Here is Nigel’s article 21 June 2011 | Trade, finance and markets | Greece **************************************** June 6, 2011 http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2011/060611.htm Aided by the implementation of a wide-ranging policy program, the post-crisis repair of the UK economy is underway. However, the weakness in economic growth and rise in inflation over the last several months was unexpected. This raises the question whether it is time to adjust macroeconomic policies. The answer is no as the deviations are largely temporary. Strong fiscal consolidation is underway and remains essential to achieve a more sustainable budgetary position, thus reducing fiscal risks. The inflation overshoot is driven largely by transitory factors, and hence maintaining the current scale of monetary stimulus is appropriate given fiscal adjustment and subdued wage growth. This macroeconomic policy mix will also assist in rebalancing the economy toward investment and external demand. Bank balance sheet repair continues, but vulnerabilities remain and strong domestic measures and international coordination are needed to further bolster financial stability. Indeed, the stability and efficiency of the UK financial system is a global public good due to potential spillovers and thus requires the highest quality of supervision and regulation. Nonetheless, there are significant risks to inflation, growth, and unemployment. If they materialize, the policy response will depend on the nature of the shock. Read the rest by clicking above For UK 2010 http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2010/092710.htm Here are just some of the rest. INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND Spain—2011 Article IV Consultation Concluding Statement of the Mission Madrid, June 21, 2011 June 20, 2011 http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2011/062011a.htm Warsaw, May 12, 2011 http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2011/051211.htm http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2011/pr11225.htm Statement at the Conclusion of the 2011 Article IV Consultation Mission to Korea June 17, 2011 http://english.mosf.go.kr/upload/mini/2011/06/FILE_JG3FJJ_20110617190250_1.pdfPicked up from the article by Nigel Farage MEP recently sent round by xxxxDB
Greece must be allowed to default
United Kingdom—2011 Article IV Consultation Concluding Statement of the Mission
Concluding Statement of the 2011 Article IV Mission to The United States of America
Poland—Concluding Statement of the 2011 Article IV Mission
Mongolia— Preliminary Conclusions of the 2011 Article IV Mission February 17, 2011 http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2011/021711.htm
Acting Managing Director John Lipsky and IMF team Complete Policy Discussions with China
Saturday, 2 July 2011
The European elite is ignoring the will of the people by protecting Greece from default, claims UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP
As the European economic crisis unfolds, it is becoming obvious that there are two distinct ideas out there about how to proceed. One is favoured by the international financial elite, the European Union and the political leaderships of member states - and the other is the approach that is gaining purchase outside the chancelleries.
The former is the creation of a true European nation, a fiscal and debt union; the latter is allowing market forces to work and letting Greece unpick its monetary handcuffs and find its own level. I ask whether we would prefer to live under a benevolent dictatorship now because the time for answering it is fast approaching, the fork in the road is upon us and we are going to have to choose. I am not going to argue that one answer is entirely good, and the other entirely bad, but that each has its positives and negatives. It depends on your perspective, that is all.
Those that favour the top-down approach can include almost everybody with political influence on the continent, and many off it. To that number must be added the acting Director of the International Monetary Fund, the American John Lipsky and his director of European operations Antonio Borges. To them stability of the system is all, and protection of the status quo overrules other values - which at other times they might trumpet. In Luxembourg, on Monday, they launched the IMF's latest statement on the eurozone. In the IMF's normal user-friendly way, this study is called the 2011 Article IV mission.
Incomprehensible in title, the importance of this document should not be overlooked.
What this report states so baldly is that the interests of the European elite must and will take precedence over the wishes of the people. After all, as is generally accepted, the bailouts are currently transferring institutional and private banking debt from those institutions to the taxpayers.
Those taxpayers must therefore have a choice.
But they are to be ignored. Listen to Borges state: "We really believe that many of the current problems result from incomplete integration. In the process of developing monetary union like the United States, which is a fully integrated monetary union, you have obstacles that magnify the problem." What he seems to forget is that final fiscal and monetary union in the US only happened after the then bloodiest war in history, in a country that was already united by language law and customs. It is extraordinary that the IMF is suggesting that this economic crisis is in any way synonymous with what was happening in the US in the 1840s. The only slavery here is of the people to the Eurocrats dream. For without democratic control, we are left with something akin to slavery.
The other option is for Greece to default, leave the euro, find its own level, set its own interest rates and trade itself out of its predicament. The Greeks are no less hard working than any other nation, but have been gulled through the application of economic policies that suit Thüringen not Thessalonica. A wall has been built around the minds of the elite, one in which there is no door marked "exit" merely the ability to build the walls higher.
The wall is their political commitment to the euro at all costs; the bricks are their hectoring communiqués.
We must make no bones about it, according to the EU and the IMF there is no alternative. The people of Greece must do as they are told. They cannot countenance default and leaving the single currency. What then is the price of democracy in its birthplace?
Nigel Farage MEP is leader of the UK Independence Party
Press Release No. 11/225
June 9, 2011
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