News & Analysis
Eurozone Still Failing
AXA fears 'fatal flaw' will destroy eurozone ... Analysts at the French financial group AXA see a serious likelihood that the eurozone will break in half or disintegrate, dismissing Europe's €750bn (£623bn) rescue package for Club Med debtors as a stop-gap measure that misdiagnoses the problem. "The markets are very nervous because they can see that there is a fatal flaw in the system and no clear way out," said Theodora Zemek, head of global fixed income at AXA Investment Managers. "We are in a very major crisis that has even broader implications than the credit crisis two years ago. The politicians have not yet twigged to this." Ms Zemek said the rescue had bought a "maximum" of 18 months respite before deeper structural damage hits home, with a "probable" default by Greece setting off a chain reaction across Southern Europe. "It would be the end of the euro as we know it. The long-term implications are at best a split in the eurozone, at worst the destruction of the euro. It is not going to end happily however you slice it," she said. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: So many problems ... and yet we in the Eurozone must persevere. Courage!
Free-Market Analysis: The Daily Bell analyzes the dominant social themes of the power elite, and one of the most important fear-based promotions has been the inevitability of monetary union – expansive, global and ongoing. Thus, we have watched bemusedly as the EU brain-trust has staggered from crisis to crisis with its nose in the air and its many hands blurring from the desperate juggling it must do to keep the balls flying.
We have been consistent – for a number of years, in fact – in predicting the probable demise of this wretched juggling act. Again, as with other power-elite memes, our biggest surprise at this point is that the crisis has come sooner and is deeper than we expected, as we can see from the article excerpt above.
The Telegraph of course is one of our favorite mainstream sources for commentary on the EU because it is one of a very few publications (written in English, anyway) that provides useful and often insightful anti-EU reporting. Since the power elite positions its memes using Hegelian thesis-antithesis, one presumes that the Telegraph is providing an anchor-point of negativity that the more pro-EU, feel-good media can then proceed to counter.
The idea is, of course, that the truth lies somewhere in the middle ... only, no, no, no ... it probably doesn't. There is only so much truth that the power elite can massage with its memes. Not everything is a promotion and not everyone can be promoted. Not all mind-manipulation works. Money does not control all. In fact, when millions, even billions (?) get angry, money controls nothing much. Which is why, in fact, the elite spends so much time on its promotions. And why it is so very, very damaging when they start to fail institutionally. The financial crisis and the Internet itself have been responsible for the degradation of numerous of the elite's fear-based promotions.
Just as an aside, and to get it off our narrow collective chest, we want to state that we celebrate every drop of damage done to the EU and its euro. We still haven't gotten over the shock of watching some sort of obscure, made-up "Euro-celebration" years ago that sent a dozen young, shaven, gracefully dancing men out onto a stage in skirts. It was an epiphanic moment, in which the entire looniness of the EU was laid out, metaphorically anyway.
Sure, the modern EU man would wear a dress and be as sensitive as any woman. The whole hope of the vicious clique that was running the EU at the time was that hundreds of millions of men and women could be domesticated into some sort of mute, pan-sexual dumbness that would tolerate the kind of Orwellian, wealth-sucking takeover they had in mind.
Over the years we watched the malevolent vision flourish, the attempts to create a European army and to regulate "privacy" by collecting more and more personal and electronic information about people throughout Europe. Over and over the EU socialists struck out at business and entrepreneurs on a mission to defend the "Europeans" from the exploitation of businesses and the "evil" being done by such companies – even when the evil was merely one of transient, competitive monopolies.
Of course, people had a choice as to whether or not to patronize certain businesses, but they had no choice when it came to the EU. Time and again, against mounting opposition, EU leaders would sorrowfully aver that voters had come to the wrong conclusions whenever they rejected some precious EU vision – like the Union's despicable Constitution, for instance, the one that treated human freedom as something that was granted by the will of government. Voters were instructed to vote again and again. Eventually, the entire proposal was withdrawn and repackaged as a "treaty" to make sure that the only plebiscites involved were parliamentary.
