LAGARDE OR MERKEL. THAT IS THE QUESTION

Lagarde is the head of the IMF. But she is too a French citizen. Angela Merkel is the chancellor of Germany and not surprisingly she is a German citizen.
Today the stakes are very very high.
Lagarde wants Germany to pay the bill and Merkel wants each country to pay its bill.

I accept that maybe the only real solution now is the one of Lagarde. If Spanish banks bailout is only related to Spain then Spain cannot sells its debt in the future and we head to disaster. On the other hand if Spanish banks receive direct money from Europe as Spain wants and Lagarde wants too then Spain could still sell its debt. But for this is necessary that Germany “pays the bill”. “To pay the bill” means that if money cannot be returned from Spanish banks it is Europe the one to lose. So Germans, as the greatest contributors, will the ones more affected.

So, who will win, Cristine or Angela? Angela or Cristine?

Strange as it may seem looking at their looks you can easily see what each one stands for!

Angela Merkel wears cheap clothes and she has little glamour. She looks as a hard working German house wife. Her looks are below what she may look like as the most powerful woman in Europe.

On the other hand Critine Lagarde likes to wear expensive beautiful clothes. She sends an image of power and luxury.

Which image I prefer? Well, I think the best would be a mix! For me Lagarde look is too exagerated. Too luxurious. On th eothe rhand Merkel look maybe is too a bit exagerated! Looking at her it is difficult to remember that Claudi Schiffer is German too!

I think that the best should be an agreement so that banks receive money directly from Europe but with the condition that Germans can buy Spanish banks in the future at an advantageous price or something.

The idea could be that Germany saves Spanish banks and Spanish state by accepting direct help to the banks but on condition that the banks, once in good shape, become German banks.

And when I say Germany I just mean the countries who put morey to warrant the return of money if Spain cannot pay.

My conclusion is that Germany must be compensated in some way. If Germany is obliged to do something against general opinion in Germany it will happen the same that has happened in Greece: inestability and the right and left extrems winning a lot of votes.

Or to say in other words, if Spanish banks are going to be directly saved by Europe then those banks should become European banks. Maybe they could become the first really European banks in Europe!

IF SYRIZA WINS THEN GREECE SHOULD IMMEDIATELY LEAVE THE EUROZONE

the logo of syriza (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If most Greek people vote for Syriza I congratulate them because this means that they are very strong people. Not only they have had to endure  the current conditions of the bailout. They are even been brave enough to want to endure to live for a decades in a country who would be a king of European Cuba: the most free and independent country of Europe but without anything left to eat or to drink except for the few tourist that dare to go there.

So if Greece choose to be a kind of Cuba of Europe we should totally respect their decision and let them live as they like while we at the same time can finally start putting order in the rest of the eurozone.

I hope Greece votes to parties that are serious so that they comply with the conditions of the bailout. But if this does not happen the rest of the eurozone must go on. We will be still 16 countries with the same currency. It is obvious that we are going to suffer a lot if Greece leaves the euro but the sooner Greece leaves the euro (or accepts the rules, I hope!) the sooner the eurozone will be able to try to recover.

It is time that the eurozone becomes a serious place. If Greece leaves is not good news but it will make that the rest are more serious because they will know they will have to leave the euro too if they not comply!

I am afraid that maybe Spain will have to leave the euro quite soon if we continue like now! Europe and IMF is telling Spain to cut wages like in Greece and to increase VAT. And Spain is not doing that. How can foreign investors buy Spanish bonds when Spain does not accept cuts and increase of revenue? How we will pay back?

I am very afraid that if Syriza wins people are going to be very furious in Greece because they will see that Greece has to leave the euro and that Spain in fact did not get a bargain from Europe! It just had a fool president who them by making them believe that Spain was receiving a bargain. I feel quite sorry for that. It is quite sad that Spanish president misleads its own citizens. But it is also quite sad when he can mislead our friends from Greece. He has acted as if Spain should not comply with any conditions. I hope one day Greece can forgive us for that. I am afraid that Greece is going to be out of the euro because a Spanish president mislead Europe. Who knows, maybe all was orchestrated! Maybe the truth is that Angela merkel wants Greece out of the euro so she wanted Spain not to have conditions for the bailout so that the Greek were angry and voted for Syriza. So that then Europe could get rid of Greece. Could this the real truth behind the foolish behaviour of Mariano Rajoy? Could it be that he has acted as the greatest clown of Europe this days just to put Greece out of the euro?

