely.

Negative Interest Rates & The War On Cash, Part 3: "Beware The Promoters"
Bitcoin and other electronic platforms have paved the way psychologically for a shift away from cash, although they have done so by emphasising decentralisation and anonymity rather than the much greater central control which would be inherent in a mainstream electronic currency. Despite the loss of privacy, electronic currency is much favoured by techno-optimists, but not so much by those concerned about the risks of absolute structural dependency on technological complexity.

Beware the dangers of a cashless society
As the country celebrates tradition and prepares for change, one major shift is closer than ever – our move towards becoming a cashless society. It is hard to imagine money without the Queen’s profile proudly embossed, defining our Elizabethan generation in a centuries-old British tradition, but the monarch’s face is fast disappearing from our pockets.

War On Cash Gathers Momentum - Germany Unveils Cash Controls
On Monday (1 February, 2016) just two days ago, Bloomberg called on the central banks of the world to “bring on a cashless future” in an Op-Ed that calls notes and coins "dirty, dangerous, unwieldy, and expensive." We can imagine it would be quite easy to harm someone by firing large coins at them from a gun and terrorists could probably stuff an improvised explosive device with small coins rather than nails or nuts and bolts. And if ...

Norway's Biggest Bank Joins Push To Abolish Cash
The move by governments to eliminate cash as a means of trading goods and services is moving faster than we imagined. With another global financial crisis looming according to financial journalists and investment experts this is as understandable as it is undesirable for us ordinary punters.

The Financial Times Calls for Ending Cash, Calls it a “Barbarous Relic”
Earlier this week, as the financial world was in turmoil following a rapid crash and recovery in financial markets. While we the punters shook our heads and wondered how the banksters get away with this kind of shit, The Financial Times published a dastardly little piece of fascist New World Order propaganda.

New Global Crisis Imminent, New Geneva Report Warns The Geneva Report refers to a “poisonous combination of high and rising global debt and slowing nominal GDP [gross domestic product], driven by both slowing real growth and falling inflation”. The total burden of world debt, private and public, has risen from 160 per cent of national income in 2001 to almost 200 per cent after the crisis struck in 2009 and 215 per cent in 2013. “Contrary to widely held beliefs, the world has not yet begun to delever and the global debt to GDP ratio is still growing, breaking new highs,” the report said.

Cashless Society - The Resistance Begins Here
A seaside market town in Norfolk may be less than 100 miles from the world's financial capital, London, , it may be the commercial centre of West Norfolk’ as the town website boasts, it may be home to 45,000 people — but there, unlike in London, cash is king.

Establishment Pushing ‘Cashless Society’ to Control Humanity
The global establishment is increasingly pushing the notion of what it calls a “cashless society” — a world in which all payments and transactions would be conducted electronically, creating a permanent record for governments to inspect and track at will.Multiple governments from Africa and Asia to Europe and ...

Washington Signals Fears Over Dollar
Globalist Bankers Make Plans To Rob Your Bank Account
Slaves To The Machine
Holy City (slam poem)
Living Within The Conspiracy
New World Order

E U Central Bank Digital Currency Is The Death Rattle Of A Failed Experiment

The announcement from the European Central Bank (ECB) that is is to intrduce an official European Union digital currency spells the end of the European Single Currency experiment and with it the ambition of "ever closer union until the EU's member states were merged into a single political entity Digital Currencies might not quite be Ponzi schemes but on appearances the difference can be compared to that between a horse and a pony.

Negative Interest Rates - Final Nail In The Coffin Of Neoliberalism? Negative interest rates, in plain terms a situation in which we pay bankers for holding our money, are the latest ruse of politicians and economists to make uis start spending our investments and savings, thus kickstarting the global economy thy have screwed up.

The age of financial privacy is over
Yes you read that right. The fascist regime in the USA has usurped to itself the right to raid bank accoutns anywhere is the world. At the moment they are only stealing money by way of tax demands from people who were born on US soil even if those people have not lived in the USA since childhood and have never be employed by a US business.

Inland Revenue a Dysfunctional department that ‘can’t be trusted’ with power to raid bank accounts
Plans to let the taxman take cash out of people’s bank accounts without their permission were condemned by MPs after Rebecca Benneyworth, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, warned the department is ‘shooting itself in the foot.’ She told the ICAEW conference : ‘Public trust in HMRC would be eroded very quickly if cases come to light where funds have been incorrectly removed. ‘HMRC cannot afford to have public opinion turn against the tax system and those charged with administering it.’Accountants have warned HMRC cannot be trusted ...

Transhumanism: The Elite Total Control Agenda
Robot lovers, indestrictible soldiers with no mercy or compassion, everlasting life for beings that are part human, part machine, genetically modified humans with supernatural strength and endurance competing in future 'hungrer Games' style Olympic tournaments: the plot of some dystopian novel? No, actual items in the elite's agenda for total control

French Police Use Teargas As Freedom Convoy Brings Thousands Of Protestors To Paris
Inspired by Canada's freedom Convoy, a sponaneous protest by drivers of heavy trucks against the fasistic and oppressive curtailment of individual freedoms by Prime Minister Trudeau's regime, French truck drivers protesting President Macron's similarly authoritarian measures converged on Paris where they were met by riot police enforcing Macron's ban on protests against government policy ...