Politicians, in fact, were the only ones fully trusted by those at the top of the EU heap, because national politicians could always be intimidated or bought off. We've heard stories of this kind of intimidation first hand, and the evil lurking at the heart of the EU is all the more evident in our view for its hidden nature – the iron fist in the velvet glove.
Make no mistake about it; the EU was and still is an empire-in-the-making with all the features of empire, the endless, corrupt prerogatives at the top and the glib manufacture of regulations for everyone beneath. Thousands upon thousands of regulations, in fact, more than Babylon's Hammurabi code, issuing out in a torrent from the dysfunctional nation state of Brussels and ruining – literally ruining – people's livelihoods and lives.
But now it may be coming to an end. The smooth-talking, silk-suited thugs of Brussels, those who dished out this horror on behalf of their elite paymasters are coming up against a wall that they cannot climb, a stumbling block they cannot intimidate, a barrier they cannot cross. It is the free-market itself, and right now it is having its way with a vengeance.
Sure, the Euro-crats are fighting back in every way possible, but the thing they counted on most is not taking place. The appetite for a closer political union has been lacking for a number of years, as illustrated by anti-EU votes. Now there is precious little good will left to lubricate an ever-closer political union. The notion was that faced with a splintering EU, the politicians would pull together and haul the electorate along. But the electorate, terrified and facing the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression (and endlessly educated as to reality of elite machinations by the Internet), does not want to be tugged.
The Euro-crats can inch along, gradually gathering political power. But it is likely not enough to make a difference; and when exercised openly it will encounter political resistance. Meanwhile, the trillion-dollar bailout of "spendthrift" PIGS will eventually be seen for what it is, a stopgap measure not a solution. In reality, it is a series of loans that must be repaid, and thus has done nothing to alleviate the crisis, which is one of spending not liquidity.
The EU has been cast as a magnificent – noble – experiment. Not in our book. It was supposed to be a trade treaty, but it has morphed into a rogue political entity with ambitions for empire. It was supposed to be a way of bettering people's lives through free trade but it has transformed into a huge money-sucking bureaucracy that piles ever-more restrictive laws and regulations one top of the other.
Only a stronger and more perfect political union can "save" the EU. And, yes, it is reported that EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy intends to have one in place by year's end. He firmly expects to gather the authority, along with the IMF, to approve budgets of nation-states in advance of their parliamentary adoptions. But here is our question: How on earth does this "unelected" chief bureaucrat intend to implement such tremendous power. Does he really believe the British – or the Greeks or Spanish for that matter – will voluntarily submit to Brussels' approval?
Conclusion: There is a showdown coming. We think we can see the delineations more clearly. Brussels must have political control, but those who live and work in European nation-states are not likely in a mood to acquiesce. After 60 years of equivocation, lies and manipulations, the elite project that is the EU must reveal its true face and justify openly what it seeks to accomplish and why. We doubt its prospects.
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Posted by Peter Underwood on 06/18/10 03:31 AM
"Posted by Bob on 6/17/2010 10:53:36 PM
War is on the way"
You might like to view this link Bob ... supports much of what you fear (third article down on EU dictatorships returning). I didn't realise that Greece, Spain, Portugal only became democracies in the 70s ... umm live and learn eh?
Click to view link
Better get UK out of EU asap?
Click to view link
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks. Interesting. But we believe in an inter-generational power elite ... one that does NOT forget.
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Posted by Bob on 06/17/10 10:53 PM
War is on the way. The elite never peacefully fade away. Look for a false flag operation. I caught a glimpse of Fox "news" just a bit ago and was informed that the US and UK have leveled more sanctions against Iran. Naturally Iran is unhappy with this and has promised to act against this US and UK hubris.
Of course they are upset that's why we did it. Now some dastardly deed will occur. A missile fired from Iran's gulf coast at one of the numerous US naval ships in the gulf, or maybe another nasty deed upon Amerika's homeland. Whatever.
We've seen it all before: The battleship Maine in Cuba, which gave us the war against Spain.The Tonkin Gulf which brought us a wider war in VietNam. The World Trade Center which gave cause to bomb the slop out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Keep an eye on this and be afraid. Be very afraid
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Posted by Angus on 06/17/10 03:12 PM
That is eminently plausible; the great fear of the elites back then was the spread of Communism " Hitler would have been seen as a useful bulwark.
