Sarkozy and Merkel call for 'true economic government' to save eurozone

[Tamas]

 

[Zanza]

Not sure, it appeared as a news item, a call for a common tax policy or something like that.

If that's the whole level of detail you can remember, there is not much to discuss.

[Tamas]

Not sure, it appeared as a news item, a call for a common tax policy or something like that.

If that's the whole level of detail you can remember, there is not much to discuss.

I concur.

Let's get back on topic: what's next? Greek default at the end of this month? Or another bailout? And if any, then what?

And Italy... already a shitton of money was spent on buying Italian bonds off the stockmarket, it can't go on forever. And if there will be Italian austerity, Benito's err I mean Silvio's opposition cannot campaign with  "we will take even more stuff away!", when the rioting starts there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyePCRkq620&feature=feedf

[Martinus]

The only helpful thing they could do is compel Germany to run large deficits to crank up demand, but then you end up destroying the fiscal position of essentially the last major solvent country in Europe.

The UK is insolvent? 

[Martinus]

No, I think it was in Goat Breeder's Monthly 

[Zanza]

The UK is insolvent? 

France, Italy and Spain aren't insolvent either. All of them should be able to stabilize and reduce their debt given enough political will to do so.

[Neil]

The UK is insolvent? 

France, Italy and Spain aren't insolvent either. All of them should be able to stabilize and reduce their debt given enough political will to do so.

Why would they do that though?  Eventually, they will get their Eurobonds, and when that happens, they can simply have Germany pay their bills.

[Valmy]

France, Italy and Spain aren't insolvent either. All of them should be able to stabilize and reduce their debt given enough political will to do so.

Yeah?  That is good news because from where I sit a meltdown in any one of those countries would bring down the Euro zone.

[Valmy]

Ze Germans are plotting to establish the 4th Reich. Don't be fooled Euros!

The Axis of Austerity Measures

[Richard Hakluyt]

It seems they want a Tobin tax, to be imposed on all EU members, not just Eurozone members.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/17/eurozone-germany-idUSLDE77G08820110817

[MadImmortalMan]

Can someone define a "financial transaction" for me in this context so I know what it is they are going to tax?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Hmmm......checking up it seems that a Tobin tax is only on transactions involving currency exchange, I thought the defintion was looser than that, so have used the term incorrectly above.

[Iormlund]

The UK is insolvent? 

France, Italy and Spain aren't insolvent either. All of them should be able to stabilize and reduce their debt given enough political will to do so.

Completely true. Curiously enough, every politician in Europe is actually trying their very best to make them insolvent. And that goes for our dear Chancellor in Berlin, as well. I wonder if the Führer of the Axis of Austerity is only now realizing what happens when her most important trade partners cut investments to nothing and stop buying stuff.

[MadImmortalMan]

The government sector isn't the only one that buys stuff.

[Zanza]

Completely true. Curiously enough, every politician in Europe is actually trying their very best to make them insolvent. And that goes for our dear Chancellor in Berlin, as well. I wonder if the Führer of the Axis of Austerity is only now realizing what happens when her most important trade partners cut investments to nothing and stop buying stuff.

She is way too preoccupied with domestic politics to really care. Germans can (and it looks like they will) vote her out of office. Spaniards can't. It doesn't matter to her if hundreds of thousands protest on the big squares in Spain.