Interesting update on the Greek "bailout"

Hanging the debts of Greece etc. on the German taxpayer is not going over well.  Turns out, this plan is plainly illegal and there are some crabby German professors who are taking the plan to court.  This is VERY interesting.

Trashing the German constitution to help the banksters collect uncollectable debts will only postpone the inevitable anyway.  Debts that cannot be paid will not be paid.

Legal noose tightens on Europe's monetary union

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: July 8th, 2010

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has covered world politics and economics for 25 years, based in Europe, the US, and Latin America. He joined the Telegraph in 1991, serving as Washington correspondent and later Europe correspondent in Brussels. He is now International Business Editor in London.

The plot continues to thicken at Germany’s constitutional court, a body with power of life or death over Europe’s monetary union.

Contrary to general belief, Germany’s eurosceptic professors have not abandoned their legal efforts to block the EU rescues for European banks exposed to Greek debt, and since May 7 for banks exposed to debt from Spain, Portugal, and Ireland as well.

Should they succeed, of course, the eurozone risks disintegration within days, and perhaps hours. I am not sure that investors in New York, London, Tokyo, Beijing, or indeed Frankfurt quite understand this.

There are now four cases at the court – or Verfassungsgericht – arguing that these disguised bank bail-outs breach multiple clauses of EU treaty law, and therefore breach Germany’s supreme and sovereign Basic Law.

A quintet of professors – Wilhelm Hankel, Wilhelm Nölling, Joachim Starbatty, Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, and Dieter Spethmann (ex Thyssen CEO) – have just broadened their complaint over the Greek part of the bank rescue to include the new €440bn Stability Facility, which breaks EU law at every turn. more