h/t Gates of Vienna
...In its latest 2011 forecast for Germany, the European Commission estimates a debt ratio of 81.7 percent of gross domestic product. Thats significantly more than the 60 percent the European stability pact sets out as the debt ceiling that pact that the federal government regularly uses to beat the southern European countries about the ears with, and that it wants to swing even harder. A country that wants to bring in other tough rules would do well to stick to them itself first.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is therefore right to get worked up about German domineering. Spain, for example, with a debt ratio of 69.6 percent, is considerably closer to complying with the Stability Pact than Germany is. Even the Dutch (64.2 percent) and the Finns (49.1 percent) have more right to put themselves forward as European disciplinarian than the Germans do.
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#2
In the class of 'what if', we'll have to wonder about what the German economy would be without the American bailout via TARP of German and other European banks.
[Dawn] Despite a thumping election win, Spain's right is powerless in the face of a sovereign debt crisis battering the entire eurozone, analysts warned on Monday.
The decisive power, they said, lies with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... . Financial markets were unimpressed by the victory for 56-year-old conservative leader Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party, which secured the biggest winning margin in its history.
On Friday, Rajoy had pleaded in vain with the markets for a breathing space of "at least half an hour" to confront the crisis.
The big problem for Spain is the deficit, said Edward Hugh, independent economist based in Catalonia.
The conservatives have vowed to implement harsh austerity measures to meet Spain's promise of cutting the public deficit from 9.3 of gross domestic product last year to 4.4 per cent of GDP in 2012.
"Rajoy is obviously going to address the issue," Hugh said.
"The problem is how he can do it because Spain is going into recession now, not an expansion, so cutting savagely now really only sends the Spanish economy off in the direction of where Portugal is," he added.
"Spain has got all the problems it had; none of them has been resolved."Spain cannot resolve the crisis and repair the damaged balance sheets of its banks without help from the European Central Bank, Hugh said.
"It is not unreasonable that market participants start to question how deep the German commitment to maintain the euro really is when it comes to putting money on the table," he said.
"Until they put some money on the table this is not going to stop." Financial markets were not reacting to the election after months of opinion pols predicting the ruling Socialists' defeat, said Soledad Pellon, analyst at IG markets.
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Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
In other words, Agencie France-Presse is really pissed off that the Socialists lost. They're going to take a big shit into the Conservatives' bowl of Wheaties purely out of spite.
#3
It is time that Spain looked carefully at EU regulations and requirements that stifle its economy and simply refuse to abide by them. Let Brussels send the "EU army" to Spain to enforce them.
[Dawn] MONS, Belgium: A Pak family of four went on trial on Monday for the "honour killing" of their 20-year-old child and sister, who defied them by living with a Belgian and refusing an arranged marriage.
Sadia Sheikh, a Belgian law student of Pak origin, was rubbed out by three bullets allegedly fired by her older brother Mudusar on October 22, 2007, when visiting her family in the hopes of patching up their quarrel.
Her parents and sister are accused of aiding and abetting the killing.
The four face sentences of life imprisonment if found guilty by a jury of five women and seven men at a high-profile trial also involving rights groups pleading for gender equality as part of a civil suit at the hearings.
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
Sadia Sheikh left the family home to study after her shopkeeper parents tried to arrange a marriage with a cousin living in Pakistain she had never met.
Before moving in with a Belgian man her age named Jean, she was helped by fellow-students and teachers and also spent some time in a centre for victims of domestic violence, where she drew up a will as she felt threatened.
She had nonetheless agreed to visit the family in hopes of making peace the day she was shot.
Her father Tarik Mahmood Sheikh, 61, mother Zahida Parveen Sariya, 59, and sister Sariya, 22, also facing charges of "attempting to arrange a marriage," have denied involvement in the murder, saying Mudusar, now aged 27, killed his sister in a fit of anger.
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11/22/2011 00:00 ||
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A statue to former US president Ronald Reagan, who is highly respected in Poland for having helped hasten the fall of the Iron Curtain, was unveiled by Nobel Peace Prize winner & former Polish president Lech Walesa in Warsaw yesterday. "What happened seemed impossible or unthinkable. The older generations still remember," Walesa said.
"In Poland, we had more than 200,000 Soviet soldiers. Across Europe, there were more than a million, as well as nuclear weapons. Major changes without a nuclear conflict seemed unlikely," he added. Underlining the "special atmosphere" of the era, Mr Walesa also hailed the role of Polish-born pope John Paul II, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French president Francois Mitterrand.
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#1
Eastern Europeans have very deep memories about how for decades, American Republican presidents seemed to be the only people who would stand up on their behalf. Certainly not the western Europeans who were all too comfortable with the status quo.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] Despite a thumping election win, Spain's right is powerless in the face of a sovereign debt crisis battering the entire eurozone, analysts warned on Monday.
MONS, Belgium: A Pak family of four went on trial on Monday for the "honour killing" of their 20-year-old child and sister, who defied them by living with a Belgian and refusing an arranged marriage.
A statue to former US president Ronald Reagan, who is highly respected in Poland for having helped hasten the fall of the Iron Curtain, was unveiled by Nobel Peace Prize winner & former Polish president Lech Walesa in Warsaw yesterday. "What happened seemed impossible or unthinkable. The older generations still remember," Walesa said.
