http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/euroblown-german-president-signs-off-destruction-of-euro/
You don’t get me I’m part of the Union
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-27/greece-tell-brussels-%E2%80%9C-take-hike%E2%80%9D-and-let-troika-bail-out-ecb-instead
Submitted by testosteronepit on 09/27/2012 20:56 -0400
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/27/spain-heads-towards-confrontation-catalan
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/9572359/Spain-must-leave-the-euro.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9572499/French-budget-and-Spanish-bank-stress-tests-live.html
The government has understood that the increase in the public debt has got to be halted but the way that they are doing it is not the right way. It amounts to strongly increasing the tax burden on companies, their shareholders and executives, in other words those who create added value.
What raises a few questions for me is how will the conditions arise to reach the 3pc (deficit ratio) with an optimistic growth forecast.
Bond traders on Thursday were poised to dump French debt if Mr Hollande reneges on his promise. The handling of Europe’s second biggest economy, which is on the verge of recession and a public debt of almost 90pc of GDP, is being carefully watched around the world. The President is also under intense pressure at home to slow the pace of austerity for the sake of the fragile economy. Earlier this week, French unemployment rose by about 3m for the first time in 13 years.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to make an official statement on a brewing political scandal after a list containing the names of more than 30 politicians that were investigated for corruption by the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) was leaked.
The list, which includes the name of 11 former ministers, 10 former deputy ministers and 12 former or current MPs, has been passed to prosecutors, who are preparing to investigate allegations ranging from tax evasion to gaining wealth from illegal activities.
The allegations against each of the politicians on the list have not been made public.
EUROBLOWN: German President signs off destruction of euro.
Gauck has, against his will, given the ESM powers that Adolf Hitler would’ve craved
Today (Thursday) President Joachim Gauck of Germany signed the instrument of ratification for the European Stability Mechanism. The ESM will thus come into force on 8th October 2012.
In doing so – and in private, be assured, this is much against his will – Gauck has authorised the rule of an ESM Gauleiter with nothing short of dictatorial powers. As The Slog demonstrated over a fortnight ago, the ESM Council is uncontrollable, and effectively beyond the reach of any established Law on the planet.
But the Karlsruhe Court ruling of 12th September this year prohibits any ESM governor from increasing Germany’s contribution to the financing of the ESM Council above €190bn without the consent of the Bundestag.
So what we are looking at here is a German Constitutional Court telling an EU mechanism above any law that, unless it obeys German law, the Bundestag will give it a jolly good spanking. I think Karlsruhe woud have a better chance of lassoing ether. And given the Bundestag’s spineless track record to date, I think we can safely assume Germany’s fate is sealed.
As I posted earlier, the truth is being kept from the German mass electorate. Not just by censorship, but also by distortion and deception. With a stroke of his pen, the Bundespräsident has conferred legitimacy upon a body that is supreme but not sovereign.
In other words, it has 100% power, and 0% accountability. Hitler himself could not have asked for more. What a bitter-sweet frustration this must be for the control freak Angela Merkel.
and from the article above - a look at the ESM....
THE ESM’s ARTICLES: today’s must-read
You don’t get me I’m part of the UnionDraghi reinvents the Divine Right of Kings
Hitler’s 1933 Post-Reichstag Fire Emergency Decree had nothing on the newly drafted ESM Charter. You can read it here in full at the EU website: the mad folks are getting more brazen by the day, but they’re still leaving the nasties until the contemporary MSM journalists get bored: so the really startling stuff doesn’t appear until Article 32. These are the extracts that matter, quoted verbatim except for the usual deliberately baffling legalese:
Article 32, para 3: The ESM, its property, funding and assets, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy immunity from every form of judicial process. (There is one exception – entirely in the ESM’s favour)
para 4: The property, funding and assets of the ESM shall, wherever located and by whomsoever held, be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation or any other form of seizure, taking or foreclosure by executive, judicial, administrative or legislative action
para 8: To the extent necessary to carry out the activities provided for in this Treaty, all property, funding and assets of the ESM shall be free from restrictions, regulations, controls and moratoria of any nature
Article 35, para 1: In the interest of the ESM, the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Governors, alternate Governors, Directors, alternate Directors, as well as the Managing Director and other staff members shall be immune from legal proceedings with respect to acts performed by them in their official capacity and shall enjoy inviolability in respect of their official papers and documents.
