After two and half years of dithering, fudging, kicking the can down the road, mismanaging, imposing a rigid, ineffective antediluvian austerity policy, the EU has final screeched to a halt in front of the make it or break it point. What everyone knew from the beginning but no one dared even say openly, finally has to be dealt with. In a hurry. If there is to be a monetary union it can no longer continue in this distorted way. There has to be fiscal union, banking union, above all perhaps “cultural” union as Warren Buffet has put it.

Angela Merkel’s total mismanagement of the crisis has done a great disservice to the prospects of a proper European Union. Apart from her Nonsense Economics based on dogmatic rigidity, her modus operandi has been perhaps fatal to any hope of building the cultural union required for such a project to succeed.

She has thrown her weight around, acted like the schoolyard bully and perhaps worse of all played to her gallery. That is she has used a populism to lure and dupe her own voters in Germany and created bad will and hostility all around. To the German electorate she has presented Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean countries as lazy, good for nothing profligate parasites.

She has lied to her electorate consistently making them believe that these infamous and destructive ‘bailouts’ were direct hand outs, perhaps even gifts, from the German taxpayer to the profligate Greeks who do nothing but sit in the sun all day while the Germans work their buts off.  She has consistently failed to admit that this has all been a nice little earner for Germany, she has failed to explain that the German surpluses were only achieved owing to the Euro enabling the southerners to buy so many German products and so on.

On the other hand, the so called bail out policies have been imposed in such a heavy handed insensitive way, making the people least responsible for the mess bleed most, that it is not surprising that ill will and animosity has spread throughout the peoples of Europe.

The Greeks identify all things German with the Nazi occupiers of the war, the Germans think of the Greeks as subhuman leeches and so on. Angela Merkel has undermined the very basis on which any European Union could be formed. This has to change drastically if there is any hope ahead. Unfortunately such mending takes time and that is one thing the EU no longer has since The Frau managed to squander it all together with any goodwill there was.

And since things are pressing and ideas are being hurriedly bandied about, we must not forget (as we are currently doing) that no such union can ever be based on anything but full democracy. Otherwise it will just become another German Empire. So it is all very well saying we must proceed with fiscal union and an integration of the banking sector and all countries must now surrender their sovereignty to Brussels, even for defence matters and so on, but “Brussels” has yet to be defined.

If by Brussels we mean the Merkel led directorate of unelected unaccountable spineless Eurocrats currently running the show, then that will never work. And another matter of paramount importance is, when we say “fiscal integration” and that Brussels will be the one to decide on budgets, are we implying that there is also no choice in what kind of policy we, the people of Europe want?

Are we implying that we all have to sign up to the neo liberal Chicago School ideal of no welfare! No labour rights! Growing economic inequality and so on? This is what “Brussels” under The Frau’s iron boot is imposing. This is in fact the recession inducing policy that has brought Europe to its knees and is threatening to tear it asunder.

If Europe is to integrate properly it can only do so in a democratic way. That is we cannot start by fiscal integration if we have not defined what kind of integration we want. More deregulation for banks say, or the preservation of European values and rights that have been gained through revolutions and blood?

This is not something that can be left to unaccountable politicians playing the populist game to their own electorate while ignoring everyone else. We cannot start by surrendering sovereignty to Brussels like a blank check, letting them impose a dastardly neoliberal policy on the whole of Europe and then wonder why the continent has burst out in flames again. If integration is to succeed it cannot be done by bits and pieces. This is after all what got Europe into the soup in the first place.

First  we’ll set up a monetary union which we know can’t work without fiscal union but we’ll see about that later on. Well it is later on right now and that kind of wishy washy, bit by bit policy cannot work anymore. 

It is make or break time and before we surrender anything to “Brussels” we must ensure that “Brussels” is defined by the will of Europe’s peoples. The European Parliament must become the seat of all power. The EP must be the body that elects and controls the Commission. And of course there must be debate and voting on what kind of Europe do we want? What is our top priority? The welfare of our peoples or the welfare of the financial wizards, say?

In the climate of hostility and ill will between the peoples of Europe spawned by Mme Merkel this will be a tough goal to achieve, but a necessary one.

Without full democratic integration of Europe there can never be any other kind.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Till you look at the initial ideas. First all member states cede sovereignty to Brussels, then we all get our deficits down and comply with the German obsession of fiscal rectitude, then perhaps, maybe, we might fudge something by giving a few extra powers to the European Parliament. But that is a minor detail we may address in about a decade or so.

