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Es que ya lo hemos discutido antes. Una simple norma que impiedes hipotecas de mas de 25 años, y se hubiera parado la burbuja.Culpar a Alemania es desinculpar a otros. Nuestras elites por ejemplo,,, pobrecillas elllas, tan generosas e inocentes, engañadas por los malvados centroeuropeos.Y un cuerno.
The Versailles terms imposed on Germany in 1919 were vindictive and narrow-minded, but not beyond reach. Greece is being told to do the impossiblene day we will learn the full story of what went on at the top levels of the German government before the villenage of Greece last weekend.We already know that the EMU accord - if that is the right word – is an economic and diplomatic fiasco of the first order. It does serious damage to the moral credibility of the EU but resolves nothing.There is not the slightest chance that Greece will be able stabilize its debt and return to viability under the Carthaginian settlement imposed on Alexis Tsipras - after 17 hours of psychological “water-boarding”, as one EU official put it.The latest paper by the International Monetary Fund has torn away the fig-leaf. The country needs a 30-year moratorium on debt payments and probably outright subsidies to recover from the devastation of the past six years.Instead it gets pro-cyclical fiscal contraction of 2pc of GDP by next year.Some are already comparing the terms to the Versailles Treaty but this does not quite capture the depravity of it. The demands imposed on Germany in 1919 were certainly vindictive and narrow-minded – as Keynes rightly alleged – but they were not, on the face of it, beyond reach.France was forced to pay reparations after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 that were roughly equivalent to Versailles, albeit in very different circumstances. It dutifully did so, while plotting revenge.What Greece is being asked to do is scientifically impossible. Almost everybody involved in the talks knows this. Yet the lie goes on because the dysfunctional nature of EMU politics and governance makes it impossible to come clean. The country is dishonestly kept in a permanent state of crisis.Wolfgang Schauble is one of the very few figures who has behaved honourably in this latest chapter. As readers know, I have been highly critical of the hard-bitten finance minister for a long time, holding him directly responsible for the 1930s regime of debt-deflation and contraction imposed on much of Europe, and for refusing to accept that the eurozone's North-South divide must be closed by both sides. Any policy that puts all the burden of adjustment on the South is destructive and doomed to failure.But he is entirely right to argue that a velvet divorce and an orderly exit from the euro for five years would be a “better way” for Greece, as he did on Germany radio this morning.It would allow the country to regain competitiveness at a stroke without a disastrous over-shoot or the risk that events might spin out of control. It would clear the way for proper debt relief – or a standard IMF-style package.If accompanied by some sort of Marshall Plan or investment blitz – as Mr Schauble appears to favour – it would set the foundations for genuine recovery.Huge sums of Greek money sitting on the sidelines would probably flood back into the country once the Grexit boil had been lanced. It is a pattern seen time and again in emerging markets across the world over the past 60 years.Instead, total confusion remains. “Nobody knows at the moment how this is supposed to work without a haircut and everybody knows that a haircut is incompatible with euro membership,” said Mr Schauble.To those who say that Grexit would violate the sanctity of monetary union – with incalculable political consequences - one can only reply that it is already too late. The moment Germany tabled its Grexit document over the weekend, the game was up. The euro has already been reduced to a transactional, fixed exchange bloc, subject to the whims of populist politics, shorn of idealism and solidarity.Mr Schauble has been pushing for Grexit since 2012, and probably earlier. He genuinely thinks it would better for all concerned. When he floated his plan, he meant it.But German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not mean it. She had the opposite purpose. There lies an enormous confusion.She has stated repeatedly that any splintering of the euro would be the beginning of the end for the European Project. She has said this so many times that her own credibility is on the line.Even if she was irritated by the Schauble paper – and her skirmishes with the irascible finance minister are legendary – she appears to have latched on to it as a useful negotiating ploy. The trick worked. It terrified Mr Tsipras into submission.So we now have the worst of all worlds. The deal is an atrocity. The crisis has not been resolved. The integrity of EMU has been breached. Greece has been publicly crushed and humiliated, yet for no purpose. The country cannot possibly meet the demands. There is no debt relief (other than a vague and worthless promise for the future).German diplomacy is in ruins. The world has reached the conclusion that Berlin broke ranks with fellow EU powers, and coldly threatened the ejection of an EMU member state. Great numbers of people