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Posted by Angus on 06/17/10 02:09 PM
It is that very dichotomy within which I see the danger. As the good people of Germany grow increasingly resentful of being forcibly treated as the EU's milch-cow and their EU-enamoured leadership refuses to address, or even acknowledge, that grievance; then the opportunity opens up for a nationalistic Hitler-clone to feed upon that sense of disenfranchisement.
The unwisely reunified Germany has now, inevitably, outgrown the containment of the EU. Powerful countries donate aid to weaker ones at their discretion " they don't allow it to be taken from them.
Reply from The Daily Bell
No, from our point of view, there is plenty of evidence that Hitler's rise was at least partially a power-elite manipulation. He was funded by the Anglo-American military-industrial banking complex at the highest levels. Even the Bush family itself - which eventually paid dearly for its involvement in Naziism.
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Posted by Angus on 06/17/10 12:11 PM
Bravo, DB " a quite exceptional analysis.
I do, however, fear that the EU's demise, although as inevitable as the USSR's, will not be as quick or easy. The, beautifully phrased, "silk-suited thugs" may well become even more dangerous when it finally sinks in that they are cornered. Any organization as power-hungry and corrupt as the EU will default to both overt and covert repression long before they reach their "Ceausescu moment."
Resistance may indeed come from the UK; but the recent election has elevated our rabidly-Europhile Liberal Party from local politics obscurity into a fragile coalition government. Whether their newly-elevated status will bring them enlightenment as to the EU's true nature remains to be seen?
At least the fallout from Obama's nationalistic attacks on Britain will have the benefit of making any further UK involvement " and spiralling losses " in Afghanistan politically untenable. This is no time to have our, small but efficient, army bogged-down and exhausted in foreign fields; it need to be recalled, rested, re-equipped and reconfigured to face down the imminent threat now growing across the Channel.
The bitch that bore Hitler is in heat again.
Reply from The Daily Bell
"The Bitch that bore Hitler is in heat again."
Thanks for the eloquent feedback. Don't agree about Germany. The German political elite - as all Euro elites - is enamored with the EU. But the average German? No.
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Posted by Mark Voelker on 06/17/10 03:46 AM
"There are no words to adequately describe it."
"Creepy" is a start.
"Democracy, freedom, . . . . subsidiarity? What's that?
Reply from The Daily Bell
Click to view link
Subsidiarity
The principle of subsidiarity is defined in Article 5 of the Treaty establishing the European Community. It is intended to ensure that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen and that constant checks are made as to whether action at Community level is justified in the light of the possibilities available at national, regional or local level. Specifically, it is the principle whereby the Union does not take action (except in the areas which fall within its exclusive competence) unless it is more effective than action taken at national, regional or local level. It is closely bound up with the principles of proportionality and necessity, which require that any action by the Union should not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaty.
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Posted by Weeble on 06/16/10 08:25 PM
The first video was a catchy little satiric number, I thought. The pert little lyrics, the shakin' coordinated moves. It was happenin'. Then I noticed the lyrics were rather Eurotic, yet so creepy.
I thought the tribal references of which you recently spake were a little over the top, but after watching the Saatchi & Saatchi video, I started reading the comments. Those people are tribal alright!
In order to alleviate Jg's bulimic problem, he needs to laugh the albatross off his neck instead. My wife stumbled on this choice video, Total Eclipse of the Heart ' Literal Video sub-titles.
Click to view link
Oh yeah, the Euro is doomed Captain Mainwaring, DOOMED!
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Posted by Gem on 06/16/10 05:09 PM
Subjective: Objective?
Can we get this straight, please. There cannot be anything objective in the human as the human must experience what they observe? does this not make everything subjective " and since I come from a family of professors, Cambridge and otherwise, I have had many arguments on this topic! I guess it is a matter of degrees of subjectivity tending towards objectivity?
