Britannia Radio

As some may have noticed I normally write approvingly of this 
columnist's writings but this is unadulterated drivel .  I send it 
out only because it should not gain approval on the lines of "Well, 
if A.E-P thinks this it must be true"

I interleave my comments but to paraphrase what follows - - "For the 
first time in my life, I am starting to feel twinges of anti- Ambrose 
Evans-Pritchard sentiment."

xxxxxxxxxx cs
===================
TELEGRAPH   15.12.08
Bullying Germany gets a free ride with its beggar-thy-neighbour policy
For the first time in my life, I am starting to feel twinges of anti-
German sentiment, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard


This does not come naturally. My father insisted on German au pair 
girls during my childhood as his gesture towards post-War comity. I 
later did a stint at Mainz University dabbling in Kant (great) and 
Hegel (a fraud).[OK,  so he went to a German University.  Well, I 
hold a higher claim on  that score.  I was among the first 20 British 
students to go to a German University after the war (Goettingen in 
1948 in the middle of Ehrhardt's Wirtschaftswunder).  What does that 
prove, excerpt his own 'self-regard'? ]

But even Teutophiles who think that Germany has played an enlightened 
role for 60 years are losing patience with the antics of the finance 
ministry and Bundesbank, and with the dictatorial turn in Berlin's EU 
strategy.

Put bluntly, Germany is pursuing a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. It is 
not fulfilling its responsibilities as the world's top exporter and 
pivotal power of Europe's monetary union. It is leaching off global 
demand, even as it patronizes Anglo-Saxons, Latins, and Slavs.
No doubt binge debtors in the Anglosphere are much to blame for this 
crisis. But Germany rode the boom too. It made those Porsches and 
BMWs driven by the new rich. Its banks are among the most leveraged 
in the world.  [It has so run its economy that unlike Britain it is 
solvent.  And because it has been prudent it is now expected to bail 
out all all those 'foolish virgins' who spent it all on riotous 
living.  A.E-P thinks making good cars and making a profit out of 
doing so is deplorable.   It's a good thing for Oxford and the Mini 
car workers that they do know how to run a company properly ]

Nor should we not forget that the European Central Bank set interest 
rates at recklessly low levels early this decade to help Germany out 
of a slump. Can this be separated from the property bubbles in Club 
Med, Holland, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe now causing 
such grief?  [Note that the governor of the ECB is now a Frenchman.  
The rest of A.E-P's moan here is about the political imperative of 
having a Single Currency to hasten a United Europe.  Germany was 
least keen on this.  If countries were so stupid as to want a 0ne-
size-fits-all economic grouping , don't blame the reluctant Germans]

Within the EMU, Germany has gained a competitive edge against France, 
Italy, and Spain for year after year by screwing down wages. [German 
unions are not powerless.  They were intelligent and knew which side 
their bread was buttered. They made sacrifices for their futire while 
other countries went on a credit spree.] In pre-euro days the North-
South rift did not matter. The D-Mark revalued. Balance was restored. 
In monetary union it is toxic.  [Agreed - but don't blame the 
Germans, that they were prepared to sacrifice the present for the  
future ]

Germany now has a current account surplus of 7pc of GDP. It is 
hollowing the industrial core of Latin Europe. Yes, Club Med needs to 
pull its socks up, but the flip side of the coin is that Germany is 
in breach of EMU's implicit contract.

The rules of the game are that surplus countries should boost demand. 
[You don't boost demand by reckless spending and borrowing ] The Gold 
Standard collapsed in the early 1930s because they - then the US and 
France - refused to do so. The burden of adjustment fell on deficit 
states, who had to tighten yet harder. The downward spiral dragged 
everybody into depression.

Germany and China are today's violators. Their trade surpluses over 
the last 12 months have been $283bn and $279bn, respectively. They 
are exporting excess capacity.  [Don't blame them.  Blame the 
reckless borrowers who buy more than can afford.  And a fat lot of 
good it has done China which is suffering a near total collapse in 
its economy (Source: A.E-P). despite its vast dollar holdings ]

Peer Steinbrück, Germany's finance minister, seems in no mood to 
yield, preferring to mock the "crass Keynesianism" of the British. 
[And he is quite correct in every respect and almost every Briton 
seems to agree!.  He was backed incidentally by another senior 
minister from the other coalition party the CDU]   Nobel Laureate 
Paul Krugman was so disgusted that he broke away from his Stockholm 
banquet to pen The Economic Consequences of Herr Steinbrück.
"The world economy is in a terrifying nosedive, visible everywhere. 
The high degree of European economic integration gives Germany a 
special strategic role right now, and Mr Steinbrück is doing a 
remarkable amount of damage. There's a huge multiplier effect at 
work; it is multiplying the impact of German boneheadedness," he said.

Meanwhile, the Bundesbank has been doing its bit for depression. 
Germany's two ECB members - caught in a 1970s time-warp - 
orchestrated the mad rate rise in July.[Agreed!  Not very bright but 
we were no better!] They are now trying to head off cuts in January, 
saying the ECB cannot risk using up its ammo. Even Switzerland's uber-
hawks have ditched that doctrine.

Worst of all is Germany's nefast role in dredging up the EU 
Constitution (Lisbon Treaty) after it had been rejected by French and 
Dutch voters. Having made one blunder, they are now making another by 
refusing to accept the Irish verdict as well.  [This is outrageous 
nonsense.  It is the French - flying in the face of their OWN voters' 
wishes - and the Brussels eurocrats, and the Belgians, and the 
Luxembourgers and overall the aggressive Green tendency,  The Germans 
agree with this nonsense but they are not leading it]

Why are they so maniacal about this? Because the treaty establishes 
German primacy in the EU's voting structure. This is raw national 
interest - camouflaged, of course.

So Brian Cowen - already the most reviled Taoiseach since the 
creation of the Irish state - is bludgeoned into a second vote. [He's 
run out of things to blame the Germans for so he clumsily changes the 
subject] This is what now passes for EU statecraft. A tactical case 
can be made, that fear will induce Irish voters to change their minds 
as GDP contracts by 4pc next year. Even if that proves correct, will 
it convince anybody that the European Project is advancing with 
democratic assent?

What if the Irish vote 'No' again? Will Germany carry out its threat 
to "suspend" them from the EU, and thereby risk a final revulsion 
against Europe and the unravelling of the post-War order? [No such 
official threat exists!   All A.E-P is doing here is jumping on a 
bandwagon to bolster his shaky case]

One notes that Germany has acquired the taste for bullying small 
nations. Mr Steinbrück threatened to "take a whip" to Switzerland. 
The sooner Germans take a whip to Mr Steinbrück and all he stands 
for, the better. Otherwise the rest of us will have to start 
examining our options.   [Many of the "rest of us" have re-examined 
our options about the EU long ago.  Where was A,E-P then? We are 
desperate to get British politicians to listen to us. ]