Today Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, presented an interim forecast to the press here in Brussels.
Headline Rehn's people were pushing: 'euro area in mild recession with signs of stabilisation.' Which at this point in the never-ending crisis is about as realistic a picture of reality as 'mild amputation with signs of regrowth.'
If you want the graphs or the powerpoint projections, go look somewhere else. Instead, here are just a couple of things that emerged during the session.
If you look at the figures for all the 27 countries in the EU, you don't see many signs of recession in the countries outside the euro, except for Hungary. Yup, the crisis-disease is carried by the single currency, like black rats carried plague fleas.
Poland is doing especially well. When questioned about this, Rehn couldn't admit the obvious, ie, that it is better to be out of the euro than in. Instead, he attributed Poland's strength to positive spill-over from German economic policies. As if.
Then during the questions there emerged a new phrase about the 17-member single currency: 'the 16 non-German members of the eurozone.'
Great. Europe is being divided into 'Germans' and 'non-Germans.' Last time I came across this kind of thing was in South Africa in the early 1980s when the doors -- and pretty much everything else --were designated for 'whites' and 'non-whites.'
Really, for his own good: a German solution for a French sex pest?
Today we learn from the news that there is continuing 'strong public support' in Germany for the Berlin government's policy of castrating sex criminals. Despite criticism in a report just issued by the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee, Germany is rejecting demands that it should stop the practice.
The Germans say that surgical castration, which is voluntary, leads to low re-offending rates among sex criminals who opt to have the procedure.
And today we also learn that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, France's best known sex-crime defendant, is now facing charges of 'complicity in pimping' and 'misuse of corporate assets.' He's just been released from custody in the northern French city of Lille following police questioning about an illegal vice ring.
If DSK is convicted on these charges, he could be locked up for a total of 12 years.
Which leaves me wondering if a reduced sentence could be offered in return for agreeing to a voluntary procedure.
DSK cut: really, it'd be for his own good.
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