There are other worms in this charity tin, but trust me, these two articles are the ones that ensure it really isn’t the standard contract. The Sun headline is this: the ESM can steal your granny’s favourite sherry decanter, and there’s nothing you can do about it; any media hacks investigating grand larceny, murder and mass rape can whistle Dixie; no matter who they subordinate, cheat, or screw over, they’re allowed to, so there; and if I Mario Draghi deems it in the public good to stuff 46,000 gold bars in a Gnome’s private bank, it’s none of your business.
But there is one astonishing phrase in there which I feel duty bound to lift and separate from even this stuff above:
‘The archives of the ESM and all documents belonging to the ESM or held by it, shall be inviolable. The premises of the ESM shall be inviolable.’
The International Law Society definition of ‘inviolable’ is ‘unassailable and impregnable’. Or in one word, untouchable. Or an yet another word, supreme.
Or in a final word, Sovereign.
You have been warned.
and....
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-27/greece-tell-brussels-%E2%80%9C-take-hike%E2%80%9D-and-let-troika-bail-out-ecb-instead
Greece, Tell Brussels “To Take A Hike” And Let The Troika Bail Out The ECB Instead
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
Awful as Greece’s GDP has been, it doesn’t do justice to the economic fiasco. Take new vehicle registrations: in August, theyplunged 46.7% from prior year. Only 3,886 new vehicles were sold. Acollapse of 80% from August 2008 at the cusp of the crisis. For the first eight months of 2012, sales were down 42% from prior year, and 65% from 2008. People have stopped buying new cars. And not just cars.
“The situation continues to deteriorate,” wrote an acquaintance. “My normally honest friends and relatives have all begun to find ways to avoid the ever increasing taxes. The horrible bureaucracy worsens even in this small town of 5,000. It took a friend a month of running from office to office just to get a permit to repair, not construct, but repair an existing balcony. Hopeless.”
Ten years ago, he built a house in Southern Greece not far from Sparta—”with many fine workers, most of them Albanians and some excellent Greeks as well, but it took a long, long time.” The house is surrounded by citrus and olive groves. In the distance, mountains and the sea. He writes:
“I detest going to Athens because of the gridlock. Buildings built over the last twenty years have little or no dedicated parking. Why? Parking is low or no-revenue space that city planners have reserved for cronies withfakelos (envelopes with cash). Thus cars and scooters clog not only streets but sidewalks.”
Though the gridlock might be thinning out. Over the last two years, 68,000 businesses have shut down; another 63,000 might succumb next year, predicted Vassilis Korkidis, president of the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce (ESEE). It infected the busiest shopping streets in Athens: on Panepistimiou, 34.7% of the shops were shuttered; on Akadimias, 42%!
So a new austerity package must be devised for the Troika—the bailout and austerity gang from the EU, the IMF, and the ECB—in return for more money so that Greece could service its debt that is rotting in some drawer at the ECB. As the coalition government was fighting over the provisions, a 24-hour general strike paralyzed parts of Greece on Wednesday. In Athens, 50,000 - 100,000demonstrators streamed through the streets, shouting “enough is enough.”
Yet on Thursday, the leaders of the three coalition parties apparentlyagreed on the outlines of the austerity package, to be implemented in 2013 and 2014. It would include tax measures that might be applied to 2012 incomes. They’re even trying to go after the well-represented freelance professionals such as engineers, doctors, and architects. But my acquaintance remained cynical:
“There’s a popular saying here: ‘I threw him.’ Loosely it means, ‘I cheated him’ or ‘I was smarter than him.’ It’s considered a national sport to apply it to the taxman. Well, the taxman cometh—and he is fighting either 30 years or 2000 years of tradition. And he won’t win.”
As people refuse to pay taxes, the government is slowing disbursements. State-owned institutions have run out of money, and so have companies and individuals. And they stopped paying their bills. The ensuing circular absurdities push the country deeper into fiasco.
