Revealing Some Of The Mythology Surrounding The Eurozone Crisis

Ben Delicious writes from Brussels: Ok, let’s get serious for a change and talk about the myths that politicians come up with when they want to frighten people living in the Eurozone into believing that the single currency has to be kept alive by any means. How about that myth that  the collapse of the euro would spell disaster for the European economy.

I would really love to hear a single politician explain, in plain speak, how it would happen that without the euro Europe would not survive. I’d love to corner Chancellor Angela Merkel or the unelected European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso or that other unelected President Herman van Rompuy and ask them to explain to me why would everything crash if the single currency goes. Because I reckon if the European economy had survived the introduction of the euro – which was no mean feat, I can tell you – then it would probably be able to withstand its disappearance. In fact, considering the state of European finances it might actually help some of the weaker EU members to sort out the mess they found themselves in.

And then there’s a myth about the single currency benefitting all the EU countries in equal measure, as if Germany and France have not been building their own prosperity on the woes of others, making it easier to flood the European markets with their goods while destroying whole industries in other countries. Not to mention that the euro made it all simple for German and French banks to saddle others countries with huge debts, pushing them to the brink when the going got tough.

Which brings me to another myth that European politicians peddle to cover up their own incompetence and the disgusting doings of the money men: that it’s the people in countries like Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain who are to blame for the debt crisis in their respective nations and the Eurozone generally. How does that work? Well, the idea behind this disgraceful spin is to shift the blame from governments and banks to ordinary people who have supposedly been basking in luxury and living beyond their means for decades. This is so gross that even by the standards of the two-timing and double-dealing politicians this goes way over the top.

And that’s not all, mind you. How about politicians pretending that the so-called markets – I call them ‘so-called’ because they are not really markets but gatherings of speculators and spivs who thrive on causing chaos – are simply responding to the financial turmoil and have nothing to do with making the debt crisis even worse. This is so absurd that it is really amazing that politicians are prepared to blow their own cred sky high, in order to cover up the lowlifes who create nothing and yet mange to earn fortunes on causing grief to others. Not to mention that rating agencies, these gangster type of groupings that work against national economies, are getting away with murder, instead of being banned for gross manipulation of financial data and conspiring with the speculators to make a quick buck.

And now for the biggie, the myth that is told and retold by European politicians all the time: that the single currency has nothing to do with the determination of the EU to have total control over the finances of member countries. The whole trick of introducing the euro for countries with different levels of economic development was to push for a federal Europe, simply because the single currency could not function without a tight political and fiscal union. That is exactly what the unelected EU bureaucrats are now saying, with Germany which has abused its position as the strongest economy to benefit from the single currency now demanding that Europe has a single government and a single financial policy.

And now the conclusion: the single currency was a con right from the start, pulled off by the federalists in Brussels who are pushing for creating a European superstate that would mirror the former Soviet Union. What these opportunists don’t understand though is that just like the USSR the federal Europe project will collapse – sooner than they think,

–End–

2 Comments

1. LordWabbit says:

   July 10, 2012 at 9:59 pm

   Debt is what caused the mess. The fact that the fat cat banks sent you yet another credit card in the mail, does not mean you should go on a spending spree. In my country we have a law which stipulates that before a credit agency can give you more credit they need to determine if you are financially capable of paying that credit back. If they are proven to be negligent in this regard they are held responsible. It was this law (among others) which allowed my country to survive the current economic chaos relatively unscathed. However when 30% of the population are employed by the government to sit on their backsides and collect a fat pay check for little or no work, to the point where 10 people have to be hired to do the work of one person, that is when you are going to run into huge government debt. If any one thing is to blame for our current financial crisis, its consumerism, just because Tom and Harry have a PlayStation does not mean you HAVE to have one as well. Avoid debt, and if you have to go into debt (for whatever reason) avoid sliding interest scales, residuals and all the other garbage banks throw at you to make it look like you can afford it. One interest rate change of 50 basis points can change your finances from manageable to disastrous. If you can’t afford it don’t buy it! And for the love of god SAVE what you can and buy everything cash, the tax on capital gains is miniscule, which is how the rich get richer while the poor pay the taxes. I do agree with your opinion of the euro however. Let it die, trying to keep it alive is causing more damage than the initial financial crisis.
2. Jelle says:

   July 11, 2012 at 9:37 pm

   @LordWabbit: Government debt is not caused by personal debt or consumerism. Government debt is created when governments lend money from (private!) national banks like the FED in the USA or Deutsche Bank in Germany (and there’s a bank like that for every country). That’s how money is being created: it’s given through a loan with intrest that has to be repaid with money that doesn’t exist yet. If you think about this for a second, you’ll realize that it’s impossible for a money supply to exist if you eliminate all debt.
   I do agree that people need to watch out with their spending and that they shouldn’t buy stuff they don’t really need with money they don’t have. But consumers can NOT prevent entire countries to go into huge debts. That’s just how our monetairy system works.