John Ward December 9, 2013 PUBIC AID ON SPANISH NHS

EUROBLOWN: BAFFLED, BONKERS AND BEMUSING BRUSSELS

Good to see that, with everything else going so tits up in Spain, you can still get some amazing free help under the national health system. And yes, Mariano Rajoy too is just as upbeat:

From El Pais this week

Nice Tiara there, Mariano

….but on the other hand, there’s a worrying tone in Berlin:

From Der Spiegel last week

…and still the air of confused largesse continues:

plus

but I bet if there was a Minister of Panic Control in the EU, his name would be Terry Fyinn. I bet if there was an Upper House in Brussels, it’d be called the House of Cards.

In order to survive now, there is only one route left to the eurozone: out and out sorcery. Hermann van Rompuy should issue a European FinMin’s guide to sorcery. We could call it Witch. It would probably put The Great Draghini in the Number One slot. Draghini would proclaim, “The situation is so ugly, we need to get rid of all the mirrors”.

And lo, there would be a mirrorcull. Sorry. Be fair, it is Monday. And it’s -5 here.

Yesterday at The Slog: Why do so many people seem to be planning for a Spring 2014 date?

11Comments

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1

Hieronimusb on December 9, 2013 at 11:06 pm

It’s a fair cop ;)

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2

Panopticon on December 9, 2013 at 10:52 pm

Hb, get yer coat.

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3

At the End of the Day | The Slog. on December 9, 2013 at 8:51 pm

[…] Earlier at The Slog: baffling, blustering, bonkers, bewildering Brussels […]

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4

Peter C on December 9, 2013 at 12:15 pm

As far as I know the ECB issued 1 trillion Euros in LTRO and to date around 390 billion has been repaid, leaving 610 billion or thereabouts outstanding. However, since the current ‘excess liquidity’ in the Eurozone is around 150 billion, the point at which ‘excess liquidity’ is normally seen as inadequate and at which interest rates would normally begin to rise, it would be fair to assume that it has failed to achieve anything, other than kicking the can down the road which is all it was intended to do, I suppose. Quite predictably, of course, since no government or central bank seems to have any intention whatsoever of addressing the real faults in the global finance/economy, determined instead to just cross their fingers and hope that the long delayed ‘boom’ after the last crash saves them all. They also seem to be incapable of understanding that boom and bust is not a natural economic cycle/process, rather it is a sign that the system is fundamentally flawed.

Of more concern is the ECB recently telling banks NOT to make any LTRO repayments over the end of year period in case it might cause ‘problems’.

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5

GrahamD on December 9, 2013 at 9:56 am

I am sure he did not mean it that way, but my immediate thoughts were to read that as the very last thing Rajoy wants is Germany finding out exactly where Spanish Zombie Banks are going (or have been for that matter!).

I will be fascinated to see exactly how Rajoy attempts to achieve an “All for One and One for All” EU Banking Union with the Germans (et Al), without any of our Teutonic friends conducting some quite thorough “Due Diligence” on the Spanish Banks “Real” Balance Sheets ……something he seems to have gone to inordinate lengths to avoid at all costs up to now ! Maybe we should add to our list of things that could go ‘orribly wrong in early 2014, Geli and her new band of Merrie Men ruling the Banking Union idea out as “Unconstitutional”…or the likes !

By the way, (and if things last that long into 2014), maybe some more Expert Slogger can help me with this one….isn’t December 2014 (i.e. within 3 years) when all the European Banks are due to repay their LTRO loans that have been sitting fluffing up their nasty red ink balance sheets? In December 2011 Italy took €110 billion, Spain received €105 billion, France claimed €70 billion, Greece asked for €60 billion and Ireland requested €50 billion.

Or have they all rushed to pay this money back to the ECB already and have I missed reading about it?…..Or would it matter if the collateral that these banks handed over to the ECB in Dec 2011 in exchange for the dosh, was worth much less today than back then, when they get it back by paying off their LTRO loans ?….Assuming these Club Med Banks can (or will) ?

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6

roland on December 9, 2013 at 9:55 am

Meanwhile, in the Asylum, Rumpy Pumpy has just been awarded the Charlemagne prize. Oh, and the XVII tractor production programme has just been exceeded.

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7

failedevolution on December 9, 2013 at 9:21 am

When Monti bowed to banksters

http://tiny.cc/3xit7w

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8

johnpd on December 9, 2013 at 9:05 am

That’s an insult to Tommy Cooper, who was in fact a masterfully adept slight of hand technician. The clumsiness was deliberate, & all part of his unique act. The EU are just deluded fools.

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9

johnpd on December 9, 2013 at 9:01 am

The EU makes sense only if seen from the perspective of the One World Governmenters.
It’s seen as the first step.
It is bankrupt, it’s so terminally corrupt that it’s accounts haven’t been signed off for 19 years, yet it’s propped up by huge cash (monopoly money) infusions from the FED.
Ergo, the FED is complicit in the New World Order plot.

The dumb Commie dupes doing the EU daywork/donkey work are slaving away, at vastly over inflated salaries, expenses & pensions, for their One Socialist Govt dream. They are too dumb to realise that Communism/socialism is a failed experiment, a beautiful dream which translates into a nightmare reality.

They are too dumb to realise that we are now living in a post capitalist, crony corporatist world run by the multinationals, capital & the central banksters. For the benefit of, & under the direction of the 1%s. It’s a fascist world, rapidly speeding down the tracks of time toward the buffers of a new paradigm shift. The new reality will not be the one they envisage.

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10

Caratacus on December 9, 2013 at 8:43 am

There are all sorts of magicians; there are those who genuinely perplex even the most cynical amongst us with their masterful legerdemain, others where they know that we know that they are merely expert sleight-of-hand merchants … then there are the inept, the bungling … think Tommy Cooper (without the humour). It is with the latter that I firmly place the top ranks of the EU soviets.

“Spoon Jar, Jar Spoon … a hur hur hur”, everything is perfectly OK, trust us.

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11

Hieronimusb on December 9, 2013 at 8:26 am

Sadly, they’re too obsessed with showing off their talents for the the sticks and whirling plates trick, hoping that we’ll mistake saucery for magic.

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