In two articles he has stated:
- Europe is in chaos, not because of the justified and hopefully continuing protests of citizens against the power of Big Money, but because of the political dilemma the western world is dealing with;
- The G-20 won’t support the IMF, printing ‘abstract’ money is of no use anyway;
- The ECB cannot move forwards or backwards and is left with voicing support for the European banking sector;
- There also isn’t much the banks themselves can do, other than making clear that the Euro will explode if banks are forced to accept a reduction of value of more than 50 percent;
- France, US and the UK do not like the Tobin (bank) Tax which Germany and The Netherlands are promoting;
- It has rained markdowns last week, targeting Spain and France (BNP);
- Everybody is happy that Berlusconi is still in power, delaying the inevitable exposure of the dire situation Italy finds itself in;
- European leaders have no choice but to recapitalize the banks and to propose a fiscal union, including the necessary amendments to various treaties. A much more risky venture;
- The people in Europe are starting to understand that there is only one group which will have to pay the bill;
- Real solutions to these problems are being treated in the same way as the occupy protesters are being treated;
- Protesters are not talking about one crisis, they have identified a network of crises. Everything is already out of control;
- Currently: “Jede Konsequenz führt zum Teufel”. There is not one single easy solution, simply because no one wants to admit he is wrong or responsible regarding the current situation.
- We have reached a dead end and are strongly divided as to how we can escape from this situation;
- Germany wants to take it easy, France is predicting war in Europe if a solution isn’t being found quickly. Sarkozy apparently is well aware of the problems with the French banks and the social issues in French suburbs.
- The internet is buzzing with solutions regarding this situation but none of those are taken seriously because all these solutions put citizens in a central position in stead of the banks or governments;
- At first, no money was needed because Greece could help itself, then money was needed because Greece needed to be saved. Later on a lot more money was needed because Greece has more problems than expected and now Portugal, Spain and Italy are also about to implode;
- Meanwhile the CitiGroup’s representative Willem Buiter has said: Even if the EFSF is being increased to 2-3 trillion euros it won’t have the effect of a bazooka, but rather a pellet gun. The problems of the EU Member States are so severe that there’s no immediate remedy for them;
- Everybody with a bit of knowledge about Europe knows that Buiter has it right. Meanwhile the average Joe is wondering where all this money is coming from.
