England’s Delusion

England

England would like its people to believe they are out of the firing line, when it comes to what ‘s going on in Europe. Let the feckless Europeans get out of their own mess the mantra goes. The fact of the matter is, England is in as big a mess if not bigger then Lehman.s was. One of reasons it decided not have anything to do with the last euro deal was the impending regulation of the city of London. If  the City of London was legally regulated it would crash in minutes, no wonder Cameron did not want to be part of a deal. The debt held in the city of London is 600% relative to GDP. When you consider Lehmans was 100% (and the U.S. had to shovel dollars into its system to prevent a meltdown) one can see where the British economy is going. Britain does not have the money. On top of this it looks like it’s triple A status is about to go,a background of riots in most major cities,massive unemployment, austerity and a very nervous ruling class. In the past week they have given the go ahead for water cannon and plastic bullets to be used on the streets in future. At one time these were only used against the colonials like the Irish. Now tested in Ireland, they can be used against their own impoverished workers,which is what they fear more then disgruntled youth. Cameron/Labour have no way out of this crisis outside of trade wars with others,is the U.S. link strong enough to get it out of trouble.? England has retreated into little England mode. Come the new year England may begin to feel the heat from the free marketeers. An island will not protect it from this economic storm coming its way.

Germany/France struggle On

To think at the start of this year the capitalist class were clapping themselves on the back for how they had controlled the fallout from the Lehman fallout. Now every country in Europe is facing into a crisis of capitalism of major proportions. Up to a week ago the power’s that be in Europe determined no money would be released from the European Central Bank,now low and behold half a trillion is released to banks all over Europe. So much for Merkels nein. Now as we all know these are the same banks who brought this mess to you and me, which we are paying for  through massive austerity. This capitalist crisis started in the U.S. in 2007 with the collapse of Lehman’s trading house on Wall St. Without the intervention of the U.S. Government printing presses, Wall St would have gone to the wall. The reason practically every other finance house from Bearings to Goldman Sachs were facing meltdown. Even though it was contained  for the U.S. the criminal pyramid schemes they run stretch world wide, hence Europe’s problem.What is an irony is that Goldman Sachs ex directors are now part of the finance administration in the U.S./ Spain. Of course every finance centre in Europe operate the same way as they do in the U.S.You get into debt they lend you more money to get out of debt,a never ending supply of capital. Then Goldman Sachs ect,then wrap your debt with others and sell it on,but when the system crashes the pyramid collapses.It would appear from Lehmans and the present crisis, the economics experts have no idea what is going on. This is not a European crisis it is a systemic crisis of capitalism, however for anyone give a date for its demise would indeed be foolish. As the “Occupy Movement” have found out asking for capitalism to reform will be met with brutal force,as can be seen in the belly of the beast,the U.S. Force must be met with force, organization with determined and intelligent workers organization. With such an organization one could create a United Socialist States of Europe for the benefit of the many against the few.

Euroland/United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Their was a headline in London Times a long time ago well about a century ago when the U.K was an imperial  power. The headline read “Fog on the channel continent isolated”, well it would appear the old attitude has not changed,although circumstances have.The U.K. is not that old imperial power. Someone should tell that, to the die hard anti Europeans, in the conservative party. The U.S. will not be happy with this outcome after all,  to them the U.K. is their economic ally in Europe,plus aircraft carrier on the edge of the Atlantic. For the U.K. this will create massive turmoil among the British capitalist class, among the pro Europeans and the anti brigade, essentially if they persist on this course the U.K. is set to become a third world island in the business world. Or as a German newspaper  in a tongue-in-cheek commentary, Bild wrote: “Dear British, Europe without you is like fish without chips, like London without driving on the left, like beer without foam. But you must decide now. Do you really want to be a lonely island and do everything differently? If yes, be honest — and get out of the EU altogether.”

Euroland.

Germany-France may have sorted out the British problem, but by no means are they united. France see’s itself as reasserting its power especially in relation to the U.S. While Germany would probably prefer to have Britain inside as a fellow counter weight against the”Mediterranean types”. Most of the countries who signed this agreement did so under extreme duress, money was the main issue for them. If this was put to people tomorrow it is unlikely it would be accepted. In all respects what has been established is a two tier Europe with power in Germany and French hands.- At the summit before last, in fact, Sarkozy even lost his cool, telling Cameron “you missed a good opportunity to keep your mouth shut.” (der Spiegel) The French president continued: “We are sick of you criticizing us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings.” As for the rest, as a class they kneel before the new austerity king and queen of Europe,and if you disagree a Mario Monti can always be found to replace you,and believe me he makes neo liberals look like communists. Effectively this is a two speed Europe and anyone who steps out of line will have no appeal.

The Elephant in the Room.

While the world waited for these great leaders of their class, to save the Euro,M@S were more interested in establishing the new European Empire However the free marketeers let them know on Monday morning, that the summit deal had failed to restore market confidence, with the euro and share prices sliding, and bond yields for Italy and Spain rising again, ending a market rally triggered on Friday by EU leaders’ decisions. Italy and Spain have major problems at the start of 2012 which cannot be funded,unless Merkel allows the E.C.B print Euros. It is like looking into a mirror, for Merkel, its Germany in the 20s and 30s she sees. However if she doesn’t Europe faces into a euro economic implosion,  more mass unemployment,with countries going to the wall through austerity. This is not to mention the real possibility of Greece going into default. Then of course their is the question of the banks  German banks, need a 115 billion euro of refunding. The problem is the capitalist class is split on how to contain and stop this many layered capitalist crisis.Even the German E.U. commissioner could not find a good thing to say about it  “I think it is a good second-best solution. I am not convinced about a two-speed Europe.” So as we go into the new year with wreckage of lives strewn all over,mainly the poor by capitalism, this system needs changing by the only the  way we can socialist revolution,a planned economy.  All that’s left to say is have a Happy Xmas, as the Chinese say it is good to live in interesting times.