For example, the state-owned Social Insurance Foundation (IKA), itself out of money, hasn’t paid Saronikos Gulf Kidney Dialysis Center on Aegina Island in months for the treatment of its patients. So the center hasn’t paid its staff in six month, and couldn’t even pay its electricity bill. On Wednesday, Public Power Corporation (DEI), fighting its own liquidity crisis, cut power to the center. Instant media uproar. And power was restored. But still, the money hasn’t started flowing.
“Greece is a victim of the monetary union,” explained Czech President Vaclav Klaus. “It would be much better for them not to be in the straightjacket. It would be a victory for them.”
If the Greeks told the Troika “to take a hike,” as David Stockman said in his incomparable interview [The Emperor Is Naked], it would solve a host of problems. Greece would return to the drachma and regain control over its printing press. Troika members, and particularly taxpayers in Germany, who’re reluctant, very understandably, to throw good money after bad in Greece, would then have to look at the ECB. It owns most of the now worthless Greek debt. The Troika could then bail out the ECB directly rather than via Greece. It would be closer to home, and more honest—though it still wouldn’t solve the problem of taxpayers bailing out investors.
And then new money would start flowing because Greece would still be a member of the 27-nation EU and of NATO. That’s the difference between Greece and Argentina. Greece could restructure its government and society, or it could slide back into its old ways of doing things. It would be up to the Greeks, not the Troika.
It should look at Argentina, however. A perfect example of how notto run a post-default economy. And its policies are now taking on desperate and ugly forms. Read.... Not An Effective Capital Control, Import Control, Or Tax Measure – But An Effective People Control, by stilettos-on-the-ground economist Bianca Fernet.
And here is Jan Bennink, a Dutch columnist and self-described anti-EU populist, who wonders, “Is there anything more frightening than bureaucrats with a dream?” Read.... The New Great Dictators Are Gaining Momentum In Europe.
and Catalonia trying to tell the Central Government of Spain to take a hike......
Spain heads towards confrontation with Catalan parliament
Spain's deputy prime minister says government will resist any attempt at unilateral referendum on independence
Email
Spain's finance minister Luis de Guindos said he was studying the terms of a possible bailout. Photograph: Sergio Barrenechea/EPA
As Spain's government announced fresh austerity for next year on Thursday, the country was launched headlong into confrontation between central government and a Catalan parliament that pledged to hold a referendum on moves towards independence.
Spain's deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaría, warned that the government would stop any attempt at a unilateral referendum, effectively challenging the Catalans to either desist or break the law and face the consequences.
"There are legal instruments to stop this," she said, pointing out that the government could simply apply to the constitutional court to ban it before it was held. "And there is a government that is prepared to use them."
That clashed directly with the Catalan parliamentary motion, which called on the regional government that emerges from 25 November elections to hold a referendum – with, or without, central government permission.
Saenz de Santamaría said the only way a referendum could be held would be if it was called by central government and allowed people across the whole of Spain, not just Catalonia, to vote.
The heightened tension between Madrid and Barcelona came as ministers presented the broad figures of the 2013 budget, while Spain battles to hit deficit targets and please eurozone countries who are rescuing its banks and may soon have to bail out Spain itself.
"This is a budget in times of crisis but one to help get out of the crisis," said Saenz de Santamaría.
The budget figures were presented without revealing exactly where the axe would fall, but with the task of reducing the budget deficit by €13bn made harsher by a combination of recession and soaring debt payments.
Those payments increased by almost €10bn, with a further €7bn needed to prop up a creaking social security system. With the total adjustment looking set to hit €40bn euros, cuts in other places will be deep. Proper details were to be given on Saturday when the budget is taken to parliament.
Budget minister Cristobal Montoro insisted Spain was on target to meet its 6.3% GDP deficit target this year, with tax income due to hit targets despite the worsening recession.
Ministers gave no clues as to how close Spain was to asking for a full bailout, with finance minister Luis de Guindos saying that it was studying the terms closely and would decide when it was ready.
As Spain's borrowing costs began to rise again this week there was growing pressure on prime minister Mariano Rajoy to make the bailout request, which would allow the European Central Bank to step in and buy bonds to keep down the interest rates that Spain must pay.
While northern eurozone countries continue to insist on more austerity for Spain, analysts warned that this would further damage an economy that will shrink between 2% and 3% over two years.
