Ongoing European Debt Crisis

He is a good ally for Merkel during the Ukraine crisis. And she did work close together with Sarkozy who might end up as a candidate for the next presidential elections.

Besides, there is not much you can do against the rise of right-wing parties, except of sticking to austerity and waiting for the economic recovery. Anything else would aid the Af D in Germany which would not be any better either.

edited 22nd Feb '15 2:59:11 PM by Zarastro

The trouble is that austerity is feeding the rise of right- and left-wing parties and accelerating the decline of mainstream parties.

And how does austerity tie into the increasing threat of Russia — does Vladimir Putin see austerity as a sign of the economic and political weakness of Western Europe?

Although this is from 2012, he does seem to lean towards fiscal austerity.

Putin doesn't appear to understand economic inflation and some of the things he's done have really hurt the Russian economy for no good reason. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be all for austerity, if only because he doesn't quite get what it is.

edited 22nd Feb '15 4:47:31 PM by Zendervai

Greek debt crisis: German MPs back bailout extension

Looks like this deal isn't entirely popular in both Germany and Greece.

edited 27th Feb '15 3:43:22 AM by Greenmantle

Basically the non-brown right end of the CDU-CSU hate it because its too "lenient" and the left end of the greek government hate it because its too "cowing"?

Ah. Politics. The original Unpleasable Fanbase.

Let's not even get started with the public.

One of the Golden Rules of Politics: You can never please everyone, because even in the best-case scenario, there will be a tiny minority, no matter how infinitesimal, who are fanatical ideologues, complete nutcases, or just utterly corrupt criminals/lawbreakers/anarchists that refuse to accept anything other than exactly what's on their mind.

edited 27th Feb '15 5:01:43 AM by MarqFJA

Jacobin: What made "Germany" competitive wasn't the Hartz Reforms, it was Germany reunification that made Germany so 'competitive'. They then go on to argue that the hell of the 1970s (profits low, labor was sucking up too much income, and there was too much inflation) has just been replaced by another (profits high, labor with no income, and too much deflation). And why are we so obsessed with protecting the creditors.

Ben Bernanke on why the German Trade Surplus is a problem: Essentially, Germany selling so much more than it buys basically sucks away demand from its neighbors and client states, thus damaging output and employment across Europe, at a time when monetary policy is increasingly useless.

He suggests that to constructively reduce the surplus, Germany should consider

• Investments in public infrastructure at a time when the quality of German infrastructure is on the decline.
• Raise the wages of German workers, something that in theory should be doable.
• Germany could encourage domestic spending via reforms such as tax incentives for private domestic investment, removing the barriers to building new homes, reforms in the retail and services industries, and review financial regulations potentially biasing German banks to invest overseas rather than home.

[Insert Comment Here How None Of This Is Viable Due To EU Treaties, Probably]

Some of that stuff is actually viable. Merkel's government, being right-wing, simply doesn't want to hear about spending or making reforms that may benefit the whole of the EU in the long run.

May a pox be cast upon her government that German roads have giant pot holes and that German sewer pipes rot, then.

Considering a lot of Europe's trade goes over German roads, that might be a problem.

Greece puts a figure [€279bn] on World War Two reparation claims from Germany^note  BBC article on the same

Looks like Greece is going for the Nazi approach.

Well, it's going for the "you dirty Nazis still owe us" approach, as a counter to the "shifty Greeks" argument being made elsewhere. I doubt that it'll fly; it's more of a propaganda move.

What Greece should do is leave the EU, then re-apply for membership as a poor and corrupt Eastern European state. If you do that, the EU will give you lots of free money.

Max System Munchkining.

What Greece should do is leave the EU. Period.

The EZ as it stands cannot survive. It must either adapt or dissolve. The EU is fine as a free trade zone, but as a monetary union, its Eurozone subgroup is in hospice, babbling in the throes of delirium.

edited 7th Apr '15 11:43:18 AM by Fighteer

We've been saying that since about 2009, never underestimate Europe's ability to muddle forward without fixing anything.

Eurogroup says no to another Greek bridging loan, Greece given the choice between paying salaries or defaulting on its loans.

Economist predicts that Tsipras is going to try to force the actual leftists out of his cabinet and implement Euro-sanctioned reforms. Hope he doesn't.

I highly doubt that Tsipras would do that. It would be a betrayal of everyone who voted for him.

So we're looking at a fifty-fifty chance then.

Yeah. We have seen a pattern of European governments riding in on reform tickets and then flipping the bird at their constituents.

However, in this case, if Tsipras tries something like this he will have to rebuild his coalition from scratch. Of course, if he doesn't, then we get a Greek default. Which would be good in some ways but far from ideal, despite being the clearest way to tell Europe "no, we were not elected to bow to your whim."

It might be interesting to see what effect a Greek Default might have on several Elections in EU Member States this year.

Then again, most Greeks wanted to keep the Euro when they elected him... .

Either Tsirpas does what is necessary in order to keep the Euro or he'll leave. It is obvious that he doesn't react to anything but pressure so the other European governments should act accordingly.

Probably a beneficial one. If voters see that they can't just vote for populist movements and thus blackmail the creditors movements like Podemos will hopefully lose support and sanity prevails. I hope Merkel and Co. are keeping this in mind.

German politicians (others are guilty too) have been far too generous with Southern Europe. Now people believe that there is actually a third choice betwenn austerity and leaving the Euro. Time to set things straight, either you accept the conditions for bailing us out or not, is what needs to be conveyed.

edited 20th Apr '15 2:47:28 AM by Zarastro