Euro Area

[SoFarSoGood]

Regulations and directives can be changed and revoked. They can't, however, go against the treaties that established the EU. I'm a little puzzled at what SoFarSoGood is complaining about here. He pointed out earlier that the ECB buying up government bonds on the secondary market is a violation of the treaty. I don't agree on it being an actual violation, but it does make me somewhat uneasy because it goes against the intent of the treaty. Apparently violations are only bad when he doesn't agree with the action.

(I agree that it's a dumb tradition to have the EP gather both in Strassbourgh and Brussels so many times a year, but it's a dumb idea that's inshrined in the treaties and therefore should be respected)

So this 'irreversible' issue... Let me put it this way: Can Ireland have another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? No... Once you've said 'yes' once it's 'irreversible'; and by the way it's not me that uses this word but the Barrusos and Rumpuys of this world who say the movement to single State is and must be 'irreversible', whether people like it or not apparently! Even if I 100% agreed that such a thing was a good idea I would have reservations about allowing a 'Government' that has not it's accounts signed off by auditors for 18 years to run such system.

Of course when it comes to changing the rules when it suits them they do it all the time... Under both Maastrict and Lisbon NO bailouts were permitted. Now the ECB proposes to buy government bonds on the secondary markets to any limit - once a country has surrendered it's financial sovereignty and of course surrender that and your vote to a 'national parliament' basicly ceases to count: The last Greek election was ONLY about electing someone to negotiate with the 'Troika'.

the man with the (wolfson) plan is back with more;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/c...etter-off.html

I don't think RB goes far enough in this article. Yes he's correct in his analysis that the fundamental problem is the unit labour cost variance between the euro member states. This is the reflected in balance of trade deficits for Mediterranean countries but the balance of trade variances are caused by the basic unit labour cost differences; a symptom of the disease. In a normal system this would be rebalanced in currency devaluations so German exports would become more expensive as the Greek currency devalued and Greek exports to Germany become cheaper etc... Alas they are 'glued together' by the euro so basicly unit labour cost in all the rest of Europe have to catch up with Germany. Even in France this amounts to a 20% reduction in wages. As Merkel said "Europe must discuss the growing differences in economic strength between France and Germany". (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...h-economy.html)

That is why Germany should leave.