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SPAIN REJECTS TO CUT WAGES AND INCREASE VAT

These lasts weeks the European Union is telling Spain to cut wages to its civil servants and increase VAT too. Now the IMF has said the same and it has said YA YA YA! But the president of Spain has answered NO, NO, NO!

I feel very very ashamed of the raction of the Spanish government BECAUSE IT GOES AGAINST THE GENERAL INTEREST OF SPAIN AND EUROPE.

Mariano Rajoy is given the wrong image of Spain. The image that Spain must send now to the world is that we do not need Europe or the IMF to tell us what to do because we are responsible. But we are doing the opposite! Europe and the IMF are telling publicly to Spain what I am sure they have been telling Spain privately for a long time.

So instead of showing to the world that WE ARE THE FIRST TO WANT TO BE ABLE TO PAY OUR DEBTS the impression is that WE WON’T DO ANYMORE CUT UNLESS YOU OBLIGE US. This is a horrible message to give!

If I was a foreign investor it is obvious I would not have trust in this Spanish government!

In Catalonia we have fortunately a government that is the first to give example to the world.

And in any case, if Spain does not cut now wages and does not increase VAT it should at least speak loud and SAY WHY NOT!

Spain is acting in a very childish way! It is not possible that the Spanish government uses foreign advices as the enemy. It is as if Spanish government is waiting and waiting so that at the end it will cut wages and increase VAT but then it will say: WE DID THAT BECAUSE THE OUTSIDE WORLD FORCE US! In fact we should do that because we need money to pay our debts so that people only will lend us money if they see we are responsible!

So instead of being pedagogical and tell Spaniards that we have been spending too much and that now we have to cut so that we have a future Mariano Rajoy is just acting as the classical and typical Spanish politician. Has he not learnt the lesson from Zapatero?

If Europe is telling you to cut wages and increase VAT you must tell to your people clearly why you are not doing that! WHY SPAIN IS NOT FOLLOWING THE ADVICE OF EUROPE? If we are more wise than Angela merkel and company I would be happy to know why! If for Spain the best is not to cut wages and not to increase VAT I want my government to convince me! But the only thing I see is that they are giving the image that Spain only cuts IF FORCED. And this is the worst image of Spain that you can give becuae then the investors realise that we are not ruled by serious politicians!

MARIANO RAJOY, WITH NOT ACTING IN A RESPONSIBLE WAY, IS BRINGING THE SPANISH BOND TO THE STATUS OF JUNK BOND. SHAME ON HIM!

 

THE IMF WANTS GREEK MEDICIN FOR SPAIN TOO

Some days ago I had the disgrace to see how Spanish president acted as a crazy child by no telling the Spaniards that very hard times were coming and that all should be done so that this partial bailout could not end in a total bailout. Instead he acted against Spanish and European interests by showing off that we have got a very good deal. By doing that he was acting against the eurozone because it gave the sense that Europe treated the Greek unfairly while the Spaniards were soft treated.

Fortunately time puts each person in its place so that now the IMF is telling Spain to do some of the things that already Greece has done!!!: to cut wages of the civil servants, for example.

So, what we will see in the following months is simply a Spain that will have to cut and cut and cut.

So, thanks Mariano Rajoy acting a clown and not telling Spaniards that WE SHOULD NOT BE RELAXED BECAUSE THIS RESCUE COULD BECOME A TOTAL RESCUE IF NOT FURTHER REFORMS WERE MADE!

I have the feeling as if Mariano Rajoy did not trust Spaniards! In Catalonia the president is called Artur Mas and he tells the people what is happening! You may agree with or not but at least you know that he is not painting a wonderful world that does not exists!! In Catalonia the wages of civil servants were reduced!

So now we see that the IMF is telling Spain to reduce wages and to increase the VAT. So, it is obvious that the bailout of Spanish banks has some conditions!

The difference maybe now is that people in Brussels know that Spain will have to apply these conditions in any case. BECAUSE THE MARKETS WILL OBLIGE TO THAT! If Spain does not cut wages and does not increase VAT the markets won’t buy Spanish bonds. And then Spain will have to asked for a total bailout.

What I mean is that the president of Spain was a fool to show off because the bailout was without conditions! He should have not said that because by saying that he gave ammunition to SYRIZA in Greece.

So who knows, maybe history books will tell that the real responsible for the exit of Greece from the eurozone was the president of Spain.

Who knows too, maybe he did on purpose … Maybe some people want Greece out of the euro so they planned that Mariano Rajoy said that all Spain had money for free so that people in Greece votes for Syriza. Well, as I want Greece to remain in the eurozone I have tried to tell that if people in Greece believed the lies of Mariano rajoy then what they should ask id Spain to cut all like Greece. Not the opposite! Today I just have read that each Spaniard has in someway about 17000 euros debt per capita!

