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Länkar - Regeringen - EU-nämnden - Time Line - Rolf Englund blog - BBC: Eurozone crisis explained - EU Kommissionen - Rådet - Parlamentet

Rogoff - Moderaterna och EMU - Bank run, The beginning of the end - Det Stora Språnget

ECB - EBU Bankunion och Eurobonds - Europakten - Federalism - Freden - Funding - IMF - Last resort - Interndevalvering - EMU Replay of the 30´s
Spricker - Vänta och se - "Sifo"

Cypern - England/Cameron - Frankrike - Grekland - Irland - Italien - Portugal - Spanien - Tyskland

Medborgare mot EMU och Folkomröstningen 2003 - EU-valet 2009

Bildt - Anders Borg - Calmfors - DN - Expressen - Gennser - Isobel Hadley-Kamptz - Hakelius - Carl B Hamilton - KD Göran Hägglund - Mattias Lundbäck - Nils Lundgren
Stefan Löfven - Annie Lööf - Annika Ström Melin - Johan Norberg - Göran Persson - Fredrik Reinfeldt - SvD - de Vylder - Wetterberg - Wohlin - Wolodarski

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Otmar Issing - Martin Wolf - Wolfgang Münchau

Stabilitetspakten - Finanskrisen - Vacklande tidigare Ja-sägare - Junilistan


Medborgare mot EMU

Europaportalen

Peak Oil
Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has drawn attention to the 'overlooked' issue of dwindling oil reserves coupled with rapidly growing and unprecedented global demand
EurActiv 16 January 2008

Rolf Englund blog,
om EMU

Senaste nytt är nu här

Senaste nytt är nu här

Reinfeldt låter som en ny-hooverist om eurokrisen
Reinfeldt leder ett parti och en regering som vill ansluta Sverige till Euroland.
Därför kan han, lika lite som andra EMU-kramare, inte erkänna att det är något fel på tanken på att bunta ihop, slå samman, länder som Tyskland och Grekland, Irland, Spanien och Sverige i något som liknar ett Gross-Jugoslavien.
Rolf Englund blog 11 augusti 2011
Mycket Viktig Artikel, hoppas jag

The risks of what Sir Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, on Wednesday referred to as
the “unimaginable and unmentionable”, by which he meant a disorderly breakdown of the euro,
are high and getting worse.
Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph 10 Aug 2011

Detta är skälen till att jag betraktar euron och EMU som ett felkonstruerat system.
Det som nu händer var väntat av oss euro-motståndare, valutarisken byttes ut mot en kreditrisk. Det var också anledningen till engagemanget på motståndssidan i den svenska euro-omröstningen, även om vi inte såg precis hur illa det skulle gå.
Villy Bergström har varit vice Riksbankschef. Han är socialdemokrat, Avanza bank 8 augusti 2011

The euro: How Europe’s grand dream went sour
David Marsh, MarketWatch Aug. 10, 2011

In the end, Issing suggests the current policy is not merely unattractive from a policy standpoint, it is also doomed to fail.
That is not an anti-European British minister speaking, it is a founding father of the single currency with a deep attachment to the European project.
FT, Brussels blog, 9 August 2011

Politikerna inom EU har inte vågat diskutera det fortsatta ekonomiska samarbetet med befolkningen.
Det kan hota eurons framtid
säger Niklas Bremberg, forskare i statsvetenskap vid Stockholms universitet
DN 9 augusti 2011

On Wednesday Mr Sarkozy summoned members of his government back from holiday for an emergency meeting
In a statement after the two hour meeting in the Elysee Palace in Paris, Mr Sarkozy said France’s pledge to reduce the budget deficit from last year’s 7.1 per cent to 3 per cent by 2013
“will be kept whatever the evolution of the economic situation”
.
Financial Times 10 August 2011

Efter en rad nödutryckningar har attityden från EU:s sida varit att marknaden inte förstått att krispolitiken varit mer än tillräcklig.
I EU drar de politiska viljorna i olika riktningar, vilket understryks när Tyskland nu säger nej till att stödköpa spanskt och italienskt.
SvD-ledare 9 augusti 2011

Angela Merkel face a revolt among supporters over the deal they agreed last month with their 16 eurozone partners
Financial Times August 9, 2011

Slithering to the wrong kind of union
This time the consequence would be to threaten the collapse of the most successful project of economic integration in the history of mankind.
Otmar Issing, Financial Times, August 8, 2011

Alla EU-hatare går med rosiga kinder, självbelåtna leeenden och säger: "Vad var det vi sa, nu brakar det samman. Det här är folkets protest mot eliten." Och så får man stå där och skämmas medan EU-motståndaren tittar på en med en blick... med vetskapen att de alltid får rätt
Stephan Mendel-Enk, Metro, 3/6 2005
Jonas Sjöstedt är den i "Nej till EU"-gänget som behärskar blicken bäst. Han behöver inga argument längre. För att vinna folkomröstningar och tv-debatter behöver han bara blicken och sin förmåga att väsa "EU är på väg att utvecklas till en suuuperstat".

"Det gäller bara Grekland", Mycket fiffigt, Too clever by half,
men allt var fel från början
Rolf Englund blog 2011-07-22

Det börjar likna Cataclysm, banne mig
Rolf Englund blog 4 augusti 2011

If you want to know how the EFSF could implode all of a sudden,
Eurointelligence 29 July 2011

"Det gäller bara Grekland", Mycket fiffigt, Too clever by half,
men allt var fel från början
Rolf Englund blog 2011-07-22

How much closer a union?
Deeper “transfer union” and issuing joint Eurobonds
Charlemagne, The Economist print July 30th 2011

Samuel Brittan about
Christian Saint-Etienne, La fin de l'euro (The End of the Euro)

The agreement included new aid for Greece that embraced bondholders,
prompting Fitch Ratings to say it will put a default rating on Greek debt.
Bloomberg 22 July 2011

Even after Friday’s rebound, the FTSE-Eurofirst 300 banks index is 20 per cent below its February peak
and 66 per cent below its pre-crisis high. German banks index trades at only 0.4 times book value (lower than Greek banks)
from a lame 0.65 times book in the summer of 2009, just after the worst of the financial crisis.
FT Lex 22 July 2011

So what's the EFSF then?
Emma Rowley, Daily Telegraph 22 July 2011

One step back from the abyss
Will it be enough? Of course not.
Stephanie Flanders, BBC Economics editor, 22 July 2011

For Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, this is all a big step towards the creation of a “European Monetary Fund” and, indeed, of a European "economic government".
Charlemagne, The Economist, July 21st 2011

statement by eurozone leaders
www.consilium.europa.eu

Banks across Europe are braced to take as much as 17 billion euro ($24.5 billion) of writedowns on their holdings of Greek sovereign debt within a matter of days. Auditors have argued that the banks must take the hits now, given that almost any scenario for dealing with Greek sovereign restructuring will impair the value of their bond holdings.
Financial Times via CNBC 22 July 2011, 12:45 AM ET

Banks will reduce Greece’s debt by 13.5 billion euros by exchanging bonds and “potentially much more” through a buyback program still to be outlined by governments,
said the Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based group representing banks.

Bloomberg

"Det gäller bara Grekland", Mycket fiffigt,
Too clever by half, men allt var fel från början

Rolf Englund blog 22 juli 2011

Reaktionen auf Griechenland-Paket
Der Spiegel 22 Juli 2011

It appears that the eurozone is forcing Greece into a selective default.
As part of such a package, short-term Greek debt will be more or less forcibly converted into long-term debt.
But the problem of the eurozone is not Greece, or some other small country on its periphery.
The existential danger is the rise in market interest rates of Italy and Spain, two large countries in the eurozone’s core.

Wolfgang Münchau, FT, 21 July 2011, Updated at 15.00 London time

Eurozone agrees new Greek bailout
In Germany, Commerzbank climbed almost 9% and Deutsche Bank rose 3.6%,
while in France Societe Generale and Credit Agricole gained about 6%.

German and French banks are the biggest holders of Greek debt.
BBC 21 July 2011

STATEMENT BY THE HEADS OF STATE OR GOVERNMENT OF THE EURO AREA AND EU INSTITUTIONS
A draft of the proposal document has been leaked from the eurozone summit in Brussels
Daily Telegraph 21 July 2011, 2:40PM BST

1937! So demand will be depressed in both crisis and non-crisis economies;
this will lead to a vigorous recovery through … what?
Paul Krugman, July 21, 2011, 11:51 AM

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, in an article in the Financial Times, is also telling that fiscal union is "necessary".
He recognised that a Conservative chancellor urging closer European integration was a huge change of direction.
Gavin Hewitt, BBC Europe editor, 21 July 2011 09:38 GMT

Daniel Hannan about illelgal eurobonds
Such a scheme will be expensive: it’s hard to see it costing less than a trillion euros.
Most serious of all, it will be illegal.
Article 125 of the European Treaty could hardly be clearer:
“The Union shall not be liable for or assume the commitments of central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of any Member State.”
Rolf Englund blog 21 juli 2011

The eurozone is a modern version of the gold standard
with the expectation that long and painful adjustment processes in deficit countries would unfold without a systemic crisis.
Miguel Carrion, Eurointelligence 19 July 2011

Sarkozy:
The only ones, who totally lack all solidarity, are the Germans.
The German egotism is criminal.
Trichet position easy if you are preparing retirement

Merkel and Sarkozy “listened” to the views of Trichet, the statement said
without saying whether Trichet, who opposes any Greek default, shares their agreed stance.
Bloomberg, July 21, 2011 4:00 AM GMT+0200

The accord between the two most powerful states in the euro zone
will be presented to a crisis summit in Brussels on Thursday starting at 1100 GMT
Reuters 21 July,12:46am EDT

Germany and France reach Greek accord
Germany and France appeared to settle their differences late on Wednesday
Financial Times, July 21 2011,12:03 am

Eurobonds are the only answer to Europe’s crisis
Mario Monti, former European commissioner, Financial Times 20 July 2011

Time is running out for salvaging Greece and, beyond it, Europe’s shared currency, the euro.
Thursday’s emergency summit meeting looms as a Lehman Brothers moment.
New York Times editorial 20 July 2011

Svenska Dagbladet om EMU
från Svegfors till PJ Anders Linder

Rolf Englund blog 21 juli 2011

The eurozone is not a single nation state, yet it has some of the elements and institutions of a nation state.
Inside a nation state, transfers occur between rich and poor regions. In fact, this is one of the key reasons for having a national budget
But such transfers have never seemed remotely possible inside the European Union, because there is insufficient “community spirit” to make them politically feasible.
Gavyn Davies, FT blog July 20, 2011 11:30 am

Euroledarna rådvilla som nakna kejsare
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Rolf Englund blog 20 juli 2011, 22:35

With Italian and Spanish debt yields ever higher, Thursday’s emergency summit offers perhaps the last chance to address it.
If a credible and comprehensive plan to do so does not result, the hour of the euro may well have passed.
FT, Lex, July 20, 2011 12:05 pm

Italian Finance Minister compared Germany and its small-minded Chancellor to a first-class passenger on the Titanic.
When the ship hits the iceberg, everybody goes down together
Rolf Englund blog 20 juli 2011

In an added sign of mounting anxiety ahead of a European Union summit meeting on Thursday,
borrowing from the European Central Bank rose sharply Tuesday,
indicating that many banks were having trouble raising money on open markets.

New York Times 29 July 2011

Ingen kurs för euron
Merkels regering vet inte vad den vill.
Gräl, misstag och opportunism präglar bilden.
DN ledarsidan signerat Gunnar Jonsson 20 juli 2011

It looks like Jean-Claude Trichet and the financial markets have scared the European negotiators,
who will tonight narrow down their list of options into a single proposal for European leaders to rubberstamp at their meeting tomorrow.
the favourite now seems to be a bank levy, imposed in such a way that it would raise the desired €30bn over three years.
Eurointelligence 20 July 2011

Ny EU-skatt fel lösning på grekiskt slöseri
Karl Sigfrid (M), SvD Brännpunkt 20 juli 2011 kl 04:45

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to meet Merkel on Wednesday in Berlin
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Merkel on Tuesday.
CNBC 20 July 2011, 3:32 AM ET

Om EMU:s föregångare, den s k Werner-planen
ur boken "Vår framtid i Europa" av Jan Brännström, Rolf Englund och Claes-Henric Siven
1971, för 40 år sedan, tänk vad tiden går

European officials are considering a tax on financial institutions
according to an EU paper obtained by Bloomberg News.
The one-page document,

dated July 16, lays out three ways to construct a Greek rescue that includes the involvement of private companies.
Bloomberg, July 19, 2011, 6:23 PM EDT

Stephanie Flanders, BBC Economics editor:
But how, exactly, would the euro break up?
Rolf Englund blog 20 juli 2011

The entire point of stress tests is to identify problem banks so they can be closed or recapitalized, and the resulting transparency is supposed to reduce the chances of panic.
' But since Europe's regulators still won't test for the effects of a sovereign default on banks, this year's results—like last year's—won't stop the crisis of confidence in the continent's financial system.
Wall Street Journal 19 July 2011

“Some call it a selective default, some call it a rollover, some call it a debt exchange, some call it a re-profiling. But obviously no one in their right mind accepts that Greece is going to repay on time in full.”
From New York Times

Either a deal is at hand and the town’s leading journalists don’t know about it – or we’re still a long way off with just 48 hours to go.
Financial Times Brussels Blog is betting on the latter
July 19, 2011 9:59 am

A meeting of euro zone leaders on Thursday will not be the final step in the resolution of Greece's debt crisis
"There are other necessary steps to take and not one spectacular result that will solve all problems,"
she /German Chancellor Angela Merkel/ said at a joint news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
CNBC 19 July 2011, 9:23 AM ET

"When the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI (1190-1197), demanded money and men for his projected crusade,
Alexios III (of Byzantium) humiliatingly complied by introducing a nex tax, the infamous Alamanikon or "German tax".
A History of Greece, Nicholas Doumanis

Some are now openly advocating political union as the solution to the crisis.
The former EU Commissioner Emma Bonino was refreshingly candid when I met her in Rome last week.
She believes that a United States of Europe is the answer. She accepted that political union would have to be put to the voters.
Gavin Hewitt, BBC Europe editor, 18 July 2011

Det är kostnadsläget, stupid.
Mohamed El-Erian, Pimco, och Tomas Lundin, SvD Näringsliv, är ense
Rolf Englund blog 19 juli 2011

The euro zone's strategy for dealing with its members' fiscal problems is in tatters,
and it is far from certain that its leaders will be willing and able to come up with a more successful alternative when they meet Thursday.
If they don't, the currency area won't survive
Wall Street Journal 19 July 2011
Very important article, of course

It will help if Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Trichet end their increasingly pointless squabble over private sector involvement in a Greek debt relief package.
But it will not transform Greece’s prospects for escaping from its debt trap, and it will not touch the heart of the matter
– that Europe faces not a mere liquidity problem in a small, sun-kissed Mediterranean state, but a systemic crisis of its monetary union.
Financial Times editorial 18 July 2011

This could even involve a country taking a sabbatical from the eurozone
in order to regain the policy flexibility needed to restore competitiveness
Mohamed El-Erian, Pimco, Financial Times 15 July 2011

Greklands skulder (andras fordringar) skall skrivas ned med 648 miljarder kronor
Det är väl bra att man skriver ner Greklands skulder. Men det betyder att andra förlorar 648 miljarder kronor.
Hur kul är det? Rolf Englund blog 18 juli 2011

Kanske har europeiska ledare inte längre möjlighet att påverka händelseförloppet.
Men i stället för att bara titta på går det att förbereda folk.
En "avvecklingskommission" kan diskutera möjliga scenarier om valutaunionen helt eller delvis går om intet.
Det är också en form av ansvarstagande.
Expressen-ledare 15 juli 2011

Officials in Germany's Finance Ministry are analyzing several models for paring down Greece's debt burden to a more tolerable size. This would involve relieving the country of roughly €70 billion (SEK 648 milljarrder) in debt.
Der Spiegel 18 juli 2011

Jens Weidmann (43) ist seit 1. Mai Präsident der Bundesbank
Click
See also: Otmar Issing

Eurobonds som garanteras av alla medlemsländer
I förlängningen ligger en gemensam finanspolitik och politisk union.
Ska eurozonen räddas måste samtidigt konkurrenskraften i Sydeuropa höjas.
Tomas Lundin, SvD Näringsliv 18 juli 2011

Europe’s political leadership has been, and still is, committing a category error in its approach.
This is not a crisis of a small country at the edge of the eurozone. Nor is this a crisis brought on by rating agencies or speculators.
This is a systemic crisis of a monetary union that refuses to be a fiscal union.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times 18 July 2011

Five years ago, I was among those who argued that the probability of a collapse of the eurozone was close to zero.
Last year, I wrote it was no longer trivial, but small.
I now would put the odds of a break-up of the eurozone at 50:50.
As I argued last week, a eurozone bond is the only solution to the crisis.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times 18 July 2011

A modest proposal
The eurozone can in theory still be saved, if two sets of conditions are fulfilled;
if the leaders of Germany, Austria, Finland, and the Netherlands accept fiscal union and a common pooling of debt, and can persuade their parliaments and courts to ratify such a revolution.
Given that these sovereign diets will not efface themselves lightly, the wise course is to prepare for an orderly break-up of monetary union.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 17 July 2011

I have explained in detail to the Heads of State and Government and to the finance ministers,
on several occasions, that, if a country defaults, we will no longer be able to accept its defaulted government bonds as normal eligible collateral.
Trichet Handelsblatt

How to save the eurozone
No country can be expected to generate huge primary surpluses for long periods for the benefit of foreign creditors
Burdens on Greece, Ireland and Portugal comparable to the reparations’ burdens Keynes warned about in The Economic Consequences of the Peace.
Lawrence Summers, Financial Times, 18 July 2011

How to save the eurozone
In short, the approach of lending more and more from the official sector to countries
that cannot access the market at premium rates of interest is unsustainable
Lawrence Summers, Financial Times, 18 July 2011

Italian public debt has been an accident waiting to happen
This is not because recent budgetary policy has been irresponsible.
Instead, it is because Italy has become trapped by two intractable problems
– a high public debt ratio of around 120 per cent of GDP; and a chronically weak rate of GDP growth,
due to its increasingly uncompetitive production sector.