SStarmer Outs Himself As More Fascist Than Boris Bonkers or Dementia Joe Biden
The leader of the UK’s official opposition party, Labour, Sir Kier SStarmer after a year of starring in a remake of The Invisible Man has finally decided to let us see who he is. Responding to remarks made by Home Secretary Priti Patel, SStarmer said education authorities should be allowed to use exclusion orders to stop anti-vaccine activists from protesting outside schools ... Continue reading >>>

Goodbye Freedom, Hello Global Governance.
If at any time during the chaos the past eighteen months you have wondered what kind of idiots are running the world and have gleefully trashed economies, disrupted social and commercial life and stripped citizens of their rights and liberties only to bring us, in late October 2021, right back to where we were in late February 2020 when the words pandemic and COVID crept into our consciousness ...Continue reading >>>

Big Tech tyranny is the biggest threat to democracy in our era
This weeks main story, pushing Coronavirus aside at last, has been the attempt by Twitter to censor U.S. President, classifying his somewhat rabid tweets as misinformation. Whether you love or hate Trump or any other occupant of The White House, their utterings can never be dismissed as ‘misinformation’ because they represent what one of the most powerful people in the world is thinking.

University free speech society told free speech a 'red risk', external speakers must be vetted

Sheffield University’s recently formed Free Speech Society has been warned that free speech is a “red risk” and all external speakers at events it organises will have to be vetted by the University Thought Police squad and the topics they intend to talk about shown to be in line with ideas and opinions the titty - sucking babies who run the Student Union are not frightened by.

[ Cashless Society ] ... [ Money index ] ... [ Money from fresh air ] ... [ Bankers magic money ] ... [ NIRP ] ... [ WEF Great Reset ]

EXPLORE:
[Daily Stirrer] ... [ Our Page on on Substack ]... [Boggart Aboad] ... [ Ian Thorpe at Quora ] ... [ Greenteeth Home ] ... [ Greenteeth on Minds.com ] ... [ Here Come The Russians ] ... [ Latest Posts ] ... [ Blog Bulletin ]

Europe is Flouting its Own Sanctions Because it Has to

 

by Noah Carl, Daily Sceptic

12 July 2022 2:34 PM

The situation in Europe is going from bad to worse.

Inflation is still rising in almost every EU country, with Estonia now logging a rate of 22%. In Russia, meanwhile, inflation fell by 1 percentage point in the month of June. And Russians are used to rising prices; inflation there is the highest since 2015. Inflation in Germany, by contrast, is the highest since the 1970s.

This morning, the Euro reached parity with the dollar, having declined by 12% since the start of the year. But that’s not the only exchange rate shifting against Europe’s interests. As the chart below indicates, the Euro is also way down against the rouble. Before Russia’s invasion, one Euro was worth 85 roubles. It’s now worth less than 60.

And the price of natural gas continues to climb, heaping pressure on consumers and businesses alike. It’s worth putting the recent spike into context to show just how high prices are, relative to what Europeans are used to. The chart below plots the benchmark EU gas price over the last ten years – it’s currently 900% higher than in the mid-2010s.  

In case you thought we’d seen the worst of it, there’s more bad news. According to Javier Blas (Bloomberg’s energy man) Europe’s natural gas crisis is “worse than it looks”. He argues that just before the winter “Moscow will completely turn off the tap” – an outcome the market “hasn’t priced yet”. Indeed, the head of the IEA has warned that, “This winter in Europe will be very, very difficult.”

As I’ve noted before, energy prices were rising even before the war in Ukraine – thanks to supply chain disruption during the pandemic, and the shuttering of too many oil refineries. Yet sanctions against Russia have undoubtedly exacerbated the problem.

At present, Europe is in the odd position of having sanctioned one major Russian commodity (oil), while it continues to buy large quantities of another (gas). In fact, it’s stranger than that: as EU leaders ramp up sanctions on Russian oil, they denounce Russia for “weaponizing” natural gas. They seem to be saying: ‘It’s unconscionable for us to buy oil from Russia; but it’s also unconscionable for Russia not to sell us gas’.

Needless to say, this doesn’t make any sense. Given the prospect of a major recession if Europe doesn’t put a lid on energy prices, you might ask: why on earth are we persisting with these sanctions? 

 Continue reading >>>

 

EXPLORE:

[Daily Stirrer] ... [ Our Page on on Substack ]... [Boggart Aboad] ... [ Ian Thorpe at Quora ] ... [ Greenteeth Home ] ... [ Greenteeth on Minds.com ] ... [ Here Come The Russians ] ... [ Latest Posts ]

News Summary 5 July 2022

UK Roads See 'serious Disruption' As Fuel Price Protesters Block Motorways & Highways

UK Roads See 'serious Disruption' As Fuel Motorways and major highways had come to a halt after slow-moving convoys of demonstrators were seen to be protesting against the excessive fuel prices.
Amid the mounting fuel crisis in the United Kingdom, motorways and major highways came to a halt on Monday after the slow-moving convoys of demonstrators were seen to be protesting against the excessive fuel prices. According to The Guardian report, the demonstrators have vowed to continue direct action until the British government's addresses the situation. On Monday, July 4, hundreds of lorries, vans, vehicles, and tractors blocked roads in England, Wales, and Scotland, causing delays and 'serious disruption' for thousands of motorists.

Parity Is Just A Matter Of Time Now": Euro Crashes To 20 Year Low As Recession Reality Trounces ECB Rate Hike Delusions
We have long mocked the ECB for making the typical European mistake codified over a decade ago by Jean-Claude Trichet, when it launches rate hikes right into a recession (and after that, debt crisis).
Today, it finally appears that the market got the memo and sent the euro plunging crashing a 20-year low against the US dollar as traders bet that the European Central Bank will go slower on raising interest rates as the economy risks being tipped into a recession (Zero Hedge).

Big Tech isn’t Woke. It’s Totalitarian” – Michael Senger says that Big Tech platforms openly collude with governments to suppress the speech of their own people, crafting the false illusion of consensus on political issues of their own choosing.

The Covid Pass – Europe’s new Iron Curtain” – Dr. Niall McCrae writes for TCW Defending Freedom that anyone who thought that ‘living with Covid’ meant going back to normal should have learned by now that the authorities want it to stay for ever.

