Relief | 79 comments (79 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: The banksters (none / 1)

Another eyebrow-raiser from last night statements was that the bailout funding would be exclusively European. No IMF money would be involved and two EU countries which are not in the euro area - Britain and Sweden - might "possibly" chip in.

That's good news, IMHO.

Of all the ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today — Mervyn King, 25 October 2010

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 10:01:03 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 1)

And so's the bit about the balance between taxes and spending cuts.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 10:07:27 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 1)

Soc-dems are pushing for Sweden to demand higher corporate taxes in Ireland as a condition.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 10:52:44 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 0)

Forget it.

It's an article of faith here that the only red line for negotiations is the corp tax rate. Not subject to debate.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 11:10:02 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 1)

Then it's all a sham.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 11:59:34 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (4.00 / 2)

Of course it is. Now the markets are focuding on Portuguese and Spanish debt while "Brussels believes it's a 'mistake' to compare Ireland and Spain". Rinse and repeat.

Of all the ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today — Mervyn King, 25 October 2010

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 12:02:12 PM EST
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It's a MONEY MACHINE! (none / 1)

Short Portuguese and Spanish debt, you silly person, and make money the Old Fashioned© Way: steal it.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 03:15:59 PM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 1)

It is one article of faith that creates pretty sour grapes outside Ireland, though.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 12:21:13 PM EST
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Re: The banksters (4.00 / 4)

Let me just point out that the IMF was the good cop in Greece's case. The ECB was the bad cop, and they have insisted on both huge increases in indirect taxes and spending cuts. Some rise in direct taxes and property taxes occured too, a few symbolic arrests and confiscations over semi-bigwig tax evasion, but really most of the weight has most definitely not fallen on the rich.

Now they demand collective bargaining agreements be scraped and huge numbers of public servants to be fired, leading to a "liberated" labor market of (even more) pauperized workers at all levels (because the skilled ones are already leaving the country). Is that within their mandate in Ireland?

I'm not sure how much of the labor market is left to "liberalize" in Ireland, neither what the teacher to pupil ratio is in public schools. But the ECB is bad news on both counts

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 11:38:37 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (4.00 / 6)

Let me just point out that the IMF was the good cop in Greece's case. The ECB was the bad cop

Jean-Claude Trichet is an incompetent fuckwit ideologue.

Impeachment. Now.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Mon Nov 22nd, 2010 at 03:12:47 PM EST
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Re: The banksters (4.00 / 2)

Could we start a campaign here or something: "Impeach Trichet"? Along the Central Bankers / Central Wankers line that Migeru has been insisting on? Or something like "when European Central Bankers fail, who fires them?". Which is a valid question anyway: who decides about firing Europe's central banker, and based on what criteria of success is their performance evaluated?

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Tue Nov 23rd, 2010 at 09:58:54 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 1)

Jake and I are considering a 4-pronged campaign.

Impeach Trichet
Fire Stark
Stop Weber
Draft Buiter

Of all the ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today — Mervyn King, 25 October 2010

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Nov 23rd, 2010 at 10:02:43 AM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 0)

Yes!

What is the institutional framework here? Who can impeach, fire, and appoint?

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Nov 23rd, 2010 at 03:27:49 PM EST
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Re: The banksters (4.00 / 3)

I think appointment is by the Council, at the recommendation of the €-zone central wankers. I don't think it's possible to impeach or fire a central wanker - that's the whole point of having an "independent" (read: Dependent on courting the banksters rather than the democratically elected parliament) central bank.

But the whole point of having a constitutional crisis is to re-write the institutional relationships...

I'd suggest going after Weber. As satisfying as putting Trichet's head on a pike would be, he has only a year left as chairman of the ~~Politburo~~ ECB. So Weber and Stark are the clear and present dangers. And when the Council tells us to fuck off and die, we have a perfectly fine argument for when Weber and Stark blow up the €-zone political economy again a few years down the road: "We told the Council that this was insane, but they went and did it anyway. Clearly it is time to make the Council more receptive to democratic input and less to shady back-room deals."

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Nov 23rd, 2010 at 05:04:19 PM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 0)

Lovely! where do I sign up?

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Tue Nov 23rd, 2010 at 06:19:12 PM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 0)

Does the e-mail in your sig work?

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Nov 23rd, 2010 at 06:48:10 PM EST
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Re: The banksters (none / 0)

Yep!

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Tue Nov 23rd, 2010 at 07:50:21 PM EST
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