Gavyn Davies, FT blog 17 July 2011

How to save the eurozone
Teaching investors a lesson is a wish not a policy.
US policymakers were applauded for about 12 hours for their willingness to let Lehman go bankrupt.
Lawrence Summers, Financial Times, 18 July 2011

A question (to which I don’t have the full answer):
Why are the interest rates on Italian and Japanese debt so different?
As of right now, 10-year Japanese bonds are yielding 1.09 %; 10-year Italian bonds 5.76 %
Paul Krugman, July 16, 2011

Trichet reiterated that the ECB will not accept as collateral bonds from a nation that defaults.
“Naturally the Europeans can manage the issue,”
“It is not a question of technique. It is a question of will and determination.”
Bloomberg 17 July 2011

Om unionen ska överleva på sikt krävs en bättre demokratisk förankring än i dag
Alltför länge har EU framför allt varit ett samarbete mellan ländernas regeringar.
Ministrarna och regeringscheferna åker till Bryssel för att förhandla och lösa gemensamma problem.
Men var finns folket, de politiska diskussionerna och den fria press som granskar det som sker?
Annika Ström Melin, Signerat Dagens Nyheters ledarsida, 16 juli 2011

The endgame for Europe is approaching — and much faster than anyone expected
Italy’s bond market turbulence means the EU faces an immediate decision:
political union or scrap the euro
Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, July 13 2011

Habsburg, SvD och Det första världskriget
- Den Europatanke som var så självklar för efterkrigstidens stora européer känns tyvärr i dag, i skuldkrisens och migrationsdebattens EU, som alltför avlägsen och svårgripbar.
- Robert Schumann, Jean Monet och Otto von Habsburg var alla djupt märkta av det förra århundradets långa kedja av katastrofer. Det skriver SvD i en välskriven ledare av Gustaf Almkvist i dag den 16 juli 2011.
Rolf Englund blog

Soon the euro zone may well have to expand the EFSF and allow it to issue jointly guaranteed “Eurobonds”.
It is not a pleasant option. But the alternative could be the end of the euro.
The Economist print editorial, July 14th 2011

What EU leaders once ruled out — a default by a euro-zone nation — has firmly entered the sphere of the possible
Top euro-zone politicians, engaged for months in a string of meetings that have failed to bring agreement on how to provide more aid to Greece, are trying furiously to stamp out the flames of contagion licking at Italy and Spain
Wall Street Journal 14 July 2011

In Europe, politicians are dealing with the legacy of a utopian project
which requires a degree of solidarity that their peoples do not feel.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times, 12 July 2011

Göran Persson: Vi går mot en europeisk federation
"Om vi vill behålla euron måste vi koordinera skattepolitiken i Europa.

Vi går mot en europeisk federation.
Det kanske ligger 30 år bort, men det är inte lång tid när vi talar om den här typen av stora förändringar"
Dagens Industri 14 juli 2011

Moody’s cuts Ireland to junk
The more politicians talk about private-sector participation for Greece,
the greater the risk of a downgrade for Ireland and Portugal.
Eurointelligence 13 July 2011

The eurozone might be on the verge of a fiscal cum financial crisis that destroys not just the solvency of important countries
but even the currency union and, at worst, much of the European project.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times, 12 July 2011

For Euro Zone, It's Euro Bonds or Else
Markets in Europe are being hit hard by fears that the debt crisis will spread to Italy,
which is regarded as too big to rescue. German media commentators say the time has come to
stop the piecemeal bailout efforts and to make the member states share liability for their debt
- via euro bonds

Der Spiegel 12 Juli 2011

Der Euro steht vor der ultimativen Zerreißprobe.
Falls sich die 17 Regierungschefs der Euroländer am Freitag treffen, geht es nur um eine Frage:
Überlebt unsere Einheitswährung?
Die ehrliche Antwort ist: Wir haben eigentlich keine Alternative!
Bildzeitung 12 Juli 2011

Europas ledare möts och pratar, men någon ordning på eurokrisen får de inte.
Röran på finansmarknaderna fortsätter och gäller inte bara Grekland.
Räntetrycket hårdnar även på Italien och Spanien.
DN-ledare signerad Gunnar Jonsson, 13 juli 2011

DN skriver och Svenska Dagbladet tiger om eurokrisen
Rolf Englund blog 13 juli 2011

Analysföretaget Gavekal skriver i ett marknadsbrev att ”den italienska stormen” hotar euroområdets grundvalar.
Med tanke påd en italienska obligationsmarknaden storlek (1.600 miljarder euro,
motsvarande 14.700 miljarder kronor) är det ett test EMU måste klara”, skriver Gavekal.

Viktor Munkhammar DI 13 juli 2011

Friday emergency summit meeting
The acknowledgement of a possible Greek default marks a potential turning point
It came after two days of meetings in Brussels, and against the fierce opposition of the ECB,
which fears that such an occurrence could unleash further turmoil in financial markets and spread contagion
Financial Times July 12, 2011 9:56 pm

A vicious circle at the heart of the eurozone
An excellent article, as so often by
John Plender, Financial Times 12 July 2011
Highly Recommended

Some of Europe's biggest banks are taking steps to shore up their defenses
should the debt crisis spiral out of control

and one or more countries leave the euro zone
Wall Street Journal 13 July 2011

The risk is that what started in Greece
could ultimately reach Portugal, then Spain and finally Italy
John Plender February 2 2010

Politicians cannot contemplate the alternative of sovereign default because
that would put the whole European banking system at risk.
John Plender, Financial Times 12 July 2011

UK and the euro:
Norman Lamont, David Marsh and Charles Kennedy
What was being said in the UK at the birth of the currency, and if the currency can survive
. BBC video 12 juli 2011

DN Special:
Kronan hade inte skuggan av en chans
Norman Lamont, "Yes, but we use common sense"
1996-11-01

Very funny, Do Read!
Debt Crisis Lost in Translation. Until Now
"Ministers reaffirmed their absolute commitment to safeguard financial stability in the euro area."
Means: Thanks for hanging around until midnight, but we really haven't got anything to tell you.
Silvia Wadhwa, CNBC Europe Reporter, 12 Jul 2011

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan on UK role in euro bailout
BBC video 18 May 2011

German banks have launched a stinging attack on the imminent publication of highly detailed information about their holdings,
claiming these could worsen the sovereign debt crisis
Financial Times 11 July 2011

Not so tender trap
In extreme circumstances, a country can get into a “debt trap”,
in which the interest rate on its borrowings exceeds the growth rate of the economy.
Britain has the benefit, unlike Italy, of being outside the euro and
therefore is not locked into an inflexible monetary policy.
The Times editorial 12 July 2011

It seems that quite a number of observers have forgotten what Emu is, and what it is not.
Financial aid from other EU countries or institutions that amounted, directly or indirectly, to a bail-out would violate EU treaties and undermine the foundations of Emu.
Such principles do not allow for compromise.
Once Greece was helped, the dam would be broken. A bail-out for the country that broke the rules would make it impossible to deny aid to others.
Otmar Issing, February 15 2010

For the record
In the absence of a policy response, the eurozone’s financial system may implode within a few days.
Eurointelligence 12 July 2011

The good ship Eurotitanic might maneuver around the tiny ice cubes that are Greece and Portugal,
but it is headed straight toward two huge icebergs: Italy and Spain, the third and fourth largest euro-zone economies.
Irwin Stelzer,director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, WSJ 11 July 2011

A group of far-sighted statesmen, inspired by the vision of a United States of Europe, recognised that this ideal could be approached only gradually, by setting limited objectives, mobilising the political will needed to achieve them and concluding treaties that required states to surrender only as much sovereignty as they could bear politically.
That is how the postwar Coal and Steel Community was transformed into the EU – one step at a time, understanding that each step was incomplete and would require further steps in due course.
George Soros, Financial Times 11 July 2011

Griechenland könnte laut dem weltweit führenden Versicherungsmakler Aon ein Bürgerkrieg drohen.
Risiko für eine „Revolution, einen Staatsstreich oder einen Bürgerkrieg“ als „hoch“
Griechenland liegt damit gleichauf mit Algerien, Bahrain und Iran.
Schlechter sind nur Libyen, Ägypten und Somalia.
Bild-Zeitung 10 Juli 2011

"en viss default"
"Första tecknet på att Euro-gruppen kastar in handduken"
Banker kan tvingas betala för Greklandskrisen
Ekot 11 juli 2011

A spokesman for Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, denied that senior officials would discuss the state of Italy’s finances
But another official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Italy would probably be on the agenda
New York Times 11 July 2011

Germany must now be willing either to buy or guarantee Spanish and Italian debt,
and in doing so to cross the Rubicon to fiscal and political union,
or accept that EMU must break up with calamitous consequences for German foreign policy.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 10 July 2011

Daniel Hannan
Eurosceptic MEP

EBU ett allt större hot - "The only solution is a eurozone bond"
Rolf Englund blog 11 juli 2011 i anledning av Wolfgang Münchau

Från EMU till EBU
"a comprehensive solution to the euro zone's financial and institutional weaknesses"
Rolf Englund blog 10 juli 2011

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mark Hoban, MP and Jack Straw, a former foreign minister, about Greece and the euro
EU Observer 21 June 2011

Man undrar vad EU:s grundare, som var fast beslutna att få ett slut på det Europa där stormakterna bekrigade varandra i allt blodigare krig, skulle säga om dagens EU.
Unionen håller på att bli ett slags monster som växer okontrollerat i alla riktningar.
EU håller på att bli ett överhetsprojekt där en liten privilegierad elit berikar sig själv.
Carl Rudbeck, Sydsvenskan 27 juni 2011

EU är ett fantastiskt och unikt experiment med demokrati på en helt ny nivå.
Aldrig tidigare har det funnits en demokratisk union mellan enskilda stater och medborgare på detta vis.
Därför är det också av mycket stor betydelse för det europeiska samarbetet, och alla dess medborgare, att demokratin är en demokrati fullt ut.
Europaparlamentariker Olle Schmidt (FP), 7 juli 2011

Despite the brave efforts of their governments and people,
few serious economists now deny that Greece, Portugal and Ireland will, at some stage,
need a big reduction in the amount of debt they owe or a large cut in the interest rate that they have to pay.

The Times, editorial, 7 July 2011

The cost of insuring Italian debt rose sharply after the country’s trusted Finance Minister became linked to a corruption scandal
There would be huge repercussions if Italy was badly affected because its economy makes up 16.7 per cent of eurozone GDP, compared with 2.4 per cent by Greece and 1.8 per cent by Portugal.
The Times 9 July 2011

Det talas mycket om europeiskt samarbete. Men låt oss kalla saker vid deras rätta namn.
Den europeiska valutan och Europaparlamentet handlar om någonting annat. Drömmen är att fusionera.
Historiskt har demokratins institutioner byggts parallellt med nationalstaterna.
Det nya är att demokratin skall byggas vid sidan om, ovanför eller till och med i motsats till nationen.
Carl Hamilton i Aftonbladet 1999-06-10

Portugisiska och grekiska bönder vill helt enkelt inte att nogräknade tyskar och svenskar i demokratisk ordning reformerar, det vill säga lägger ned, deras jordbruk.
Carl Hamilton i Aftonbladet 1999-06-10

UniCredit plunged suddenly and investor concerns regarding Italy's sovereign debt and contagion risk escalated.
UniCredit shares were briefly suspended after dropping over 6%
WSJ 8 July 2011

Jean-Claude Trichet said European leaders have failed to grasp the importance of improving economic governance
The Parliament wants to introduce more automatic consequences against countries failing to address their deficits and debt.
Member states say they have negotiated as far as they can go and have submitted a proposal to Parliament for final approval.
Parliament refuses to accept the proposal as final.
WSJ 9 July 2011

EU genomför fördragsändring i smyg, med hjälp av Reinfeldt
Rolf Englund blog 8 juli 2011

Democratization Can't Save Europe
Democracy needs the kinds of conditions that do not exist in Europe today.
The Need for a Centralization of Power
Herfried Münkler, Der Spiegel 8 juli 2011

EU:s ledare har nu enats om huvuddragen i en krishanteringsmekanismen där euroländer som behöver stöd kan få lån
För att inrätta det nya systemet krävs en ändring i EU:s fördrag.
Att öppna för ändringar riskerar att utlösa nya krav på ändringar i andra delar av grundlagen.
Lösningen är att använda en förenklad procedur för ändringar och infoga två meningar i det gällande fördraget.
Det innebär inte att mer makt flyttas från EU-länderna till EU:s institutioner och därmed undviks nya, mångåriga diskussioner och folkomröstningar runt om i EU.
Riksdag och Departement

Toppmötet kommer vidare att besluta om en ändring av artikel 136 i fördraget i enlighet med det beslutsutkast som Europeiska rådet enades om i december – detta för att även fördraget ska bana väg för inrättande av ESM.
Statsminister Fredrik Reinfeldt, EU-nämnden, Onsdagen den 23 mars 2011

Exorcising Lehman Ghost
Hours before Moody’s raised Greece’s default risk to 50 percent
the ECB president gazed at the symbol of unity used by the Holy Roman Empire’s founder and 30 of his successors.
The next day, Trichet called for “historical perspective” when addressing the turmoil afflicting Europe’s common currency.
Bloomberg 8 July 2011

Trichet says leaders can’t repeat the mistakes made by U.S. officials when they let Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. fail.
“No credit event, no selective default, no default,” he said at a press conference in Frankfurt yesterday.
Bloomberg 8 July 2011

The ECB has a total exposure to the troubled economies in excess of 400 bn euro.
The capital and reserves of the European System of Central Banks is only 81 bn euro
Gavyn Davies, Financial Tmes July 7, 2011

The EU authorities are attempting to muzzle free opinion, threatening Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P with vague retribution
Currency unions switch exchange risk into default risk
Agencies totally failed to signal the inherent dangers of EMU a long time ago
They handed out AAAs like confetti
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 7 July 2011

Eventually, governments pursuing ever more austerity
with little or nothing to show for it throw in the towel.
WSJ 8 July 2011

The ECB’s worst nightmare
Queues outside banks
Gavyn Davies, Financial Tmes July 7, 2011

For Europe's elite, the idea of a country leaving the euro is anathema. And that will push them towards shouldering Greece's debt.
But that will only really be possible if the eurozone takes a giant leap towards economic union, and that can only be underpinned by a major shift towards political union.
Gavin Hewitt, BBC Europe editor, 5 July 2011

Jan Kees de Jager, the Dutch finance minister
wants to force participation of private bondholders, irrespective of what the rating agencies say.
“I think we have to accept that a voluntary contribution is unrealistic... If a mandatory contribution from the banks leads to a short-term and isolated rating event, that is not so bad, because Greece cannot go to the credit markets anyway now or in the near future.”
Eurointelligence 8 July 2011