This unfolding worldwide vaccine disaster” – Neville Hodgkinson in TCW Defending Freedom says it is surely time for us all to awaken to this unfolding public health disaster.

Shock Survey: A Quarter of Young Europeans Don’t Worry About Anthropogenic Climate Change” – Generational teenage rebellion may finally be kicking in for climate change, writes Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?

Fury as £1.36 million-a-year BBC pundit Gary Lineker sides with Just Stop Oil ecoloons after they stormed Silverstone in protest at British Grand Prix – and claims there is ‘way more risk of death from climate change’ than their dangerous stunt” – Martin Brundle, a former F1 driver and now a commentator with Sky Sports F1, quickly took issue with Gary Lineker lending his support to the protestors to his 8.5 million followers, reports the Mail.

Approve a mini nuclear reactor or delay green revolution, Johnson told” – Rolls-Royce warns it will miss the target to deploy the technology unless the Government acts fast, according to the Telegraph.

The unravelling of Germany’s green agenda” – Its botched transition to green energy is a warning to the world, says Sabine Beppler-Spahl in Spiked.

Sex education is becoming far too extreme” – MP Miriam Cates writes in the Telegraph that parents across the country have written to her to share their anguish over what their children are being exposed to in the classroom.

Online platforms could have ‘legal obligation’ to fight state disinformation as part of amendment to Online Safety Bill” – City A.M. reports that online platforms will have the legal obligation to take “proactive, preventative action” against any state-sponsored disinformation. Which I’m sure will be used entirely impartially against governments whether Right or Left…

‘Doctors shouldn’t call out Mr or Mrs in the waiting room’” – A London-based conference to make GP practices more ‘inclusive’ also recommended getting GPs and staff to wear pronoun labels so patients ‘feel at ease’, the Mail reports.

Young people gather in London for conference promoting freedom of speech and tolerance” – More than 60 young people and students from across the U.K. met in London for the annual Living Freedom conference, reports GB News.

The myth of ‘artificial intelligence’” – Andrew Orlowski says that alongside wokeness, there are two other modern manias that have a distinctly religious quality: environmentalism and artificial intelligence (AI). He forgot pandemia!

European Union Is Again Close To A Meltdown As Eurozone Economy Collapses

The European Union was in big trouble long before Britain voted to leave in 2016 (and finally left in 2021), the financial strain of a basketload of economic basket case nations relying on Germany's industrial powerhouse economy to support them was starting to fray the threads of unity that held the then 28 member - state together which the loonytoons green energy poicies and politically correct approach to immigration and other social issues imposed by the technocrats in Brussels were dividing nations internally as well as against each other. But somehow the Brussels elite and their loyal supporters in member state governments managed by a mixture of bullying and manipulation to hold thins together.

But they cannot continue business as usual for much longer it seems. The Russia -Ukraine conflict is taking a toll on the Euro-zone and it could result in finally pushing the Union into the abyss. Every problem emanating from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is amplified for the region which was already struggling economically and politically. Soaring energy prices and out-of-control cost of living increases combined with stagnate growth and a growing trade imbalance with China and India you have the recipe for disaster. And then there is the inevitable runaway inflation that is the inevitable result of the insane money - printing exercise formally known as the COVID pandemic response.

A report publishd by Reuters this month shows the Euro-zone year - on - year inflation rate surged to yet another record high in May to to 8.1% in May from 7.4% in April. Energy costs due to the sanctions imposed on Russia in retaliation for the incursion into Ukraine are no longer the only factor pushing up the figure. Excluding food and energy prices, inflation rose to 4.4% year-on-year from 3.9%. This pressures the European Central Bank to bump up interest rates further. Unfortunately with Germany and several other EU nations being forced to ration domestic fuel, while transport costs have led to problems with food distribution and empty shop shelves, such a move ought to be unthinkable. Europe's economic war with Russia has highlighted just how weak Europe is.

Should Ukraine conflict drag on, as it may with EU and NATO member states supplying the suicidal nutcases in Kiev with high tech military hardware thus enabling them to prolong the war, Russia could completely cut off gas to Europe. Currently it appears Russia intends to keep Europe from restocking its storage facilities, which will cause widespread hardship substantially increase Russia’s leverage in the winter months. In the past three months Russia has cut off gas supply to several European countries that refused to pay for gas in rubles and has also substantially reduced the flow through the Nord Stream. This has cut off supplies to France and reduced flows to Germany by some 60 percent.

With inflation at 4 times the ECB's 2% target, policymakers face the toxic mix of raising rates and a shrinking economy. Trapped between galloping inflation, and political instability due to economic chaos and hoping to tame inflation, ECB President Christine Lagarde is moving to raise rates. Some policymakers and economists doubt small moves will be enough, especially since underlying inflation is showing no signs of abating.

Due to supply chain problems in the wake of the pandemic, then as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine, prices have been soaring across Europe. This suggests the years of of ultra-low inflation are at an end. What many economists tried to blow off as a transitory blip prices has now become embedded in the economy. The fear is that once high energy prices filter through into the general economy, inflation will get entrenched and eventually perpetuate a price-wage spiral.

Data from the European Union's statistics agency, Eurostat shows the euro zone's trading account swung to a record deficit in January from a surplus a year earlier as the cost of imported energy increased. The euro-zone's trade deficit in goods, the difference between exports and imports, was 27.2 billion euros ($30.17 billion) in January, compared with a EUR10.7 billion surplus the same month a year earlier.

Euro-zone governments are already facing all these problems, the last thing they need is another refugee crisis on a par with the influx of illegal migrants in 2015. This time the invasion is caused by food insecurity across Africa the Middle East and South East Asia and the threat of an energy-scarce winter as 2022 comes to a close. The EU abandoned all structural reforms in 2014 when the ECB started its quantitative easing program (QE) and expanded the balance sheet to record levels. Considering the above, it is difficult to remain optimistic that The European Union is on the right track. Member nations are aware of this and are becoming more inclined to ignore Brussels imposed policies and go their own way.

