‘Chief economist Olivier Blanchard of the IMF has told reporters that the risk that the eurozone might not stick together has “disappeared” due to measures from the European Central Bank and the European Union.’
Well now. That’s interesting. Of course it is only an IMF estimate and these are notorious for being completely wide of the mark. Nevertheless, it is an estimate that has filled everyone with joy. There will be dancing in the streets tomorrow! Well, there may well be in London…. but for reasons not directly related to the IMF’s positive diagnosis, that the risk that the eurozone might not stick together has “disappeared” .
And what’s more “due to measures from the European Central Bank and the European Union”.
Now what have the ECB and the EU actually done to make that risk completely “disappear”?
Well, they have ruined southern Europe, so perhaps moribund economies and nations are not expected to react. They have managed through great efforts to make unemployment shoot up to rates unprecedented in peace time. So that too probably contributes to upbeat reactions like that. The bulk of European youth will emigrate out of the dark continent sooner or later.
What else? Ah yes. they have chipped away at the very foundations of a healthy economy by confiscating bank deposits and now threatening to confiscate property as well.
Hmmm… Well, perhaps this diagnosis is a bit like giving the EU the Nobel peace prize. A joke or even comfort to the death row convict who is about to be led to his execution.
In any case, does anyone give a damn what the IMF says any more? Most of the times it has got its forecasts and prescriptions completely wrong. And on the rare occasion when they say something right, such as pointing out that the multiplier on which the Greek programme was based, was fatally wrong and ground the country down into the ground…
Well. Okay. They said that. But so what? Did anybody act on it? No! Just keep grounding the vermin deeper into the ground under a jackboot.
I wonder what the IMF will be saying next year? If there’s anyone left to say it to that is.