across Europe think that Germany has pursued a narrow nationalist, agenda, and behaved like a bully.Mr Schauble’s original and honourable intentions have been entirely misunderstood. The world’s verdict is that Germany's benign and enlightened statecraft in Europe over the past 60 years has given way to Bild Zeitung reflexes, the hegemony of crude populism.One can only feel sympathy for German diplomats who must clean up the mess and explain how this tangle of conflicting agendas spun escaped control.It is often said that the euro is talismanic for the Greeks: that it represents their admission as full and secure members of the European family, a political coin rather than a means of exchange.If so, it is hard to see how long that can remain the case after what has just happened, for it is by now obvious to many that EMU is in fact the instrument and symbol of Greek national degradation.Polls suggest that up to 80pc still want to stay in the euro. It is hard to know what weight to give these binary surveys since the 61pc landslide for "Oxi" and defiance in the referendum 10 days ago conveyed a different meaning.Be that as it may, the Schauble plan is now on the table and everything has therefore changed. The Greek people are being offered a way out. Their illusions shattered, they might do well to approach the matter as a strict calculus of economic interest.It is not an easy moral choice. The rich have already moved their money abroad. They would make a windfall gain from devaluation, just as the Mexican elites did after the Tequila crisis.The rest of the country has stashed €40bn in secret hiding places, but most of their savings are still trapped in the banks. They would suffer a painful haircut under a switch to the drachma.But at the end of the day, you cannot set economic policy in the interests of savers. That way lies perdition. What matters in the long run is whether the country can return to trade equilibrium, sustained growth and full employment.Given the vicious stupidity of the deal reached last weekend, there can no longer be the slightest doubt that Greece can achieve these objectives only by taking up Mr Schauble’s offer – now German policy by default, whether Chancellor Merkel likes it or not.Those who argue that Greece was recovering last year and therefore can make it within a Teutonic euro are badly confused.Yes, there can be short-term cyclical upswings even for peripheral EMU economies stuck in depression with an overvalued exchange rate. Spain is enjoying one right now.But this is not recovery. The much-touted "internal devaluations" of these countries are deformed, and mostly a mirage. The underlying misalignment remains, certain to be exposed in the next global downturn.Greece will continue to endure its long Calvary until somebody has the courage to tell the Greek people – and to keep telling them until the truth sinks in – that the drachma is their best hope of economic renewal.All they are being told now is that any discussion of the drachma amounts to “treason”. If that is the level of intellectual debate, God help Greece.Mr Tsipras missed his chance on Sunday. He - or his successor – will surely be given another before long.
For those interested in the mechanics of Grexit, we attach an update of the Wolfson Prize material by Capital Economics.The team was writing on the earlier assumption that Grexit might be chaotic and hostile. Mr Schauble’s velvet divorce removes that risk. One might almost think that his offer is irresistible.
"Los que sois euroescépticos habéis comprado toda la propaganda victimista del gobierno griego""los grecófilos euroescépticos""Seguís empeñados en ver el tema como Grecia vs Alemania""vuestro euroescepticismo hace que no veáis con buenos ojos que los Estados Miembros cedan soberanía a instituciones europeas""Queréis y exigís que Europa haga algo que no queréis dejar que Europa haga"
[...] Yo egoísmo veo en todas las partes por igual. Si acaso, lo que hace que Alemania tenga la sartén por el mango es que han sido más listos, al menos en lo que respecta al corto plazo; está por ver si todo esto cuesta el derrumbe del proyecto europeo y si ellos quedan también sepultados por los escombros. Al hilo de esto, decir que lo que no me parece bien en absoluto es la imagen que ha dado Alemania (y el resto de gobiernos/instituciones acreedoras). No costaba nada haber tenido un discurso un poco más pedagógico y unas formas más suaves, en vez del porculizamiento público a que han sometido a los griegos. Como se ha dicho antes, esto son hachazos a los pilones que sostienen el proyecto europeo. No se crea un proyecto común con este mal rollo. [...]
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Más allá de compartir las premisas de la reducción de gasto - en mi caso estoy de acuerdo - lo que me preocupa es la legitimidad para imponerlas de este modo. Tenemos una especie de dictadura, que puede hacer las cosas más o menos bien, pero es una dictadura. Puede llamarlo cada uno como quiera pero nadie ha votado porque la UE gobierne sin ningún tipo de control.
A mí tus posts me llevan sonando a propaganda bastante tiempo, pero no pasa nada. Las votaciones y las decisiones en el seno de la UE dejan muchísimo que desear. Allá cada cual con lo que se quiera creer. Al fin y al cabo yo desde aquí no voy a cambiar nada.
