I don’t doubt the Franco/German banks who bought dud bonds in the likes of Anglo are hiding massive losses but how possibly could Irish banks be seen as a safe haven? The bankrupt state has guaranteed their latest guestimate debts so if the Euro is even more trouble the state’s status as a guarantor would be weakened further surely?
I was slightly exageratting but they are now among the best capitalised banks in Europe and have very little exposure to Spain, Italy etc. unlike the French and Ze Germans. Thats where the focus is at the minute.
The ECB should just start printing money, a period of hyperinflation would allow us all to believe that the property market is back whilst mortgage debts shrink in real terms as the value of the Euro decreases.
It worked out pretty well for the German in the 1930s an onwards (bar a speed bump post 1945), just look at them now.
The French banks are owed something like 50 Billion by Greece
Apparently they’ve promised to buy them a few pints next time they see them instead
Since I heard the American debt figure all this talk of billions doesn’t really resonate.
That’s class
If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not spent $1 trillion by now…but ~$700 billion- same amount the banks got during bailout.
Yeah i had a look at that too.
Scary shit.
It has a time machine 
Saw that one but thought there was too much going on in it. A time machine :lol:
April-June Figures out today for the different eurozone economies show little to no growth, Greek GDP is down 6.9% year on year, portugal is expected to be down 2.2%. We are hardly going to show growth the predicted growth for the year?
Double Dip how are ya?
Sarkozy and Merkel are upping the pressure on our tax rates again. This will all end up in a United States of Europe, with everything controlled from Brussells and local governments only power will be to fix pot holes etc.
By Donal O’Donovan
Thursday August 18 2011
FRANCE and Germany last night piled fresh pressure on Ireland’s 12.5pc corporate tax rate with a call for euro-wide “progress on [color=#009900 ! important]tax co-ordination”.
The call came in a letter from French President Nicolas Sarkozy[/url] to [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/European_Union”]EU[/url] president [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Herman_Van_Rompuy”]Herman Van Rompuy that set out in more detail initiatives agreed between the French and German leaders on Tuesday.
The two countries said negotiations on controversial plans to change the way corporation tax was raised should be completed by the end of next year.
Member states should commit to finalise the negotiation on the commission’s proposal for a “a common consolidated corporate tax base” before “end 2012”, they said. Mr Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Paris and agreed to examine a single corporate tax for their two countries that could be in place by 2013.
“Euro-area member states should be ready to consider enhanced co-operation for further progress on tax co-ordination.”(They) should enhance their co-operation to avoid harmful tax practices and fight against fraud and tax evasion," they said
[quote=“The Runt, post: 519746”]Sarkozy and Merkel are upping the pressure on our tax rates again. This will all end up in a United States of Europe, with everything controlled from Brussells and local governments only power will be to fix pot holes etc.
[/quote]
Long term it is the only solution if they want to save the Euro. Common fiscal policies etc. German public don’t fancy that however.
We should have listened to the “crackpots”
http://dalje.com/slike/slike_3/r2/g2008/m07/x166177457025142578_4.jpg
nice summary from the grauniad here on the proposed EU Tobin Tax
sounds wonderful in theory, anything that reduces the no. of speculative transactions can only be a good thing, but can’t see how it would work in isolation. sarkozy’s meddling might turn out to be a great boost for the cayman and swiss economies.
As much as centralisation of power is a dangeous thing, no matter the context, it is difficult to argue though that it is an inferior form of government to our own system. It is hard to imagine that piddling interests such as our construction industry would have had much influence on the European parliament if that’s the route they had to take. That’s one of the major sources of resentment of the Federal government in the USA. It’s much easier buy a state government than a federal one.
Interesting report on a study of US wealth distribution here actually - http://www.pbs.org/n…e_08-16.html?32
Makes for shocking viewing
By way of contrast, wealth distribution in Sweden:
And now the USA:
