Does anyone else think that the issues in Ireland (which followed Greece) and which will soon manifest themselves in Portugal & Spain are entirely avoidable?
The Tories were right all along - The Euro has removed all rights of self protection and now Ireland has simply put off by a few years the day when it will be forced to quit the Euro and we all will have paid heavily for those few years.
The Euro is a dead duck and can only exist with similar stable economies - all other economies are signing themselves up for hyper inflation and total loss of state identity until the time comes when they just have to jump ship because the cost of natural domestic disaster outweighs the financial obligations to pay back loans in a higher value currency than the one they have just abandoned.
I predict that Greece will be the first to jump ship on the realisation that a massively devalued Drachma will at least bring tourists back as well as help national exports - the pay back to the Euro zone may well take a lifetime but sooner or later they will have to opt for the lesser of two evils. Think about it - who goes to Greece now when it is three times the price of Turkey for the same experience?
After Greece will be Spain and then a toss up between Portugal & Ireland at which time the French & Germans will will over react by trying to keep the Eurozone intact and force the smaller countries out as well.
slightly aside really....but what gets me....is this government tells us we are massively in debt.....and is cutting public spending to the knuckle....meaning many hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs.......but somehow they conjure up six billion pounds to help out the irish economy ??????????.....so where did they find that from ?
Dean,
From the £7Bn saving they announced for this year in the Comprehensive Spending Review
They should leave the euro. How long will the larger member of the euro be able to keep funding the small ones.
Someone on the radio predicted Euro-North, which would consist of the strong currency Countries like France, Germany, Holland and Euro-Southwhich would be a devalued version of the Euro used by Counties like Greece, Spain, Ireland etc.
John
The French President has long harboured a view about forming a Euro Mediterranean alliance of Countries. I'm not sure how that would fit in with the Euro North and South idea but in the end, it cuts right across the whole concept of the Union and I doubt it would be given the light of day.
At the present time, the Union is in disarray and if its not careful, the whole thing could go tits-up as Member States become less co-operative and more protectionist. Countries like Greece found themselves in the Euro because, well basically, they lied about their application. The UK did well to stay out and the new wave of applicants from the old Soviet Eastern bloc will just pull the whole thing down if they are given access to the "club" funds by entering the currency.
The EU has some very important aspects to it. A common currency - even if you can call it that - is not one of them.
What happen,s when the tax payers of Germany, France and the like are fed up with proping up the smaller countrys?
the people of ireland have been saddled with a debt of 2 to 300 billion euro's. no matter how austere its government reduces spending and increases taxes, which they will try to do, it is an impossible debt plus interest to pay for 4 million people.
their government will have to give up all the countries assets to their debtors, tax their people to death and remove all services, and that will not get them out of debt.
irelands international private banks, bank of ireland, allied irish and anglo irish banks, played poker on the international markets in derivitives and property speculation (bad bets) and lost. they became insolvent and the irish government underwrote them with present and future taxation reciepts and made the irish people responsible for those private banks and bondholders liabilities (loses).
so, like here, the debts created by fraud and bad loans gets passed from the shareholders and investors in banks to the people who are then shorn of their wealth and or social gains while the banksters enjoy record bonuses. stay asleep or watch x factor and everything will be o.k. tomorrow for you. anyway iceland and greece are miles away, for that matter, so is ireland, so dont worry, it cant happen here, can it ?
"this, the mother of all crisis" not my words but those of paul volker, ex chairman of the federal reserve (no more federal than federal express) in january 2009 at a meeting of bussiness leaders in new york, is unresolvable under the present private international monetary system and can only lead from currency wars to trade war to physical war and the destruction of mankind. awaken from your slumber and television hypnosis.
Ireland will come out of the Euro because in about a year they will realise it is the ONLY option. Ireland has a population the size of Greater Manchester and is, by any measure you choose to use, a small country. It cannot sustain the austerity measures being suggested and the next election will see the re-instatement of the Punt and a devaluation of around 50% to put Ireland back where it should be. This will mean paying back double what the EU are about to lend them and put them in debt for decades to come but at least they will then be in control of their own destiny and we can all nip over to Kilkenny again for a cheap week-end away and support our cousins along the way.
The Euro has proved to be unable to sustain a worldwide economic crisis and much as it is a great idea and could possibly be retained as an EU trading currency - pinning widely disparaging economies together with a single economic system and currency could never have worked.
As others have said or suggested here there was never anyway that diverse economies could have been knitted together through the medium of a common currency . Itwas always going to expose the weaker nations.
Make no mistake the Irish rescue package is not being done on behalf of the has been put in place to proect other nations.
Gulson Road has, in my view, a sound understanding of Econo/Political forces .. and it's not pretty!!!
If we can all chip in Dave, them one suggestion is for the Irish to sell themselves off as a theme park. You never know, maybe if it gets worse here then Britain could do the same
i mean no ill will to anyone and certainly no one on here/quote]
So don't patronise them then.