Cita de: muyuu en Julio 16, 2015, 17:59:51 pmMás allá de compartir las premisas de la reducción de gasto - en mi caso estoy de acuerdo - lo que me preocupa es la legitimidad para imponerlas de este modo. Tenemos una especie de dictadura, que puede hacer las cosas más o menos bien, pero es una dictadura. Puede llamarlo cada uno como quiera pero nadie ha votado porque la UE gobierne sin ningún tipo de control.Es que esto suena a propaganda, muyuu (y que me baneen si quieren).Vamos a ver:"Imponer": ha habido un acuerdo entre los 28 Estados Miembros de la UE. ¿Dónde está el "imponer"? Si 28 foreros hemos de elegir A o B, y sólo Visi piensa A, ¿están "imponiendo" B a Visi los otros 27 foreros? ¿O resulta que "imponer" es en realidad lo que se llama "votación democrática ganada por mayoría absoluta casi unánime"? "Dictadura": han votado los representantes legales de 28 gobiernos democráticamente elegidos por los ciudadanos de los 28 Estados Miembros. ¿Dónde está la dictadura? ¿En que no hemos votado todos los ciudadanos? ¿Debemos tener los ciudadanos 150 referéndums diarios sobre temas en los que somos expertísimos como gestión de la cirugía torácica, gestión de crisis de deuda soberanas o selección de emplazamientos óptimos de plataformas de lanzamiento de naves espaciales? ¿O resulta que "dictadura" es en realidad lo que se llama "ejercicio legítmo de la representación democrática"?"Falta de legitimidad": de nuevo, han votado los representantes legales de 28 gobiernos democráticamente elegidos por los ciudadanos de los 28 Estados Miembros. ¿Dónde está la falta de legitimidad?De nuevo, la contradicción del euroescéptico que señalé ayer: no quiero que Grecia sufra, para lo que se necesita mayor unión en la UE (p.ej. unión fiscal), pero no quiero que la UE "vaya a su bola decidiendo cosas por ahí", como por ejemplo la unión fiscal [como si no fuera tu gobierno y los de los demás quien las vota].
Nomura's chief economist Richard Koo is seeing parallels between Greece and East Germany, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, right now.In a note sent to clients on Tuesday, Koo attacks Greece's creditors for negotiating a deal based on "highly unrealistic" assumptions and reaching an agreement that "resolve none of the fundamental problems facing the effectively bankrupt nation of Greece."One of Koo's big problems with the bailout deal is the massive privatisation fund that the EU and the IMF have demanded from Greece. The country must raise €50 billion (£35.3 billion, $55.1 billion) selling off state-owned assets.Europe and the IMF are hoping Greece's big sell-off will be like the Thatcher-era privatisation boom in Britain. But Koo says the creditors have "overestimated to a grotesque degree" how much Greece can raise and predicts the privatisation boom will mirror the fire sale of East Germany in the 1990s.After the reunification of Germany in 1990 the new government sold off many of the formerly Communist enterprises that were in East Germany. The plan was to raise money to invest in the infrastructure needed for reunification.But in the rush to get the companies off the government's books and raise money, this turned into a fire sale of East German assets.Koo had first-hand experience of all this. Here he is: CitarAt the time I was personally interested in a certain manufacturing concern in the city of Dresden, then part of East Germany. I went so far as to visit the West German liquidator at the company headquarters and ask how much it would take to buy the company. At that time he was very confident the operation would fetch a high price, and the price he gave me was far beyond the reach of someone working for a Japanese company.But several months after returning to Tokyo, I heard the company had been sold for a tiny fraction of the quoted price.Since the West German government insisted on selling all assets within six months of bringing them to market, prospective buyers adopted the tactic of engaging in negotiations until the deadline loomed and then stepping away from the table. With just days to complete the sale, administrators were forced to dispose of assets at fire-sale prices.Koo expects similar tactics in Greece. He concludes that "European authorities appear to have forgotten a key lesson of German reunification, which is that rash privatizations carried out with the goal of raising as much money as possible tend to end in failure."He isn't the only one drawing this conclusion. My colleague Lianna Brinded spelled out recently just how likely a fire sale is, while property company Knight Frank is expecting a fire sale of privately owned Greek islands due to likely increases in tax.
