I was interested in the suggestion made by the BBC this morning that the answer for Iceland’s current financial woes is..to join the EU. (Today programme) They never miss the chance to promote the EUSSR, do they? I was also amused by Robert Peston’s blog entry which pretends that Germany’s decision to underwrite ALL of retail savers interests may not quite mean that – so getting Brown, Darling and the gang short term reprieve out of having to respond in kind here. I suggest that what is lost in translation is what suits the BBC’s business editor.
THE ANSWER IS THE EU
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‘EU referendum blogspot’ has:
[Extract]:
“The EU is on its way out. After all, if the rules are useless for a crisis, what use are they at all?”
‘Oh shit!’
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/10/oh-shit.html
To counter the BBC’s pro-EU mentality:
“Ten reasons to get rid of the European Union” ( by Fjordman):
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/10/ten-reasons-to-get-rid-of-european.html#readfurther
Surely the main point raised by Peston’s blog entry is how wholly senseless Darling’s pronouncements on the guaranteeing of savings have been. If doing ‘whatever it takes’ to ensure nobody loses savings is a de facto guarantee of the whole amount then why not formalise it – this would surely settle investors albeit at a potentially huge cost to the taxpayer. If this isn’t what the phrase means then its nonsensical – what the f**k does it mean? The only other option seems to be that it’s a bare faced lie designed to salvage government support. Quite how this can be pinned on the Germans I can’t comprehend.
Given the scary discrepency between the at risk assets of the big Icelandic banks and the Icelandic nation’s own resources it would clearly at this point be in Iceland’s interests to be in the EU and the Euro to provide a bit of stability. Obviously though you can’t pop in and out at the drop of a hat and Iceland seems to have done pretty well outside during the last 20 years whilst the EU economy has stagnated.
Also at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious its a bit late now. Did the Beeb discuss the 25 years it would undoubtedly take to come to a mutually acceptable position on eating whales during the entrance negotiations?
Funnily enough on the news last night they were going on about once one country goes it alone (Ireland) then others will follow (Germany).
So you see, its all Irelands fault! 🙂
Mailman
Just read this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7653846.stm
Note the sly dig at the US at the end, whilst neglecting to mention EU subsidies.
Good old Evan Davis, suggesting that Iceland’s problems would be solved by joining the Eurozone.
Meanwhile populations in every EU member state are increasingly waking up and realising the smell isn’t coffee.
Step forward Chris Patten at 9am to plug his book and pronounce that the only problem we should be worrying about is …. “climate change”, and the EU should go it alone even though China and US completely ignore it. Talk about no concept of reality.
…why not formalise it…
Cockney | 06.10.08 – 9:23 am | #
Because unilaterally declaring that we will guarantee savings 100% is contrary to EU law. Other nations have no problem breaking EU law when it suits but the British seem to feel they have to uphold the letter of the law (even when it’s an ass).
The fact that EU law has been broken has been barely touched upon in anything I’ve seen or heard on the BBC and yet this issue is fundamental to the continued existence of the EU. If it enforces the law, there will be a backlash in the affected countries; if it won’t enforce its own rules why the hell should anyone else abide by them?
Appropriately, the best word I can find to describe my feelings about all this is German – Schadenfreude .
After all, no less a figure than Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, has been gleefully telling anyone who ‘vill listen’ that the current crisis is all the fault of Anglo-Saxon greed and our unregulated institutions.
According to Steinbrück, the US is finished.
Not big on irony, the Germans.
Meanwhile, Peston sails on as Gordon Brown’s mouthpiece, while Evan Davis camps it up for the EU, despite its members fighting among themselves like ferrets in a sack.
As Richard Littlejohn says: ‘You couldn’t make it up?
Follow the link below to a new HYS forum postyed today – quite possibly the shortest Have Your Say forum ever • obviously the Beeboids did not like the responses they got regarding the Unity of the EU.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&forumID=5453&edition=1&ttl=20081006111643&#paginator
The HYS Forum was called: Should countries follow Germany’s bailout plan?
Who now wants an ever closer union? Naked national self interest has replaced the so called ‘solidarity’ of the EU.
