Saturday, 26 August 2017

Weekend Update 26/08/17 EUSSR – How Much Longer Till It Dies?




Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. European Commission President. Scotch connoisseur.

This weekend, the true state of the bureaucrat’s paradise, the workers, violent migrant infected, wealth and jobs destroying, EUSSR. How much longer will this insane folly last? How long before another “1848” sweeps over Europe, probably more successfully?  And if/when the EUSSR collapses, what happens to the euro and all that euro debt?

But first this from Jackson Hole. Did Chairman Yellen just deliberately seal her own fate.

Yellen’s speech in Jackson Hole may doom her chances for second term at Fed

Published: Aug 25, 2017 7:30 p.m. ET
Her robust defense of regulation contrasts starkly with Trump’s stated view
Was Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s Friday speech in Jackson Hole her swan song?

Some Fed watchers think that might turn out to be the case.

Yellen used her high-profile podium to give a robust defense of the regulations put in place under the Obama administration in the aftermath of the financial crisis. She disagreed with the position of President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans that the regulatory burden is strangling lending and has hamstrung the economy.

“Yellen’s decision to defend core regulations will strengthen the hands of those within the administration who do not favor her reappointment and likely reduces her chances of gaining a second term as chair,” said Krishna Guha, a former senior Fed staffer and now vice-chairman of Evercore ISI.

The Fed chairwoman’s remarks at the annual Wyoming-set central bank conference may not deter the deregulatory zeal of the Trump administration, but does highlight the challenges of “moving deregulation through regulatory agencies staffed with people who have strong memories of the financial crisis,” Guha added.

A spokesman for the Fed declined to comment on the speculation.
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Now, back to the failed Bilderberger Project, that’s long past its Stalingrad and Kursk.

“Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.”

Edmund Burke.

'It's already failed' German economist predicts EU WILL collapse as nations follow UK out

THE “protectionist” European Union is doomed to collapse because it has lost sight of its commitment to free trade and the beleaguered euro currency has “already failed”, a leading German economist said today.
By Nick Gutteridge,  Brussels Correspondent UPDATED: 08:49, Fri, Aug 25, 2017
Professor Thorsten Polleit said the EU project had once been a “very wise concept” for fostering peace and cooperation but became far too politicised and is now heading in the “wrong direction” of pursuing ever greater centralisation. 

In an interview with express.co.uk the eminent German academic and financier urged European leaders to “start decentralising” if they want to save the bloc from oblivion and warned their efforts to prop up the single currency are doomed to fail. 

Professor Polleit also predicted that Britain will emerge from Brexit in better shape than the EU, because it will be able to liberalise its economy to attract greater investment and pursue genuinely free trade across the globe. 

In contrast, he painted the EU’s single market as an unnecessarily burdensome beast, saying it was stifling European innovation with red tape and driving up prices by putting up protectionist barriers to the rest of the world. 

He said: “The first signs are that the euro currency has failed and it’s only in place because the ECB has dropped interest rates to zero. Under normal conditions it would’ve collapsed already. It can’t compete - it’s a dead end policy. 

“The bottom line is basically free trade is great for all parties involved, it brings greater material prosperity of everyone involved. At the same time for having free trade you don’t need this Single Market and all the bureaucracy that comes with it. 

“People in Great Britain have realised that this [the EU] isn’t a concept that will bring prosperity for the current and future generations, so they got out and I think others will follow. It will take some time but the EU in its current form will fall.” 

Professor Polleit warned that any attempt by European leaders to punish Britain for leaving the bloc will fail and is only likely to further demonstrate to ordinary voters how much the project has lost its way.

He said: “It’s the wrong direction they are moving ahead along, there’s not even a kind of plan discernible at the moment. The right thing would be to start decentralising the process and giving back more sovereignty to the member states, but the opposite is happening and that’s a big concern. 

“Originally the idea of forming the EU, they were trying to set up a community that would secure peace in Europe. It was a liberal or even a libertarian idea to have free trade, a free flow of capital and people across borders and that was a very wise concept. 

“But over time the EU was no longer pursuing the route of a free trade area but it became increasingly politicised, and the idea was to set up a centralised power structure in Brussels to transfer national sovereignty rights on to the supranational decision making structure.

“Over time the EU has become a very different animal. Now the EU policy is about interventionism, they try to interfere in all sorts of economic and social fields to push through all kinds of political concepts and that’s a very dangerous idea.” 
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August 25, 2017 / 11:15 PM

Germany's Gabriel warns of 'Cold War 2.0' threat from rearmament

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany stands on the front line of a new Cold War, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, and Chancellor Angela Merkel was making a grave error by following U.S. President Donald Trump down the rearmament path.

