[Closed] attentive only to needs of the city

Or, to give the full, tedious statement in the original article and not the Daily Fail bowdlerisation:

[i]Slate.fr[/i]: British Prime Minister David Cameron did not receive you either, and the British media and financial sector have been hard on you. How do you intend to reinforce the Franco-British relationship?

[i]Hollande[/i]: One must admit that the British have been particularly shy on the issue of financial regulation, and have only paid attention to the interests of the City of London, hence their reluctance to implement a tax on financial transactions and tax harmonization in Europe. Furthermore, since the central bank cannot directly intervene in debt financing, the U.K. is better protected from speculation, and is thus relatively indifferent to the fate of the eurozone.

I will soon meet David Cameron to discuss the benefits of a closer industrial cooperation between our two countries and to continue the ongoing rapprochement in terms of defense.

Still be fascinatingto see what happens between France and Germany and France and Britain in the next six months to a year. Will the euro collapse before our coalition?

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Is that Binners?

No... I've got less hair 😀

It will indeed be interesting to see what happens now Greece and France have governments which are insisting on renegotiating the terms of their debt to Germany. The Germans are going to have to start doing what they hve avoided thus far and start wielding the big stick. Otherwise Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland will be next in line demanding renegotiation too

Its all going to go horribly pear-shaped, very very quickly IMHO

Well, it's going to be good for the City, as I suspect French banking will simply leave France quicksmart! 🙂

The Germans are going to have to start doing what they hve avoided thus far and start wielding the big stick.

Anyone else getting rather worried by the number of times such things are being said these days?

Or, to give the full, tedious statement in the original article and not the Daily Fail bowdlerisation

tabloids should be forced to do the same.

Anyone else getting rather worried by the number of times such things are being said these days?

Not really. They're highly unlikely to be wielding it in this general direction. And the big stick won't exactly be taking the form of a Panzer Division, will it? It'll be a rather firm word to remind certain governments that Germany is effectively their life support machine, and they can switch it off any time they damn well feel like

You might well take the piss konabunny but the political and economic crises currently facing Europe is far more serious than the media generally admits. And how it will conclude is [i]completely[/i] impossible to predict.

On the question of France under Hollande and it's effect on Europe, I wouldn't expect any radical change in much the same way that I wouldn't expect any radical change in the UK if a general election was called and Labour won. Just a marginal change in emphasis and priorities.

Yes Hollande has said some radical stuff which you would never hear a British Labour politician say, but it is generally accepted that policies such as the 75% tax on higher earners was reluctantly conceded under electoral pressure from the Left Front candidate. However I doubt whether there is any real commitment for any meaningful radical change - already it has been suggested that the 75% rate might just be temporary.

But as there will be legislative elections next month in France and Hollande needs a good result from the socialists, expect more radical rhetoric. Specially as the threat to the Socialists from the Left Front is real.

Unlike Britain, and in common with other countries facing economic and political instability, radical rhetoric can win votes in France. In Britain the electorate is scared of radical politics, having been fed a daily diet of TINA for the last 3 decades.

there's a limit to that, though, binners - if the terms are politically unacceptable, the governments may fall and the Euro will crash and burn. It's a bit like the you owe the bank $100, it's your problem, you owe them $1m, it's their problem joke.

Germany is effectively their life support machine, and they can switch it off any time they damn well feel like

If that was the case Germany wouldn't be in the least bit bothered about the crises in Europe. They're not "helping" Greece because it's the nice thing to do you know.

I know Ernie. propping up Greece just means that German taxpayers money goes, via the Greek government, back into the coffers of the German banks that lent them all the money in the first place.

Its as blatant a bank bail out as us now owning RBS. But the Germans have been playing nice so far. If the children start misbehaving, then that could change rather fast. And then we're probably all ****ed!

I thought "the city" was Europe's financial hub, the place where all the deals are done, when the right wingers want to portray financial institutions as the country's savour and hope for the future.
But when they want to portray the blame for bad debt, they shift the emphasis to Germany, and try and pretend that "the city" is outside the game, instead of being the dark heart of the financial mess.

It's more than the German government bailing out their own banks, which of course is what they're doing, it's also the fact that the conditions which screwed Greece are the same conditions which helped Germany prosper. Germany wouldn't be where it is today without the Euro, Germany needs the Euro, Germany needs to save the Euro - for its own self interests.

Absolutely. The Euro has benefited Germany massively, to the total determent of pretty much everyone else.

But the bottom line now is that if Germany wants to start playing hard-ball, they can stop any further funds going to Greece, which would then have to effectively shut the country down

Given that Greece has just elected an odd assortment of Fascists, communists and all manner of nutters, who'd like to even guess WTF is going to happen next?

communists and all manner of nutters

Nothing wrong with the KKE brov 😀

I suspect she doesn't share your opinion 😉

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I suspect she does though 🙂

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