Is The G8 Serious?

The G8's official communique today was straightforward enough, they want debt-stricken Greece to remain in the eurozone. No disenting voices, no doubts, no alternatives. Now that, if you think about it, is rather surprising. Surely at least one of them would look at the situation in Greece and conclude that its exit from the Euro is not only sensible but perhaps the only viable solution. Then there's the Greeks themselves who, we are informed, are almost unanimous in their view that they have to stay in the Euro. Why? Staying in the straighjacket of the Euro is bankrupting them and bringing their society to the edge of collapse. Think about this. If Greece was about to exit the Euro it would have to be a closely kept secret to avoid panic in the markets and in order to put predatory speculators off the scent. In addition there would have to be a long period of preparation just to print the necessary new currency for Greece. Is it just me, or can anyone else hear the distant sound of printing presses?

The Thick Man Of Europe.

David Cameron couldn't welcome the Olympic flame to Britain yesterday because he was at the G8 Conference in Washington making a fool of himself. His first move was to meet President Hollande of France, making up lost ground after having snubbed him when he was only a candidate, in order to inform him that any attempt to tax the financial industry in Europe will be "vetoed." Of course, in David Cameron's case, this simply means refusing to sign such an undertaking while Europe goes ahead anyway. After this auspicious meeting Cameron then went on to lecture the rest of Europe on how best to flatten the entire continental economy. Angela Merkel basically agreed, proposing a new EU treaty that would effectively prevent members from doing anything she disapproves of. Still she was still pretty pissed off with Cameron's lecturing and told him so. His idea of stoking hyper-inflation by printing more money across Europe was rightly dismissed out of hand. As an idea that was about as stupid as it gets. Not that the German's don't have halucinations of their own. One is the idea that the Maastrict treaty can be re-written by Germany without triggering a referendum in Britain - though it would interesting to see how Cameron would twist and turn to avoid one. Another is the astounding idea that Britain will be forced to join the Euro "sooner than it thinks." The only things that were clear is that Germany will not come to the aid of Greece and that country will be the Euro's sacrificial lamb, that Angela Merkel is as determined as Cameron to pauperise everyone else to protect the rich and that the French are now pulling for all their worth in the opposite direction. European Union? Not for much longer by the look of it.