Whoops! In other words forget about the democratic deficit. Forget about democracy all together. And who, in the meantime will be calling all the shots? Brussels. And what is Brussels? A bunch of blinkered appointed Eurocrats who do what The Frau says. And remain unaccountable to anyone!

Somehow going completely bust and reverting to the drachma doesn’t sound as horrific any more!

Ian Traynor in his article in the Guardian today tells us: “Joschka Fischer, the former German Foreign Minister, warned that his country was at risk of destroying itself and Europe for a third time in a century, and gave Merkel just a few months to change course […..]  ‘Germany [Fischer wrote in his article] destroyed itself -and the European order- twice in the 20th century. It would be both tragic and ironic if a restored Germany by peaceful means and with the best of intentions, brought about the ruin of the European order a third time.‘”

This is something that has been playing on a great many minds, but it is the first time, to my knowledge, that the fear has been expressed by a German politician. Furthermore, Fischer also agrees with Soros that there are only a few months left to deal with the crisis. In other words, no more kicking the can down the road! It is too early to judge yet, but the ideas for Uniting Europe with a 10 year time span ahead can’t help sounding ominously like The Frau’s delaying tactics yet again.

Finally, “it would be both tragic and ironic” he says if Germany destroys Europe for a third time! Tragic, ironic, catastrophic. All Greek words.

Hubris, Nemesis, Catharsis.

George Soros, is the man who broke the bank… not in Monte Carlo but, in a way, the Bank of England! Well he may not quite have broken the Bank of England, it would take more than that, David Cameron please note, but he did give it quite a jolt.

Anyhow, Mr Soros has now predicted the outcome of the Greek Elections. He says the conservative New Democracy party, bound by the personal signature of its leader to carry out every single term of the so called bail out agreement, shall win the election. Albeit by a small margin, because the Greek electorate has been terrified out of its wits. And that after that Angela Merkel will only have three months at her disposal to save the Euro.

He may very well be right. It is perfectly true that every last stop is being pulled to terrify the Greeks and force them into submission, much as happened in Ireland. Of course they did have one great big scare tactic in Ireland that they cannot use here in Greece. That is the threat that if you don’t vote the way we demand, you will turn into another Greece!!!

Ha, ha, that one they cannot use on us!!! Mind you they are telling us we will be instantly propelled back into the stone age. And to a certain extent terrorization has worked and is working. Though in defence of the Irish it is only fair to point out that only half the electorate bothered to go and vote at all. Hardly surprising since whenever they have expressed themselves negatively towards EU dictates they have been sent back again and again till they get it right.

So perhaps this was not so much the triumph of blackmail and terrorization as it was of mere weariness. Why bother? In any case it was not a resounding endorsement.

Now, with regard to Soros’ prediction, though he is probably right about the outcome of the Greek election, personally I wouldn’t go as far as betting on it. But as to his three month estimate there is no doubt in my mind that he is exactly right. Unless it is not even three months.

I would say that a New Democracy led government might just make it to three months, whereupon it won’t just collapse but it will do so in a very bloody heap. But that’s not the only part of the equation. There is Spain, even Italy and the persistence, above all of The Frau’s Nonsense Economics leading us all straight into perdition.

There are some mumbles about needing growth, for what they are worth, even more noises about turning the fiscal stability pact into a full blown fiscal union, and sending all those unable to reach targets straight to court and fines and other such vindictive Teutonic remedies.

We are being told that these brilliant ideas for saving the Euro will be presented at the end of June summit. However, there are some interesting ideas being bandied about such as increasing the powers of the European Parliament, making the Commission answerable to it, and things like that, all of which would be very welcome, if they were being made in good faith.

But we are being told that the flesh on the bones of these skeleton ideas will be put on gradually throughout the second half of 2012. To me this stinks dangerously of another little delaying tactic by The Frau. Just another instance of choosing to kick the can down the road in order to avoid dealing with anything. If so, and I hope I am wrong, these skeleton plans will only lead to the skeleton of the defunct Euro that will have passed away owing to lack of intelligence and the almighty preponderance of dogma.

But remember, George Soros has only given you three months to save the Euro, provided the election in Greece goes the way you think you want it. But do be careful what you wish for mien Frau. It just might come true!

It is perfectly obvious that the Nonsense Economics imposed by The Frau and others simply has not worked. It is obvious that austerity uber alles is a death sentence. And a slow lingering death at that too. It is obvious that only people who are insane, insensitive, stupid, blind or suffering from blinkered dogmatism would persist with such an obnoxious but above all ineffective, not to say catastrophic, policy.