Europe Should Learn From Uruguay
In the 1990s he headed the advisory committees of international banks that negotiated debt-restructuring agreements for Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay
Bill Rhodes, CNBC 7 Jul 2011

East Germany Was and Is Greece
More than 20 years later, the former East Germany is still an economic backwater, with unemployment rates double what they are in the west of the country.
WSJ blog July 7, 2011

Möte på torsdag mellan Frankrikes nye finansminister Francois Baroin och hans tyske kollega Wolfgang Schäuble
Målet är att en fjärdedel ska komma från privata eftergifter, men kreditvärderare har hittills sågat alla förslag.
Förutom grekiska banker är det främst tyska och franska banker som via obligationer i portföljen är exponerade mot den grekiska skuldkrisen.
DN/TT 7 juli 2011

Annie Johansson är den som Centerpartiet helst vill se som ny partiledare
Om drygt en vecka fyller Annie Johansson 28 år
Svenska Dagbladet 7 juli 2011

Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, said a rethink was needed
as talks about “a quantifiable private-sector contribution... had produced no result”
Financal Times, 6 July 2011

Greece, Portugal and Ireland
Most economists, in fact, any serious observer of the situation,
says there will be no solution without a major reduction in the debt of the governments in trouble
The only question is whether private investors will bear the loss or European governments will
Stephanie Flanders, BBC Economics editor, 6 July 2011

Can Greece learn the economic lessons Argentina missed?
By Robert Plummer Business reporter, BBC News 28 June 2011

Greece, Ireland and Portugal
The rescues are failing
Financial Times editorial 6 July 2011

Moment of truth for the eurozone
Martin Wolf, Financial Times, 5 July, 2011

Nice, sort of, chart of Youth Unemployment
Sverige mellan Frankrike och Rumänien
The Economist 5 juli 2011

For a vision of how the Greek debt meltdown is going to end, look no further than the International Monetary Fund's post mortem into a similar crisis that came to a head almost exactly a decade ago - Lessons From The Crisis In Argentina.
Originally published in October 2003, this policy review document was signed off by a then relatively unknown IMF official called Tim Geithner, now the US Treasury Secretary no less.
Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph, 4 July 2011

Lessons from the Crisis in Argentina
Prepared by the Policy Development and Review Department
Approved by Timothy Geithner, October 8, 2003

S&P and Moody’s
"likely a default under our criteria", Moody’s "will only comment on a scheme, once it has been decided"
not a Brady bond. It is a rollover plan
Eurointelligence 5 July 2011

Grekland, Persson och Jens Henriksson
Det blir inte bättre av att det blir sämre
Rolf Englund blog 5 juli 2011

S&P said this morning a French plan to allow Greece to voluntarily change the terms on some of its debts when they come up for repayment would, "likely amount to a default under our criteria".
Daily Telegraph 4 July 2011

Skulle Grekland brännmärkas med "default" av S & P eller Fitch kan den grekiska skuldkrisen förvärras snabbt.
Bedömare befarar en akut likviditetskris på kreditmarknaden långt utanför Greklands gränser, som när Lehman Brothers gick omkull 2008
DI 4 juli 2011

Der Spiegel har blivit Europas ledande EMU-kritiker
Rolf Englund blog 4 juli 2011

Herman Van Rompuy lät till pilgrimsmusslorna cirkulera en flott broschyr på 14 sidor med bilder av Europeiska rådets nya högkvarter som skall stå färdigt om tre år.
Han vill kalla det ”Europa”.
Broschyren kostade knappt en miljon, bygget kostar drygt två miljarder kronor
Rolf Gustavsson, SvD 2 juli 2011

Within just five years, the Greeks want to cut spending by the equivalent of 17 percent of their total GDP in 2010.
Similar Measures Would Crush German Economy
Applying this to Germany would amount to a savings goal of €425 billion -
a gigantic sum that would mean the complete collapse of the German economy
Der Spiegel, 1 July 2011

The Greek rollover pact is like a toxic CDO
By Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times 4 July 2011

This isn't just a mortgage or housing crisis.
At the center of this still-unfolding disaster is the collateralized debt obligation, or CDO.
Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post, December 10, 2007

”Mordet på EU-expressen”
”Vem dödade Europa?” frågade historikern Neil Ferguson i Newsweek
Han jämförde spelet runt den kraschande euron vid en Agatha Christie-deckare
Katrine Kielos, ledare Aftonbladet 30 juni 2011

Greece and Portugal would recover more quickly if they left the euro, devalued,
and then made credit available for private sector led growth.
John Redwood, Telegraph, 3 July 2011

Greece’s austerity plan looks doomed to fail.
It does too little to prevent the epic folly of Greece’s railways and other ruinous schemes.
It will screw down too hard on ordinary Greeks, with new taxes, spending cuts and a rushed privatisation scheme.
And it will almost certainly condemn Greece to recession, strife and an eventual debt default.
The Economist print June 30th 2011

Grekisk stötesen
De 17 euroländernas finansministrar gav grönt ljus för den femte delutbetalningen av nödlånet till Grekland. En utbetalning på sammanlagt 12 miljarder euro, nästan 110 miljarder kronor.
Nu fortsätter arbetet med att skapa helt nytt stödpaket till landet, ett paket som troligtvis kommer att bli ungefär lika stort som det första på 110 miljarder euro eller cirka 1 000 miljarder kronor
Ekot 2 juli 2011

Specter of Years of Stagnating Wages Haunts the Globe
Median male real US earnings have not risen since 1975
Average real Japanese household incomes after taxation fell in the decade to mid-2000s
And those in Germany have been falling in the past 10 years.
Chris Giles, Financial Times, 28 Jun 2011, via CNBC

Grekland
Ett land i en sådan situation - välbekant för svenska politiker som överlevt sjuttiotalet - har två utvägar.
Den första är att devalvera, dvs sänka värdet av den egna valutan. Det innebär att korrigeringen tas upp i växelkursen. Exporten gynnas, importen fördyras.
Den andra är att ta korrigeringen i produktion och sysselsättning. BNP faller, arbetslösheten ökar.
Grekland hör inte hemma i eurozonen.
Nils-Eric Samdberg, Kristianstadsbladet 30 juni 2011

EU-momsen och 10 miljarder kr mer till EU ger kvinnokamp mellan Birgitta Ohlsson och Cecilia Malmström
Media 1 juli 2011

The plan seems to do too little to help Greece, and too much to help the banks.
The Economist print June 30th 2011

Jeffrey Sachs, Grekland och Persson
Inte ens Jeffrey Sachs har funnit den Holy Grail som skall få Grekland att, inom Euroland, återfå sin tillväxt utan D-ordet, Default.
Rolf Englund blog 1 juli 2011

Jeffrey Sachs och chockterapin i den fd monetära unionen Jugoslavien
"Professor Pelotard" blogkommentar 1 juli 2011

The difficulties facing the real economy, the contraction of bank credit in combination with ongoing capital flight and record unemployment, in particularly among young people, make Papandreou’s endeavors this week a herculean task. Greece’s social fabric and its economic stability are being challenged like never before since 1945.
Jens Bastian, Visiting Fellow for the Political Economy of Southeast Europe at St Antony’s College in Oxford, Eurointelligence 1 July 2011

Italien
Rome is expected on Thursday to approve an austerity drive worth up to 68 bn dollar in savings by 2014,
in a move aimed at reassuring the markets and its European partners on its fiscal discipline.
Financial Times 29 juni 2011

The EU must step toward fiscal and political union
Peter Mandelson, Financial Times, June 27, 2011

EU genomför fördragsändring i smyg
- Räddningsfonden (European Stability Mechanism, ESM) kräver en mindre ändring av EU:s fördrag.
Toppmötet i midsommarhelgen noterar att den fördragsändringen nu är färdig. Det skrev Mats Hallgren i SvD Näringsliv
Rolf Englund blog 30 juni 2011

Throughout the eurozone crisis the EU has insisted that Greece carry out the impossible in order to stave off the inevitable.
This approach cannot succeed indefinitely.
Lex, Financial Times, 29 June 2011

Stefan Fölster menar att en nedskrivning av Greklands skulder är oundviklig.
– Det är egentligen inte en Greklandskris utan en bankkris
Stefan Fölster intervjuad i Sv D Näringsliv 28 juni 2011

Det är en i Sverige vanlig uppfattning att det var Göran Perssons motsvarande nedskärningar som satte fart på den svenska ekonomin. Nedskärningarna räddade landet, tror många.
Det som satte fart på den svenska ekonomin var att kronan sjönk och dollarn steg när Carl Bildt hade gjort sitt misslyckande.
Rolf Englund blog 29 juni 2011

Were the Eurosceptics right?
Gavin Hewitt, BBC Europe editor, 22 June 2011

Man bör inte avfärda alternativet att landet lämnar valutasamarbetet.
Politisk prestige ska inte hålla kvar Grekland oavsett pris för landet eller eurozonen som helhet.
DN, huvudledare 30 juni 2011

"The euro is a very good thing and it's important that we keep it," he said. "It's good for the consumer and good for business." "The euro is fine.
It's not in crisis."
Joe Kaeser, chief financial officer of German industrial company Siemens AG

Eurobonds, bondage och Vägen till träldom enligt Hayek
Rolf Englund blog 23 juni 2011

Other countries have achieved the kind of permanent budgetary adjustment that the IMF is looking for in Greece,
but it is hard to find one that has done so without the benefit of a cheaper currency.

Stephanie Flanders, BBC Economics editor, 21 June 2011

The country owes about 325 billion euros and has an annual gross domestic product of about €225 billion.
Within two years, debt will rise to 160% of GDP, from 140% now, notes Lombard economist Charles Dumas.
Greece pays roughly 10% of GDP in interest costs alone and is staring at a likely third straight year of GDP contraction, says Dumas

A bondholder contribution was “always meant to be voluntary,” Merkel told a German Parliament committee today in Berlin.
She said no solution is possible without the support of the ECB, which warned that a compulsory role risked triggering Greek default and contagion.
Bloomberg 22 June, 2011

When an outcome is inevitable, it is necessary to plan for it.
A default is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for a return to economic health.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times 21 June 2011

The alleged case of a successful internal devaluation — that of Latvia
Could the Eurozone Break Up?
Possible Over a Five-Year Horizon

Nouriel Roubini via John Mauldin 18/6 2011

Satsa på en hästkur av samma kraft som Lettland!
Den Atenska smittan kan sprida sig och få förfärliga effekter
Från svensk horisont är det inte så mycket annat att göra än att hoppas
PJ Anders Linder, SvD 2 maj 2010

USA:s president och alla vi andra borde inte bekymra oss om Liran och Drachman
Rolf Englund blog 21 juni 2011

We are where we are because of the astounding arrogance and incompetence of the European political elite.
They cannot say they were not warned. Largely, but not exclusively, from this island, euro-sceptic economists waxed lyrical about the dangers of uniting so many disparate countries in a monetary union without real convergence or robust, common fiscal and political institutions.
They were vilified by the establishment, here and on the continent.
Roger Bootle, Daily Telegraph 20 June 2011

/Grekland skall/ sälja ut några statsägda bolag till privata intressenter, helst så många som ett stort bolag var tionde dag om kalkylen ska hålla.
På frågan om vad man då ska göra om Greklands parlament inte antar reformpaketet före månadsslutet, kunde Juncker inte svara, bara rycka på axlarna.
Teresa Küchler, SvD Näringsliv 21 juni 2011

Denmark’s central Governor Nils Bernstein has said he supports joining the currency.
“The next euro referendum shouldn’t be held until it’s clear that the answer will be yes, because otherwise it’ll be a long time before one can hold another vote on the matter,”
Bernstein said yesterday in an interview.
Bloomberg 21 June 2011

Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet är pinsamma om EMU och Grekland
Rolf Englund blog 21 juni 2011

German Banks ask for state guarantees as a condition for private sector involvement
This is a quite a funny story.
The German banks are willing to share the pain for a second Greek rescue package but only it there are state guarantees,
Financial Times Deutschland reports, Eurointelligence 21 June 2011.

The real problem is political and cultural.
There is not a strong enough common political identity in Europe to support the single currency.
That is why German, Dutch and Finnish voters are revolting against the idea of bailing out Greece again – while Greeks riot against what they see as a new colonialism imposed from Brussels and Frankfurt.
Gideon Rachman, 20 June 2011

Recent public commitments stating the EU would ensure Greece remains solvent through next year were thought to be enough to secure the backing of the IMF
But amid continuing disagreement between eurozone countries over the terms of a new bail-out, IMF officials told the emergency gathering they needed firmer commitments before making the payment
Financial Times 20 June 2011

Germany's chancellor wants "a substantial contribution" from private creditors
who are due to be repaid some €64 billion by 2014.
If those creditors baulk but are nevertheless coerced into rolling over their loans, enter the credit agencies and the ECB, for both of whom a forced rollover is, dare we say it, a default.
Irwin Stelzer, director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, WSJ 20 June 2011

- Man vill att det ska kallas frivilligt.
För om det inte vore frivilligt utlöses ett så kallat credit event, och det skulle få enorma konsekvenser,
säger Pär Magnusson, Royal Bank of Scotlands skandinaviske chefsanalytiker.
SvD Näringsliv 20 juni 2011

Why spend seven hours behind closed doors, only to decide to wait and see?
After seven gruelling hours in Luxembourg, which included a video conference with colleagues from G7 countries, the finance ministers of the 17 countries of the euro zone decided to delay until July the disbursement of €12 billion ($17 billion)
Charlemagne's notebook, The Economist June 20th 2011

Time for Plan B
How the Euro Became Europe's Greatest Threat
The currency union chains together economies that are simply incompatible.
SPIEGEL Staff 20 June 2011
Very Important Article

How can you revitalise Greece?
It hasn't really got any exports apart from olive oil and it
relied on a cheap currency in the past to encourage tourism
Andy Brough, fund manager at Schroders told CNBC. 20 June 2011

Threats are only worth making if those making the threats could actually carry them out
If this eurozone brinkmanship nudges the Greek parliament to reject the further budget squeeze, we'll be closer than is remotely prudent or sensible to a 1930s-style financial and economic disaster.
Robert Peston, BBC Business editor, 20 June 2011

Every intervention so far has pretended that the crisis is one of liquidity, which can be solved by making loans to the troubled banks and governments in question.
Since there has been no open admission of default or debt restructuring by any of the troubled nations, the banking sector has not been forced to write down debt and raise more capital.
Gavyn Davies, FT blog June 19, 2011

Fiffigheten är stor i Eurokrisen
I och med att det är likviditetsproblem, inte solvensproblem, kan bankerna och de andra kreditgivarna fortsätta att låtsas som om deras fordringar är OK och inte behöver skrivas ner.
Rolf Englund blog 20 juni 2011

Svenska Dagbladet, Nationalstaten, Kungen och Europas Förenta Stater
- I Sverige förekommer sällan något försvar för nationalstaten som koncept, annat än när man diskuterar ett tänkt Palestina eller Kurdistan.
Det skrev Svenska Dagbladet genom sin ledarskribent Per Gudmundson i dag den 19 juni 2011.
Rolf Englund blog

Nouriel Roubini has called this “fiscal union by stealth”.
Perhaps it is politically more feasible than a more open approach, because it is not sufficiently understood by the public,
Gavyn Davies, FT blog June 19, 2011

Eurokrisen:
När är en händelse som i Wien inte ett event?
Ett event som kan utlösa Credit Default Swaps?

Rolf Englund blog 19 juni 2011

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the eurozone group of finance ministers said
Germany was "playing with fire" with a plan to involve private creditors in resolving the crisis.
His comments come as finance ministers prepare to meet in Luxembourg.
BBC 19 June 2011

The ratings agencies have all said this is almost certain to be considered a default.
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy became the latest in a series of EU leaders to cite the so-called Vienna Initiative as a template for how private creditors might agree to roll over Greece’s debts.
The initiative was mainly a commitment by Western banks to keep capital in their subsidiaries in Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and maintain loan volumes in those countries.
Wall Street Journal June 17, 2011

Could Greek default equal Lehman's bust?
Richard Quest explains if Greece defaults on its sovereign debt
CNN Video 17 June 2011

Det en grotesk idé att utse Christine Lagarde till ny IMF-chef
Hon är ju helt jävig! Eurozonen är i total kris och Frankrike och Tyskland måste finansiera en långvarig räddningsaktion delvis för att rädda sina egna banker.
Nils Lundgren 26:e maj 2011

Annie Johansson (C) ångrar ett politiskt beslut:
att hon röstade nej till att byta krona mot euro 2003.