Watch the Euro unravel as Germany follows a path suited to itself ( like it did when the ERM unravelled in 1992 which so damaged the Tories ) which will offer Spain, Italy & France an option of being crippled economically or having to drop out of the Euro to protect their failing economies …
Also has Angela Merkel has apologised to the Irish PM for her rebuke when she’s doing the same thing?
In addition would it not be worth reminding the viewers that Gordon Brown sold part of our gold reserves ( having told everyone that he was going to forcing the price down even further ) at around $256 an ounce when today it is $836. Now that gold has become such a safe haven in times of uncertainty – what are the consequences of this incompetent decision vis a vis our reserves and a run on the pound…
Excellent points ‘Enraged…’. Instead, what we get is the BBC trying to spread the lie that Mcbean’s ‘experienced pair of hands’ are what we need in this time of crisis.
He’s experienced, all right – at doing absolutely the worst things possible!
That sale of gold alone should have seen him impeached.
The BBC has sunk to a new low. This morning they are LYING by saying the Germans have not guaranteed all German depositors.
Clearly Broon has been in touch asking them to poo-poo the TRUTH that Germans are now protected while we are not.
This is not bias it is outright LYING.
By the way, the Euro will crater this week completely so anyone hodijg Euros should get out fast, either into dollars or pounds, though dollars are preferable as it will be as always a curency of last resort.
This morning they are LYING by saying the Germans have not guaranteed all German depositors
No this is not a lie, its spin. It all depends what you mean by a depositor. If you mean Joe Public then there is a 100% German guarantee, but this does not extend to commercial depositors so the BBC is correct to say the guarantee is not universal, but still somewhat misleading to the ordinary listner.
“Because unilaterally declaring that we will guarantee savings 100% is contrary to EU law”
That’s not strictly the case. Declaring, as the Irish did, that you’re guaranteeing savings in a few, named (Irish) banks is arguably contrary as its discriminatory. A blanket guarantee of UK based deposits across all banks (whether UK or foreign) probably wouldn’t be.
“anyone hodijg Euros should get out fast”
wouldn’t bet on that, it’s anyone’s bet whose economy is the most f**ked and with both Obama and McCain looking ever more clueless there’s an added uncertianty on the left hand side of the pond. Chuck in into Yen I would.
Minoan: “The BBC has sunk to a new low. This morning they are LYING by saying the Germans have not guaranteed all German depositors.
This is not bias it is outright LYING.”
Why not try reading what Peston said on his blog and tell us exactly where you think he is LYING:
I don’t now expect an immediate decision by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to follow the example of the Germans and offer a full 100% guarantee to protect the savings of ordinary retail savers.
Why not? Well Alistair Darling and the Treasury can’t get any sense out of the German government about what it is precisely that they are doing.
So there’s no point in responding to something that’s still a touch ephemeral.
There are two possibilities.
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, may be saying that the full financial might of the German state is guaranteeing or underwiting the retail liabilities of German banks – and thus bringing hundreds of billions of additional debt on to the public sector balance sheet.
That’s certainly what’s implied in briefings by the German finance ministry. And if that’s what’s happening, it will reverberate all over Europe …
GCooper | 06.10.08 – 10:57 am
Appropriately, the best word I can find to describe my feelings about all this is German – Schadenfreude .
After all, no less a figure than Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, has been gleefully telling anyone who ‘vill listen’ that the current crisis is all the fault of Anglo-Saxon greed and our unregulated institutions.
Yes, I share your feelings precisely.
One thing, however, puzzles me.
I assumed that since both Angles and Saxons came from Germany, Germans would regard themselves as Anglo-Saxon too. But it seems they reserve this term for us and the Americans.
Or am I missing some rare German irony?
“Gordon Brown sold part of our gold reserves ( having told everyone that he was going to forcing the price down even further ) at around $256 an ounce when today it is $836. Now that gold has become such a safe haven in times of uncertainty – what are the consequences of this incompetent decision vis a vis our reserves and a run on the pound…”
That wasn’t incompetence: nobody is that incompetent! Brown was warned by his civil servants that the path chosen would reduce the sale value of the gold and endanger Britain’s financial stability in time of crisis, but Brown proceeded nonetheless. That was an act of malice and is a treasonable offence.