RELATED:

Putin, Macron To Hold Urgent Talks To Halt Military Escalation In Ukraine
Even though the leaders of Ukraine itself are talking down the threat of war with Russia over the breakaway region of Donbas, America and Britain are still beating the war drums and demonising Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Russia insists they have no plans to invade Ukraine and one western leader at least, France's Emmanuel Macron, seems to be listening to messages coming out of the East European trouble spot...

British Government Laundered Fake U.S. 'Intelligence' On Ukraine
The British government on Saturday accused Russia of organizing a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, as the Kremlin masses troops near the Ukrainian border. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office gave relatively little information about the intelligence unveiled Saturday other than to say that the Russian government was considering trying to make a Russia-leaning former member of Ukraine’s parliament, Yevhen Murayev, the country’s new leader. Continue reading >>>

Italy Pondering Total Ban On Unvaccinated In The WorkplacesItaly's unelected governments, which has already faced riots and massive resistance to its authoritarian measures to strip away citizens rights and liberties under cover of pretending their actions are necessary steps to deal with the pandemic, now risks plunging the country into greater chaos by mandating vaccines for the workplace.

Thousands Protest In Germany Ahead Of COVID Measures Set To Go Into Effect Tuesday
Thousands of people took to the streets of Germany on Monday in protest over COVID-19 restrictions that are set to go into effect on Tuesday.The demonstrations were biggest in Mecklenburg, northern Germany, where roughly 15,000 demonstrators took to the streets to protest against tighter measures, according to local reports. In Rostock, a city along the Warnow River on the north coast of the country, roughly 6,500 people demonstrated, while in Schwerin there were roughly 2,700 and in Neubrandenburg, around 2,400 joined a demonstration. Continue reading >>>

After a weekend of increasingly violent protests around Europe, similar to the one pictured above in London, against elitist plans to introduce new limitations on freedom, lockdowns and further steps towards compulsory vaccination (with a vaccine that does not immunise against a virus that makes very few people ill,) it is disappointing to see that in the US and UK, mainstream media is still doing its best to ratchet up the fear and panic ... Continue reading >>>

The Absurdity Of Vaccine Passports, Lockdowns and Segregating The UnvaxxedAfter reintroducing lockdowns from the beginning of this week in its two regions with the highest rates of COVID cases, Austria today became the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full, national lockdown which will start on Monday, November 22. The Austrial government is likely to be quickly joined by neighboring Germany, a statement from Berlin warned [...] Some commentators in Austrian capital Vienna were cynical enough to ask if the whole point of this latest escalation is justify more restrictions
Continue reading >>>

Dont Dictate To Us On Human Rights, Justice Secretary Raab Tells EU
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told the Conservative Party Conference last month Boris Johnson had given him the task of rewriting the The Human Righrs Act when he moved him from the Foreign Office in September’s reshuffle. This week Raab revealed details on how he plans to block interference from Strasbourg in British matters as part of his remit.

Spain Arrests People Traffickers And Drug Smugglers Crossing From North Africa in Speedboats
Spanish police announced the arrest of 90 people involed in a smuggling rackets that moved both people and drugs from Africa to Europe. The Civil Guard released a statement today stating that the smuggling network regularly moved people and drugs from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in northern Africa to The Costa del Sol in high powered semi inflatable speedcraft of the type often used to move illegal immigrants from Libya to Italy or Turkey to Greece.

September 2021

Green Dreams Menu
It may be driven by virtue signalling or self hatred but the urge to destroy civilisation in order to save the planet and the ideological agenda that drive the gree movement are too far removed from the realities of life to ever achieve their aims.

Energy

Net Zero Is A Dangerous Fantasy, But Scientists Believe In Fairies It Seems
With oil and gas prices rocketing and the highly propted sustainable energy sources performing way befow expectations the energy crisis currently gripping Europe (with worse to come as food shortages start to bite, polticians still seem more intent on pandering to the green lobby and chasing the dream of a fossil fuel free world rather securing the energy and food supplies needed by the people they serve.

A Mostly Wind- & Solar-Powered US Economy Is A Dangerous Fantasy
When President Biden and other advocates of wind and solar generation speak, they appear to believe that the challenge posed is just a matter of currently having too much fossil fuel generation and not enough wind and solar; and therefore, accomplishing the transition to "net zero" will be a simple matter of building sufficient wind and solar facilities and having those facilities replace the current ones that use the fossil fuels.

Europe's biggest economy would suffer a 6.5pc contraction if Russian energy is suspended, experts warn 
Even though the sanctions already imposed on Russia in respondse to the invasion of Ukraine are hitting the nations that imposed then harder that their intended target, the EU is preparing to committ economic suicide in an orgy of virtue signalling ...

We need energy security – not Net Zero
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a major rethink in the West. We have suddenly found ourselves vulnerable not just to rising prices in oil and gas, but also to inflation in other commodities – such as food and fertiliser. Of all these problems, the security of our energy supply has most exercised minds.

Net Zero Gone With The Wind - Boris Johnson Plans Seven New Nuclear Plants And Shelves Wind Expansion
Reports in mainstream media suggest Boris Johnson has done a U turn on his recently announced massive expansion of wind powered generating capacity. Sources in Westminster claim Boris has shelved his masterplan for a giant, floating wind farm in The North Sea and the government will reconsider plans to double or even treble the number of wind turbines in the countryside and approve plans for up to seven new nuclear reactors instead.