Mars 2009, citerat på Rolf Englund blog 18 juni 2011

Baksidan av de massiva nedskärningarna är att ekonomin krymper,
vilket bara gör det svårare att betala skuldberget.

DN-ledare, signerad Gunnar Jonsson, 18 juni 2011

The bail-out strategy that rescued Europe’s peripheral economies is proving insufficient.
This threatens the whole project of European integration
The Economist print Jun 16th 2011

Tyskland och Frankrike har "funnit en lösning" i frågan om den privata sektorns deltagande i stödet för Grekland.
"Detta är ett genombrott" i frågan om obligationsinnehavarnas deltagande.
e24, 2011-06-17

Svenska Dagbladet åter i EMU-debatten!
Strukturreformerna är bra oavsett om de på sikt klarar av att blåsa tillräckligt liv i landet
Rolf Englund blog 17 juni 2011

Andes Borg å ena och å den andra sidan om eurokrisen
Ekot 17 juni 2011

French banks had the most exposure, at $65 billion
U.S. banks had total exposure of $41 billion to Greece by the end of 2010,
according to the latest figures, issued June 9, from BIS.
Market Watdch 16 June 2011

IMF has blinked in the battle over how - and when - to agree a second European rescue package for Greece.
It is now almost certain that Greece will get the official money it needs to stay above water a few more weeks
Stephanie Flanders, BBC Economics editor, 16 June 2011

June 19
“If the no confidence motion fails, the market reaction is just the beginning,” Charles Diebel, head of market strategy at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets in London, wrote in a note.
“Then Armageddon scenarios come into play, which include default and potentially the whole contagion scenario plays out.”
Papandreou said he would announce his new lineup today and then call the confidence vote. Such debates typically take three days with the ballot at midnight,
making the vote likely on the evening of June 19
Bloomberg 16 June 2011

De stora pojkarna, stats- och regeringscheferna i Europeiska Rådet, Europeiska Unionens motsvarighet till Sovjetunionens Politbyrå, skall träffas den 23-24 juni. Men
deras finansministrar skall nu åter träffas den 19 juni,
en dag tidigare än planerat, förmodligen är tanken att de då skall ställa sig bakom Den Fransk-Tyska lösningen.
Rolf Englund blog 15 Juni 2011

Om en folkomröstning om euron hade hållits i maj i år skulle cirka
64 procent av svenskarna ha röstat nej och bara 24 procent skulle ha röstat ja.
Cirka 12 procent uppger att de är osäkra, enligt SCB
SvD 15 juni 2011

EU:s räddningsfond för krisländer måste byggas ut kraftigt. Det säger nu Nout Wellink, styrelseledamot i ECB.
EU:s kommande permanenta räddningsfond är tänkt att innehålla 750 miljarder euro, nästan 7 000 miljarder svenska kronor,
men Nout Wellink säger nu att fonden bör dubbleras, upp till 1 500 miljarder euro, eller runt 14 000 miljarder kr.
Ekot 16 juni 2011

The humiliation of Greece
Some say that Greece has become a protectorate of the EU.
Certainly the intervention from outside in Greece's internal affairs is unprecedented. The Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, flies off to meetings to learn the terms of his surrender.
Gavin Hewitt, BBC Europe editor 15 June 2011

The Nonsense of purely voluntary Bail-ins
Nouriel Roubini Eurointelligence 16 June 2011

The outcome will be a purely voluntary rescheduling,
which is a euphemism for “no rescheduling”,
as nobody in their right mind would voluntarily take up any exchange offer, and to the extent they do, the rating agencies, and everybody else, will conclude that they have been forced.
Eurointelligence 15 June 2011

The central problem is a standoff between bailout-shy politicians and instability-fearing central bankers.
The assumption has been that they would come to their senses and make a deal to forestall catastrophe.
But their little game of chicken souvlaki now threatens to jolt Europe and perhaps the world with a new financial disaster.

CNN 15 June 2011

European finance ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday in an effort to narrow differences over a €172bn ($247bn) rescue package for Greece.
FT 13 June 2011

Trichet vilseleder om EMU och USA
Rolf Englund blog 14 juni 2011

Without mentioning Greece directly, Ms. Merkel said
"we simply mustn't permit the uncontrolled default of a country."
Ms. Merkel compared the situation to the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
The repetition of "such a thing absolutely needs to be avoided," she warned.
Wall Street Journal 11 June 2011

"lack of discipline in countries such as Greece and Portugal was matched only by the build-up of asset bubbles in others like Spain and Ireland"
The muddle-through approach to the eurozone crisis has failed to resolve the fundamental problems of economic and competitiveness divergence within the union.
If this continues the euro will move towards disorderly debt workouts,
and eventually a break-up of the monetary union itself, as some of the weaker members crash out.

Nouriel Roubini, Financial Times 13 June 2011

Dagens Nyheters halvkvädna visa om Greklands skulder
Rolf Englund blog 11 juni 2011

"serious consequences"
Finance Minister Schäuble warned of the consequences of a Greek default.
"The situation in Greece, and hence in Europe, is serious," he said. He insisted on the importance of securing the next round of aid payments for Greece, worth €12 billion ($17.4 billion), which is due at the start of July.
"If this tranche is not paid out, there is an acute danger of a Greek insolvency, with serious consequences for the stability of the whole euro zone," he said.
Der Spiegel 10 June 2011

WarGames: Chicken-Race mellan Berlin och Frankfurt
“The central bank equivalent of nuclear deterrence: defy us and we will blow up the world”
Rolf Englund blog 10 juni 2011

Eurokrisen är alltså över? Fel.
Skulderna måste skrivas ned. Det är bättre att göra det
medan det finns några privata investerare kvar att dela notan med

DN-ledare 11 juni 2011

“We have to insist on the participation of the private sector,”
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told lawmakers in Berlin today,
ignoring warnings from credit-rating firms that his proposal to extend Greek debt maturities by seven years
would be deemed a default.
A working group set up this week is charged with indentifying
“a good solution for the involvement of the private sector that can and has to be supported by the European Central Bank,” he said.
Bloomberg, 10 June 2011

"There is no need for private-sector involvement," ECB executive board member Jürgen Stark told reporters
"I see it only as a political issue for political reasons, not for economic reasons."
Mr. Stark's opposition to any Greek debt restructuring echoed the position staked out by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet
But Mr. Stark's remarks were more blunt, and suggested the ECB's antirestructuring position is so entrenched
that it can't compromise without seriously eroding its credibility.
Wall Street Journal 10 June 2011

When the European politicians who are managing the sovereign debt crisis bailed out Greece, Ireland and Portugal
they did not merely do something that exceeded their powers, they violated an explicit prohibition on such bail-outs.
Jamie Whyte, Financial Times, 8 June 2011

The German constitutional court in Karlsruhe said it would hold a hearing on challenges to last year’s Greece rescue package on July 5.
Financial Times 9 June 2011

New York Times dömer ut försöken att "vinna tid" genom nya pålagor på det grekiska folket
Rolf Englund blog 7 juni 2011

IMF's statutes stipulate that the organization can only lend a country money if it is certain that the state will be able to meet its payment obligations for the next 12 months.
The new report has now made it clear that Greece is not in a position to guarantee that, meaning that the IMF cannot transfer any more money
"The next disbursement cannot take place before this underfinancing is resolved," the report concludes.
This in turn means that Europe will have to come up with a new rescue package. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble estimates that Greece will need €90 billion /drygt 800 miljarder kronor/ to cover its funding needs between 2012 and 2014
Der Spiegel, 9 June 2011

European banks had $188 billion at risk from the government debt of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain
at the end of 2010, according to a report this week from the Bank for International Settlements.
European lenders held $52.3 billion in Greek sovereign debt, with German banks owning the biggest share
Bloomberg 7 juni 2011

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet yesterday gave his first signal endorsing measures to encourage investors to buy new Greek bonds to replace maturing securities.
While Trichet said he’s against imposing losses on creditors, he indicated he’d approve of financial institutions maintaining their level of outstanding credit.
“That is not a default,” he said
“That is something the ECB would consider appropriate.”
Bloomberg 7 juni 2011

ECB has a total exposure of about 444 bn euros to 'struggling eurozone economies'
The bank is now "23 to 24 times levered" as a result of bailing out Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
Open Europe, 6 June 2011

Frankfurter Allgemeine;
Deutsche Banken bangen mit Griechenland

The irony of all this is that Germany would take the biggest hit if there was the private sector participation that Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble are always asking for.
Eurointelligence 7 June 2011

Ingredients of a European political union
The European Council will probably step back from the brink at its meeting on June 23-24, agreeing a new loan for Greece.
The alternative is a messy, disorderly Greek default in July.
And then they will have to do it again for Ireland, and for Portugal.
By 2014, the vast majority of Greek, Irish and Portuguese debt will be guaranteed by the other member states. What then?
Wolfgang Münchau, FT, June 5 2011

The global fallout of a eurozone collapse
Kenneth Rogoff, Financial Times 6 June 2011

Fy skam, fy skam, för ingen ville ha den
Rolf Englund blog i anledning av Rolf Gustavsson och invasionen i Normandie den 6 juni

Genom finanskrisen håller EU på att få den förstärkta ekonomiska samordning som politikerna avvisade vid toppmötet i Maastricht för tjugo år sedan.
Dagens generation politiska ledare kan tvingas ta sådana steg – för att rädda den gemensamma valutan.
Den förstärkta politiska sammanhållningen kan komma bakvägen, trots att ingen verkar vilja ha den.
Rolf Gustavsson, SvD 5 juni 2011

Delstaterna, eller förbundsländer som de heter i Tyskland, har en hög grad av självständighet. När det gäller att driva in skatter är de visserligen bakbundna av federala regler.
Däremot har det varit fritt fram att låna pengar. Det har de också gjort i enorm skala det senaste decenniet.
Flera av de tyska delstaterna är lika stora låntagare som några av Europas länder.
Ännu mer bekymmersamt för Angela Merkel är de tyska bankerna.
Andreas Cervenka, SvD Näringsliv 5 juni 2011

Today the French government is working overtime to make sure that a Sarkozy loyalist, the leader of his economic team — Finance Minister Christine Lagarde — becomes the next managing director.
Why do France and other euro-zone countries now care so much about who runs the I.M.F.?
Simon Johnson, the former chief economist at the IMF, New York Times June 2, 2011

Om euron kollapsar
Marianne Björklund, DN, 4 juni 2011

Merkel följer folkets vilja
Kärnkraften har ingen framtid
Aftonbladet ledare, signerad Katrine Kielos, 2011-05-31

What happens when Greece defaults. Here are a few things:
Andrew Lilico, Daily Telegraph, May 20th, 2011

Pengarna "till Grekland" går till bankerna
Rolf Englund blog 4 juni 2011

Jag vill understryka att detta inte på något vis kan sägas vara någon ensidigt portugisisk lättsinnighet.
Kreditgivarna – främst tyska och franska banker – var lika glada att få låna ut som portugiserna var att få låna.
Klas Eklund i SEB-rapport 27 maj 2011

Gavin Hewitt, Europe editor, BBC, om Trichet:
In his vision, the crisis in the eurozone is an opportunity for a great leap forward towards ever closer union
Rolf Englund blog 3 juni 2011

The eurozone, as designed, has failed.
It was based on a set of principles that have proved unworkable at the first contact with a financial and fiscal crisis.
It has only two options: to go forwards towards a closer union or backwards towards at least partial dissolution. This is what is at stake.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times, 31 May 2011

“There is no crisis of the euro,” Mr Trichet declared
Speaking in Aachen, Germany, Mr Trichet called for a European Union that would be “a confederation of sovereign states of an entirely new type”.
FT 2nd June 2011

Säga vad man vill om Göran Persson, men få kan som han fånga ett auditorium. Och så är det fortfarande.
Solbränd, avspänd och med en och annan sedvanligt bitsk släng levererade den förre statsministern funderingar kring rapporten ”Makten i Europa”
Annika Ström Melin, Signerat, DN 1 juni 2011

Trichet, Karl den Store och Göran Persson hos SNS
Rolf Englund blog 2 juni 2011

Jean-Claude Trichet is apoplectic at the loose talk of debt restructuring.
The ECB’s president fully appreciates the real risks of contagion from a Greek debt restructuring to the rest of the periphery.
He also knows that all too much of the cumulative $1,000bn in sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal sits on the French and German banks’ balance sheets.
Desmond Lachmann, Financial Times May 30 2011

He also favors giving the European Union powers to veto the budget measures of countries
Trichet said governments should consider setting up a finance ministry for the 17-nation euro region
“Would it be too bold, in the economic field, with a single market, a single currency and a single central bank, to envisage a ministry of finance of the union?”
Trichet said in a speech today in Aachen, Germany.
Bloomberg 2 june 2011

While Europe is preoccupied with a possible restructuring of Greece's debt, huge risks lurk elsewhere
-- in the balance sheet of the European Central Bank.
The guardian of the single currency has taken on billions of euros worth of risky securities as collateral for loans to shore up the banks of struggling nations.
Der Spiegel 24/5 2011 with good links

Fast i skuldfällan - Grekland stramar åt men inget hjälper
EU:s och IMF:s krisrecept har prövats i ett år, men medicinen verkar inte.
DN-ledare 30 maj 2011

Officials warned, however, that almost every element of the new package faced significant opposition from at least one of the governments and institutions involved in the current negotiations and a deal could still unravel.
In addition, the European Central Bank remains opposed to any restructuring of Greek debt that could be considered a “credit event” – a change in terms that could technically be ruled a default.
Financial Times May 29 2011

Snaran dras åt kring Grekland
Grekland allt närmare utländsk tvångsförvaltning
Europeiska ledare förhandlar om ett avtal som kommer att innebära en oöverträffad intervention i Grekland ekonomi, med utländskt inflytande över skattepolitiken och privatiseringar i utbyte mot nya nödlån
DI 30 maj 2011

Co-Founder Of Reaganomics, Paul Craig Roberts:
"There Is Probably More Democracy In China Than There Is In The West"
not in Greece, not in Ireland, not in the UK, not here, the outcomes are always to punish the innocent and reward the guilty.
Youtube via Zerohedge 23 May 2011

Today, 30 May 2011, I claim to have invented the phrase
The Monnetanisation of Europe
Rolf Englund

Varför ingen har skrivit en avslöjande insiderskildring från Ja till euro-kampanjen 2003,
måste vara ett av de största mysterierna i svensk politik.

Katrine Kielos, Fokus, 27 maj 2011

Continental Drift
What is next for the Euro and for Europe?
BBC World Service Radio

Greek leaders meeting in Athens have failed to agree
on Prime Minister George Papandreou's new austerity plan.

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras rejected the measures,
saying they would "flatten the Greek economy and destroy Greek society".
BBC 27 May 2011

Grekland står nu på randen till statsbankrutt.
Detta efter att ledarna för landets politiska partier i dag har misslyckats att enas
om åtgärder för att lösa den akuta ekonomiska krisen.
Ekot 27 maj 2011

After the creation of the euro in 1999, European nations that had previously been considered risky, and that therefore faced limits on the amount they could borrow, began experiencing huge inflows of capital.
After all, investors apparently thought, Greece/Portugal/Ireland/Spain were members of a European monetary union, so what could go wrong?
Paul Krugman, New York Times, 22 May 2011

It’s now clear that Greece, Ireland and Portugal can’t and won’t repay their debts in full, although Spain might manage to tough it out
Paul Krugman, New York Times, 22 May 2011

Eurogroup’s Jean-Claude Juncker has just lobbed this hand grenade into the market place
IMF will only release the next tranche of its funding for Greece if the source of Greece’s funding needs over the next twelve months is clear. Which it isn’t.
Neil Hume, FT Alphaville May 26 2011

The first thing Silvia Huelves was told when she started studying architecture was that she should take up Chinese or Japanese - she was never going to build anything in Spain any time soon.
It wasn't criticism of her skills but a reflection on the state of the country, where the jobless rate among 16-24-year-olds is a staggering 45 percent and a construction sector slump caused nearly two years of recession.
CNBC 27 May 2011

"Eurokrisen ökar klyftan mellan folk och eliter"
Lissabonfördraget innebar ännu ett steg mot mer EU, som stora opinioner inte önskade sig
SvD-ledare 25 maj 2011

I dagens SvD skriver Claes Arvidsson om krisen i eurozonen och vrider händerna i ångest
I förbigående säger Arvidsson att det inte går att skylla på euron.
Ett sådant påstående är politiskt korrekt och anses därför inte behöva analyseras och ledas i bevis av ledarskribenter.
Och visst är det politiskt korrekt. Problemet är att det är ekonomiskt och statsvetenskapligt inkorrekt.
Nils Lundgren på ain blog "My correct views on everything", 25 maj 2011

The German constitutional court has almost no other choice than to rule that EU law was violated.
After all it was Christine Lagarde who told the Wall Street Journal recently.
“We have violated all rules of law because we agreed that we really wanted to save the eurozone.”
Eurointelligence 24 May 2011

Tusentals greker i fredlig protest mot sparplaner
De kom från alla håll och kanter till Syntagmatorget och ställde sig framför det grekiska parlamentet i Aten. Unga, gamla, föräldrar med barn i barnvagn och på axlarna.
Kravallpolisen var där som vanligt. Fullt utrustad med gasmaskerna på. Beredda att använda tårgas vilken sekund som helst på nytt. Men efter en halvtimma tog de av sig maskerna.
Ekot 26 maj 2011

Det allmänna stödet för EU förblev intakt, även om stödet för euron störtdök, utropar Sieps som en regeringens Bagdad Bob
Sieps var en gång en förhållandevis aktad organisation med viss akademisk prägel
Nu är budskapen mer i Gunnar Hökmarks anda
Rolf Englund blog 25 maj 2011

EU bör kunna dra tillbaka visumfriheten för medborgare i vissa länder om det plötsligt kommer många migranter därifrån.
Det här säger i dag EU:s ansvariga kommissionär Cecilia Malmström,

som anser att tusentals personer från Serbien och Makedonien har missbrukat EU:s visumfrihet
Ekot 24 maj 2011

“Events in Greece have brought the euro area to a crossroads:
the future character of European monetary union will be determined by the way in which this situation is handled.”