“I assumed that since both Angles and Saxons came from Germany, Germans would regard themselves as Anglo-Saxon too.”
Not really, the Angles and the Saxons originated from a realtively small part of North West Germany (and Denmark). Try calling a Manc a Scouser and see how far you get.
Chuck in into Yen I would.
And join the carry-trade folks heading into a short squeeze? You ain’t too sharp, mate, and unlikely to time it right.
Do you do this with your own money or someone else’s?
“You ain’t too sharp, mate, and unlikely to time it right”
Well, I earn a pretty extortionate salary from and still have a job in the City (at time of going to press) so I can’t be too much of a slouch on the old financial front 😉 Although I’m sure you’re Warren Buffet hiding behind a crap pseudonym and hence have far more authority to be a smartarse.
I should clarify though that I accept no responsibility in the highly unlikely event that anyone follows investment advice from someone calling themselves “Cockney” on the comments tab of an occasionally mildly demented political website.
So you do it with other people’s money. Figures.
Cockney | 06.10.08 – 9:23 am |
Surely the main point raised by Peston’s blog entry is how wholly senseless Darling’s pronouncements on the guaranteeing of savings have been. If doing ‘whatever it takes’ to ensure nobody loses savings is a de facto guarantee of the whole amount then why not formalise it – this would surely settle investors albeit at a potentially huge cost to the taxpayer. If this isn’t what the phrase means then its nonsensical – what the f**k does it mean? The only other option seems to be that it’s a bare faced lie designed to salvage government support. Quite how this can be pinned on the Germans I can’t comprehend.
I thought the bottom line of Peston’s post was that everyone must accept that Mr. Brown will have to do a similar guarantee for UK depositors. Didn’t he suggest Brown should do that anyway just recently? And what if Merkel is just going to pump cash into the bank, extend credit or whatever, and was just saying what she said to avoid a German version of Northern Rock? Peston would sure hate to see his buddy made to look bad by comparison.
I don’t see this as blaming the Germans, though. Shifting responsibility (again), perhaps?
The way I see it Peston is inadvertently making Mr. Brown look even more useless by portraying a purely defensive scramble as a sound leadership decision. I realize he’s trying to make the case that Brown and Darling don’t have any other choice. Again. Peston has probably advised them how he’s going to have the BBC report on it (he’s the business editor, after all, and it seems his blogged opinions about Iceland already spread to Evan Davis’s mouth).
I agree with you about the Yen, at least for now. Good old Japanese farmers.
Curse of the Newsnight soothsayer
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/comment/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-curse-of-the-newsnight-soothsayer-952288.html
‘…whenever he crops up with a little group of swing voters, who sit through political speeches twiddling their dials to express gut reaction, the results tend towards the perplexing.’
Good word that, ‘perplexing’.
Not great with a news show on a national, publicly-funded news show, though…IMHO.
European Union policy on mass immigration from West Africa: set up ‘job centres’ in Africa –
“EU opens ‘job centre’ in Africa”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7653846.stm
The main thrust of the BBC report is supportive of the EU attempt to convert West African illegal immigrants to EU into legal ones.
The ‘Telegraph’ assessment has a different emphasis:
“EU ‘job centre’ in Mali won’t deter immigrants”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/10/06/do0607.xml
Except DV’s beloved Sky reported the exact same thing as Peston. Any chance of this site focussing on BBC bias instead of DV’s right-wing conspiracy theories?
I wonder how Iceland would change if they are foolish enough to join the EU – it would be high price to pay for a short term fix.
DP,
When did I say I rate Sky? Please provide evidence or withdraw.
Further, one chooses to watch Sky and pay for the privilege. The BBC cost is mandatory – is that fair?
What is the BBC obsession with Iceland?
So there is no Saxony in Germany,got bombed out of existence during the war did it?
So as we head into an economic disaster caused in large part by the imbeciles who pretend to run the EUSSR, what do the EUSSR commissars do?
Yep, the morons are trying to bring in even more useless and damaging cuts in a harmless and life giving atmospheric gas!
Carbon credits costing industry billions,cap and trade costing industry billions,carbon capture directives costing industry and consumers billions, carbon reduction targets costing industry billions, see where I am going with this? A billion here and a billion there and soon you are talking about real money!