And yet, these nice people seem to have dug themselves in. No, no, no! We are right! You must cut your deficits by decreasing your production and reducing demand as much as you can. Oh really? As to seeing this isn’t working? Well, they shrug it off, it WILL work, eventually, it’s just that you are all not doing it right.

In and article by Yani Varoufakis and Joseph Halevi entitled Italy’s Own Goal the writers point out how Italy (especially under The Frau’s hand picked technocrat) has been all gung ho over “water-boarding” as they aptly put it, Greece Portugal and Spain. However, as a result Italy has scored an own goal. The trade balance between Italy and Greece used to be 5 – 1in Italy’s favour and has now shrunk to 2 – 1. Which might sound good for Greece only that this has not resulted from increased productivity in Greece but from the collapse of the Greek economy.

As they point out, were Greece to be nuked into total destruction then she would no longer have a deficit at all. Would that be deemed a success? I hate to think it, but I’m sure The Frau would count this as a resounding success. Nevertheless, Italy, for all her smug, I am with the big boys attitude, is due to come into some water-boarding herself very soon. And losing exports is no way to pay off her own enormous debt either.

Another article clearly outlining what is going on is Will Hutton’s: The facts are clear: This cruel austerity experiment has failed. The battle lines have been drawn up, the right wing free marketeers on one side and on the other? No, not the looney left but moderate human intelligence as expressed by Keynes. Will Hutton tells us “Today we can see an almost laboratory experiment on a global scale of why Keynes was right and his detractors wrong“.

At least the consensus seems to be breaking. Whereas no one dared challenge The Frau’s Nonsense Economics, now an opposition is beginning to form. Battle lines are being drawn between the forces of Greed and Inhumanity on the one hand, and Social Responsibility and Economic Sense on the other. However, it will be a battle, a war, things may have to get a lot worse before the forces of pure evil are vanquished.

Nevertheless, if Greece was a ticking time bomb, Spain is a nuclear threat. For the moment Spain appears reluctant to bow her head to The Frau’s iron will and submit herself to water-boarding. The Frau and her ex side kick did everything they could to keep kicking the can down the road to gain time while refusing to impose anything that made any sense.

Germany’s policy was is and remains, heads I win tails you lose. I shall gain but shall give nothing and you will lose and give me everything. It never worked, it isn’t working and it cannot work. But we’re in for the show down. The only thing we can do perhaps not only here in Europe but all over the world is shout

Help!

As is well known, though perhaps receding into forgetfulness by now, the infamous Bin Laden began as a warrior against the Communist invasion of Afghanistan, financed by the US, for obvious reasons. In other words he was in the pay of the US fighting a war sponsored by the US against Communism. The rest of the story we do remember. How the religious fanaticism the US tapped into when recruiting him to support their interests, turned against them resulting in Al Qaida and the destruction of the twin towers in New York.

So what has this all got to do with Angela Merkel…. Well… though not a religious fanatic (well, if you take her Protestant/Calvinist view of the world out of the equation that is) she is most definitely a Deutscheland Uber Alles fanatic. No one can have any doubt about that any more.

Little Angela grew up and was educated in that hard core communist country East Germany. As far as we know she didn’t do any rebelling against the regime or anything like that. She studied Physics like a good obedient student, and if at the time she did have objections to the regime and its ideology she kept them to herself.

Nevertheless, once the wall and all that had come safely crumbling down she presented herself as a champion of  the Right, Free Market Economics, attached herself to Helmut Kohl as his prot?g?e (stabbing him in the back later, to further her glorious career).

Anyway, here was a model hero, heroine, of the Free World (note Free World with Free Market Economics should NEVER be confused because they are a contradiction in terms). In this light and this guise she was obviously a good candidate for Chancellor of Germany. A role model. A secret right winger who had survived the communist regime and was now leading her re united country under the banner of Free Market Capitalism.

However, little Angela never got over two things, it would appear. Firstly her dogmatic, intransigent, inflexible approach to things, no doubt a feature her communist upbringing instilled in her, and her Deutscheland Uber Alles fanaticism.

While it was merely a question of screwing the Greeks and sending them all to hell it didn’t really matter, because the propaganda (a skill also acquired in East Germany) disseminated, portrayed the Greeks as profligate, corrupt, lazy and only getting their just deserts.