Jens Weidmann, Bundesbank president and European Central Bank governing council member, Hamburg, 20 May, 2011
Financial Times, Ralph Atkins, May 24 2011 22:35

Concluding remarks at the Banque de France / Deutsche Bundesbank Spring Conference on “Fiscal and Monetary Policy Challenges in the Short and Long Run”
Dr Jens Weidmann, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Hamburg 20 May 2011

Greklands regering antog ett nytt paket med utgiftsnedskärningar och försäljningar av statlig egendom
Regeringen söker nu rådgivare för försäljning av statens andelar i Hellenic Telecommunication, Public Power Corp och ett flertal ytterligare företag.
Dagens Industri 24 maj 2011

The Spanish people have finally found their voice. For over a week they have been occupying squares across the country to protest at unemployment. For 16- to 24-year-olds, 43% are without work.
What unites the protesters is a desire for a change, a sense that the "establishment has failed an entire generation". Having taken to the streets they might not accept further austerity if it was needed.
So Spain is once again troubling markets and officials. A weak government is caught between needing to enforce spending cuts and protesters demanding work.
Gavin Hewitt, Europe editor, BBC, 23 May 2011

The one person at the summit to speak positively about the euro's prospects isn't even in it – Sweden's pony-tailed finance minister Anders Borg
He'd like to join, he said, but recognised the likely cost to Sweden of full participation in the bail-out fund – some 6pc of GDP – makes it a political impossibility.
Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2011

Merkel’s Christian Democrats shellshocked after Bremen elections
A disaster for Angela Merkel’s CDU. Coming in third behind the Greens is traumatic for the Christian Democrats
Eurointelligence 24 May 2011

Den europeiska byråkrati som Menasse imponeras av och som Enzensberger gisslar i EU-kommissionen har under senare år blivit allt mer förvaltande och allt mindre av den pådrivande motor som hyllas i retoriken.
Detta försvårar lösningen på den problematik som både Menasse och Enzensberger brottas med, nämligen den europeiska demokratiska kontrollen.
Rolf Gustavsson, SvD 21 maj 2011

Makten i Europa
Presentation av Demokratirådets rapport SNS 2011
Göran Persson och Birgitta Ohlsson kommenterar

SNS Tisdagen den 31 maj klockan 09.00-12.00. Jakobsbergsgatan 18

Tiotusentals spanjorer trotsade natten till lördagen demonstrationsförbudet och fortsatte att protestera mot åtstramningar, arbetslöshet och korruption.
Runt om på torg i de stora städerna har människor slagit läger för att kräva förändring.
SvD 21 maj 2011

Spanish protests in pictures
BBC and Youtube

Greklands regering kommer inom de närmaste dagarna att annonsera åtgärder för att
minska budgetunderskottet med mer än 6 miljarder euro /SEK 54 miljarder/
e24 2011-05-18

Rolf Gustavsson får Publicistklubbens stora pris
9 maj 2011

SOM-institutet har funnit att svenska folkets stöd för EU-medlemskapet är rekordhögt (53%), medan stödet för euron har rasat till den lägst nivån någonsin.
17 maj 2011

ECB har, det senaste året, köpt grekiska statsobligationer för 404 miljarder kronor
Rolf Englund blog 19 maj 2011

The confusing debate about “reprofiling” or soft restructuring pays testimony to the sheer incompetence of eurozone’s finance ministers,
who are now effectively talking Greece into a damaging, and most likely contagious default.

The FT reports that Jean-Claude Trichet walked out of a recent meeting chaired by Jean-Claude Juncker in protest.
FT Deutschland reports this morning that Trichet told finance ministers on Monday night that the ECB would respond to a reprofiling by refusing to buy any new Greek debt instruments (meaning it will not be part of any voluntary arrangement in respect of its own Greek debt portfolio).
Furthermore, the ECB would refuse to supply the Greek banking system with any further liquidity.
Eurointelligence 19 May 2011

The total cost to taxpayers in Germany and other creditor countries of supporting Greece, Ireland and Portugal will be much higher than seemed likely last year
because last year’s bailout funds were largely spent on repaying private lenders to these countries and their insolvent banks.
Anatole Kaletsky, The Times 11 May 2011

The ECB, which has bought about €45bn /SEK 404 miljarder/ of Greek bonds over the past year,
believes that eurozone governments should provide further loans
if Greece requires additional help.
Financial Times 18 May 2011

The eurozone's crisis in BBC graphics: Click here

A Eurostate or bust
The bailouts don’t work but they do allow the EU to build up centralised power at the expense of nation states
Anatole Kaletsky, The Times 11 May 2011

The underlying economics of the /Euro/crises are clear
During the boom years, a number of countries were able to borrow more and on more favourable terms than ever before. They, then, ran huge current account deficits.
The latter turned out to be the leading indicator of future crises, not fiscal deficits, as Germany’s mistaken conventional wisdom would have it.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times 18 May 2011

The problem with the strategy of imposing the burden on taxpayers in borrowing countries is that it is unlikely to work.
As an ever greater proportion of the financing ends up with official sources, the latter are likely to end up bearing politically explosive costs when debts are written off.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times 18 May 2011

Modiga Malmström
När Cecilia Malmström i går presenterade kommissionens nya meddelande om ”bättre styrning av migrationen till EU” såg hon stridslysten ut och rösten var stadig. Malmström ger Italien och Frankrike rätt på en punkt. Hon anser att länder i det passfria Schengenområdet ska kunna återinföra gränskontroller vid avgränsade och mycket speciella tillfällen.
DN-ledare 5/5 2011

These days, merely saying that the European idea transformed a war-torn continent into an island of freedom and stability would seem rather quaint to most.
Now the issue is whether Europe can even be prevented from becoming a transfer union
In many countries, Europe is no longer seen as a historic stroke of luck. Instead, we ask ourselves how we can protect our countries from African refugees and - depending on our various perspectives - from supposedly greedy southern countries or the overbearing Germans.
Ralf Neukirch, Der Siegel 12/5 2011

Richard Swartz om en union utan gemensamma värden
i Bryssel talas ju ideligen – och högtidligt – om gemensamma värden och identitet. Men vad betyder det konkret? I verkligheten mycket litet: för den ene är staten en trygg försörjare, för den andre ett hot, här skatter utslag av solidaritet, där av konfiskering och något som bör undvikas, för några är arbete livets mening, för andra dess kvarnsten. Och så vidare. Och alla måste vi passa till formeln ”europé” för att EU ska kunna fungera.
DN 2011-05-14

Greece
No country save Britain at the height of its empire has ever recovered from a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 150% without a default. None.
And the reason is simple arithmetic. Even a nominal interest rate of 6% means that it takes 10% of your national income just to pay the interest.
Not 10% of tax revenues, mind you; 10% of your total domestic production.

That is a huge burden on any country. It sucks up half your tax revenues (or more), leaving not enough to pay for ordinary government services like police, defense, education, pensions, health care, etc.
John Mauldin 14/5 2011

Om Grekland ställer in betalningarna, alternativt skriver ned värdet på sina utestående lån,
kommer den största förlusten att drabba Europeiska centralbanken.
ECB, har blivit Greklands enskilt största fordringsägare.
Gunnar Örn, Dagens Industri Papper, 12 maj 2011

Euroländernas del av det lån på 110 miljarder euro som förhandlades fram förra våren ligger på 80 miljarder euro.
Pengarna betalas ut kvartalsvis och hittills har Grekland kunnat kvittera ut 38,4 miljarder.
På den summan betalar grekerna ränta.
SvD/e24 16/5 2011

Grekland har ingen chans att klara sig undan en omstrukturering av sina skulder.
Då är lika bra att använda pengarna till att rädda de tyska bankerna som är engagerade i Grekland med 40 miljarder euro, anser Schäffler.Frank Schäffler, FDP, medlem i parlamentets finansutskott
Tomas Lundin, SvD Näringsliv 13 maj 2011

Läget i Grekland blir allt allvarligare. Ekonomin skenar och missnöjet bland människor växer.
Vilka politiska konsekvenser får den ekonomiska krisen i Grekland? Giorgios Logothetis är författare och journalist och före detta borgmästare på Lefkas, nu på besök i Sverige.
Vår korrespondent Vladislav Savic rapporterar från gatorna i Aten
Ekot 11/5 2011

Hans Werner Sinn, chef för det ansedda IFO-institutet. I helgen aktualiserade den ansedda ekonomen alternativet att Grekland lämnar eurozonen.
Alternativet, att Grekland försöker bli mer konkurrenskraftigt inom eurozonen, riskerar att leda till inbördeskrig.
Ekot 10 maj 2011

The eurozone’s journey to defaults
Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 10 2011

“I was told to say there was no meeting... We had certain necessities to consider”
Guy Schuller, spokesman for Jean-Claude Juncker, admitted yesterday to lying about the secret meeting of finance ministers on Friday.
Wolfgang Münchau no longer believed any statement by any EU officials in respect of this crisis.
We are in the stage of the crisis where officials are lying all the time.
Eurointelligence 10/5 2011

Skrattar bäst som skrattar först om Grekland
Rolf Englund blog 10/5 2011

Ett EU som innefattar också ett demokratiskt Turkiet kommer att vara en starkare och bättre union.
Det skriver ministrarna Carl Bildt och Birgitta Ohlsson gemensamt på Europadagen.
SvD Brännpunkt 9 maj 2011

Den som vill göra EU till ett nytt romerskt rike bör först fråga folket
Rolf Englund blog 9 maj 2011

Sources with information about the government's actions have informed SPIEGEL ONLINE that
Athens is considering withdrawing from the euro zone
Der Spiegel Onlina 6/5 2011

I det tysta fortsätter den europeiska integrationen.
Och under det senaste året har det gått fort. För närvarande slutförhandlas ett helt paket av lagar och andra bestämmelser
som sammantaget liknar ett skelett för gemensam ekonomisk politik i EU.
Allt ska vara klappat och klart i juni.
Samtidigt som den europeiska populismen går framåt tas det alltså ett par ordentliga kliv framåt på väg mot en politiskt alltmer sammansvetsad union.
Gapet mellan retoriken och det som sker i verkligheten vidgas – vilket utgör ett växande problem.
DN-ledare 9 maj 2011

Europe is running a giant Ponzi scheme
The writer was governor of Argentina’s central bank and director of the Centre for Central Banking Studies at the Bank of England
Financial Times 5/5 2011
Vem kan vara mer kvalificerad?
Länk via Rolf Englund blog 2011-05-06

Europe’s political elites are afraid to tell a truth that economic historians have known forever: that a monetary union without a political union is simply not viable. This is not a debt crisis. This is a political crisis.
The eurozone will soon face the choice between an unimaginable step forward to political union or an equally unimaginable step back.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times, May 8 2011

De nödlån som nu ges till Grekland, Irland och senast Portugal av IMF, ECB och EU-kommissionen ger ett visst andrum
Man får väl utgå ifrån att dessa nödlån inte hade givits om inte de tre institutionerna gjort analyser som visar att det faktiskt är möjligt att ta sig ur krisen.
Mats Hallgren, SvD Näringsliv 5 maj 2011

Martin Wolf argues that the eurozone faces a choice between permanent pro-cyclical adjustments, a break-up; or closer union
Financial Times 3/5 2011

Martin Wolf sätter EMU och folkstyret på sin spets - Skall vi uppge vår suveränitet och bli likt provinser i det forna romar-riket.
Rolf Englund blog 4/5 2011

Den europeiska efterkrigshistorien kan beskrivas som Frankrikes – alltmer fåfänga – ansträngningar att förhindra ett Europa dominerat av Tyskland, en utveckling det totala tyska nederlaget 1945 bara tillfälligt satte stopp för.
Men den tyska återföreningen var ett hårt slag för den franska strategin. I sista ögonblicket lyckades man ändå kapa tyskarnas D-mark och ersätta den med euron. Nu står den på spel.
Richard Swartz, DN 30/4 2011
RE: Mycket viktig, lysande, artikel.

Greece - A year after agreeing a €110bn European Union and IMF bail-out and economic reform plan, times are hard.
Each evening, as darkness descends on Athens, police in riot gear wait in buses that line the side streets of the city centre. Some fidget with mobile phones, others stare into the night. What they are waiting for, nobody is sure. But everyone in the Greek capital agrees something could happen any time.
FT May 1 2011

Greece budget deficit worse than thought
The Greek government has brought in a string of draconian spending cuts and tax rises
Greece's two-year cost of borrowing rose further in bond markets to more than 23 procent
BBC 26 April 2011

SNS, Pagrotsky och Greklands återhämtning
Sedan kommer vändningen, i Sardelius (tidigare Greklands Bo Lundgren) diagram. - Men vad är det som får BNP att vända upp, trots åtstramningarna, vid fast växelkurs, frågade jag från golvet.
Sardelius svarade att det var genom utbudspolitiken, borttagande av onödig byråkrati mm. Jag skrattade. - Skrattar Du, sade Sardelius. Ja, sade jag. Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-28

In May 1931, a Viennese bank named Credit-Anstalt failed.
it occurred in a small, peripheral country, just as today's worst problems are concentrated
so far in Greece, Ireland, and Portugal
Bloomberg Businessweek's Economics editor Peter Coy, April 20, 2011

Martin Wolf refers me /Clive Crook/ to this new paper by Paul De Grauwe,
The Governance of a Fragile Europe.

