tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post2612958794752493284..comments2024-03-28T11:04:16.315+00:00Comments on Boffy's Blog: QE, LTRO, QEII, OMT, QEIII Spells Desperation - Part 2Boffyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-77720363699680459822012-09-18T09:09:33.064+01:002012-09-18T09:09:33.064+01:00That should have said towards investment rather th...That should have said towards investment rather than consumption.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-83606761576002845732012-09-18T09:06:48.971+01:002012-09-18T09:06:48.971+01:00Graham,
Yes, but I tend to agree with Paul Mason ...Graham,<br /><br />Yes, but I tend to agree with Paul Mason that there is an attempt to make those conditions less onerous than those that were imposed on Greece etc. My point, in response as I said, is that what is required from the perspective of Capital - and short of the revolution by workers too - is not lighter conditions, but a fiscal stimulus.<br /><br />However, thinking as a politican and someone who has been involved in negotiating, I sense something else going on. If there is going to be a United States of Europe - this would apply to a Workers Europe too - individual states DO have to give up control of their budgets. You can't have a centralised state, responsible for financing, which lacks control over the individual states. You can see the problem of that in Spain now.<br /><br />As part of the gradual bureaucratic move towards such a Federal State, nation states have to have that levered out of their grip, and the people of those states have to agree to it, as being in their immediate interests.<br /><br />When you have done that, a centralised State can then exercise control not just for austerity measures, but for fiscally expansive measures too, directing money towards investment rather than construction, for example. Were I Germany - which has done lots of spending of money in other countries in E. & C. Europe for investment - I would definitely want to have control over money I gave to Greece, Spain, Portugal etc. to ensure it went into investment rather than into the pockets of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats in the way Paul Mason describes.<br /><br />I still see the short run cycle turning up next year, which will create slightly better conditions, unless markets have lost patience, which I think is likely, and may indeed cause the "October Crash" I referred to earlier.<br /><br />In short a crisis created out of political incompetence, not just over the last two years, but over the last 20 years or more of bureaucratic European construction.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-54934387821131771532012-09-17T13:21:51.954+01:002012-09-17T13:21:51.954+01:00ECCL is another one to add to the list of acronyms...ECCL is another one to add to the list of acronyms...<br /><br />Enhanced Conditions Credit Line is the conditionality for the OMT sterilised bond buying programme - a euphemism for imposed austerity. GrahamBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14808614837759258705noreply@blogger.com