I feel ashamed that the IMF must tell Spain what to do! This is happening because the Spanish government is not doing what should have been done. It is not serious that it was to put the blame outside!

In any case when you act as a child it is not strange that you are treated like a child.

LAGARDE’S ROOM

It is not THE.CAT who created the LAGARDE’S ROOM but maybe THE.CAT was one of the first to realise that LAGARDE will pass to history not for being the chief of the IMF but because she was the one to give name to a room that is going to become very usual from now on.

What is a LAGARDE’S ROOM. Well, it is very easy. It is a room where you close some people until they find a solution for a problem.

I am sure this is going to be a trend in the future. So in the future we read news like:

A LAGARDE’S ROOM IS TAKING PLACE IN EGYPT WITH ISRAELIANS AND PALESTINIANS INSIDE THE ROOM.

A LAGARDE’S ROOM IS TAKING PLACE IN SWITZERDEN BETWEEN THE BRITISH MUSEUM AND THE GREEK AUTHORITIES TO FIND A SOLUTION FOR THE GREEK MARBLES

A LAGARDE’S ROOM OF 10 DAYS IS TAKING PLACE IN BRUSSELS BETWEEN 35 EUROZONE MEMBERS TO DISCUSS THE ENTRANCE OF AZERBAIJAN IN TH EUROZONE.

A LAGARDE’S ROOM IS TAKING PLACE IN PUERTO RICO BETWEEN SPAIN AND UK TO FIND A FINAL END TO THE HISTORICAL FRICITIONS ABOUT GIBRALTAR. THE LAGARDE’S ROOM WILL TAKE PLACE DURING 5 DAYS AND BOTH PRIME MININSTERS WILL BE CLOSED IN THE ROOM.

I find that the proposal of Lagarde, even if it has been said not in a serious way, it is VERY APPEALING!

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BEIJING, NEW CAPITAL OF THE EUROZONE

IF I HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN BEEN RULED FROM BERLIN OR BEIJING I PREFER BERLIN ...

In Catalonia we are ruled from outside: from Madrid. The government in Madrid seems to obey orders from the eurozone. The eurozone seems to do things according to Angela in Berlin. Now, it can happen that not only Catalonia is ruled from Madrid, Brussels and Germany. Now we may add to be ruled from Beijing.

I am sorry but that’s too much. The eurozone is asking money to China. At first I was very enthusiastic about a deal between Europe and China. But now I am not so sure that this a good idea. Donald Trump was the one that make me see that Western countries are becoming too dependent on Chinese lending. It is absurd I find crazy that the US has an enormous debt that ows to the Chinese and that at the same time I want Europe to follow suit.

China is extremely wise, much more wiser than Europe. So each day it is getting riches while Europe is getting poorer. And one way of doing that is lending money to Europe so that we can continue living in our fairy tale.

Thanks to China now we can try to live as if we were still the wealthy part of the world but by doing that what we are really doing is bringing the decline of Europe and of future generations of Europeans.

My only hope is that people in Europe is enough wise to see that if we want to remain wealthy then we should not waste the money as we usd to do.

In fact Europe could have an advantage with respect to China. That we are doing the things first and then they copy us. This means that we could look forward to new ways.

If Europe knows how to play the card then Europe can remain a nice place to live. If Europe just wants to live above its possibilities then it is obvious that’s the start of the end of Europe.

Anyway, not everybody sees the things this way. There are people who welcome Chinese money as I did just some days ago:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/30/china-global-financial-crisis-g20-cannes

Well, to be ruled from Berlin is not the most wonderful thing that can happen to a continent based on democracy but at least I trust Germany and after all we share the euro. But to be ruled by Beijing? Well, some may say that a help from Beijing does not mean to obbey orders from Beijing. Well, maybe not now, but it is opening the door to the Chinese giant. Maybe the dragon won’t enter our homes but it will be looking at us through the windows …

Let me end by remembering that in Syria now there is a murderer killing its people. China and Russia are turning a blind eye. As I said it is not the same to be rules from Berlin that from Beijing.

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WHO CONTROLS THE EXTRA EXPENSES OF SPANISH POLITICIANS?