It very well argued and, I /Clive Crook/ think, entirely convincing.
FT 2011-04-22
RE: With names like that it is not necessary to point out that the article is Highly Recommended

In a front page editorial with the title „Warning shot from the North-East“ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger warns against stigmatizing the True Finns as populist rightists.
“Whoever tries to put those parties which capitalize from this disgruntlement in the same corner as demagogues should remember that even the federal government (of Germany) said until recently that
the interdiction to bail out other countries was nonnegotiable.”
Eurointelligence 19/4 2011

For all Germany’s fear of becoming locked into permanent support for the Irish and others,
the irony is that it is already providing involuntary ‘bailouts’ via the eurosystem that carry similar risks.
In the Irish case, this is both larger than the EFSF bailout , €146bn as against €67bn,
and much cheaper, 1% interest as against 5.8 %.
John Whittaker, Eurointelligence 7/4 2011

Islands nej kan också få Grekland och Portugal att inse att IMF- och euroländernas krav för att stå för sina lånelöften är en plågsam vandring till ett utblottat Ebberöd.
(Skuldavskrivning är med all sannolikhet den enda rimliga vägen om de ska kunna komma på fötter.)
Men framför allt kan det få den ekonomiskt lerfotade kolossen Spanien att inse att landet vare sig kan eller bör hålla sitt banksystem under armarna om eller snarare när det börjar rämna.
Per Lindvall, e24, 13/4 2011

Auftritt der Anti-Euro-Krieger
Finnlands Rechtsaußen Timo Soini hat mit seinen "Wahren Finnen" 19 Prozent geholt und drängt in die Regierung.
Der Erfolg ist kein Zufall, überall zwischen Nordkap und Palermo sind Scharfmacher auf dem Vormarsch.
Ihr Feindbild: der Euro, die EU, der Islam.
Der Spiegel, 18/4 2011

En omstrukturering kan innehålla olika typer av förändringar av villkoren i ett lån, men vanligtvis innebär det en nedskrivning av skuldernas värde.
Tekniskt sett är en omstrukturering lika med en betalningsinställelse.
Hittills har den officiella linjen från ledande EU-politiker och beslutsfattare varit att en omstrukturering inte är aktuell, även om de flesta räknar med att det bakom kulisserna dras upp planer på hur en sådan skulle se ut
Viktor Munkhammar DI 14/4 2011

After the Latin American debt crisis in the 1980s, US regulators lied about the health of American banks until they were in a position to take a voluntary haircut on their bad loans.
The Brady Plan holds important lessons for euro-zone governments looking for a way out of the current debt crisis.
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, Der Spiegel 14/4 2011

RE: "Tsunamani sinks all the boats"
Eurozone banks need to address serious weaknesses in their funding, the report argued,
citing a $3,600bn “wall of maturing debt” coming due in the next two years across the globe,
with Irish and German banks facing the greatest difficulties in rolling over funding.
about IMF global financial stability report, FT 13/4 2011

Greek, Portuguese Bonds Slump as Schaeuble Proposes Restructure
Bloomberg, Apr 14, 2011

A group of 50 economists and lawyers are apply for a court injunction at the Karlsruhe constitutional court against the rescue program for Portugal
Eurointelligence 12/4 2011

According to a study by PriceWaterhauseCoopers, the total volume of bad debt
in five EU countries – Germany, UK, Italy, Spain and Ireland rose 14% to € 688 bn in 2010.
The largest chunk came from the German banks, whose estimated bad debts rose 7% at € 225 bn /SEK 2 025 miljarder/
Eurointelligence 14/4 2011

A day after Portugal formally requested aid from the European Union to help ease ongoing debt problems, Madrid on Friday insisted that it was "out of the question" that Spain would be next.
German commentators aren't so sure, and say that it's time for European leaders to reveal the true extent of the problems.
Der Spiegel 8/4 2011

Spain will be next
Wolfgang Münchau, April 10 2011

Waiving the rules for Portugal
Desmond Lachman, FT April 7, 2011

Drawing a line in the Iberian sand
Financial Times editorial, April 7, 2011

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Werner Mussler
the next in line is the first really big Euro economy: Spain
Eurointelligence 8/4 2011

It may have been inevitable, but it was a sad moment for Portugal:
Europe’s oldest nation state brought low
This newspaper has repeatedly argued that
the debts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal are unpayable and must be restructured
The Economist print Apr 7th 2011

Portugal ger upp, ber om krislån
BBC's business editor Robert Peston said rescue loans could amount to as much as 80bn euros ($115bn; 725 miljarder kr)
DN/TT 2011-04-06

EMU bollar Gris med Europa
Rolf Englund blog 7/4 2011

The eurozone’s economic governance
Superficially, the reform is about ensuring the dispensation of good economic policy.
Fundamentally, it is about the sensible allocation of sovereignty in a core area of our democracies.
This highly political task should be a matter of vital concern for all politicians and engaged citizens.
Thomas Klau, Eurointelligence 3/4 2011

German banks are among the biggest holders of eurozone sovereign debt
– with €46.5bn of bonds from the governments of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain combined,
according to the most recent data from the Bundesbank
The banks have another €91bn of exposure to those countries’ banking sectors
James Wilson and Gerrit Wiesmann, FT, April 5, 2011

ECB and The Taylor Rule - a difference of 9 per cent
President Trichet’s European Central Bank again faces the conundrum that its monetary policy rarely suits all 17 members of the euro area
Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece would need an average rate of minus 4.6 percent, according to estimates by Credit Suisse equity strategists.
Germany requires a rate of 4.5 percent, they say.
Bloomberg Apr 4, 2011

The risk is roughly one in seven that Europe's ongoing debt crisis will push member nations to abandon the shared currency,
raising the spectre of the "effective end of the euro area,"
The Economist Intelligence Unit has warned
Daily Telegraph 4 Apr 2011

Though unconfirmed, only substantial liquidity support from the European Central Bank is keeping the financial systems and, indirectly, the governments of peripheral states such as Ireland, Portugal and Greece alive,
their banks often acting as conduits to supply funds for nations effectively locked out of private capital markets
The Independent 1 April 2011

Stödet för euron sjunker kraftigt hos Sveriges småföretagare
Det visar en rapport som SEB presenterar i dag
SvD Näringsliv 4 april 2011

They’re bust. Admit it.
Greece, Ireland and Portugal should restructure their debts now
Angela Merkel called the euro-zone summit on March 24th-25th a “big step forward” in solving the region’s debt crisis.
Something between a fudge and a failure would be more accurate.
The Economist print March 31st 2011

Bara en floskelavtrubbad EU-byråkrat kan kalla en blyväst för en livboj och förvänta sig att bli trodd.
Politikernas räddning av krisande euroländer ser i själva verket ut att vara en enkelbiljett till den undergång de påstår sig vilja undvika
Andreas Cervenka, SvD Näringsliv 1 april 2011

The Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, said that 30 September, 2008, will go down in history as the blackest day in Ireland since the Civil War.
That was the fateful day on which the then Irish government extended its infamous guarantee to the banks, and thereby saddled the Irish taxpayer with liability for years of excessive, corrupt and injudicious lending.
Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph March 31st, 2011

I find it unforgivable that the last Irish government guaranteed bank debt so insouciantly and that the rest of the European Union has supported this decision.
For a sovereign to destroy its own credit, to save creditors of its banks, is plainly wrong.
It does not make it better, but worse, that it is doing so largely to protect financial systems in other countries.
Martin Wolf, FT March 8 2011

German president and SPD chief attack bankers
Like his predecessor Horst Köhler, who had called the financial markets “a monster”, German President Christian Wulff attacked the bankers by accusing them of being highly paid inhabitants of a parallel world.
Eurointelligence 1/4 2011

Liksom för Irland så är inte Spaniens största bekymmer att statsfinanserna spårade ur, som för Grekland och i viss mån Portugal,
utan att landets privata sektor och banker har bygg upp och finansierat en gigantisk fastighetsbubbla.
(Såväl de irländska som de spanska bankerna har i sin tur finansierat sig hos andra europeiska insititut.)
Per Lindvall e24, 1/4 2011

Portugal will follow Greece and Ireland to failure
IMF and EU appear set to do so by prescribing for Portugal the same failed policy approach of savage fiscal retrenchment in the most rigid of fixed exchange rate systems that has had such dismal results to date in Greece and Ireland.
Desmond Lachman,FT March 31 2011

The banks are being forced to shrink to a size that poses less risk to the Irish economy.
They've been instructed to reduce the net loans on their balance sheets by 71bn euros by the end of 2013
- an amount equivalent to around half the value of the Irish economy.

Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, 31 March 2011

SPIEGEL Interview with Ex-ECB Chief Economist Issing
Issing: Before the euro was introduced, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl said: The monetary union will not function without a political union.
But a political union of Europe doesn't exist, and it won't happen in the foreseeable future.

That's why we need mechanisms that force the member states to pursue solid financial policies. These mechanisms are missing, and even the most recent decisions reached in Brussels can do little to change this.
Otmar Issing, Der Spiegel 23/3 2011

Irish banks need extra 24bn euros to survive
Until now, losses in the Irish banking system have stemmed from the collapse of a speculative bubble in the commercial property sector, where billions were borrowed from the banks to fund hotels and shopping malls.
However, the latest stress tests focused instead on an emerging meltdown in the residential sector.
BBC 31/3 2011

Standard & Poor’s downgrading of Portugal’s sovereign debt made clear that the primary cause
was the concluding statement of the European Council meeting of March 24-25.

Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph March 29th, 2011

The Fundamental Problem with Efforts to Save the Euro
European politicians are still pursuing a path to integration that citizens have long since abandoned.
For former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the idea of "maintaining an economic and monetary union in the long term without a political union" was an "absurd notion."
Michael Sauga, Der Spiegel 03/30/2011

The most important hole in the plans for economic co-ordination is the unwillingness to recognise the link between the external surpluses of core countries and the financial fragility in the periphery.
The focus remains overwhelmingly on fiscal indiscipline, which was not the cause of the crises in Ireland or Spain.
An additional question is whether those in trouble can regain competitiveness without making their euro-denominated debt yet more unmanageable.
Martin Wolf, FT March 29, 2011

The unbelievable truth about Ireland and its banks
Total quantity of state investment a breathtaking 75bn euros - 45% of GDP
Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, 30 March 2011

The total exposure of foreign banks to the struggling quartet of
Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain tops $2.5 trillion
once all forms or risk are included, according to the latest data from BIS
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 14 Mar 2011

The BIS, the central bank of central banks, said in its quarterly report that Germany had $569bn of exposure to the quartet, France $380bn, and the UK $431bn.

Greece’s increasing jobless rate may become a “bomb in the foundations of society”
Economy and Competitiveness Minister Michalis Chrisochoides said.
Bloomberg 28/3 2011

Portuguese debt yields soared to new records. The 10y bond hit 7.9%
El Pais writes that even the ECB, which returned to secondary markets after three weeks of absence to buy €432m in government debt last week, could not halt this.
Portugal needs to repay or rollover €4.3bn of bonds maturing on April 15
and another €4.9bn in June
Eurointelligence 29/3 2011

Euro breakup revisited
I would take Germany’s limited liability as given, both for reasons of domestic politics and constitutional law.
It is inconceivable that the German constitutional court would accept an unlimited burden sharing.
And even a change of government in 2013 would not fundamentally Germany’s position.
If any politicians tried to raise Germany’s burden, the country would revolt.
Wolfgang Münchau 24.03.2011

/Datalagrings/direktivet, som har baxats fram av medlemsländernas regeringar och röstats igenom
i Europaparlamentet (där svenska väljare utser 18 ledamöter av 736), kan formellt inte stoppas av våra folkvalda.

Paulina Neuding,chefredaktör för magasinet Neo, kolumn SvD ledarsida 26/3 2011

EU bailar inte ut någon, EU lånar ut
Rolf Englund blog 25/3 2011

Three numbers stand out: 12.4, 9.8 and 7.8
Those are the interest rates currently paid on 10-year government bonds for Greece, Ireland and Portugal
CNBC/New York Times 25 March 2011

For some time, Portugal's government has been borrowing from its banks by selling them bonds, which in turn have been swapping the bonds for cash from the ECB (see my earlier notes on this).
And the ECB has also been endeavouring to put a floor under the price of Portuguese bonds, by buying them in the secondary market.
Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, 24 March 2011

The divisiveness pact
Plans for closer economic integration in the euro zone could cause trouble
Charlemagne, The Economist print March 10th 2011

Euro's Collapse Is Not 'Unthinkable': Warren Buffett
CNBC, 24 March 2011

"Europakten är bra för Sverige"
Sverige bör föregå med gott exempel och på frivillig basis åta sig att uppfylla de krav som europakten ställer.
Annika Lundius, vice vd Svenskt Näringsliv, Europaportalen 23/3 2011

To cover Portugal’s deficit and bond repayments for three years,
the bail-out would have to be between €60bn and €70bn.

Open Europe 24/3 2011

William White, chairman of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Economic and Development Review Committee,
talks about Portugal's debt and budget and the outlook for a possible international rescue.
Bloomberg March 24 2011

Reinfeldts utanförskap
Libyen och euron ska behandlas vid dagens EU-toppmöte. Men Sveriges statsminister duckar och driver en alltför avvaktande svensk linje.
DN-ledare 24/3 2011

Portugal PM Socrates' resignation overshadows EU summit
BBC 24 March 2011
With nice music

Moody's sänker kreditbetyget för 30 spanska banker
DI 2011-03-24

The flawed economics of the Competitiveness Pact:
Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, Eurointelligence 10.03.2011

Skuldkrisen i EMU är av allt att döma på väg in i ännu en kritisk fas.
Det stora orosmolnet är inte Portugal utan Spanien.

Viktor Munkhammar, DI 24/3 2011

The opposition parties appeared to be responding to the public mood in Portugal, which had turned against the belt-tightening.
Der Spiegel 24/3 2011

Finland is blocking the increase in the EFSF’s effective lending capacity because of the April 17 elections.
Finland’s PM Mari Kiviniemi said she had no mandate from the outgoing Finnish parliament to accept a deal,
and would need to call an emergency session of the parliament to get approval, which may be difficult, if not impossible.
Eurointelligence 23/3 2011

In a damning editorial for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Werner Mussler is highly pessimistic about the Euro governance reforms the summit will decide.
The advantages of political integration that defenders of the new Euro rules like to point out will turn into the opposite because protests against painful reforms in Greece and protests in Germany against the Euro will produce the opposite of more integration.
Eurointelligence 24/3 2011

Permanent Euro Fix
Germany to Contribute 22 Billion Euros to New Fund

Finance ministers agreed on Monday to furnish the new permanent bailout fund with 80 billion euros, with the ability to call on 620 billion euros more should the need arise. The deal paves the way for agreement at an EU summit later this week.
Der Spiegel 22/3 2011

Portuguese opposition parties have refused to back austerity measures drafted to help the country avoid a bail-out
The political crisis in Lisbon threatens to dominate a European Union summit on Thursday, at which leaders hope to finalise “a grand bargain” to resolve the eurozone debt crisis.
FT March 22 2011

The European stability mechanism, which will be the permanent crisis mechanism from 2013
The agreement reached on March 11 not only appeared comprehensive, it also came as a surprise. Unfortunately, when you look more closely, as I did last week, it begins to look smaller. By the end of the week, it had crumbled.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT March 20 2011

EU:s flyktingkommissionär Cecilia Malmström slöt avtal med Gadaffi i Libyen den 1 oktober ifjol.
Gadaffi skulle få en halv miljard kr under tre år för att med Gadaffimetoder stoppa flyktingar från Afrika att nå EU.
Nils Lundgrens blog "My correct views on everything" 1:e mars 2011

Jean-Claude Trichet is upping his war against the European Council when he decried yesterday’s Ecofin agreement as poor and insufficient.
Eurointelligence 16/3 2011

Riksdagens finansutskott beslutade i dag att Sverige inte ska gå med i den så kallade europakten,
när EU:s stats- och regeringschefer möts i Bryssel nästa vecka.
Ekot 17/3 2011

"The fundamental problem is in the banking system "I think this whole thing is a Ponzi scheme in which governments that are already in deep red ink are trying to generate more red ink,"
Niall Ferguson, history professor at Harvard University, told CNBC 15/3 2011.

In 2013, a new mechanism will replace the EFSF. It is called the European stability mechanism (ESM).
The crucial difference between the two is that its credits will be senior to those of private investors.
To come up with such an idea requires a good deal of ignorance of how financial markets work.
Unfortunately, financial illiteracy is, and always has been, a hallmark of much of European economic policy.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT March 13, 2011

Right now Europe may be embarking on a path that could tilt the union away from economic liberalism,
risking a split and, ultimately, even a British exit.

Mrs Merkel seems to be sleepwalking into this danger.
The Economist print 10/3 2011

The deal reached to strengthen the bloc’s €440bn rescue fund will be overshadowed by the horrors in Libya and Japan.
That may delay the sceptical reaction in the markets and buy Europe some time.
But, have no doubt, the European debt crisis will return.