Now, however, that it is becoming more and more obvious that little Angela’s childhood dream of a strong Germany taking over Europe is really what her Nonsense Economics plan is all about, things are beginning to look differently. In her attempts to achieve her dream she is risking the collapse of the whole Euro Zone and even the European Union which she has already hijacked and to which she has appointed or condoned suitable docile nonentities such as Jose Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rombuy and dear old spluttering Olli Rehn to name but three.

And this might be all very well, except that her illusions de grandeur and hegemonic antics are putting the whole world economy at risk and perhaps above all that of the US. She has, in effect, done a Bin Laden on them. Her fanaticism has driven her in a direction not only unacceptable to the US (and the world) but positively inimical to it (and the world).

Can we hope for a the US cavalry to come charging in and save us from brutal German domination and oppression?

Well, if so, it will hardly be the first time. In fact it will be the third within the span of a century. Third time lucky, lets hope!

In his famous book, 1984, George Orwell painted a nightmare picture of what the world would become. He called it 1984 because he wrote it in 1948 and switched the two last digits around showing it would be way into the future. Among the features of this nightmare world was something called “newspeak”.

This was a very simplified language where many words had been abolished in order to make it very difficult if not impossible to think. It was a language designed for the imposition of a totalitarian regime. A language that penalised clear thought, and tried to make everything sound pleasant and reassuring. The prime example of this is that there was no such word as bad. It was ungood.

Now if you want a current example of how newspeak works all you have to do is listen to the EU commissioners and try and understand what it is they are saying. They spew out a lot of words which you think must be the result of serious analysis and the expression of plans and decisions.

But if you listen carefully, you will see that they are really saying things which are the opposite of what is going on with the sole intention of fudging, trying to make nonsense sound serious and of course misinform us and deceive us. For instance, with the Greek bond swap, etc. we were told that Greece is a unique case! So this couldn’t be done for anybody else!

Now we have Spain in a flutter. Spain which is the 5th largest economy of the Eurozone. Olli Rhen, a master of newspeak, says the Commission will recommend Spain be given an extra year to reduce its deficit to 3%, but this is a special case! It will be only for Spain and not Greece or anybody else! The implication being, in such cases, that this is just an aberration, a special case, because really the rest of the EU is functioning smoothly and ticking with precision along the lines laid down by the directorate.

And then they go on with numbers and forecasts for 2092, and theories that we shall have growth after we have reduced deficits and we will do all this with no money and I don’t know what else. It is all made in serious statements by serious people with terrible diction usually.

It’s not that they are all so dumb. They know very well that neither Greece, nor Spain now is a “unique” or a “special” case. They know that it is the EU and the Euro that are in deep trouble causing the mayhem. But as in Orwell’s 1984, they just can’t say that for fear of Big Brother. Big Sister in our case. They need to tell another story from the real one. They need to convince everybody, but perhaps themselves above all, that really all is in order and all is going well and according to plan.

It’s all the fault of Greece, now Spain, then Italy. It is never the fault of those designing policy and putting it into effect. It is not the fault of a badly designed, half baked, distorting Euro, no! It is the fault of the profligate southern states and so on. As to the fiscal rectitude that Spain has been graciously given an extra year to achieve, it is all arrant nonsense and something that can never be achieved by anyone under the iron fist of austerity being imposed.

But if they know all that, why do they persist in the deceit and misinformation? Is it just because they are in complete denial?

In 1984 Newspeak was designed to keep a totalitarian regime in power. Something like that is going on now, though at a rather farcical level. Though the blood on their hands from the growing number of suicides in Southern Europe is hardly a farce.

But for whatever reason we are being fed all this Nonsense Newspeak, the bottom line is that as long as it persists there will be no solution to the EU crisis. Because if you keep squeezing the wrong screw and not bothering about the lack of oil, say, in the engine, then you mustn’t be surprised when you blow the gasket.

I am not a believer in conspiracy theories. Perhaps above all because it is believed that the evil plans drawn up by a handful of men in a dark and smokey room to rule the world, actually work. Which is not to say that some kind of a conspiracy is not attempted, but simply that even the best laid plans have a tendency of going really wrong.

Which appears to be what is happening in the EU today. Two aspects of this. The Frau’s brainwave of a plan for fiscal rectitude which has given even more power to the unelected and irresponsible commissioners to automatically penalize states that do not reduce their deficit to 3% next year.

This is nothing but more of her Nonsense Economics. The EU is already in recession. What can we do to push it further down the recessionary path? So is this all an evil conspiracy for the EU to turn into the German Reich with its lebensraum? If it is, it’s going to back fire. The Netherlands are already feeling the heat of this Nonsense idea. And The Netherlands are among Germany’s closest allies against the profligate south.