On another topic altogether, can we understand the "power elite" so oft quoted in this esteemed periodical as a meme itself(themselves)?
there is another angle on these power-mad/power-hungry/simply-greedy families, and it was as the answer given by Jesus to the fumbling Pilate: "Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above" . (John 19; Tyndale)
What do I mean by using this passage as example? I mean that those in the power elite have been given their powers "from above" to use for their own (and the world's) benefit. I make a point of that.
For if they do not, then great power can have extremely toxic effects on the soul (yes, there is one if you take enough care to discover it of yourself). I mean that they hold great responsibility " and to misuse that can have effects on the individual in this "power elite": after all they are humans too, and there are things that even the rich and powerful cannot escape.
As for Jesus, read the gospels carefully, and you will note that they begin with the miracles at Cana, and end with a woman who touches his robes to be healed. In other words, Jesus came to become a human and suffer as humans do in dying " lock, stock and barrel as the saying goes. A human is not a miraculous being, but for the Logos to become human (ie just as you and I) is truly miraculous.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Well put, thanks.
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Posted by Bill Ross on 06/16/10 04:49 PM
DB: "Is it possible to be objective?"
Not when your survival is at stake against those who consider THEIR survival to be dependent on your enslavement and demise.
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Posted by Bill Ross on 06/16/10 04:38 PM
DB (paraphrased): "It's the free market that will be their undoing" or, Adam Smith's "unseen hand".
BR:
The "unseen hand" is actually our collective choice, acting in self-interest against those who seek "something from nothing" by virtue of regulatory control (defining forcefully imposed artificial realities, to their profit at our loss), contrary to REAL reality (invariable relationship between action and consequence). Natural law destroys ALL dissenters. THINK about it:
Click to view link
Political power is IRRELEVANT once the tipping point of the majority is reached that the system is a sociopathic predator, has forsaken "consent of the governed" (YOU are expendable pawns, to be used and discarded) AND, the social contract (allowing peaceful coexistence, cooperation and civilization) is NULL AND VOID:
Click to view link
Without common interest, there can be no peace, prosperity or stability. It becomes war of all, against all. This kills honest, mutually agreed trade. The grim reaper of "Mathematics of Rule" PROVES where this folly leads:
Click to view link
Our far wiser ancestors once unambiguously defined civilization and civilized behavior with the "rule of law", now rationalized away by predators on the bench:
Click to view link
DB: this is a particularly well articulated, no holds barred, eloquent piece. Kudos.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks.
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Posted by William3 on 06/16/10 02:35 PM
Well done, DB! This may be the best short treatise on why the EU will fall that I've personally read. Of course, I'm biased toward your view. This probably would not completely pass the test of objective analysis -- way too much spin. But it's an outstanding example of passionate editorial writing. Occasionally it's good to show your true colors.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks. Is it possible to be objective?
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Posted by Jg on 06/16/10 12:21 PM
I just lost my breakfast after watching those two videos. Please post a link to the 12 dancing skirted males, so that I can further my weight loss efforts after lunch.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Don't know about that one ...
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Posted by Lila Rajiva on 06/16/10 10:16 AM
@Peter Underwood.
I know Perkins' book. I reviewed it once, a bit snarkily.
Click to view link
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Posted by John C. Calhoun on 06/16/10 09:38 AM
At least the EU gave us some of the best propaganda since 'Triumph of the Will':
Click to view link
Eat your heart out, Riefenstahl...
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks so much for sharing this. There are no words to adequately describe it.
One for you from Saatchi & Saatchi
Click to view link
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Posted by R M'Geddon on 06/16/10 08:52 AM
The current financial crisis was never expected by the EU " not in its wildest nightmares. But now the crisis' intense pressures are tearing at the heart of all the high-level political unity that once allowed the EU to by-pass the concerns of European electorates in its mad rush for "ever closer union".
As some of the 27 member countries understandably back off from giving the Greeks & other PIGS countries a blank cheque of un-repayable money " countries whose politicians the donor nations & their citizens have no electoral control over, the efforts of the EU's staff become more & more incoherent & disjointed in their desparate, but failing, effort to stistch everything together again.