"Given the severity of the recession and the scant prospect of meaningful growth, Spain needs more austerity like it needs a hole in the head," warned Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy. "The markets are also in two minds about fiscal retrenchment in Spain. Previous rounds of belt-tightening have not led to an improvement in Spain's perceived creditworthiness."
"Efforts to deflate Spain into competitiveness raise the prospect of many years of wage cuts and property price falls that will necessitate ever larger fiscal transfers from the stronger countries," added Trevor Greetham of Fidelity Worldwide Investment.
On Friday the government will reveal the full size of a hole in the Spanish banking sector caused by toxic real estate assets left over from a burst housing bubble.
Some 56% of the Spanish banking sector will get a thumbs up from the consultants called in to calculate the size of the hole, according to El País newspaper.
Santander, BBVA, Caixabank, Sabadell and several other medium-sized and small banks pass the test, it reported. Most others, led by bailed out Bankia, will have to ask for money from the €100bn credit line that the eurozone has offered via Spain's bank bailout fund.
Meanwhile, Greece's fragile coalition yesterday agreed on the main points of a controversial €11.9bn (£9.5bn) austerity package that the debt-stricken country's creditors have set as a condition for further rescue funds. Conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras clinched the consensus of his two left-wing coalition partners, who had both balked at imposing further belt-tightening. But the package, which must be put to international lenders for approval next week and then be voted through Athens' 300-seat parliament, comes with conditions.
and...
8:40PM BST 27 Sep 2012
595 Comments
Yet the eurozone crisis has sparked back into life more swiftly than even I would have anticipated, with the epicentre returning to a fast-shrinking Spanish economy. Political and economic developments are once more threatening to combine into an uncontrollable firestorm.
To understand why, it is first necessary to explode some myths about the nature of the eurozone debt crisis. This is not at root either an isolated banking crisis or indeed a fiscal one, though that’s how public policy in Europe attempts to define it.
As many of us have long argued, both these phenomena are but symptoms of what in essence is just a good old fashioned balance-of-payments crisis. This has been greatly exaggerated by monetary union, which is also preventing the application of time-honoured solutions. Utopian pursuit of the single currency is damning Europe to economic oblivion. Political hubris has eclipsed economic common sense.
After monetary union, capital flowed in ever-increasing quantities from Europe’s surplus to its deficit nations; Germany and others were in essence lending the periphery the money to buy German goods and services. Monetary union precluded the sort of interest and exchange rate discipline that would normally serve to keep things in check.
Cheap money fuelled unsustainable construction and credit booms in the periphery and encouraged governments to spend more than they should. Relative to the core, wages and prices rose, rendering these countries progressively less competitive and deepening the problem of trade imbalances. The deficit countries borrowed to spend, rather than earning it.
Since the onset of the financial crisis, the process has gone violently into reverse. Money has fled the periphery, starving it of credit and exacerbating the economic downturn. Tax revenues have collapsed, causing budget deficits to soar and fiscal crisis to take root.
With a shrinking economy has come a mounting bad debt problem, which Spain and others have yet fully to recognise. Confidence in the banking system is at rock bottom, leaving Spanish banks progressively more dependent on the European Central Bank printing presses to fund their lending.
Spain is looking for some €60bn to recapitalise its banks but this is widely thought a gross underestimate of the true size of the problem. City analysis puts the amount needed to restore credibility at nearer €150bn, or 15pc of GDP. Touchingly, the Spanish government still seems to think that much of this new capital can be raised in markets. In truth, the only two banks thought remotely capable of tapping the capital markets, Santander and BBVA, are also the only two likely to be judged in forthcoming stress tests not to need it. If even British banks are thought “uninvestable”, what hope Spanish banks?
Worries about whether Spain can last the course has caused further capital flight, depriving Spain of the very low borrowing costs normally associated with countries facing rapidly weakening inflation and depression. Much of this money has flowed into Germany, further depressing its own already low cost of borrowing.
A politically explosive polarisation has established itself, whereby some countries face ruinously high borrowing costs, depressing the economy and increasing the challenge of fiscal consolidation, while others have very low costs and therefore a significant competitive advantage.
There are three elements to renewed crisis in Spain. First, Spain as a nation state is manifestly coming apart at the seams under the pressure of rising unemployment and crippling austerity, with Catalonia now openly threatening to secede. Spain’s age-old battle between the forces of regionalism and centralism is back with a vengeance.
