Berliners and Madriders see Greek referendum very differently

Berliners seem calm about yesterday's 'no' vote in Greece, but they also don't seem inclined to cut the Greeks any slack.

Ahead of yesterday's Greek referendum, I was in Madrid for the weekend with some friends from Brussels. I arrived back in Berlin last night. The contrast between the opinions I encountered in these two capitals could not be more stark.

During Saturday's Madrid gay pride parade, one of the highlights was a large Greek flag making its way down the parade route. The flag was greeted by huge cheers, just a day before the Greeks were set to go to the polls for a referendum which was being billed by EU leaders as an in-out vote on the country's euro membership.

The flag was, I believe, carried by the contingent of Podemos, Spain's far-left opposition party which is closely aligned with Syriza, the far-left governing party in Greece. But the cheers weren't for Podemos. They were in solidarity with the Greek people. This sentiment was largely reflected in the conversations I had with people there. They were sympathetic, and supportive of a debt write-off.

US tells Europe to act quickly on euro crisis

Barack Obama delivered some sobering words to Europe this week, saying the world economy will remain weak and destabilised unless EU leaders take action to stem the Euro crisis. It's not the first time the US has expressed frustration with what they say is a slow and inadequate European response to the situation, but the president's words were the most stark to date.

Obama said he will put the issue at the top of the agenda for the G20 meeting in France in November. "[European leaders] are taking some steps to slow the crisis but not solve the crisis," the president told a group of journalists at the White House. "The bigger problem is what happens in Spain and Italy if the markets keep making a run at those very big countries?" Few would disagree with the president on these sentiments, but it might be hard to take from a country which almost deliberately drove itself to default because of its broken political system.

Germany backs bailouts – for now

The markets are breathing a sigh of relief today after Germany's constitutional court ruled that it is legal and in line with the EU treaties for the country to be bailing out its struggling Eurozone neighbors. But the jubilation may be short-lived, because in its ruling the court sewed a minefield of potential future obstacles that will have to be dealt with in the coming months.

The ruling was in response to a lawsuit from Eurosceptic German citizens who said the bail-outs of Portugal, Ireland and Greece to stem the European debt crisis are unconstitutional because the German parliament should have control over taxpayer money, rather than the European Central Bank. The court rejected that argument, saying Germany's participation did not amount to an excessive burden on the country's budget, nor did it constitute a significant transfer of power away from Berlin.

Germany is by far the largest contributor to the bailout funds. If the judges had sided with the challengers in this ruling today it would cast Germany's ability to participate in those bailouts into question, which in turn would have thrown the markets into turmoil. Instead, the announcement this morning sent European stocks shooting up. Amongst the German public, who are growing weary of what many perceive as Germans being on the hook for the profligate spending of their Southern neighbors.

Europe's choice: anger voters, or drop the euro

The Eurozone's finance chiefs took the extraordinary decision last night to "actively" buy up Italian and Spanish bonds, in a last-ditch attempt to try to stop the market freefall that is spiralling out of control. Following the downgrading of the United State's credit rating for the first time in history over the weekend, everyone is waiting this morning with baited breath to see whether the good news of the European bond buy-up will be enough to outweigh the bad news of the American downgrade.

The decision to have the European Central Bank buy up Italian and Spanish bonds is a huge step toward  fiscal union in Europe, and it did not come easily. Last week it looked like Europe's leaders were intending to reject any such move when they announced Thursday that they would buy only Irish and Portuguese bonds. This was effectively pointless because both of these countries are already getting EU bail-outs, and the markets took it as a sign that the ECB would not buy the Italian and Spanish bonds. This caused a panic, the bond yields of those countries plummeted even faster than they were earlier in the week.

The heart of the problem is this: the markets are demanding that the EU rapidly establish stronger fiscal union so that individual states don't collapse under the debt crisis and bring the common currency down with them. Essentially, the European Central Bank needs to take on the debt of the struggling economies. But European leaders are resisting doing so because the public mood for further European integration is so low right now. 

Eurozone agrees second bailout for Greece

Stocks are rising today as the markets digest the news that Europe has taken a step back from the brink of economic disaster. Eurozone leaders yesterday agreed on a second €109bn bailout for Greece, something economists said had to come in the next few days to avoid calamity. Once again, Europe's leaders have taken a small step to narrowly avert disaster. But without a big step to reform the Eurozone, is there any end to the debt crisis in sight?