EXPLORE:
[Daily Stirrer] ... [ Our Page on on Substack ]... [Boggart Aboad] ... [ Ian Thorpe at Quora ] ... [ Greenteeth Home ] ... [ Greenteeth on Minds.com ] ... [ Here Come The Russians ] ... [ Latest Posts ]

Currency Wars - Now The Euro Challenges The Mighty Dollar

Whisper it softly but we Boggart Bloggers sense a change in public mood. We have warned many time over the past two years that the pandemic we were living through was a pandemic of fear rather than a plague caused by an infectious agent. We,  an Information Networks and Systems Consultant, an Accountant and a lecturer in mechanics and engineering, all now retired and with time on their hands to research, crunch numbers and analyse "The Science" concluded the case for lockdows, mask mandates and mandatory vaccines was illogical and unsupported by verifianle evidence, (mathematical models are not evidence.) We concluded something else was going on, and when we dug deeply we found that many things were going on.

Our http://www,greenteethmm.com/currency-wars.shtmlcurrency wars feature has taken a back seat these past two years as the COVID  pandemic (or propaganda pandemic as some people might say,) has pushed all other stories aside. In our opinion however, the pandemic has served as a convenient smokescreen behind which all sorts of elitist skulduggery has been going on, hidden from the view of the general population.

In Europe, Brexit is done and dusted, the UK economy though hit by the irrational and panic stricken responses to the pandemic as all other major economies have been, is doing well while the European Union (EU), the globalist project aimed as completing the trio of superpowers needed to create an Orwellian dystopia, seems to be falling apart politically and economically. Well we Brits always knew Europe needed us far more than we needed Europe.

And as if to confirm this, the UK£ has been doing remarkably well in currency markets.

It is somewhat surprising then that investment bankers Goldman Sachs this week predicted that the Eurozone would grow at a faster pace than the U.S. in 2022, predicting growth 4.4 percent for EU and only 3.5 percent for U.S. GDP. The latest World Bank forecast, also from January, still sees the U.S. ahead, if only by a paper-thin margin of 0.1 percent, while the new IMF outlook is yet to be released.

As our finance expert Phil T. Looker always likes to remind us GDP is a next to useless measure of real economic health as it only measures the level of churn in an economy. The old analogy is Joe wins $500 on a scratchcard, so the pays Jeff the mechanic the $500 he owes for car repairs. Jeff takes the cash and pays Simon the accountant for sorting out his little problem with the Taxman. Simon decides his office is looking a bit dingy and hires Will the decorator to freshen up the decor. Will passes the money on to Mandy the prostitute in gratitude for her comforting him when his wife left, his mother was sent to prison and and his dog died all on the same day. Mandy looked in the mirror, decided her face was looking a bit tired and spent the money on a spa day. And the beautician, feeling lucky, blows the whole lot on scratch cards.

So Joe's $500 has increased GDP by $3000 yet no extra wealth has been created. But hey - ho, in a system reliant on fiat money, as John Steinbeck wrote, "The monster must grow or else it dies, and for it to grow the monster must be fed," and measuring the heath of the economy by GDP is how we feed the monster. Thus 'growth' is the keyword even though ALL major economies the rate of price inflation is higher than the rate of growth, thus they are in fact contracting and all but the super rich are becoming poorer. But bankers make the rules not us, so on we go.

While mainstream business journalists are still arguing over who will trump whom for economic growth this year, Statista's Katharina Buchholz notes that there are other indicators that already show the Eurozone’s growing economic prowess and international importance. 

While the Eurozone has seen output stagnate its single currency, The Euro has been doing quite well. The value of global transactions settled in Euro has been slowly gaining ground on  the sum total of UD dollar transactions, data from the Swift international payment network indicates, hinting at increased activity around the currency. 

In October 2020, Euro transaction value briefly moved ahead of the U.S. dollar, while in the longer term the gap between the two currencies on the world stage has become considerable smaller since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Goldman Sachs report that reasons for this include the EU’s coordinated efforts to prop up its economy in the current crisis and its continued zero-interest fiscal policy, both of which can only be harmful to the collective EU economy in the long term, and that since the inauguration of the economically illiterate Biden regime in Washington D.C. faith in the U.S. economy and its future prospects is crumbling. According to CNBC, uncertainty around President Joe Biden’s “Built Back Better” economic package continues to harm confidence in the USA, while far left lunacies like the Green New Deal threaten to bankrupt the Us economy while achieving nothing other than to score points with climate change whingers like Greta Thunberg and the unwashed crusties of Exstinktion Rebellion.

Here's an inforgraphic lifted from Statia showing the narrowing of the gap between Euro and US dollar transactions.

You will find more infographics on the topic at Statista

Looking  at only payments between parties from different currency zones – thereby excluding international payments between different Eurozone countries – the U.S. dollar still retains its edge as a global trade currency. The gap to the Euro stood at around 3 percent of transaction value in November 2021. Yet, economists have shown surprise at the Euro’s general international success as a strong second player since the U.S. dollar was long seen as the singular international trade currency.

It is also worth mentioning that another reserve currency is performing strongly though on a smalled scale. The UK pound, though by no means a challenger to either Euro or Dollar is the forgotten currency of the bunch, and for decades has been used mainly for trade between nations in the British Commonwealth, (which represents about a third of the global population mainly due to India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh being members. The reasons for this small rally in the popularity of the £ are less clear but as we have reported extensively elsewhere in this page, The People's Republic of China has been busy trying to promote its Yuan (Renminbi) as a reserve currency so it could be that both the Euro and The Pound are benefitting from smalled economies fear of getting too deeply in hoch to the predatory superpowers, The USA and China.

RELATED:

E U Central Bank Digital Currency Is The Death Rattle Of A Failed Experiment

The announcement from the European Central Bank (ECB) that is is to intrduce an official European Union digital currency spells the end of the European Single Currency experiment and with it the ambition of "ever closer union until the EU's member states were merged into a single political entity Digital Currencies might not quite be Ponzi schemes but on appearances the difference can be compared to that between a horse and a pony.

