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‘Eurozone is exploding!’

Published: 06 September, 2011, 19:21
Edited: 06 September, 2011, 23:09

Riot policemen spray tear gas as they clash with demonstrators in front of the Greek parliament on June 29, 2011 during a protest part of the 48-hour general strike against the bankruptcy-threatened government which is desperately trying to push through sweeping austerity cuts (AFP Photo / Angelos Tzortzinis)

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TRENDS: Eurozone crisis

TAGS: Crisis, Protest, Politics, Currencies, Budget, Tesa Arcilla, Government Spending, Economy


Protests have spread across Europe as Greece, Italy and Spain are struggling to hold on to the euro. Meanwhile, residents of the strongest European economies, such as France, believe that their countries would be better off with a national currency.

A million to march against the harsh new austerity package, vows Italy's biggest trade union. Italy is teetering on the brink of collapse over its massive debts.

The troubles of one of Europe's biggest economies threaten to destabilize the eurozone and spur a new financial crisis.

The removal of several controversial provisions, such as a temporary tax on the wealthy, sent markets into a spin, and sparked rumors of an imminent credit-rating downgrade.

Meanwhile across the Ionian Sea, efforts to rescue the Greek economy took a hit after Athens admitted it will not be able to meet deficit reduction deadlines.

Struggling economies will have to leave the eurozone, an ex-member of France's ruling party, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, told RT. There are consequences for a currency system that cannot work.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, says that some countries, like Greece, will have to leave the eurozone, because they simply cannot keep up with economically stable countries.

“Greece cannot support the currency of Germany, it is not the same economy,” he declared. “Greece will be forced to leave [the] euro because the only means for Greece’s economy to recover is to devaluate.”

Dupont-Aignan says that the euro is too expensive for Greece: “You cannot have the same currency for Greece, with productivity which is not high, and for Germany.”

Even though France is not in the same situation as Greece or Italy, there is a high unemployment rate, and the French are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the current situation. Some believe that France should abandon the eurozone and revert to its own currency – the Franc.

“Government is saying to French people, ‘We will impose new taxes, but in the same day we are going to give to Greece 15 billion euros.’ We ask for the money from the French people to give it to Greece and it’s not working. So the French government is very unpopular,” says Dupont-Aignan.

Nevertheless, President Sarkozy's government is insistent that France's future lies with the euro. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan argues that this is a bad decision.

“We created Europe without the euro and it worked. It worked because when we had a problem we could devaluate and Germany re-evaluate its currency [after WWII.]. But now we cannot use money to ‘re-arm,’” he says. “People in Europe began just to understand that [the] euro is not working. You cannot have the same currency for countries [that] are completely different on the economic scale.”

“We are in a historic moment – [the] eurozone is exploding,” concluded Dupont-Aignan.

German economic analyst Michael Mross, believes it is those very deadlines and cuts that will be the euro's undoing

“Austerity means cuts. That means that you have cut the income of the poorest, that the social welfare will be cut down. What we see here is that politicians are promising many things and this is the problem that we really have,” he said. “People in Brussels also feel the pressure of the street will be so big that they cannot fulfil their promises. That means that in the end of the day the whole experiment of the euro will go down with the insolvency of Germany.”


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Count Cash September 07, 2011, 20:05
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Being in the Eurozone in a proper sense, means your economy matches the strength of the currency. Indeed the parameters of the Eurozone control, should instead be turned into tests, to determine whether a country has to exit the Eurozone. This will then preserve the correct level of the Euro against the underlying strength of the economies. Recently, there has been a game played, where Germany has been happy with some level of Eurozone crisis, to soften the Euro and thus increase its exports. It has exploited a softened Euro as a tool for growth. However, Germany doesn’t want a collapsed Euro, indeed Germany wants to set the Euro rate just right for itself, and this is understandable. They want the rate to match their economic strength and stimulate growth for them. They therefore, like China demonstrate that firstly there is a rate that is the correct rate for your economy and secondly a rate that is the correct amount lower, can stimulate growth. If a weaker economy is bound to the stronger economy in currency, then what happens is they provide a help for the strong economies and a detractor for their own. Yes they can wait until, they can strengthen their economies over time, so restoring the equilibrium; the problem is that that the process takes time, and that time means more escalating credit or sell offs to plug the efficiency and sustainability deficit in the weaker economy. So there is a simple race, can the economy recover fast enough, to fix itself, with additional monetary inflows added, or will the process take too long resulting in the additional weight of any credit creating an irrecoverable situation and default anyway. So the simple question to ask for the weaker one is – When will your economy be as strong as Germany? If the time/credit clock is against you, then you need devalue to set your currency to match your economy, plus add margin to stimulate growth.

Norman Hill September 07, 2011, 02:11
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More financially established nations (Germany, France, Italy and Austria- even Poland) do not need pay the debts of weaker nations (Spain, Greece and Portugal)! It's interesting that the weaker nations (as listed above) were once great empires. Look at them today! Britain was smart enough to reject the EURO, though they are having problems now.

Phil (unregistered) September 07, 2011, 00:40
0

Perhaps those in Europe who have always looked upon the British as the awkward mob, always complaining about the EU, about its undemocratic laws, its embezzling of public money and its members who were not voted into their positions by the people of Europe, will now realise why the british people are so reticent. For centuries Europe has been a source of wars, internal problems and dictators and the British have always come to the aid of those in mainland Europe. We were always aginst one currency for 27 countries, it was a ridiculous idea 50 years ago and now its being proved to be a source of extreme irritation to many members of the EU. It needs to die, we can still trade with each country as britain has done for many centuries