Greece's private lenders will be forced to participate in the bailout and take an estimated 21% loss on their loans to the country, in what is being called a 'selective default'. But it is still unclear whether the ratings agencies will decide this qualifies as a default or not. The private lender participation was something German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted, but French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the European Central Bank had been resisting.

US getting worried and impatient over euro crisis

The Greek parliament is voting this week on the drastic austerity measures that have been ordered by the EU as a condition for the country receiving the rest of its bailout money. As Washington watches the situation unfold with unease, US officials are voicing an increasing amount of frustration that European leaders do not seem to have the situation under control. And the officials know that if the euro collapses, it could easily take the US economy down with it.

As Quatremer noted today, the euro has become such a powerful currency (now the second reserve currency of the world) that if it runs into trouble it would have a devastating impact not just in continental Europe but throughout the world.

Back in the 1970's when the US took the decision to take the dollar off the gold standard, the situation was watched intensely by the rest of the world. As the US treasury secretary noted at the time, "the dollar is our currency but your problem." Now, with the euro being used by a common market larger than America's, the opposite could be said to America. And the increasing grumblings suggest that American officials don't like being at the whim of decisions being taken across the Atlantic.

Lost in translation?

Portugal's Eurovision performance last night at the first semi-final in Dusseldorf raised more than a few eyebrows. In the midst of what many see as a German-imposed austerity drive forced on Portugal after they had to take a €78 billion bailout from the EU and IMF, their Eurovision entry performed a song dressed as protestors and chanting slogans, right in the belly of the beast. It was a bit of an awkward moment, especially considering political messages are supposed to be banned from the Eurovision Song Contest.

According to the group, the song was apparently supposed to be a sort of celebration of Portugal despite all of its bad news. Entitled "A Luta é Alegria" (The Struggle is Joy), it calls on the Portuguese to not give in to feelings of despair or rage at the restrictions being imposed on them. The message, I imagine, was intended to be like the old expression 'keep calm and carry on' used by the British during World War II. "There’s no point in tightening the belt, there’s no point in complaining," they sang. "There’s no point in frowning and rage is pointless, it won’t help you. Many people wish to silence you. Many people want you to feel resentful. Many people want to sell you the air itself."

Angry birds: Are 'True Finns' about to stage a revolution?

Those who have been tracing the recent rise of the European far right will have their eyes trained on Finland this Sunday, as that country holds a national election. According to recent opinion polls the Finnish nationalist party the "True Finns" could ride a wave of populist fervor to unprecedented electoral success on Sunday.

A Gallup poll last month put the True Finns in second place at 18.3% of the vote, just behind the ruling centre-right National Coalition Party. Led by MEP Timo Soini, the party has all the ingredients of today's far right in Europe: anti-immigration, anti-EU and pro-nationalism. They also display all the anomalies of today's far right: pro social welfare (but for ethnic Finns only), relatively pro gay rights, and working hard to project a respectable, PR-friendly image.

It is the same formula that has led to success for the Sweden Democrats in neighboring Sweden, the Danish People's Party in Denmark, the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, the National Front in France and the British National Party in the UK. And in the same way as all of these other countries, the main parties of Finland have been working to co-opt much of the far right's message in order to blunt their electoral impact.

Ireland in crisis

Today was a dramatic day in Dublin. First came the news that the government was giving in and accepting an EU bail-out, prompting angry demonstrators to swarm government buildings in protest of the decision. But as the day went on Ireland’s financial crisis morphed into a political one. The Green Party, a junior partner in the governing coalition, announced it was pulling its support - prompting a collapse of the government and a general election. The Irish government now appears to be in complete meltdown.

Since last week Ireland has been under pressure from the EU to accept the bail-out as it became clear that Ireland’s banks were in so much trouble that the Irish government was going to be unable to borrow money. Brussels was afraid this insolvency would spread to the other vulnerable so-called “PIGS” countries, causing the euro currency to collapse. If such a crisis were to spread to Spain, the eurozone's fourth largest economy, it could spell the end of the euro and as a consequence, some leaders have suggested, the end of the EU. After spending a week denying that they would take the money, today the Irish government accepted a rescue package worth up to €90 billion ($124bn).

So why the initial resistance, and why the protests today? Surely Ireland getting money is a good thing for Ireland right? Well the rescue package comes with a lot of strings attached, and they will be painful strings for the Irish population. In exchange for the aid, Ireland must make €4.5 billion in public spending cuts and €1.5 billion in tax increases. Overall, the country will have to save €15 billion by 2014. This will undoubtedly cause an increase to the unemployment rate, aleady high at nearly 15%. Essentially, it doesn’t matter who the Irish public elects in the general election that will likely be called in January (after the bail-out has been approved by the current parliament). The country will be governed by the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank for the next three years.