Negative Interest Rates - Final Nail In The Coffin Of Neoliberalism? Negative interest rates, in plain terms a situation in which we pay bankers for holding our money, are the latest ruse of politicians and economists to make uis start spending our investments and savings, thus kickstarting the global economy thy have screwed up.

The age of financial privacy is over
Yes you read that right. The fascist regime in the USA has usurped to itself the right to raid bank accoutns anywhere is the world. At the moment they are only stealing money by way of tax demands from people who were born on US soil even if those people have not lived in the USA since childhood and have never be employed by a US business.

Inland Revenue a Dysfunctional department that ‘can’t be trusted’ with power to raid bank accounts
Plans to let the taxman take cash out of people’s bank accounts without their permission were condemned by MPs after Rebecca Benneyworth, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, warned the department is ‘shooting itself in the foot.’ She told the ICAEW conference : ‘Public trust in HMRC would be eroded very quickly if cases come to light where funds have been incorrectly removed. ‘HMRC cannot afford to have public opinion turn against the tax system and those charged with administering it.’Accountants have warned HMRC cannot be trusted ...

Taxes Will Rise If Government Do Not Raid Bank Accounts Taxes will have to rise unless officials are given new powers to raid people’s bank accounts, David Cameron has said.

The Treasury select committee warned that allowing HM Revenue and Customs to remove cash from bank accounts without court orders is “very concerning” because of its history of mistakes.
The committee said that taxpayers could suffer “serious detriment” if officials are able, either by mistake or through an “abuse” of power, to take money from people who have done no wrong.

Magic Money - How The Fractional Reserve Banking System Conjures Money From Fresh Air:
A look at how the fractional reserve banking system works and how it brought the global economy and many people's personal finances close to collapse. It's really all about pulling magic money out of fresh air.

Investors Ignore Triple Dip Regession As Stock Market Hits Four Year High
News that the British economy was staring an unprecedented triple dip recession in the face left investors unperturbed yesterday as shares on Britain's leading index hit their highest point in since the crash four-and-a-half years ago.

Tax The Rich, Hurt The Poor
The loopy left in Britain and the USA have, throughout the cedit crunch, chanted their Tax The Rich mantra. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it of course and the left have still not learned from all the other economic catastrophes caused by attempts to redistribute wealth that taxing the rich huts the poor most.

The Folly Of Using Inflation To Reduce The Debt As the Obama administration starts to seriously consider minting Trillion dollar coins to reduce debt by fuelling massive inflkation the Daily Stirrer's finance expert explain why this would not work and would have catastrophic consequences.

A Dickensian Christmas Gift: Mister Micawber's Economic Wisdom
Despite the ever growing dunghill of evidence to the contrary lefty politicians around the world continue to call for higher taxes, more government spending and collectivist solutions while the clueless Obama administration embark on another futile round of "quantitative easing. What they are trying to do is inflate away debt but inflation is the curellist stealth tax. (Also posted at Scribd)

Anti Austerity Protests Bring European Capitals To A Standstill Angry protests have left many European capitals in chaos as millions of workers joined strikes against austerity measures they claim have made their national economies worse. Trade unions in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy staged a series of demonstrations throughout the continent on the ...

Government Powerless Against a New Wave Of Immigration The government is powerless to stop tens of thousands new migrants heading to Britain after a new EU borders shake-up, Theresa May has admitted. The Home Secretary yesterday warned the Government is legally unable to block Romanian and Bulgarian citizens from coming to the UK under an expansion of ...

Poverty tycoons who make themselves millionaires from taxpayer-funded foreign aid budgetIn responce to questions about Britin's overseas aid budget,David Cameron has said at the United Nations that rather than cutting aid to developing nations in these austere times UK taxpayers should be happy it is being increased. Meanwhile with her own millions safely tied up in trusts Hillary Clinton demands global wealth taxes to raise money for helping the disadvantaged.

The Folly Of Trying To Inflate Away Debt
As the debt crisis grinds on and the creit crunch mutates into the credit famine the clueless politicians and even more clueless economists and academics who advise them can only think of one course of action. That is to inflate away their debt problem by devaluing currency to the extent at whic a bag of potatoes or wheat grain costs $£€ 1 trillion. Inflation is the cruellest tax, destroying the savings and pensions of sensible people and rewarding irresponsibility.

Feeding The Monster
As Spain's economy nears collapse and economists call for Europe's taxpayers to stump up still more money for a bigger bailout fund to save bankrupt nations, The Daily Stirrer economic expert under his new nom de plume explains why efforts to save the Euro are throwing good money after bad.

[Daily Stirrer] ... [ Our Page on on Sunstack ]... [Boggart Aboad] ... [ Greenteeth Home ] ... [ Greenteeth on Minds.com ] ... [ Latest Posts ]

---

Brutal Scenes From Greek Anti-Austerity Protests

August 20, 2018

After eight years of austerity, four governments, three bailout programs, a country full of misery, a capital full of protesters, and a whole galaxy of Molotov cocktails, firecrackers, riots, and clashes with police, Greece does not seem to have moved forward at all. As Greece prepares to exit its third bailout program since 2010, The Daily Stirrer takes a look at the latest outbreak of Greek street protests, the result of almost nine crisis-filled years.

In one particularly violent episode, a mass brawl broke out outside the Ministry of Administrative Reform in Athens, this clip shows demonstrators being rather brutally pushed back by riot police.

Mass rallies in Athens always seem to descend into violence, like the one featured below, as Greece's parliament voted on further erosions of Greek sovereignty to unlock the EU bailout money, with protesters chanting against Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and throwing incendiary flares at police wearing anti-riot gear.