Second, an unholy alliance of Northern states – Germany, Holland and Finland – has reneged on promises of direct support from European bail-out funds for the beleaguered Spanish banking industry.
This makes the political and fiscal situation in Madrid even more precarious. Spain had hoped that if banks could be recapitalised directly from the bail-out funds, it might avoid the humiliation of a full-scale sovereign bail-out and acceptance of a reform programme imposed by the EU and the IMF. The original summit agreement also seemed to recognise that the banking crisis was separate from the sovereign fiscal crises, and in some sense the responsibility of Europe as a whole.
In this way Spain might have avoided piling on further sovereign debt to rescue its banks. Spanish banks would be a collective, rather than a sovereign, responsibility.
But it now appears that any money for bailing out Spanish banks must be part of a wider sovereign package with corresponding guarantees and conditions.
This reversal in position by the surplus nations of the North is being taken as an act of extreme bad faith, not just in Spain but in the troubled eurozone periphery as a whole. Trust in European solidarity is being shattered.
Finally, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, has been digging his heels in over requesting any form of bail-out, despite the evident need for one as the Spanish economy slips ever deeper into recession and the budget deficit widens back into double digits. There is now no chance whatsoever of Spain meeting its fiscal targets.
Less than a year after sweeping to power in a landslide victory, Mr Rajoy is already fatally wounded. He promised never to apply taxpayers’ money to bailing out the banks. He already has. He promised not to follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal into a sovereign bail-out. Now, other than leaving the euro, he’s got no choice. Even on gay marriage, Mr Rajoy has failed to deliver as promised.
A further €40bn package of austerity measures has been announcedin a desperate bid to get ahead of what Brussels wants of Spain and, we must suppose, thereby obtain a somehow unconditional bail-out, allowing national pride to be salvaged. These measures are almost bound to be self-defeating, for they threaten further to shrink the economy, thereby making deficit reduction tougher still. Spain is chasing its tail into austerity-induced fiscal and economic meltdown. Mr Rajoy is a dead man walking.
Other than leaving monetary union and defaulting on its euro debts, which for the moment even the rebellious Catalans don’t seem to want, is there any way out for Spain? The answer looks ever more likely to be no.
Membership of monetary union is preventing the application of appropriate monetary policy to the periphery sovereigns. The single currency has also denied Europe the natural market mechanism of free floating exchange rates to correct deficiencies in competitiveness and reduce external indebtedness.
There is only one conclusion to be drawn from all this; though the short-term costs would be profound, Spain must leave the single currency.
Spain is damned if it leaves, but damned for eternity if it stays. Eurozone policy as it stands offers no plausible way back to prosperity.
and...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9572499/French-budget-and-Spanish-bank-stress-tests-live.html
12.32 Here is the slide (sorry about the quality) that shows (according to the government) that 90pc of French citizens will escape tax increases next year.
The government insists that the total tax paid by the richest 1pc will increase by more than €2.8bn next year.
However, as Les Echos highlights, the government has changed the formula it uses to calculate tax rises in order to get to this 90pc ratio. Nearly 10m people will see a tax rise next year due to these changes, the paper says.
12.11 While Eric Chaney at AXA, said:
The government has understood that the increase in the public debt has got to be halted but the way that they are doing it is not the right way. It amounts to strongly increasing the tax burden on companies, their shareholders and executives, in other words those who create added value.
It will lead to an even bigger loss of competitiveness and so a reduction in long-term growth. That will in turn keep the deficit and debt from being reduced over the long term.
12.06 Some reaction to the French budget from Phillipe Waechter at Natixis Asset management:
What raises a few questions for me is how will the conditions arise to reach the 3pc (deficit ratio) with an optimistic growth forecast.
The ambitions that were flagged are very audacious and beyond the figures there's story that we're told. I have a hard time seeing the story how we're going to find the necessary growth in 2013 and afterwards... So far we have a lot of numbers and not the story.
11.54 French daily Les Echos has posted the key points from the Budget document (in French) online, as well as the main tables on tax rises and job cuts by department on its website.