At the time I was personally interested in a certain manufacturing concern in the city of Dresden, then part of East Germany. I went so far as to visit the West German liquidator at the company headquarters and ask how much it would take to buy the company. At that time he was very confident the operation would fetch a high price, and the price he gave me was far beyond the reach of someone working for a Japanese company.But several months after returning to Tokyo, I heard the company had been sold for a tiny fraction of the quoted price.Since the West German government insisted on selling all assets within six months of bringing them to market, prospective buyers adopted the tactic of engaging in negotiations until the deadline loomed and then stepping away from the table. With just days to complete the sale, administrators were forced to dispose of assets at fire-sale prices.
Cita de: visillófilas pepitófagas en Julio 17, 2015, 11:05:36 amCita de: muyuu en Julio 16, 2015, 17:59:51 pmMás allá de compartir las premisas de la reducción de gasto - en mi caso estoy de acuerdo - lo que me preocupa es la legitimidad para imponerlas de este modo. Tenemos una especie de dictadura, que puede hacer las cosas más o menos bien, pero es una dictadura. Puede llamarlo cada uno como quiera pero nadie ha votado porque la UE gobierne sin ningún tipo de control.Es que esto suena a propaganda, muyuu (y que me baneen si quieren).Vamos a ver:"Imponer": ha habido un acuerdo entre los 28 Estados Miembros de la UE. ¿Dónde está el "imponer"? Si 28 foreros hemos de elegir A o B, y sólo Visi piensa A, ¿están "imponiendo" B a Visi los otros 27 foreros? ¿O resulta que "imponer" es en realidad lo que se llama "votación democrática ganada por mayoría absoluta casi unánime"? "Dictadura": han votado los representantes legales de 28 gobiernos democráticamente elegidos por los ciudadanos de los 28 Estados Miembros. ¿Dónde está la dictadura? ¿En que no hemos votado todos los ciudadanos? ¿Debemos tener los ciudadanos 150 referéndums diarios sobre temas en los que somos expertísimos como gestión de la cirugía torácica, gestión de crisis de deuda soberanas o selección de emplazamientos óptimos de plataformas de lanzamiento de naves espaciales? ¿O resulta que "dictadura" es en realidad lo que se llama "ejercicio legítmo de la representación democrática"?"Falta de legitimidad": de nuevo, han votado los representantes legales de 28 gobiernos democráticamente elegidos por los ciudadanos de los 28 Estados Miembros. ¿Dónde está la falta de legitimidad?De nuevo, la contradicción del euroescéptico que señalé ayer: no quiero que Grecia sufra, para lo que se necesita mayor unión en la UE (p.ej. unión fiscal), pero no quiero que la UE "vaya a su bola decidiendo cosas por ahí", como por ejemplo la unión fiscal [como si no fuera tu gobierno y los de los demás quien las vota].Pero es que unión fiscal ahora es imposible. Para dar un paso tan importante, en muchos países se tendrán que celebrar referéndums. Ya se vió lo que pasó con la Constitución Europea, que los franceses y holandeses la tiraron abajo.Pues ahora, imagínate a países como Holanda, Austria o Finlandia llamando a sus electorados para votar una unión fiscal. En Alemania seguro que ni dejarían celebrar un referéndum así. Lo que falla en la UE es que no hay respaldo popular real. Los españoles tenemos esa falsa percepción porque la UE aquí sí que es popular por tres razones:a) Una mezcla de complejos nacionales y de sentimiento de inferioridad hacia el resto del Continente, no sin razones desde luego.b) La asociación popular de UE con posibles ayudas económicas pasadas (sin las ayudas europeas, nuestras carrerteras serían hoy tercermundistas y nuestro boom inmobiliario un imposible) y nuestra dependencia económica en el sector turístico, con mayoría aplastante de turistas procedentes de Europa.c) El hecho de que en España se utilice por los defensores del Estado-nación llamado España la idea de Europa como "un movimiento contra la disgregación nacional". La respuesta a los nacionalistas catalanes no es una defensa de España sino infundir miedo porque "hoy en Europa tendemos a converger". Si la UE desapareciera, ya veríamos qué pasaba.Hay países que no tienen todos esos condicionantes y cuyos ciudadanos se preguntán por qué hay que seguir construyendo la UE si objetivamente, ellos no van a ganar nada. El sentimiento de culpa, que es lo que mueve a los alemanes a seguir involucrados, poco a poco va desapareciendo, ya van saliendo euroescépticos y solo es cuestión de tiempo, si la situación no mejora, que la CDU se parezca más a los Tories que al PP español.