In my sensible, rational mode I would say that The Frau’s policy is not really dictated by a warped conspiracy to rule Europe and then the world! No I would say it was the result of limited intelligence, dogmatic inflexibility, stubborn pig headedness, fear of a ghost (hyperinflation) and perhaps above all the arrogance from someone drunk with unexpected power.

But then we read something like Reuters Insight: Europe Treads a Thin Line on Greece and you begin to wonder again. The desperate attempts of trying to meddle in the democratic process of a member state because, of course, the electorate must toe the line and must not be allowed to deviate or even object, to a policy that has already ruined their economy, and is set to grind it well into the ground if continued as designed by the IMF/EU troika.

Among the various heavy handed attempts to influence the Greek election we also have a comment by Barroso to the effect that if you don’t toe the line you will be thrown to oblivion. An unhelpful remark and one more likely to antagonise the Greek voter rather than persuade him to continue down the path to ruin.

However, the article tells us that Barroso did not intend to make such a harsh comment but that “He only did so because he got a call from Greece’s caretaker Prime Minister, Loukas Papdemos, asking him to do so, a Commission official said.“

Whoops and double whoops. The gentleman in question was Vice President of the ECB, and was appointed Technocrat Prime Minister to “negotiate” the terms of the new bail out. After Papandreou’s catastrophic handling of the crisis, everyone had great expectations. Till we saw his government. 50 Ministers, the whole of the Greek government that had already failed so miserably with a few more nonentities added to make a show of some kind of coalition.

As to the Minister of Finances, Papademos kept on Evangelos Venizelos who hasn’t a clue how an economy works, who blusters but never acts, who did nothing at all in his tenure up till then, allowing the economy to go from bad to worse and who slapped the exorbitant property tax on electricity bills which was the final nail in the coffin of the Greek economy. But obviously someone who would have no idea how the “negotiations” were really going and still less what this agreement was all about. A perfect choice for Papademos? Well most certainly if we believe in Conspiracy Theories.

And what did Papademos end up doing in the great negotiation? He pushed through terms that were totally toxic for Greece and the Greek economy, signed away any rights to her assets that Greece might have, abolished all labour laws and slashed wages in the private sector which was already moribund. In order to pass this despicable unconditional surrender of Greece, he went on television to paint a terrifying picture of doom and hunger and a return to the stone age, should Parliament not vote for his wretched achievement.

And now he is caught phoning Barroso secretly and telling him to lay on the scare tactics again so as to terrify the Greeks into voting the way he wants, that is pursuing this policy of attrition. By 2020 you may have reached the debt/GDP ratio of 2009 but anyway, you are going to have to live in a state of permanent austerity till at least 2040. And lovely things like that.

Can you blame people for believing in Conspiracy Theories when such dastardly actions come to light?

But don’t forget, even the best laid plans have a tendency of going terribly wrong. Of course, it’s not the “conspirators” like Mr Papademos that will pay for this but the Greek people. So let them vote what they hell they like! If they are facing ruin anyway, they should at least be allowed to chose their own way to go! And besides. We are a very impatient people. We can’t wait till 2040 for complete ruin!

P.S. This goes for the other people’s of Europe too. I dare say they have their own Papademoses working against them as well.

It feels as though everyone, or at least everyone who has any decision making input, is in complete denial. As the main Eurozone leaders prepare to meet, inconclusively,  later in June, as The Markets go up and down without any rhyme or reason, as everyone has the jitters over a tiny little country in the south eastern Mediterranean preparing for yet another election which we all know will hardly be the last, can no one see that the horse is already dead?

Why keep whipping it so mercilessly? Lets face it. All of us and all of Them! In 2008 the finance phase of capitalism self destructed. Horribly. Fatally. The bubble burst releasing terribly toxic gases that covered the whole world, the so called first world perhaps above all. But rather than face what has really happened, those in charge are just whistling in the wind, kicking the can down the road and immersing themselves in their own unlimited perks.

And for all their pontificating and finger wagging at everybody else, they don’t even think about what really should be done, they don’t even think about carrying out a radical restructuring of the world’s institutions or anything else that really needs to be done now. At once. And not some time later after we’ve all enjoyed our lunch.

That is once ‘they‘ have enjoyed ‘their’ lunch at the expense of the peoples they are supposed to be stewarding in one way or another. But they have no incentive to do anything about this devastation that has been wreaked upon the planet. They are not answerable to anyone, they have their exorbitant tax free perks and salaries.