Gideon Rachman, FT March 14 2011

Moody's Cuts Spain's Debt Rating to Aa2
The cut in the rating drove the euro to session lows against the dollar and
the premium investors charge for Spanish 10-year debt instead of German Bunds widened 9 basis points on the day to 232 bps.
CNBC, 10 Mar 2011

Anyone familiar with the Byzantine complexities of European policymaking would not have been surprised to learn that
the latest round of EU bank stress testing is going to be – well, about as testing as the last one,
which famously found both Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland to be perfectly solvent.
Jeremy Warner Daily Telegraph 9 March 2011

Over the next few weeks important decisions have to be made over the euro and how to prevent a repeat of the crisis that has threatened the single currency.
Some of the ideas - wrapped up in the words "economic governance" - may involve a significant transfer of power away from nation states to Brussels.
If the changes are dramatic it poses again the question as to whether the people should get a say.
Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's Europe editor, 8 March 2011

Det var något överraskande att på EU-toppmötet den 4 februari behöva påpeka att varje förslag måste stå i överensstämmelse med EU-fördraget, sade Barroso, som en gliring åt den pakt som Tysklands Angela Merkel och Frankrikes Nicolas Sarkozy lanserat
DN print, inte på nätet, 9 mars 2011, reporter Henrik Brors

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the European Union may face a “lost half-decade” similar to that experienced by Japan
as governments implement budget cuts that may undermine the economic recovery.
Joseph Stiglitz, Bloomberg Mar 8, 2011

Why the eurozone will survive
Martin Wolf, FT March 8 2011

In his FTD column, Wolfgang Münchau argues that Germany cannot have it both ways:
saying no to an increase in the EFSF’s remit, and saying No to government capital injections into the domestic banking sector.
If Germany decides against bailout that prepare the grounds for a default of Greece, Portugal and Ireland,
which would have significant consequences for the German banking system.
Eurointelligence 9/3 2011

Latvia's prime minister earns far less than Latvians in Brussels
For his trouble he receives a pretax salary of about $45,000 a year,
buys his own health insurance and lives in a three-room, Soviet-built apartment.
Andris Piebalgs, Latvia’s member of the European Commission earns $345,000 a year,
Latvia’s judge at the European Court of Justice, gets the same amount, which means he earns about $100,000 more than the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.
The benefits are not bad, either: a housing and living allowance, a stipend of about $6,000 annually per dependent child, around $10,000 a year for entertainment and a generous pension with no employee contribution.
New York Times, March 8, 2011

Egentligen strider det mot EU:s grundlag att låta EMU-länderna gå i borgen för varandras skulder,
men finansmarknaderna har länge satsat på att unionen ändå aldrig skulle låga ett euroland gå i konkurs.
Men det är just vad EEAG:s sjuhövdade råd av tunga europeiska ekonomiprofessorer föreslår som krislösning.
/The Group is chaired by Jan-Egbert Sturm and includes Giancarlo Corsetti and John Hassler (Stockholm University/
DI 9/3 2011

Greek 10-year yield reached a eurozone record, of 12.9%,
as the markets are now overwhelming expecting a debt restructuring
Eurointelligence 9/3 2011

If an internal devaluation in a country suffering from a lack of international competitiveness were to succeed, the real burden of the country’s debt would increase.
This would be true not only for its public debt, but also for all indebted households and businesses.
Stefan de Vylder december 2010

The European Central Bank turned a blind eye to "irresponsible lending" by German, French, British and Belgian banks,
the European Union's former ambassador to the United States, John Bruton has said.
EUobserver 8/3 2011

FT Deutschland noted that the Greek rating was now below that of Egypt, and on the same level as that of Angola.
The downgrade was a testimony how dangerous the euro crisis can still be at a time when political leaders had become more relaxed.
Eurointelligence 8/3 2011

Frankfurter Allgemeine writes in a comment that Greece was a clear-cut case for a debt restructuring.
Even if the Greek adjustment strategy went to plan, the country would be straddled with an extremely high burden of debt.
But Athens, Berlin, and Brussels, in cohorts with the ECB, are serving the interests of the banks, by refusing to accept this.
Eurointelligence 8/3 2011

Reinfeldt talade om folkomröstningen 1994, men inte om folkomröstningen 2003

Det Östliga Partnerskapet
And to the East of our Union there is a vast region with its 12 very different countries between us and the borders of China - the 80 million people of the six Eastern Partnership countries, the 140 million people of Russia and the nearly 60 million people of the five countries of Central Asia.
Carl Bildt, Utrikesminister, Tal vid Bilgi University, Istanbul 6 mars 2011

Merkel är fiffig med inte demokratisk
Rolf Englund blog 7/3 2011

It is twelve years since the launch of EMU.
There has been no meaningful convergence of the disparate economies since then. The one-size-fits-all monetary policy continues to cause havoc.
All that changes with the evolving economic cycle is a rotation in the locus of stress, and a change in its features.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 7 March 2011

Germany, Finland and the Netherlands are blocking proposals to increase the scope of the EFSF to include bond purchases, or to fund any effective bond bond repurchase programmes.
The article says the development was a setback for the ECB, which had hoped that the EFSF could buy part of the ECB’s own peripheral bond portfolio, which it amassed as part of its securities market programme. The article says that Germany was ready to increase the package from a nominal to a real €440bn (but what’s is the point of that without bond purchases?).
Eurointelligence 7/3 2011

Mycket fiffigt
European Central Bank Wants to Unload PIIGS Bonds
Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party's group in parliament is strictly opposed to the purchase of state bonds through the EFSF,
but neither Merkel nor Schäuble feels bound in their vote in Brussels to the parliamentary group's position.
Opposed to the direct purchase of bonds by the EFSF, but they are not opposed to troubled countries taking loans from the rescue fund in order to buy back their own bonds from the market.
Der Spiegel 4/3 2011

For the benefit of our readers, we thought we’d post a copy of the Barroso-Van Rompuy plan’s four-page outline,
which was distributed to eurozone “sherpas” – the economic officials in each country responsible for negotiating the deal
– at a closed-door meeting Monday (click here to see the pdf).
FT Brussels blog March 1, 2011

Måndagen den 7 mars är statsminister Fredrik Reinfeldt inbjuden av EU-kommissionens kontor i Stockholm
för att hålla ett tal om Sveriges syn på utvecklingen i EU
Tid: 14:00 Plats: Europahuset, Regeringsgatan 6
Pressmeddelande Statsrådsberedningen

För Sveriges del borde slutsatsen vara att ett väl fungerande svenskt utrikesdepartement behövs, också i EU.
Utrikespolitiken kan inte vara en enmansföreställning.
Annika Ström Melin, Signerat, DN-ledare 4/3 2011

At the time of the Greek bailout, the real question was:
"If €750 billion isn't enough, what is?"
The heavily indebted European states face USD 2850 billion of maturing debt up to 2013.
Satyajit Das, January 19, 2011

The last time EU leaders met, in early February, a Franco-German proposal for a competitiveness pact was thrust upon them.
That task should be the preserve of the European Commission, not a cabal of two or three countries imposing a model on the rest.
Guy Verhofstadt, Jacques Delors and Romano Prodi, FT March 2 2011

Som om förvirringen kring EU:s utrikespolitik inte redan vore nog bidrar nu unionens president till att dimmorna tätnar ytterligare.
Herman Van Rompuy har kallat till extra toppmöte i Bryssel. Unionens stats- och regeringschefer ska diskutera
det som på EU-språk kallas ”utvecklingen i det södra grannskapsområdet”,
vilket betyder Nordafrika och Libyen på vanlig svenska
.
Annika Ström Melin, Signerat, DN-ledare 4/3 2011

“Sovereignty”, the “British Constitution”, our “democracy”, “self-government”
The hard won right of the British people to elect and dismiss those who make their laws.
The British people have given Parliament the power to make all their laws for them,
but they have not given Parliament permission to give that power away.
Both these principles, for which, over the centuries, millions have willingly given up their lives,
already stand deeply betrayed by our membership of the European Union.
Lord Pearson of Rannoch, January 2005

Sverige bekräftar nu sin plats bland tigerekonomierna.
Under fjärde kvartalet 2010 växte Sveriges bruttonationalprodukt (BNP) med 7,3 procent och tillväxten för hela fjolåret blev 5,5 procent, den högsta siffran sedan 1970.
e24 2011-03-01

Moody’s estimates necessary volume of caja recapitalisation at €50bn
The Spanish government imposed core tier one ratios of 8-10% for the entire savings banking industry, and estimated the recapitalisation volume of under €20bn.
Eurointelligene 1/3 2011

Libyan clients have more than one billion euros ($1.4 billion) stored in Austria's banking system,
the head of the national bank in Vienna told state television late on Monday.

Last week, the political developments in Germany shifted dramatically in the wrong direction.
The Bundesbank, the parliament, the small business community and influential academics have all come out openly against an extension of the various support mechanisms.
German society as a whole is in open revolt against the eurozone.
The only reason to accept such a loss of sovereignty would be the prize of an ever closer economic union.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT, February 27 2011

The devastation that last Friday’s Irish election brought to Fianna Fáil was almost as complete as the destruction that banks and real estate developers inflicted on the country on that party’s watch.
The government’s humiliation is a historic moment for Ireland. For the first time, allegiances dating back to the civil war of the 1920s have been overshadowed by a newer trauma.
The wreckage from the banking crisis is stained with red ink, not with blood; it will nonetheless permanently change Irish society.
Financial Times editorial February 28 2011

If Spain has no strategy, France has had something worse: a bad one.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has saddled Europe with a worse than useless outfit called the Union for the Mediterranean.
Its founding co-president, alongside Sarkozy himself, was none other than Hosni Mubarak.
This 43-country waffle shop has an array of cumbersome, dysfunctional committees and projects, wholly unfit for purpose.
Now that we do need a union for the Mediterranean, we should really start by abolishing the Union for the Mediterranean.
Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 17 February 2011

Statsminister Fredrik Reinfeldt och utrikesminister Carl Bildt
reser till Paris den 13- 14 juli för att delta i Medelhavsunionens toppmöte
Regeringen 10 juli 2008

Irland växte snabbt under 90-talet. Med euron tillkom en låg ränta som blåste upp en jättelik fastighetsbubbla. Politiker, bankdirektörer och näringslivstoppar blundade och höll varandra om ryggen.
Även banker i andra euroländer lånade glatt till allt och alla.
Bubblan sprack slutligen 2008, och regeringen fick för sig att utfärda en totalgaranti för bankernas långivare.
När bankerna rasade gick botten ur statskassan.
Gunnar Jonsson, Signerat DN:s ledarsida 24/2 2011

Pakten löser inte eurons problem
Fredrik Reinfeldt vill inte uttala sig, och precis som statsministern påpekade: vad är det han ska uttala sig om?
Det finns inget papper och inga detaljer nerskrivna än. Men faktum kvarstår: Tysklands Angela Merkel och Frankrikes Nicolas Sarkozy föreslår en ”fransk-tysk konkurrenspakt” för eurozonen.
Allt ska vara bestämt om drygt en månad och nej, det finns inget papper.
Aftonbladet ledare, signerad Katrine Kielos, 12/2 2011

The European Economic Advisory Group (EEAG), a group of leading European economists, has warned that Greece may need another bailout by 2013 at the latest. creditors might have to write off more than 30 percent of their loans.
Greece might even have to reintroduce the drachma to overcome its debt crisis
Der Spiegel 02/22/2011

Academics and businesses are joining Bundestag and Bundestag in protests against proposed extension of the eurozone’s financial umbrella;
Eurointelligence 25/2 2011
Very important article

The government, the Bundestag, and the Bundesbank all have their own, and conflicting, views on how the crisis should be resolved.
To add to the confusion, the three parliamentary groups in the Bundestag yesterday made a recommendation to the Bundestag
– a proposal that will be formally voted on - that Merkel must not agree anything without asking the parliament first,
something FT Deutschland reports she was “not entirely happy” about.
In addition, as Reuters reports, the parliamentary parties are dead set against any bond buyback to be organised by the ESM.
A draft contained the following excerpt: "Parliament expects that jointly financed or guaranteed purchase programmes of government debt would be
ruled out for reasons of constitutional and European law, and on economic grounds."

Eurointelligence 22/2 2011

EMU travails will goes on, and on, until Germany – and the others – understands that it has been lured into a Monet trap:
it cannot both be a member of monetary union and remain a self-governing sovereign nation.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 20 Feb 2011

Fin bild på Barroso och Gaddafi
Trots den välkända brutaliteten i Libyen finns sedan några månader ett nära
samarbete med EU-länderna för att se till att flyktingar inte når Europa
Jesús Alcalá, SvD Brännpunkt 23/2 2011

Rätt åt Cecilia Malmström få ta hand om migration,
Europeiska byrån för förvaltningen av det operativa samarbetet vid Europeiska unionens yttre gränser (FRONTEX)

All that has occurred so far is that Irish and Greek taxpayers have taken on fresh debt so that creditors do not crystallise losses.
It remains a disguised rescue for North European banks and insurers.
There can no longer be any doubt that Germany has lost control of the ECB, that the implicit contract under which the German people agreed to give up the D-Mark has been breached.
The eight judges of the Verfassungsgericht ruled on the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 that EMU failure to ensure monetary stability in Germany would violate the Grundgesetz
and either force Germany to change its constitution (very hard) or leave the euro.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 20 Feb 2011

September 29, 2008 was the day the government guaranteed all bank creditors,
to the tune of €440bn – some 250 per cent of Irish gross domestic product.
Everything that has happened in Ireland since then, especially its daily recurring banking crisis,
has been a consequence of that fateful decision.
FT Lex February 22 2011

Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats have just suffered the worst defeat since World War Two in the Hamburg elections.
Their vote share collapsed from 43pc to 21pc
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, February 21st, 2011

For those of us who lived through the ERM crisis of 1992 and followed German events closely at that time, all this has a familiar ring.
It was not just recession in the UK, Italy, Spain, and parts of Scandinavia that caused the fixed exchange system to blow up, it was the deadly cocktail of slumps and banking troubles in these countries combining with German overheating. The mix triggered the final crisis.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, February 21st, 2011

It is unbelievable how far /Axel Weber/ stands outside the emerging policy consensus in European capitals.
His message is that everybody should do their own thing. The cornerstones of the monetary union are subsidiarity, responsibility of individual member countries, and the no-bailout rule.
In other words, this is a monetary union only.
Eurointelligence 22/2 2011

The Bundesbank also yesterday launched a further broadside against bond purchases in its monthly report.
The Bundesbank said it opposed giving the EFSF or the ESM powers to buy government bonds in the secondary market.
Eurointelligence 22/2 2011

The current crisis has challenged the founding principles of EMU
Some proposals would result in a weakening of the responsibility of financial market participants and member states,
diminished incentives for sound fiscal policies,
and again a shifting of risks to the taxpayers of other member states.
Axel Weber, outgoing president of Germany’s Bundesbank, FT 21/2 2011

Axel Weber, Germany’s departing Bundesbank president, has put his country on a collision course with its eurozone partners
by opposing a central part of proposals for resolving future sovereign debt crises.

FT 21/2 2011

Wolfgang Münchau har nu begått ytterligare ett mästerstycke i Financial Times
While the rest of us are debating how to solve Europe’s banking crisis,
and become exasperated by the lack of progress, Ms Merkel is solving a crisis in a parallel universe.

Rolf Englund blog 21/2 2011

Hamburg, the city-state of Merkel’s birth
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered its worst defeat since World War II in Germany’s richest state,
losing control of Hamburg in the first of seven state elections this year

Bloomberg Feb 21, 2011

First, low interest rates, especially in real terms, which resulted from the single monetary policy, and encouraged risk-taking behaviour;
Second, fiscal policies assessed on the basis of nominal variables (deficit as a percentage of GDP) turned out to be pro-cyclical and contributed to excessive domestic demand growth and the accumulation of external imbalances
Speech by Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, 14 February 2011

Det är sant att Anders Borg har prioriterat ordning och reda i den offentliga ekonomin. Men det har han inte varit ensam om.
Samma sak kan även sägas om finansministrarna i Irland och Spanien, länder som till alldeles nyligen fick ett gott betyg för sin ekonomiska skötsel och hade föga gemensamt med exempelvis Grekland.
Peter Wolodarski, DN 20/2 2011

ECB intervened in the markets on Friday to prevent Portugal’s borrowing costs spiralling to “danger levels”
that could force Lisbon to seek international assistance.
FT February 18 2011

Portugal väntas i april be om ett stödpaket från EU och IMF, rapporterar Reuters med hänvisning till källor i eurozonen.
– Det är redan en utbredd uppfattning på finansmarknaden, men nu har även EU:s finansministrar börjat inse detta, säger en källa.
DN/TT 18/2 2011

"I dag försöker finansministrarna till varje pris hindra en omstrukturering av statsskulderna,
men mycket talar för att man till slut tvingas till en sådan ändå.
Och det blir en enorm prestigeförlust eftersom man har kopplat ihop det med eurons framtid, vilket det egentligen inte finns någon anledning till"
Lars Calmfors, Dagens industri 18/2 2011

Eurokrisen är inte över
Detta kan visa sig vara lugnet före, om inte stormen så åtminstone det stora braket.
Mars kan bli riktigt rörigt och återigen sätta det finansiella systemet inom eurozonen under press
- liksom det inte helt transparenta politiska beslutssystemet.
Per Lindvall, e24, 2011-02-18

Use of marginal lending facility spikes to €15bn
In the money markets, this headline is the equivalent to “fire in the theatre”.
Eurointelligence 18/2 2011

Spanish savings banks, which have been ordered to raise more capital by the government,
are facing an uphill struggle to persuade investors to help them improve their balance sheets.
The New York Times, 18 Feb 2011

We have been presented with the same data over and again:
since 1999 when the euro was introduced, unit labor costs have risen by 25% to 30% relative to Germany in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
This is impressive, but well short of a proof. First, is 1999 a good base to make comparisons?
We know that Germany mistakenly converted deutschemarks into euros at an inflated value, thereby knocking off its competitiveness.
Wage moderation was needed and impressively achieved over the first decade of the euro.

