Authoritarian banksters

Hands down, the MOST annoying behavior of the various incarnations of central banking is their insistence that they must remain "independent."  Considering how important monetary policy is, leaving the central bankers to their own devices pretty much destroys the whole idea of representative government.  Placing critical decisions like they make beyond parliamentary control pretty much reduces governments to the trivial considerations like naming highways or restricting pot smoking.

Generally speaking, however, central bankers and their shills try not bring up the anti-democratic nature of their insistence on independence.  But Mario Monti, the unelected Prime Minister of Italy, sidestepped that convention in an interview with SPIEGEL and suddenly the Germans were confronted by the fact that the moneychangers are not only crooks, but are little dictators down to their very shriveled souls.

08/06/2012

Interview with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti

'A Front Line Between North and South'

In a SPIEGEL interview, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says Europe is showing traces of a "psychological dissolution" in the debt crisis and that leaders are doing too little to stop it. He also warns that governments cannot allow themselves to become "fully bound" to parliament in determining policies to save the euro.

[snip]

Monti: But there are these mistakes with not completely identical information being distributed that leads to new turbulence on the markets. However, much more serious is the fact that there are a few countries -- and they lie to the north of Germany -- who every time we have reached a consensus at the European Council (the EU body representing the leaders of the 27 member states) then say things two days later that call into question this consensus.

SPIEGEL: You are now referring to the Finns as well as others?

Monti: I can understand that they must show consideration for their parliament. But at the end of the day, every country in the European Union has a parliament as well as a constitutional court. And of course each government must orient itself according to decisions made by parliament. But every government also has a duty to educate parliament. If I had stuck to the guidelines of my parliament in an entirely mechanical way, then I wouldn't even have been able to agree to the decisions that were made at the most recent (EU) summit in Brussels.

SPIEGEL: Why not?

Monti: I was given the task of pushing through euro bonds at the summit. If governments let themselves be fully bound by the decisions of their parliaments without protecting their own freedom to act, a breakup of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration. more

Not surprisingly, the Germans were not especially pleased to learn that Monti thinks elected officials are to be ignored.

EUROPEAN UNION

German euro debate heats up

Peter Stützle 08.08.2012

There's not a lot that German politicians agree on these days, especially not the euro crisis. But in many cases, it's domestic politics that is behind the tough words.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti did it. With a single quotation he managed to unnerve the entire German parliament. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, the former EU commissioner said, "If governments were fully bound by the decisions of their country's parliaments, then Europe breaking apart would be more likely than further integration."

In the times of the euro crisis it takes little to cause hysteria. Member of Parliament Michael Meister, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, "We don't need less, but more democracy in Germany." Joachim Poss, deputy parliamentary leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party, told the Düsseldorf paper Rheinische Post that in the years under controversial Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy had lost its understanding for what a parliament actually stands for.

Monti had made his controversial comment in the context of a warning over the disintegration of the European Union. "The tensions that the eurozone has experienced in recent years, already show the symptoms of a psychological disintegration of Europe," he said. And with his concern about a reversal of EU integration, Monti is not alone; German politicians have also warned of a trend.Even the German government sought to distance itself somewhat. "It is the opinion of the chancellor that in Germany we've done quite well with the involvement of the parliament," deputy government spokesman Georg Streiter said, pointing out that Germany's highest court has recently strengthened the involvement of the parliament in eurzone rescue decisions. Foreign Minister Guide Westerwelle added, "Parliamentary control over Europe policy is beyond discussion."

But German politicians have also contributed to heating up the debate across Europe. Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's CDU, responded to Monti by saying that "the craving for German taxpayers' money has driven Mr. Monti to making a rather undemocratic statement." more

And from London, we see the "horror" many banksters predict coming from the collapse of the Euro.  A trillion of quantitative easing?  Banks nationalized? The horror, the horror.

Eurozone break-up would trigger £1 trillion of QE, see banks nationalised and deep recession, warns Fathom

A Eurozone break-up would plunge the UK into an even deeper recession than the last one, force the Government to nationalise the banks, and trigger a £1 trillion bout of money printing, leading economic consultancy Fathom has warned.

By Philip Aldrick, Economics Editor  31 Jul 2012

According to Fathom Consulting, the economy would shrink by 5.2pc in 2013 if the euro collapsed – a projection that former Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve, speaking at Fathom’s quarterly Monetary Policy Forum, described as “modest”. In 2009, the worst year of the recent recession, the economy shrank by just 4pc.

The warning came as Moody’s, the ratings agency, lowered its UK growth forecast to just 0.4pc this year and 1.8pc in 2013, in the wake of the shock 0.7pc contraction in GDP in the second three months of the year. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development separately said the economy would shrink this year as a whole.

Christophe Andre, acting head of the organisation’s UK desk, said: “The eurozone crisis is going to weigh on the UK in the coming months. Under these circumstances you cannot expect much more than very slow growth. GDP will probably fall in 2012.”

Despite the forecast cut, Moody’s did not change its “negative outlook” on Britain’s AAA rating. However, it warned of “rising challenges in achieving debt reduction within the timeframe laid out by the Government” and said the growth outlook “underscored” the UK’s problems. Last week, Standard & Poor’s reconfirmed Britain’s top-notch rating.

Fathom said it expects the economy to shrink by 0.3pc this year and bounce back to 1.4pc growth in 2013, but to slow down again as Britain’s “debt overhang” weighed on the recovery.

Although not his central forecast, Mr Gabay said a euro break-up would hit Britain hard because “the policy cupboard this time is nearly empty”. To prevent the pound strengthening in a euro crisis, he said the Bank would have to launch a £1 trillion round of quantitative easing. more