(I refer here to the Director of the IMF who has an enormous salary which is not taxed under diplomatic immunity. What did you say? Yes, that’s right. the lady who complains about others not paying their taxes and whose heart bleeds for the kids in the Niger. Does she donate anything to them out of her own enormous pocket? I don’t really know, but I very much doubt it.)

The world we know has blown up in our face and the toxic gases are poisoning us completely. Could all those good for nothings, enjoying their perks and relishing the power to wag their fingers and  sadistically inflict pain on the weakest and least responsible for the destruction, at least acknowledge the truth of what has happened? 

It may not be much but it would be a good place to start. Anyway it is the only thing they can do. The only thing that might help the world out of the quagmire of their creation. For once they have acknowledged the truth then there would only be one thing left for them to do. Step aside, gracefully or not, and let the great reconstruction begin.

So they better do it quick, otherwise there will never be a way to save and restore civilization. At least not a peaceful way.

Well, well, well. Imagine that! What? Opinion polling results concerning the up coming Greek elections were published here in Greece over the weekend. They seemed to give the right wing New Democracy party a lead over the left wing SYRIZA party. Either of which will have to form a coalition party if they come first.

The New Democracy Party will be forming a coalition with what remains of the once all mighty PASOK party, that persists in deluding itself or trying to delude the electorate, that it is still a socialist party. Which of course it no longer is if ever it really was.

Now, more jokes. Apparently this news, of the ND lead in the polls, appears to have filled The Markets with incredible joy and we witnessed a rally on the stock markets today. How extraordinary. And why do you suppose that was? Can anyone really believe that such a coalition, which does appear likely, will do anything at all to resolve the crisis?

The two parties in question are the ones that jointly and severely managed to ruin the Greek economy, mire it in indebtedness and plunge it into recession. Well, with great help from the IMF/EU for the recession. But they must take most of the credit themselves. At the moment they are engrossed in a game of which of these two parties will tell the biggest lies to the Greek electorate.

These are arrant lies and promises that they will extricate Greece from the so called Memorandum and improve life for everybody all around. Now it is common knowledge that these two parties are the ones that have signed the despicable terms of the new memorandum that is tantamount to a death warrant for the Greek economy. We also know that not only did they sign the agreements but also sent personal letters to the IMF and EU pledging themselves always to uphold these terms for as long as they are in politics.

Now since these people have proved themselves worse than useless, it should not come as a surprise to anyone when a few months (if not weeks) down the line, the same panic shall arise again. You didn’t meet your targets! You haven’t carried out any reforms! Where is the restructuring? We wont pay you the tranche of the loan due! Help! Greece is going bust! Greece is going to be flung out of the Eurozone! Which, presumably is what The Markets are scared of in the event of a Left wing win in the elections.

But this is exactly how it is going to play out, and The Markets should know that by now. So why the euphoria? Well, I suppose because of the reassurance of having a right wing conservative government back in power again. Yes. You can always rely on them.

However, perhaps someone might like to point out to The Markets and whoever these gullible herd like entities are, that the events leading to the 2008 crash, and the policies dogmatically applied by Europe in the aftermath of this disaster have proved one thing if nothing else.

The myth used to be, vote for right wing conservative governments because they are the ones who KNOW really KNOW how to handle the economy. The above mentioned events and obsession with destructive policies have managed to burst this myth to smithereens.

Right wing conservative governments and International organizations such as the IMF and its current head, simply haven’t got a clue as to how to handle the economy, and they keep doing everything wrong. From deregulation of the banking system to stringent across the board austerity in a recession.

So really, The Markets have no cause to be so overjoyed at the prospect of a right wing conservative government in Greece. Not at all!

Well, it seems as though there was quite a barrage of protest against Mme Lagarde’s lack of any sympathy for little Greek kids going hungry and not only from Greeks. Well she fudged a sort of, not an apology, but one of those diplomatic “clarifications”. Yes, well er um.. I didn’t quite mean that, sort of and so on.

Personally the best riposte came from someone who said it was a welcome change for an IMF Director to actually say she was concerned about the children in Nigeria. Given that the state of children in Nigeria is directly the result of IMF policies. However, having shown us how much she knows or thinks about things, in her defence I would say Mme Lagarde probably hasn’t a clue about that either.

Nevertheless, another alarming fact we have discovered about the lady is that she is a teetotaler and a vegetarian. Whoops! Now that doesn’t auger at all well. Not if we remember the last time someone with those specific preferences held sway over Europe!