11.31 The French Treasury said that it will sell €170bn in bonds next year, down from €178bn in 2012.
It has already sold 88.2pc of the debt it needs to issue this year. Average maturities will remain at around 7 years in 2013, it added.
11.18 Two new tax rates will be introduced - a 45pc higher tax rate, and a controversial 75pc tax rate on millionaires that the government says will raise a total of €530m next year.
11.09 The French economy is expected to grow by 0.8pc next year, and 2pc each year from 2014 to 2017. The country's deficit is forecast to fall to 3pc of GDP in 2013, 2.2pc in 2014 and 1.3pc in 2015.
11.06 The government will also cut €10bn from planned spending.
11.05 As expected, the country will raise €10bn next year from tax increases on wealthy households, and another €10bn from taxes on large corporations. €4bn will be raised by reducing exemptions on company debt interest payments.
11.00 Next up: France's budget. Details have been released.
10.55 When it's not Spain or Greece, it's Italy. Protesters have taken to the streets in Rome to march against a fresh round of spending cuts introduced by PM Mario Monti.
Thousands are expected to march through the capital to a rally near the Coliseum.
Workers gather on the Piazza della Repubblica in Rome to attend a march on Friday (Photo: EPA).
10.30 A quick market update. The FTSE 100 in London is up 0.3pc at 5,798.14, while the CAC 40 in Paris and Frankfurt'sDAX 30 index are up 0.15 and 0.4pc respectively.
The IBEX 35 in Madrid has edged up 0.4pc, while the FTSE Mib in Milan is up 0.6pc at 15,540.33.
10.20 Spain will present the results of its bank stress tests at 5pm UK time, according to a statement issued by the economy ministry.
10.05 Eurozone inflation ticked up this month, according to initial estimates.
Euro area annual inflation rose to 2.7pc in September, up from 2.6pc in August, Eurostat said.
The rise was largely fuelled by increases in energy and food costs.
09.47 Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told an audience in Berlin that Europe must move with the times if it is to keep up with competition from countries such as China and India.
Speaking at a conference of women entrepreneurs, she also whipped out that old chestnut that piling up more debt will only make people lose confidence in governments, and that Europe can only grow if companies are competitive enough to sell their products globally.
09.25 Following yesterday's budget, Spain will finally reveal how much trouble its lenders are in when it releases the results of bank audits of 14 lenders that represent around 90pc of the banking system.
The results will also help the country decide how much money it will tap from a €100bn EU bail-out fund set up to help the nation's lenders recover from Spain's property crash.
Two independent audits conducted by consultants Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger in June found that Spanish banks would need up to €62bn to rebuild their balance sheets
09.08 French finance minister Pierre Moscovici has claimed that nine out of 10 taxpayers will be spared any pain in today’s budget.
Mr Moscovici told Europe 1 radio that the majority of people would will see their tax bills remain the same or decline.
He also said the government would maintain its 0.8pc growth target for 2013.
08.55 In fact, public debt has already exceeded 90pc of GDP, according to official data out this morning. Figures show public debt hit 91pc of GDP in the second quarter, up from 89.3pc in Q1.
The latest increase resulted from a rise of €43.2bn in national debt to €1.8 trillion over the three months to the end of June, according to statistics office INSEE.
French public debt (as a % of GDP) (Source: INSEE)
08.51 First Spain, now France. President Francois Hollande isexpected to reveal €30bn (£23.9bn) of austerity cuts and tax hikesneeded to meet fiskalpakt rules and cut France’s deficit to 3pc of GDP by next year. Louise Armitstead reports:
Bond traders on Thursday were poised to dump French debt if Mr Hollande reneges on his promise. The handling of Europe’s second biggest economy, which is on the verge of recession and a public debt of almost 90pc of GDP, is being carefully watched around the world. The President is also under intense pressure at home to slow the pace of austerity for the sake of the fragile economy. Earlier this week, French unemployment rose by about 3m for the first time in 13 years.
Economist Nicholas Spiro said: “It’s the first big test of investor sentiment towards France since Mr Hollande became president in May. For the past four months, the bond markets have given the new Socialist government a free pass. The idiosyncrasies of France’s debt market - deep, liquid and relatively safe enough to act as a “second-best” alternative to even richer German paper - have trumped concerns about the country’s deteriorating economy. The question is whether doubts about the credibility of French fiscal and economic policy in the coming weeks and months will be the trigger for a reassessment of France.
and Greece items of interest.....