DEAR ANGELA: IF YOU WANT, LIKE I, THAT THE EURO BECOMES VICTORIOUS AT THE END, IT IS VERY NECESSARY THAT YOU SHAME THOSE POLITICIANS IN SPAIN THAT WITH THEIR EXAMPLE OF WASTING MONEY ARE PUTTING IN DANGER OUR DREAM. AUSTERITY MEASURES ARE ALWAYS HURTFUL BUT THEY ARE EVEN WORSE IF WE SEE OUR POLITICIANS WASTING MONEY. EUROPE MAKE SOMETHING! HELP US GET RID OF SOME OF OUR DAMAGING POLITICIANS!

As a lot of Europeans know Spain is under austerity measures too. You may have read that while our politicians at the government try to cut expenses we have protests in the streets and the squares.

Our politicians in charge of the country tell us that these measures are needed because if we do not follow them we may end in a bailout like Greece, for example.

Well, I would like to ask to Angela Merkel and to the IMF to be smart and have the following thought: “If they the austerity measures to be effective they have to do at least TWO THINGS. The first one is to look that the measures are taking place. I know they are doing this. The second point that I will tell now I think that it is really important and if Europe does not take into account this then the first point may be useless.

THE SECOND POINT IS TO SEE THAT THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT GIVES EXAMPLE TO ITS CITIZENS SO THAT THE AUSTERITY MEASURES, ALTHOUGH UNPOPULAR, MAY CONSIDER A NEW WAY OF ACTING IN SPANISH POLITICS.

So, what I am plaining say to Angela Merkel and to anyone worried about the Spanish austerity measures implementation is that they put too the Spanish politicians under austerity measures!

Why I am saying that?

Well …

Well, it is difficult not to reject the austerity measures when you read that the Agriculture Minister of Spain takes a plane of the Spanish Army for personal trips. He has just made that last Saturday between Santiago de Compostela and Seville. 5000 euros of cost per hour of flight.

So, PLEASE , PLEASE, PLEASE, if anyone in the IMF or the European Union has any hope that austerity measures continue taking place in Spain with a relatively calm on the streets it is very necessary that EUROPE CONDEMNS ACTIONS LIKE THE ONE OF ROSA AGUILAR.

If Europe continues asking our politicians to bring austerity to us but they do not say a word when these politicians waste the money then you can be sure that that our current common currency is heading directly to disaster.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ca&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ara.cat%2Fsocietat%2FRosa_Aguilar-Falco_900_0_503349933.html

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DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN SCANDAL AND THE FUTURE OF CATALONIA

THE CHAIRMAN OF IMF

For some weeks in Catalonia most of the population is a bit unhappy. As you may know in Spain we have a big deficit and in order not to follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal need of a bailout, the IMF and the European Union is asking the Spanish governement to reduce the deficit which means to cut spendings.

So, in Catalonia, for some weeks, we have been told that cuts will be made in health services and education. It seems that there is a money that the central government could give us back but the central government prefers to retain the money back so that their deficit is less so that we make happy the IMF and the European Union.

I say all that because it is easy to realize that in countries with austerity measures the IMF or International Monetary Fund is just an image of the “bad guy” because we all know all that of “we need these unpopular austerity measures because the IMF is asking us for this”. I am sure that in Greece, Portugal and Ireland must know this sentence quite well.

The IMF is for people under austerity measures a kind of malevolous abstract force that rules your world. Some may say that if the country had acted correctly it wouldn’t need the help of the IMF so that the IMF is not guilty but the country itself for its mishandling of its economy.

Anyway, the fact is that now in the world there are a series of countries where cuts are made and the IMF represents the one to say “you have to continue with the cuts if you want we continue lending your money”. In some way the IMF represents how the world is ruled economically.

So, when you are under the orders of the IMF and you read that the chairman of the IMF, DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN is been accused of sexual misconduct in a luxurious Manhattan hotel you feel a bit as if the world was a shit.

It is obvious that IMF is an institution and DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN is just a human being with its possible weaknesses but the fact that he’s currently the chairman makes me wonder how can you have milions of people around the globe under IMF austerity measures when the IMF Chairman is accussed of misconduct?

I say all this because in Catalonia we have been asked for austerity in health and education. The big markets, the IMF, want us to cut spending. But how can the IMF  ask a whole country to make sacrifices when the chairman of the IMF is surrounded by scandal.

I know that any scandal of the chairman of the IMF is not excuse for Catalonia, or other territories, not to cut spending, but, it does not help to read about stories related to IMF and luxurious hotels and possible misconducts.

How can a chairman ask to cut excesses in spending when this same chairman is associated to excesses in sex?

I just hope that as soon as possible we know if Dominique has done something wrong or not.

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