Opposition appears, not just from the "usual suspects" the British, but from new accession countries like Slovakia & the Czech Republic, & also even from older members like Holland. The fact is the EU is toast. It's now not a matter of if it will all blow up, but when. Whenever it is " the sooner the better, I say!
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Posted by Leonardo Pisano on 06/16/10 06:15 AM
I agree that the EU is destined to fail over the longer term. However, I don't see that happening within five years. Seclusion suggestions will be wiped off the table as being "too expensive", pointing at more disadvantages than advantages. Hence, to arrive at a political situation that stepping out the EU has sufficient political support will take time.
Economic downturn and financial collapse (the fall of the EUR), paired to social unrest, are the probable triggers eventually. And once one member state backs out, especially an important one like Germany or the UK, it will go swiftly.
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Posted by Peter Underwood on 06/16/10 04:23 AM
"Posted by Lila Rajiva on 6/16/2010 1:34:58 AM What did you think of the Polish plane crash?"
The Russians also have their "Economic Hit Men"
Google; John Preston et al " great book too, well worth reading!:
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
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Posted by Peter Underwood on 06/16/10 04:17 AM
"Posted by Contessa on 6/16/2010 2:19:29 AM
Amen! And, bravo, bravo, bravo!!!! Long-live the end of the EU! ;-)"
Bravo TOO....YES, the EU will end, and already in UK at at least we have Alliances now building to get UK out of the EU ASAP!
Join NOW: Click to view link
And BTW, Clayton, and for those that have a superstitious bent: Did you know that the Baltic Dry index bottomed at 666 on 12 April 2008? Click to view link
ummmm " perhaps Jung's concept of synchronicity does work at the quantum level after all!
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Posted by Clayton on 06/16/10 03:18 AM
The moment has the air of urgency and manipulation about it. At the so-called Center (DC, NYC, London, Brussels, and locations I am not yet aware of) there has appeared a great deal of frantic activity. However, here in the reality of Main Street a kind of depression has begun settling in. Stepping back, it looks sort of manic-depressive.
We now have two radically different views of money. Money in the real sense, for the large armies of the unemployed, is scarce indeed. Money in the more abstract sense, for the vast number of government functionaries, government contractors, financial titans, etc. is plentiful beyond normal measure. Trillion dollar credits pop up as though they came out a magician's hat. But on the otherhand, the foreclosure crisis has yet to abate, personal bankruptcies are on the rise, jobs are difficult to find, incomes for the self-employed are down substantially, and the asset markets are doing their best (with, I believe a great deal of direct government involvement) not to cave.
We have a Dickensian Tale of Two Cities.
To top it all off, we have the bizarre deaths (murder?) of the Polish Government.
As the Bell has pointed out, we are on the brink. But the brink of what? A Great Reflation and a new period of happiness and prosperity for the rich and powerful? A regime shattering upheaval that will open the door to a regeneration of the Free Market ideal? A crack down on descent accompanied by the onset of a global military conflagration?
It may be none of the above. We could be in for a "Climate Surprise." Some of the theories advanced by Ewing and Donn in the mid 1950's may be on tract to testing themselves. The sudden temperature drops that have occurred as the El-Nino has receded, should be setting of alarm bells amongst the scientific community. However, having been brought off or intimidated by the Global Warming frauds, they are compromised.
The increasing mass of ice in the interior of Greenland and Antarctica, combined with the long lasting and very heavy snow fall of the last Winter are leading indicators of the possibility for a sudden severe drop in global temperatures in the range of 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit during the next ten to twenty years. The effect on food supplies (Cold/Dry versus Warm/Wet) and on energy consumption would put an end to the move to Globalism. It would also put an end to the leveraged speculation paradigm as capital surpluses vanished.
Europe would be the most severely affected area of the World if this were to happen. So, I would keep an eye on the whether patterns over the next couple of years to see if this fear is panning out. The Power Elite may be more aware of what I have just talked of than they are letting on to and are not disposed to talk about it at the moment. But, it may be a part of the hurry to immediately maximize their control they seem to be in.
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Posted by Contessa on 06/16/10 02:19 AM
Amen! And, bravo, bravo, bravo! Long-live the end of the EU! ;-)
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