List of politicians being investigated for corruption made public
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The list, which includes the name of 11 former ministers, 10 former deputy ministers and 12 former or current MPs, has been passed to prosecutors, who are preparing to investigate allegations ranging from tax evasion to gaining wealth from illegal activities.
The allegations against each of the politicians on the list have not been made public.
The list, which has been published on the Internet, contains the names of:
Nikolas Tagaras – New Democracy MP for Corinthia
Panos Kammenos – Leader of Independent Greeks
Elpida Tsouri – former PASOK MP and deputy minister
Yiannis Kourakis – former PASOK MP and deputy minister, Mayor of Iraklio
Yiannis Anthopoulos – former deputy minister, PASOK
Tasos Mantelis – former minister, PASOK
Yiannos Papantoniou – former minister, PASOK
Yiannis Sbokos – former MP, PASOK
Nikitas Kaklamanis – New Democracy MP, former Athens Mayor
Aris Spilitiopoulos – New Democracy MP, former minister
Apostolos Fotiadis – former deputy minister, PASOK
Giorgos Voulgarakis – former minister, New Democracy
Fevronia Patrianakou, former New Democracy MP
Nikos Konstantopoulos –former leader of Synaspismos
Eliza Vozemberg – New Democracy MP
Panayiotis Fasoulas – former PASOK MP, ex-Mayor of Piraeus
Akis Tsochatzopoulos – former minister, PASOK
Fotis Arvanitis – former PASOK MP
Dimitris Apostolakis – former deputy minister, PASOK
Evangelos Meimarakis – parliamentary speaker, former minister
Michalis Liapis – former minister, New Democracy
Christos Verelis – former minister, PASOK
Nikolas Tagaras – New Democracy MP for Corinthia
Panos Kammenos – Leader of Independent Greeks
Elpida Tsouri – former PASOK MP and deputy minister
Yiannis Kourakis – former PASOK MP and deputy minister, Mayor of Iraklio
Yiannis Anthopoulos – former deputy minister, PASOK
Tasos Mantelis – former minister, PASOK
Yiannos Papantoniou – former minister, PASOK
Yiannis Sbokos – former MP, PASOK
Nikitas Kaklamanis – New Democracy MP, former Athens Mayor
Aris Spilitiopoulos – New Democracy MP, former minister
Apostolos Fotiadis – former deputy minister, PASOK
Giorgos Voulgarakis – former minister, New Democracy
Fevronia Patrianakou, former New Democracy MP
Nikos Konstantopoulos –former leader of Synaspismos
Eliza Vozemberg – New Democracy MP
Panayiotis Fasoulas – former PASOK MP, ex-Mayor of Piraeus
Akis Tsochatzopoulos – former minister, PASOK
Fotis Arvanitis – former PASOK MP
Dimitris Apostolakis – former deputy minister, PASOK
Evangelos Meimarakis – parliamentary speaker, former minister
Michalis Liapis – former minister, New Democracy
Christos Verelis – former minister, PASOK
| Kostas Liaskas – former minister, PASOK Giorgos Orfanos – former minister, New Democracy Spilios Spiliotopoulos – former minister, New Democracy Petros Mantouvalos – former New Democracy MP Athanasios Nakos – New Democracy MP Alexandros Voulgaris – former New Democracy MP Marina Hrysoveloni – Independent Greeks MP Leonidas Tzanis – former deputy minister, PASOK Antonis Bezas – former deputy minister, New Democracy Michalis Halkidis – former New Democracy MP Michalis Karchimakis – former PASOK MP The name of parliamentary speaker Evangelos Meimarakis had leaked last week in a press report, prompting an angry reaction from the conservative politician. In an attempt to prove that allegations of money laundering are unfounded, Meimarakis published his source of wealth (pothen esches) declarations dating back to 1989, when he was first elected to Parliament. His last declaration, in 2010, shows savings of 290,000 euros. The claims against Meimarakis are being investigated by the Supreme Court. Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos and former Education Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos, whose names appear on the list of supposed suspects, both issued statements saying they have nothing to hide.
and.....
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