"Start cutting, central bank chief urges government"

[WhiskeyGirl]

LONDON: The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has given strong backing for spending cuts in the new British government's first budget.

Speaking on the day unemployment rose to its highest total in 15 years, 2.51 million people, Mr King said the turmoil in Europe in the past few weeks meant it was vital for the government to start tackling Britain's record peacetime budget deficit without delay.

He gave a sombre assessment of the government's challenge at a press conference to launch the bank's quarterly inflation report. ''The bigger risk at present, given the experience of the last two weeks, would be for a new government not to put in place clear and credible measures to deal with the fiscal deficit,'' he said.

Obama continues his spending, borrowing, and taxing spree.  Kicking the debt bondage onto the backs of future generations.

Mr Cable, the former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, is also believed to have been handed responsibility for banks. This means that the MP who launched some of the most outspoken attacks on the greed and excesses in the British financial services sector is now being unleashed on the financial services industry.

A crackdown on bonuses in the sector, which have remained largely intact since the global financial crisis began, is now promised, and an independent commission will be formed to consider ways of breaking off the ''casino'' investment banking arms of banks from their retail banking operations.

Why isn't American 'reform' cutting off the ''casino'' investment banking arms of banks from their retail banking operations?

Why isn't American returning to Glass-Steagal?

more here - http://www.smh.com.au/world/start-cutting-central-bank-chief-urges-government-20100513-v1un.html

[WhiskeyGirl]

"The Last Opportunity For A Strong Currency"

It's a watershed moment that will push Europe into a new direction. And the stakes couldn't be higher. This could be the founding act of a European federal state created out of necessity, as French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has suggested. But it could also mark the beginning of the fall of the currency union with financially strong countries -- like Germany and the Netherlands -- wary of too much centralism.

Those are not, of course, the only two possibilities: We might see a long, orderly reform process for the euro in the coming months and years. We might see a slide into inflation, with the European Central Bank forced to come to the aid of countries in need of liquidity.

One thing, though, is for certain. European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Wednesday  that the Commission wants the power to force member states to balance their budgets. It is the right move: Those who have no qualms about wracking up debts, should not just assume that the European Union or other states will rescue them.

California and other states?  Why should other states bail them out?  Why did the financial crisis in California fall off the radar?

Are we ready to give up more money and more power to community institutions?  The common currency can only function on the long term if Europeans are ready to show greater solidarity and to cede more control to the supra-national European level.

How do you save individual states in a nation linked to a common currency, and central government?

At what point does taxation become theft?

How do you balance different the needs and wants of different financial cultures?

Why the Euro Plan Did not Succeed

Part 2: Three Rules for a New Europe

The Euro Is A Paradox

The member states must learn to understand themselves as a community that shares a common fate and together they must strengthen democratic control over shared finances;

Tyranny.  The spenders take the money of those who work hard and save.  The welfare state grows.

We seem to have this in the US, and it's call out of control federal spending, debt, earmarks, and special interests. 

Nothing for Main Street.  Just massive debt and debt slavery for generations.

Whew!!!  Wall Street is OK.

more here - http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,694664,00.html&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhj6clBrTFOdaViwKTRRkEmzjzOajQ

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

Many Greeks Blame Foreigners for Their Crisis

Georgios Trangas is one of Greece's best-known journalists. His two-hour morning radio show "In Athens," which is broadcast by a nationwide private radio station, has a cult following. Day after day, the 60th year-old utters his views and discusses virtually every issue that is important to Greeks, often generating controversy in the process. It's something he's been doing for many, many years.

Trangas is a polarizing figure. Earlier this year, he called for a boycott of German products as a response to the media attacks against Greece coming from newspapers and magazines in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. He also attacked his own government over its austerity program, demanding unity and warning against a "division of society." With his positions, he has attracted an audience and market share for his radio program that is virtually unrivaled in Greece.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,694538,00.html&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhiEszaNAx3mKz3mux_HOwgeclwdNg

Trangas is great at posing questions, but less great at answering them. "I don't understand at all how a European politician like Chancellor Merkel could allow the IMF, under the influence of the Americans, into the euro zone," he says. "What business does it have being here?"

What about anger at those that helped hide the debt in the first place?  Big international banks?

In Greece, many professions considered to be self-employed, including architects, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, taxi drivers and transport companies, are "organized in a cartel-like manner," Bastian says.  "They were closed professions." These barriers will now be "removed," he says, something that will create "future opportunities for young people" and greater competition.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,694538-2,00.html&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhizlM849ZNCw_K1-dmEHEzowh2N8g

Sounds kinda like unions or trade guilds.