German Chancellor Angela Merkel today announced that Germany backs ECB President Mario Draghi’s plans he outlined at the beginning of August to purchase bonds of troubled Eurozone members in order to, well in order to see what that does to say the best. The ECB believes that bond purchases would do more than to intoxicate the ECB balance sheet and actually thinks it will be beneficial to the Eurozone economy.
Merkel reiterated at a joint press conference in Canada with Prime Minister Stephen Harper that EU leaders understand the debt problem and are committed to resolve it as time is running out to safe the Euro in its current form. Global markets rallied to multi-month highs on hopes that this time they will actually act and deliver on their pledge.
The ECB, for unknown reasons and with a stark absence of intelligence, would love to buy toxic junk bonds from Eurozone governments as long as politicians will do their part in order to solve the debt contagion through heavy budget cuts and fiscal conservatism. Merkel did like the Canadian fiscal system and said it should be a model for the Eurozone.
Germany has not budged to national as well as international pressures to ease budget conditions and share debt in order to break contagion. It seems as the tough German will has been broken and they will allow the crisis to enter the final stages and affect every member. We can only hope that politicians will take this opportunity and restart the system by the time 2013 rolls around.
Mario Draghi said that the ECB would purchase bonds in a desperate attempt to lower borrowing costs, but only if governments utilize the bailout funds and do the same while implementing heavy budget cuts. Neither Spain nor Italy have officially requested a bailout, but Spain hinted at one multiple times and given their recent missteps they are several weeks away from a full bailout. The best case scenario is that Spain will crawl through to the end of the year and starts begging in January at the latest.
Finland says that they prepare for a Euro breakup. Finland, one of only four AAA countries in the 17 member Eurozone, says that they face reality and want to be ready for the break-up of the Euro in its current form. A break-up would be the only sophisticated solution which needs to be followed by the creation of a Euro North and Euro South.
Germany, the largest contributor to the Euro rescue funds, insists that it will try to do whatever possible in order to preserve the Euro in its current form and has not warmed up to the idea of a Euro North and Euro South. The current system is dysfunctional and needs to be replaced with a system that works. The creation of a Euro North and Euro South is the only sustainable solution which would eventually lead to a much stronger EU economy altogether.
Brussels has a once in a lifetime chance to throw out the old system and create a brand new economic, fiscal and political environment in order to ensure that the world’s largest economy will once again become an engine for growth. The time to act is now and the opportunity to rediscover the old world and turn it into the new one should be realized by all sectors of the EU.