Britain follows with UK Bailout Plan

Those in the US who thought the $700 billion bailout package passed by the congress last Friday was extremely unusual might be reassured by seeing another bailout unveiled across the pond - a £500 billion ($870 billion) plan for the UK. But importantly, the British bailout plan is entirely different from its counterpart in the US. Here's why.

For starters, the £500 billion figure being used by the British media this morning is a bit misleading. Though all $700 billion of the US package will be coming directly from taxpayers, only £50 billion ($87 billion) of the UK plan is coming from taxpayers money. That part of the plan will be used by the government to partially buy out failing UK banks. This is where the plan differs significantly from the one in the US. The $500bn US taxpayer-funded bailout package will be used to buy the bad debt from the ailing financial institutions to clear up their balance sheets. The £50bn UK taxpayer-funded bailout package will be used by the government to buy partial ownership in failing UK high street banks, the banks most people use to store their savings.

Additionally, because of the differences between the US presidential system and the UK parliamentary system, there is no doubt as to whether this bailout plan will become reality. It's definitely happening.

So where is the £500 billion figure coming from? Some news outlets have decided to include the other part of the plan, half of which is theoretical money being made available and the other half of which is just a larger injection than normal by the Bank of England into the money markets, in the headline. £200 billion will be coming from the Bank of England under its existing Special Liquidity Scheme. The Bank of England always injects money into banks under this scheme, although now it will be putting in much more money much faster. Additionally, the Government is making £250 billion "available" for banks to guarantee medium-term debt in a bid to encourage banks to start lending to each other again, although so far the banks have said they won't use it.

Brown said that the £50 billion investment by the taxpayers will yield a return on the investment, as is being claimed in the US. Like in the US, Brown seemed to be throwing the financial philosophy of the ruling government (in this case New Labour) out the window in order to urge the new plan. "This is not a time for conventional thinking or outdated dogma but for the fresh and innovative intervention that gets to the heart of the problem," he said this morning. This language perhaps struck more than a few people as unusual this morning, as that "outdated dogma" was developed and followed by Brown himself when he was chancellor under Tony Blair. Such quick philosophical rethinking echoes the language that has been being used in the US about the Anglo-Saxon model of free-market capitalism.

The two men said the government had been working on this plan for weeks, but has chosen to unveil it now because of the market meltdown which took place yesterday, in which the high street banks plummeted on the UK stock markets. My bank, for instance, lost 40 percent of its value in the course of yesterday, making me feel quite nervous about my savings. This morning's announcement seems to have had a small rallying effect on the UK markets - for now.

European Plan?

So now that the UK has become the first EU country to come up with its own bailout package unilaterally, does this mean any talk of a pan-European bailout fund is dead in the water? Not necessarily, said Brown. The prime minister also announced that the UK has put forward ideas this morning for a pan-European funding plan. Yet he still ruled out extending the UK's savings account guarantee to cover all deposits, even as other European nations are scrambling to do so.

The fact that Brown didn't have much else to say about a pan-European response probably means that coordinated action is unlikely, which may mean that his announcement does little to calm the European markets in the long run. The market turmoil over the past two days was largely in response to the fact that the EU seems to have disintegrated in response to the economic crisis, with each member nation taking drastic unilateral steps which seem to conflict with one another. As Swedish finance minister Anders Borg told reporters in Luxembourg yesterday, "One country's solution is another country's problem.'' Though Brown's announcement this morning may temporarily calm the British markets, it may send the continental European markets into even more turmoil, and by tomorrow the beneficial effect of the announcement for UK trading could be overtaken by continues fears about the lack of a coordinated Europe-wide response.

Europe speculates on end of US 'Empire'

Watching the live coverage of the US house floor Monday night in Paris was a truly surreal experience. On my cable system I get both French and British news station, and every station from both countries was carrying live minute-by-minute coverage of the vote on the bailout package, waiting in suspense and watching the vote tally. When the bill didn't pass, there was absolute panic over here. The news anchors were absolutely shocked, as were the commentators.

It really underlined how much the European economy still depends on the American economy. As Angela Merkel pointed out yesterday, this crisis is a problem created by the United States, and the United States is the only one who can solve it. So Europe is now in the position of having to sit back and wait for the United States to take some action as it reels from a painful crisis that is not of its own making. As the saying goes, when America sneezes, the world catches a cold. But what happens when America refuses to take any medicine?