Since the Greek crisis started in late 2009, the country has racked up a massive debt and pursued strict austerity policies to unlock international emergency loans. In 2015, Greece's creditors — the Eurozone and the IMF — launched a third stability support program in eight years. The bailout, which made up some 86 billion euros, was provided in exchange for austerity measures that included pension cuts and tax increases. It is scheduled to expire on August 20, 2018, but Greece's road to recovery is not over yet, and will not be over until the nation is released from the suffocating constraints of The Euro (€) the European Union single currency.

Italeave or Quitaly? The EU Is Falling Apart

Italy: Too beautiful to be part of EU bureaucratic dictatorship (picture source)

Since the shock of Britain voting for ‘Brexit’ just over a year ago this blog has been speculating on which EU nation to quit the former free trade association that is being driven by Germany and the globalist elites closer and closer to becoming a single political enity, a Federal superstate (called Germany?)
Our money has always been on Italy although we hedged our bet with a wager on Hungary. And it’s starting to look as if we were correct.

Under the headline Is Italy heading for debt restructuring or euro exit? Financial newsletter Eurointelligence reports that a possible programme for Italy’s leaving the Union is already being discussed in the Italian parliament by the likely partners in a ruling coalition following the next election.
from Eurointelligence (not publicly available)

We are reporting from an important conference in Rome yesterday that has caught the Italian news headlines this morning – on the future of Italian public debt. It was organized by the Five Star Movement, held in the Italian chamber of deputies, and openly discussed issues such default mechanism inside the eurozone, sovereign debt restructuring mechanisms, parallel payment systems, and of course euro exit.

What is important about this debate is that it is now taking place in public – you can’t be more public than inside the parliament. Italians, not only the Five Star Movement, are openly talking about these issues.

One of us was on the podium, where we reiterated our criticism of the Five Star Movement’s previous-held cavalier notion of a euro referendum. The essential point we were trying to make in the debate, well reflected in this morning’s coverage by the main newspapers, is that euro exit is not a decision to be taken lightly. The announcement of a referendum would produce a financial crisis and might turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Euro exit belongs to the category of things that, citing Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “if it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well It were done quickly“.

What struck us about this event was the sheer political leverage. Luigi di Maio, the presumptive Five Star candidate for the job of prime minister, seemed to distance himself from supporting euro exit. He sat through the entire 12-hour marathon of discussions. Beppe Grillo and Davide Casaleggio made short appearances. It was very clear that the Five Star Movement is now aggressively tackling the topic of Italy’s future in the eurozone, which is likely to become a major election issue. It also raises questions, as some Italian commentators did this morning, about possible coalition choices for the party if it adopts a more nuanced position on the euro.

A lot of space was given to a discussion on fiscal money – coupons issued by the state to people for use in tax payments. We recall that Yanis Varoufakis worked on a similar scheme for Greece, and one of his advisers at the time gave some details of how such a scheme can be made to work and why it did not work in Greece. The answer is that it requires an extraordinary degree of technical and logistical preparation that is outside the scope of what most governments are physically capable of.

Conferences such as these never reach consensus, but they bring up questions. One of the questions on fiscal money is whether it is sustainable or merely transitional. Is it just an instrument through which a country transitions to a new currency, or just a short-term liquidity measure, or can it work as a supplemental form of money?

Another discussion that struck us was a paper by Alberto Bagnai and Brigitte Granville, who did a stochastic simulation of the costs of euro exit. They noted that there would be an initial cost but that strong counter-cyclical growth would soon resume. The problem with this simulation is that it does not take sufficiently into account the multiple financial shocks that are likely to be dominant during such a phase. Euro exit would do major damage to the financial system both of Italy and the eurozone. The authors have a variable that includes a banking crisis, but we do not think this does justice to the financial Armageddon we are likely to see after an Italian euro exit.

And finally, we noted a comment by Heiner Flassbeck, formerly at the German finance ministry and Unctad, who noted that there can be no solution to the eurozone’s persistent crisis unless one insists on symmetric adjustment in the eurozone. He advocates the strategy that Italy should make a credible threat to leave the eurozone in order to force a German policy shift.

All of Italy’s major political parties, except for the  Democratic Party, the party of Matteo Renzi’s failed government, have flirted with supporting moves to leave the Euro. The current front runners in polls, not that polls are a predictor of outcomes, as we have learned several times recently, with only the french election reflecting polling figures and it is widely suspected that the French result was decided before a single vote was cast.

The path to Italeave is not easy, a referendum and a constitutional change will be required before any decision can be ratified, but trouble is brewing on a huge number of fronts simultaneously:
The Italian banking system is insolvent.

Another refugee crisis is brewing as flimsy, overloaded boats bring thousands of new illegal entrants every week.
Italy’s youth unemployment is a whopping 37%
The ECB is the only buyer for Italian bonds and yields are at record levels
Italy’s debt to GDP ratio is over 130% to the consternation of Eurozone officials
The global recovery still is not happening or EU members.
It is no longer taboo in Italy to talk of leaving the EU or taking back control of the nation’s borders.
Any number of things could start a chain reaction making Italeave look good to a majority of Italian voters. And despite the recent stitch up of Five Star movement in local elections, the other anti – immigration, anti – federalisation parties, Liga Nord and Forza Italia made big advances.
And when Italy goes, more will follow, at an accelerating rate we predict.