Gabriel told newspaper Bild that, in dealing with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Germany faced neighbours to East and West who believed “not in the strength of right, but the right of the strong.”

With a national election just a month away, Gabriel’s Social Democrats (SPD) are struggling to differentiate themselves after four years of coalition with Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) after a campaign attacking social inequality failed to rouse voters.

Gabriel’s comments lent support to remarks by Martin Schulz, his party’s candidate for chancellor, who this week criticised Merkel’s plans for expanded military spending and said he would have the United States remove its nuclear weapons from German soil.
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"I am sure the euro will oblige us to introduce a new set of economic policy instruments. It is politically impossible to propose that now. But some day there will be a crisis and new instruments will be created."

Romano Prodi, EU Commission President. Financial Times, 4 December 2001

Macron's Europe ULTIMATUM: French president ORDERS EU to support his reforms… or CRUMBLE

EMMANUEL Macron has risked falling out with his European allies after sensationally claiming the EU risks collapse unless the bloc’s cheap labour rule is overhauled.
By Will Kirby  UPDATED: 00:10, Fri, Aug 25, 2017
Under current legislation, firms are able to send temporary workers from low-wage countries to richer nations without having to pay their local social charges.

However, the French president is demanding that changes are made and is using fears about the possible collapse of the Brussels bloc to scare EU members into backing his proposals.

Speaking in Bucharest, President Macron said: "Some political or business circles seek to use the EU's funds while at the same time developing a system of social and fiscal dumping.”

He warned a lack of support for his reforms “will lead to the dismantling of the European Union”.

He added: ”Public opinion in more developed countries with higher salaries will not accept the system in its current format.”

The current legislation - which allows firms do not have to make contributions to the host country’s health and welfare systems - has been dubbed “social dumping”, and Mr Macron believes he has a plan to reduce its effect on the host nations’ economies.

His proposal, which is backed by Germany and Austria, would limit the job duration of the detached employees to 12 months – half of the period proposed by the EU's executive Commission.

The row is driving a wedge between the richer EU nations and their poorer neighbours, where most of the cheap labour comes from.
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"The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe."

Mikhail Gorbachev

French economy CAN'T compete: Poland mocks Macron over France's 4-day working week

POLAND has hit out at Emmanuel Macron, claiming the French economy “can’t compete” with their own, as he vowed to block controversial reforms.
By Joey Millar UPDATED: 08:33, Fri, Aug 25, 2017
Warsaw’s foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski launched a blistering attack on the European Union’s one-time golden boy, who is now slumping in the polls.

Amid a background of growing frustration with Emmanuel Macron from both within and outside of France, Mr Waszczykowski accused the French leader of presiding over a crumbling economy.

He said the focus was unbalanced towards the worker, rather than the country, to the detriment of the nation as a whole.

Mr Waszczykowski said: “The French economy is not at the moment able to compete with the vibrant economies of many European countries, including Poland.

“This is because French workers have enormous social benefits. The working week for many French workers is four, five working days."

Mr Macron has infuriated other EU states by attempting to give his ailing economy a shot in the arm by overhauling the bloc’s cheap labour rule. 

Under current legislation, firms are able to send temporary workers from low-wage countries to richer nations without having to pay their local social charges.

---- Mr Waszczykowski said: “Consequently, instead of compelling the French economy to compete with other countries' economies, President Macron has devised a way to limit our ability to operate in the common European market.

“It is against the common market, contrary to the Treaty freedoms of the European Treaties. 
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“Europe exemplifies a situation unfavourable to a common currency. It is composed of separate nations, speaking different languages, with different customs, and having citizens feeling far greater loyalty and attachment to their own country than to a common market or to the idea of Europe".

Professor Milton Friedman, The Times 19 November 1997.

Catalonia and Spain split widens: Barcelona terror attack sparks fresh independence row

THE Barcelona terror attack has increased the divisions between the Spanish and Catalonian administrations with either side blaming the other for failings in the run-up to the killings.
By Jon Rogers UPDATED: 09:09, Fri, Aug 25, 2017
Both administrations have pointed the finger of blame at the other with Madrid saying the Catalan police missed a warning over the alleged terror cell leader and imam Abdelbaki Es Satty from the Belgium authorities.

Barcelona fired back its security forces have been frozen out in the sharing of information from Europol.
In Catalonia, both the AUGC (Unified Association of Civil Guards) and the SUP (Unified Union of Policeman) issued a joint press statement saying that they denounced what they considered to be “the exclusion and the isolation suffered” by both organisations “during the investigation into and management of the attacks”.

