Well yes. Sort of. Mario Monti went about it the right way and got results. Merkel appeared to back down, but you can never trust a dogmatic bigot who always knows she’s right. So, reculer a mieux s’avancer? Perhaps. Then again perhaps not. After all a bully always backs down when the stronger guys step in. That is the nature of bullies.
Now, as to the essence. As a matter of principle it stands to reason that the re capitalization of the banks should NOT increase sovereign debt and consequently deficits. It remains to be seen how this will be implemented and for whom. The Irish should perhaps be recompensed for having had their economy ruined through the Nonsense Economics applied to her. For one.
Now the 130 billion growth pact. Hmmm. A step in the right direction and lets hope a little more than hot air. Though the actual amount is somewhat puny and where the funds will come from rather nebulous. The Frau says, since Europe is so indebted we cannot fund growth through more loans. It would sound sensible except that The Frau has been the one to pile more and more debt burden on the over indebted countries such as Greece.
But, ah, comes the answer. We are not interested in promoting growth in Greece. Quite the contrary. All we want to do with that is prop up the banks and have Greece pick up the tab through interest payments. Never mind that its debt and deficits will only grow. Then we can wag the finger at them and blame them for everything else going wrong.
So no great enthusiasm? Well, moderate enthusiasm.
Congratulations to Mario Monti for taking on The Frau and making her back down.
And congratulations to la Squadra Azura for kicking the Germans out of the Euro! Football will do for a start.