RELATED POSTS:</ br>

Quitaly? Will Italy follow Britain out of the EU? With a referendum in Italy, ostensibly on constitutional reforms but perceived as a referendum on the leadership of the ruling elite, looming in November and the anti – globalisation, pro sovereignty Five Star Party growing in popularity all the time. Should the constitutional changes be voted down, and the against campaign is showing a comfortable lead in opinion polls at the moment, it will put a Quitaly in-out referendum, similar to the so called Brexit vote that kick off the process of Britain leaving the European Union, at the top of the agenda.Threat Of Major Scandal Prompted Early Election Move – UKIP
Leaders of the (UKIP) have made astonishing claim that Prime Minister Teresa May’s calling an early General Election was done to pre-empt a series of by-elections that could be called following alleged electoral fraud. Accusing the Conservative government of “putting party before country”, UKIP appeared to suggest the scandal and ensuing disqualification of MPs could rob the government of its slender majority.
Nigel Farage Swipes Back At Irrational, Screeching, Crazy Clinton
US Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton launched a hysterical, irrational attack, filled with half truths and blatant lies, against the most prominent figure in the campaign to get Britain out of the EU (Brexit), UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, during a speech at a rally today. Mrs Clinton, responding to Farage’s address to a large and enthusiastic audience at a Donald Trump rally, may have been rattled at the prospect of having such a hihly effective campaigner in the rival camp …
Rebellion Against EU Authoritarianism Escalates As 8th Member Nation Threatens Referendum
Brussels went too far, they crossed the line in moving from an economic union to a political pan – European political empire. In the end it was a race as to which member state would quit first, Britain, Natherlands, Denmark or Italy. In the event it is Britain.
Is Brexit A Harbinger Of Doom For The ‘Experts’
The Brexit vote, the decision by a democratic majority in Britain to leave the European Union has sent shockwaves around the world. Not only does the EU now face a tsunami of departures, the usurpation of democracy by ‘experts’ ( technocrats ) has been challenged and exposed as a sham.
BREXIT vs. GREXIT – The Truth About The European Union And How It Treats Members
Unless the testicularly deficient politicians stand up for their nations he only thing that will halt the European Union’s push beyond Europe’s geographical borders to incorporate Asian, middle eastern and north African nations is war. Power is addictive and the bean counters of Brussels have ambitions far beyond Europe.
The Hypocrisy and Snobbery Of The Remain Campaign And The Antidote
When I had to defriend a Facebook contact because she was arguing in favour of the EU, it was not simply because I support Brexit that I had become pissed of with her, it was the snobbish and condescending way she dismissed supporters of LEAVE and their case. People are entitled to their opinion on the European Union, but they should check the ‘facts’ they post in support of their arguments.
The Labour Case For Brexit by Kate Hoey M.P.
After my short intro is a savage indictment by Brexit supporting Labour MP Kate Hoey of the way the Labour Party has abandoned the working class and is now trying to betray the party’s proud heritage and its roots in the industrial areas by taking Britain into an undemocratic, corporate controlled, capitalist friendly, elite dominated globalist control freak project.
Dutch Referendum This Week Shows why We Should Leave The EU.
Few of you were aware probably that there is an EU referendum vote in The Netherlands this week. As usual with anything negative about the EU barely a word has been printed in the topic in mainstream media and the silence from our notionally unbiased national broadcaster The Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been deafening.
French, Belgians, Dutch, Italians Follow Britain in Euroskepticism
Europeans want us British to lead them out of Europe. Don’t be fooled by project fear, the European Union (aka the Euronazi Federal Superstate) is falling apart. There will not be chaos if we leave, there will be chaos if we stay.
Head Of European Institute: Brexit ‘Better’ For Everyone
Brexit would be the best result of Britain’s in / out referendum for both Britain and the EU i a Belgian professor who heads up the European Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE) has said.
Johnson’s article lines up his reasons why Britain must exit on June 23rd. It’s time to be brave
OK, I know a lot of you think Boris is most accurately described by a word many people find offensive, but he’s put together a very good argument here on why we must leave the EU. Published in part here under ‘fair use’ terms and conditions, in the public interest …
Cameron’s EU Package: Not A Deal But A Few Turns In The Spin Machine
As we and almost everybody else predicted, David Cameron’s deal to improve Britain’s relationship with the EU is worthless. It changes nmothing, and can be vetoed once we have voted to stay in.
Cameron Plays Deal Or No Deal In Europe
David Cameron, who was apparently up all night trying to make other European leaders understand why his country needs a better deal in order to poersuade the prople it is a good idea stay in the EU. Unless Cameron gets what will enable him to sell the idea of surrendering national sovereignty to a Federal European Superstate ruled by a committee of unelected bureaucrats in to the British public he will not campaign for the UK to remain in the bloc
EU Refuses to Block Eurozone Integration to Reach Agreement With UK
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said at the E?U summit on British membership terms that the European Union wants to reach an agreement with the United Kingdom, but it is not prepared to compromise the banking union (financial integration) or the further integration of monetary union (UK being forced to abandon the pound join the Euro?) to achieve this goal.
Cameron’s EU Deal Worthless. It Can Be Vetoed In European Parliament?
Opinion polls show Britain is evenly divided on the question of whether to leave or remain in the EU, though it has been suggested up to 10 million other voters, many of them women, have yet to make a decision. How they cast their vote will shape the future of the world’s fifth largest economy and the EU itself. But what is really at stake is more important than economics …
Obama’s intervention in UK politics triggers angry backlash
Angry Britons have launched a petition calling for U.S. President Barack Obama to be prevented from speaking in the UK parliament on Britain’s forthcoming referendum on European Union (EU) membership.

Greenteeth Elsewhere: [ The Original Boggart Blog] … [ Writerbeat ] … [ Daily Stirrer.shtml ]…[Little Nicky Machiavelli]… [ Ian’s Authorsden Pages ]… [ It’s Bollocks My Dears, All Bollocks ] … [ Minds ] [Scribd]…[Wikinut] … [ Boggart Abroad] … [ Grenteeth Bites ] … [ Latest Posts ] [Ian Thorpe at Flickr ] … [Latest Posts] … [ Tumblr ] … [ Authorsden blog ] … [Daily Stirrer Headlines]
[ Ian at Facebook ]