The statement said: "Once more the weakness of the institutions and political leaders of our country has meant that the experience and the nationwide structure of the Police and the Civil Guard in the area of the anti-terrorist fight have been wilfully left out of the investigation.”

The statement added that public safety could be put at risk due to this.

In particular, Catalonia highlighted the issue that the TEDAX (Technical Specialists in the Deactivation of Explosive Artefacts) team of the Civil Guard had been blocked from gaining access to the house in the town of Alcazar after the explosion.

Officials claim they were “deliberately sidelined” in the investigation due to political motivations in an attempt to give the impression that an independent Catalonia state would not be able to cope with such an incident.

The statement added this amounted to “the flagrant breach of the co-operation agreements as well as the deficient operation of the communication mechanisms between the Security Forces and Corps of our country".

With Spain not recognising Catalonia’s claim to independence it had blocked the region’s security forces from having access to information held by Europol which could have helped prevent the attacks that killed 15 people in Barcelona and Cambrills.
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"[European Monetary Union is] a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe ... [if you are prepared to give up Sovereignty to the EU] you might just as well give it to Adolf Hitler, frankly."

Nicholas Ridley (1929 - 1993) Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.  Spectator magazine, July 1990.

Deutsche Bank relies on LONDON: Germany’s biggest bank reveals the true VALUE of staying

DEUTSCHE Bank is targeting Britain's wealthiest people amid Brexit, as part of its plans to recover its flagging business.
By Monika Pallenberg UPDATED: 09:55, Fri, Aug 25, 2017
Germany's biggest lender wants to increase the number of its rich UK customers by expanding its asset management business in London.

The financial giant is adding a number of customer advisors in the hope of also attracting people from China and Middle East based in Britain's capital.

Deustche Bank believes many of these potential clients will still be in London after Brexit and doesn't want to miss out on lucrative deals.

Manager, Peter Hinder said: "There are many advantages that will not disappear with Brexit.

"Great Britain or the London region are attracting assets like a magnet."
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"Any nation which gives up its freedom in pursuit of economic advantage deserves to lose both."

Thomas Jefferson, US President 1801-1809.

EU split Croatia on membership as nation struggles under Brussels bloc’s demands

THE EU’s bullying stance towards smaller nations is causing anger and frustration in the bloc’s newest member, a Croatian politician has claimed.
By Vincent Wood UPDATED: 02:16, Fri, Aug 25, 2017
Croatia was coaxed into the bloc in 2013 with promises there would have an equal hand in the 27-nation superstate’s decisions.

But now Ivan Pernar, founder of the populist Human Shield party, has claimed Croatia has been shut out of the process during their four-year membership of the EU.

He said: ”We had been assured that we would make decisions on equal terms at the European table.

“However when we joined the EU, we only found out that nothing depends on us.

“The EU makes all the decisions which we are obliged to put into practice in strict compliance with orders from Brussels.”

The Eurosceptic politician believes free movement has caused major damage to his nation, hurting both Croatian’s population and employment levels.

And the imposing of EU taxes on the country were causing further issues for the nation.

He said: "Our agriculture has virtually died since we joined the EU and our customs duties were removed.

“The population of the country has shrunk and unemployment has risen.”

Mr Pernar added: ”If you ask ordinary Croatians what the advantage is of joining the EU, they would answer that the only benefit is for those leaving the country.”
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Finally, what does the ECB know and fear that we don’t? Is the Deutsche Bank crisis about to turn ugly again?

August 25, 2017 / 3:17 PM

ECB needs fresh powers to intervene in bank failures, supervisor says

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank needs fresh powers to freeze payments temporarily at banks heading towards failure, halting a potentially fatal outflow of liquidity, Daniele Nouy, the ECB’s top supervisor said on Friday.

The ECB, which supervises the euro zone’s biggest banks, was tested in recent months when several top lenders failed in quick succession, including Spain’s Banco Popular, which collapsed when liquidity dried up in a matter of days.

“In my view... the introduction of adequate moratorium power for authorities is needed in order to react with the needed flexibility, if the situation of a bank deteriorates rapidly,” Nouy told a member of the European Parliament in a letter.

“Given the potentially swift evolution of liquidity crises, a moratorium tool could be necessary to ensure there is adequate time for ensuring a credible solution,” Nouy said, adding that the ECB will soon publish an opinion on this issue.
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Milton Friedman once put it, if you’re spending your own money on yourself, you care about price and quality. If you’re spending someone else’s money on yourself, you only care about quality. If you’re spending your own money on someone else, you care only about price. And if you’re spending someone else’s money on someone else, you don’t care about either.

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