UK PLC is heading down the toilet fast and Gordon Brown is demanding emmision cuts of one fifth and even that suicidal blunder is not enough for the NuLab advisors, they want 80% cuts and that WILL mean full and total destruction of all the UKs industries(well, whats left of them).
Inane and worthless blather about the global warming scam while Europe collapses and insane EU votes on how to destroy itself while China sits back and pisses itself laughing at us while sitting on one thousand eight hundred billion dollars in cash is just crazy!
Its as if the EUSSR wants this economic destruction to happen because if they had planned this disaster in detail it couldnt have worked out better for them!
A TOADY TWAT is talking to a NuLab nutter about “decarbonizing industry” are these people for real? The loonies have taken over the asylum!
Martin: what is the BBC obsession with Iceland ?
The obsession is not with Iceland, but with the EU. Iceland is outside the EU and has a failing financial sector, and so must be chastised and advised to join the fold.
If the same situation existed in Norway or Switzerland, then those non-EU but geographically “European” states would come in for exactly the same attention.
You must have noticed that the BBC’s proposed answer to all of Iceland’s current problems was the Join the EU and adopt the Euro.
No mention of what might happen to their fishing industry though when its waters were handed to Spain, like ours.
“What is the BBC obsession with Iceland?”
General interest in what’s happening in the world? Or is knowledge just for fucking poofs?
Did the BBC explain how Iceland joining the EU or EUro would save her ?Like, is it because her debts would now be shared between the other nations ? I mean, putting Somalia into the EU would help it for a time, but its effect on the other states would be deeply detrimental.
The EU might be good for some countries, but the proEUrophiles and BBC never mention that what`s good for say Poland is not good for the UK.
For a simplitic example, the EUroluvvies say that the EU project has stopped France and Germany going to war (??). Britain though, is not France or Germany.
I’m increasingly convinced that the confidence has been sucked out of the world financial markets by a combination of the idiotic over-regulation of banking fostered by the EU (highlighted by the EU Refrendum blog) and the polticians’ insane focus on ‘climate change'(which has made dozens of businesses uncertain about the future because they fear punitive new tax measures and regimes).
Good to see the BBC website stoking up more financial panic this morning with its report about the lunatic greenies’ demands for more swingeing ‘carbon’ measures.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7655678.stm
With weary predictability, there’s no alternative view, only downrightly bad one-sided propaganda.
These stupid eco-nuts will only be satisfied when every vestige of industry is wiped out, every power station shut down and we are all happily living in caves once more.
David Vance 06.10.08 – 10:20 pm
one chooses to watch Sky and pay for the privilege. The BBC cost is mandatory – is that fair?
Not me, DV.
I get my Sky News, just as I get all the BBC channels, as part of my Licence Fee package. On Freeview.
Robin: I’m increasingly starting to think that the driving force behind the ‘global warming’ movement is a deliberate attempt to force a socialist ‘equality’ on the world, by handicapping industrialised nations.
The ‘science’ (such as it is) has been cooked to suit that purpose.
GCooper | 07.10.08 – 1:13 pm
You are not the only one
It has become a religious cult, complete with its own heretics
In HYS on the topic my comment:
“DEBATE:
Can action by EU states ease the credit crisis?
SENT:
06-Oct-2008 16:28
COMMENT:
To [tinytiegan],
The Americans did help us to win the war. And what did the Germans and the French? ”
was rejected by “moderators”.
Why?
Feline,
On the face of it because it’s got absolutely zero to do with the question although I’m not clear what tinytiegan’s point was?
“What is the BBC obsession with Iceland?”
General interest in what’s happening in the world? Or is knowledge just for fucking poofs?
Cockney | 07.10.08 – 11:35 am | #
WTF is that one about?
Cockney:
His (tinytiegan’s) point was that Americans ripped us off with the lend-lease while Europe helps us to survive.
now that makes sense – cheers!
ripped us off? christ, i’d love to see what he’s consider to constitute helping us out
alan, i was a bit peturbed at someone’s view that reporting on a country facing bankruptcy (visited by a large amount of brits and with a decent number of expats in the UK rather than some obscure third world hellhole if that matters) constitutes an “obsession”.