Charles Wyplosz, Eurointelligence 17.02.2011

Germany may have Europe’s largest and most robust economy, but...
An auction for WestLB, a publicly owned institution in Düsseldorf that was once Germany’s third-largest lender, has attracted just two bidders
The New York Times 17 Feb 2011

For months, financial markets and policymakers from Wall Street to Frankfurt have been begging European leaders to do something – anything –
to address the short-term needs of struggling, debt-laden countries on the periphery of the eurozone.
Instead, Europe’s presidents and prime ministers have proposed plan after plan to deal with the continent’s economic problems over several years.
FT, February 15 2011

Rädda euron första punkten på finansministrarnas lista
Av de 500 miljarder euro som ska finnas i den nya fonden ska hela summan vara lånbar.
Hur man då ska bevara AAA-värderingen valde de 17 euroländerna att skjuta på framtiden.
Teresa Küchler e24, 2011-02-16

Bundesbank president Axel Weber said a lack of political acceptance in the eurozone for his hawkish monetary views
had driven his abrupt decision not to run for European Central Bank presidency.
CNBC, 14 Feb 2011

Under finanskrisen har Sverige haft nytta av att ha en egen valuta.
Nackdelarna med den gemensamma valutan och en gemensam räntepolitik har visat sig de senaste åren
Men jag är kluven i frågan och har egentligen ingen stark åsikt vare sig för eller emot euron,
säger SCA:s koncernchef Jan Johansson, SvD Näringsliv 15/2 2011

Axel Weber, the president of Germany's Bundesbank and leading candidate as the next head of the European Central Bank, will step down

It casts a spotlight on Angela Merkel´s problems with the chancellor's EU policies and threatens to further erode her authority in Brussels.
Der Spiegel 11/2 2011

Birgitta Ohlsson har en ovanlig förmåga att fånga ett auditorium. Hon är personlig, men inte kladdigt privat, och talar engagerat om behovet av frihandel, fred och frihet utan att det känns det minsta påklistrat.
Men hon har ett problem. Som EU-minister har hon ansvar för allt – men samtidigt nästan ingenting.
Annika Ström Melin, DN 2011-02-09

Företagen inordnade sig efter tyska påtryckningar - och med regeringens goda minne - i det som kallades “Grosswirtschaftsraum”.
Det var en ekonomisk motsvarighet till det geografiskt-militära “Lebensraum” . En tullfri zon med tyska riksmark som valuta och tysk styrning av handeln. Syftet var bland annat att trygga Tysklands tillgång till råvaror.
e24 2006-06-14

Dangers lurk in Franco-German plans for a more tightly integrated euro zone
The Economist print Feb 10th 2011

It is hard to estimate the exact amount it will cost to recapitalise the European banking sector. I have heard a credible estimate of €100bn-€200bn.
Last year’s bank stress tests came up with a puny €3.5bn – a deliberate attempt by Europe’s regulatory authorities to misrepresent facts and mislead the public.
Everything I hear about the next round of stress tests tells me they will once again try to hide the truth.
Wolfgang Münchau. FT February 6 2011

Den uttalade avsikten bakom införandet av en gemensam EU-valuta var att tvinga fram en tätare samordning av statsfinanserna i medlemsländerna och på sikt en samordnad finans- och skattepolitik.
De flesta insåg att det bara var en tidsfråga innan olikheterna mellan euromedlemmarnas ekonomier skulle kräva en sådan. Den makt över statsfinanserna som euroländerna inte självmant kunde förmå sig till att lägga i gemensamma EU-händer skulle försvaret av den gemensamma valutan så småningom tvinga dem att förlägga just där.
Euron var ett luftslott byggt på förhoppningen att marken skulle närma sig.
Göran Rosenberg, DN 2011-02-04

Tungviktarna Tyskland och Frankrike försökte att på egen hand föra fram flera konkreta förslag om nya regler för bland annat pensionsålder

– Jag tror inte att vi kommer att hamna där, av det skälet att länderna är olika, vi har olika förväntansålder, vi har olika skattetryck, vi har olika arbetsmarknadsregler och sätt att sätta löner

Fredrik Reinfeldt, Ekot 5/2 2011

Det bor en liten Brysselhatare i flertalet stats- och regeringschefers bröst. Kanske är det därför de ser så glada ut när de anländer till Euro-peiska rådet, EU:s toppmöte. Där är diskussionerna förtroliga, besluten kräver enhällighet och är inte bindande. Det skrivs inte ens protokoll.
Annika Ström-Melin, DN 2011-02-05

Spain’s success is of acute relevance to the rest of the eurozone
Spain is where Ireland was a couple of years ago
Mohamed El-Erian, FT February 3 2011

Sarkozy in Davos
'Mrs. Merkel and I Will Never, Never Allow the Euro To Fail'
Der Spiegel 27/1 2011

"Irish domestic banks currently depend almost entirely on the (European Central Bank) to refinance expiring market debt,"
Total debts of the six Irish banks approach USD 375 billion, more than 170 percent of Ireland's gross domestic product.
S&P senior analyst Frank Gill, CNBC, 2 Feb 2011

The key issue in Europe now is not the merits of the single currency but the parlous state of its banking system.
Philippe Legrain, Eurointelligence 11.01.2011

Again, the mood about the eurozone is now more optimistic. But how the zone is to exit from its difficulties remains obscure.
European leaders have willed the end: survival of the eurozone. Whether and how they can will the means is still unknown.
Martin Wolf, February 1 2011

“Amazing” that the Irish government has “socialized” the banks
— some $80 billion in senior and subordinated debt — and made it the financial responsibility of Irish taxpayers, who didn’t create it.
Michael Lewis, author of "Liar’s Poker," "The Big Short" and "The Blind Side,"
CNBC 1 Feb 2011

Mätt med det handelsvägda TCW-indexet noterar kronan den starkaste nivån sedan sommaren 1998.
e24 26/1 2011

The IMF’s Article IV report on Ireland published in September 2007 begins:
“Economic performance remains very strong, supported by SOUND policies. Given the Irish economy’s strong fundamentals and the authorities’ commitment to sound policies, Directors expected economic growth to remain robust over the medium term.”
The IMF said Ireland was in fiscal SURPLUS of 3pc of GDP and total public debt had fallen to just 12pc.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard January 21st, 2011

Merkel Rules Out Return to Deutsche Mark
Der Spiegel 19/1 2011

Irland
net outward migration to be 100,000 over the two-year period from April 2010 to April 2012.
CNBC 20/1 2011

Let us assume for the sake of argument that Europe succeeds in containing the immediate EMU debt crisis, with help from Asia, and that Germany’s fractious coalition actually agrees to a bail-out fund big enough to make any difference.
What does this achieve, other than allowing banks to buy time by offloading liabilities onto European and Chinese taxpayers?
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 16 Jan 2011

That is to say, Germany must be prepared to do for Southern European what it has already done for its own kin in East Germany, but on six times the scale.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 16 Jan 2011

Ett oroligt mummel i regeringsbyggnaderna runt om i de europeiska huvudstäderna.
Det här går inte längre! viskas det lite varstans.
Många ifrågasätter om den tillfälliga fond som inrättats räcker för att rädda euroländer som brottas med allvarliga svårigheter.
DN, huvudledare 17/1 2011

EU har för länge sedan utvecklats till något mer än en inre marknad.
Redan i dag kan unionen liknas vid ett slags europeisk federation.
Den kommer antagligen aldrig att bli en lika sammansvetsad union som USA – vilket inte heller är önskvärt.
Men det är rimligt att länderna har en mer gemensam ekonomisk politik än i dag.
DN, huvudledare 17/1 2011

Hur många euro går det på en tulpanlök? Rätt svar är: minst en.
Den gemensamma valutan har alla förutsättningar att tillsammans med 1600-talets holländska tulpaner
kvala in på fortsättningen av den framlidna professorn Charles P Kindlebergers klassiska lista över historiska finans- och spekulationskriser.
Per Lindvall e24 14/1 2011

In his FT Deutschland column, Wolfgang Münchau says
the FDP has turned from an internationalist, profoundly pro-European party into anti-European nationalist ragbag of politicians, who lack a basic understanding of the function of the EU.
Eurointelligence 19/1 2011

Time for Plan B
The euro area’s bail-out strategy is not working.
It is time for insolvent countries to restructure their debts
The Economist print 13/1 2011

Spanish banks have €323 billion (the equivalent of 31% of GDP) in loans to property developers.
Add in construction, and the exposure rises to 42% of GDP.
The Economist print 13/1 2011

The tragedy of the Euromess is that the creation of the euro was supposed to be the finest moment in a grand and noble undertaking: the generations-long effort to bring peace, democracy and shared prosperity to a once and frequently war-torn continent.
But the architects of the euro, caught up in their project’s sweep and romance, chose to ignore the mundane difficulties a shared currency would predictably encounter
Instead, they engaged in magical thinking, acting as if the nobility of their mission transcended such concerns.
Paul Krugman, New York Times, January 12, 2011
En lysande artikel

The unemployment rate in Greece jumped to 13.5 percent
A record 684,047 people were officially without work, a 39 percent increase year-on-year.
CNBC 12/1 2011

Nouriel Roubini och SvD:s Tomas Lundin sätter fingret på EMU:s ömma punkt
Rolf Englund blog 12/1 2011

It is one thing for an anti-European British politician, or a short-selling New York banker, to express scepticism about the euro’s future.
But when doubts come from a founding father of European monetary union, everyone should pay heed.
Otmar Issing, who served from 1998 to 2006 as the European Central Bank’s first chief economist,
is one of the most decent and thoughtful men in German public life.

Financial Times, editorial, January 11 2011

Roubini:
Europe needs growth to prevent a disorderly collapse of the euro area.
Der Spiegel 11/1 2011

The dam breaks in Portugal
As Wolfgang Munchau wrote in the FT on Monday,
the essential problem is that Spain and other Club Med states cannot both deflate to regain lost competitiveness within EMU and at the same grow fast enough to control debt dynamics.
They can do one or the other, but not both at the same time.

The EU strategy is simply unworkable.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, January 11th, 2011

Portugal
Ã…tstramningarna som har framtvingats av marknaderna gör saken inte bättre, i alla fall inte på kort sikt. Medan länder som Tyskland och Sverige växer så det knakar väntas Portugals BNP sjunka i år,
precis som investeringarna, sysselsättningen och den offentliga och privata konsumtionen.

Hur Portugal i det läget ska klara av att sänka budgetunderskottet är för många en gåta.
Tomas Lundin, SvD Näringsliv 12/1 2011

Roubini says it is absurd to focus on 2013
“ What the euro countries decide for 2013 is completely inconsequential. Forget 2013!
The important thing is what will happen in the next three months in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France.
I can’t fathom how the EU member states can hold a summit entirely preoccupied with what will happen after the present rescue package runs out,
without once mentioning what they intend to do now to help Portugal and Spain.”
Eurointelligence 12/1 2011

Europe is now facing what Edwin Truman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics calls
“a collective run on the financial institutions and governments of the euro zone countries.”
This contagion, says the former head of the Federal Reserve’s international finance division, makes it essential that euro zone members and the European Central Bank devise “a Plan B,
a structured process for writing down debts,” in case the current safeguards — the country by country bailouts — don’t hold.
MaketWatch Dec. 17, 2010

Mr Issing said proposals that Emu should be expanded into a “transfer union” – the transfer of funds from Germany and other financially strong states to weaker, highly indebted states – were wrong.
“This would wholly change Emu’s character,” he said.
FT 11/1 2011

Otmar Issing, the former chief economist of the European Central Bank and the German Bundesbank,
is a genial number-cruncher who believes in the overall benefits of European integration
has turned virulently pessimistic over the European single currency.
In a marked change from his relative sanguinity during his eight years at the ECB,
he terms member countries’ unreliability on economic policies “a basic design flaw of monetary union.”
David Marsh, Market Watch, Jan. 10, 2011
Highly recommended

Economist Desmond Lachman of Washington’s American Enterprise Institute:
The euro crisis, he argues, “is not at the periphery, but at the core.”
He emphasizes that German and French banks hold the bulk of the $2 trillion of sovereign debt
owed by Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece.
MaketWatch Dec. 17, 2010

At the December summit, the European Union missed a historic chance to get on top of this crisis. We will do whatever it takes, they swore, and went home.
Nobody believed them, but the panic did not start until last week, when bond yields rose, and the euro slumped.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT January 9 2011

Portugal planerar i år att låna upp 18-20 miljarder euro med nya obligationslån
Totat löper portugisiska obligationer för 9,5 miljarder euro ut 2011, varav 4,5 miljarder i april.
SEB:s ekonomer ser onsdagens försök i Portugal att ta upp obligationslån för sammanlagt 1,25 miljarder euro (cirka 11 miljarder kronor) som "ett viktigt test".
Ekot 10/1 2011

VLT:s ledarsida argumenterade för ett ja till euron och själv röstade jag då logiskt nog ja.
Oron för att dagens eurooro skulle ha givit direkta problem för Sverige med en ja-seger kan jag inte heller dela.
Finland, Österrike och Nederländerna är exempel på länder som påminner om Sverige och har klarat sig bra med euron.
Ändå kan jag inte frigöra mig från att det i efterhand har visat sig mest hederligt att nej-sidan vann.
Skulle ja-sidan ha vunnit borde det ha berott på att våra främsta argument övertygade. Men så här i efterhand framstår de inte som särskilt övertygande.
VLT 8/1 2011

Vad finns det egentligen för ekonomiska argument för att EU eller EMU ska låna ut pengar till de medlemsländer som inte har ordning på sina statsfinanser? Vad skulle hända om vi inte ställde upp, utan i värsta fall lät exempelvis Grekland göra en ensidig nedskrivning av sina skulder med kanske tjugo eller trettio procent?
för skattebetalarna vore det naturligtvis billigare om staten bara räddar bankerna från konkurs, och om man dessutom gör det på ett sådant sätt att man inte räddar dessa bankers aktieägare, utan bara den systemviktiga verksamheten.
Mats Persson, DN Debatt 2011-01-09

Move forward decisively on the path toward “federalization” of economic and fiscal policies.
In my view, this is the right course

The European Council should lead this effort toward federalization and a single global voice,
including proposing the requisite changes in the European treaties,
even when it may be expected that some countries of the Union may not wish to join this development.
Felipe González New York Times 7/1 2011

Samme Treschow som varit ordförande för Svensk Näringsliv – den organisation som bekostade en icke föraktlig del av ja-kampanjen för svenskt euromedlemskap.
Den kampanjen är för övrigt det jag skäms mest över från min nästan tioåriga sejour i partipolitiken.
Jag var vid den här tiden anställd av Liberala ungdomsförbundet, och därför heltidsengagerad på ja-sidan.

Ändå har jag inget egentligt minne av att vi pratade politik. I stället sprang vi omkring och delade ut badbollar, kepsar, nyckelband och gud minns vad mer med käcka "Ja Till Euron"-budskap på. Våra affischer täckte varenda reklampelare i landet.
Vi lade mer pengar på mazariner med euro-loggor än vad den luspanka nej-kampanjen spenderade totalt.
Nej-sidan hade däremot något annat, nämligen argument.
Johan Ingerö, Örnsköldsviks Allehanda, 30 december 2010

Greece has become the world's riskiest borrower in the fourth quarter of 2010, surpassing Venezuela,
while Spain, Portugal and Ireland were riskier than Iraq

CNBC 7 Jan 2011

If the euro zone is truly to put the debt crisis behind it,
three very painful measures are going to be needed
“The sovereign debt crisis in the euro area periphery is closely tied up with a suppressed banking crisis
throughout the euro area — core and periphery”

according to Citi Chief Economist Willem Buiter, CNBC 7/1 2011
Highly recommended

Yep, Portugal’s 10-year debt is yielding more than 7 per cent
Neil Hume FT Alphaville Jan 06 2011

Irish 10-year yields have been climbing to 9%, Greek 10-year yields to over 12%,
well into territory where investors are factoring in a non-trivial default risk.
Eurointelligence 6/1 2011

Euron är "världens mest stabila valuta".
Eurogruppens ordförande Jean-Claude Juncker i en tidningsintervju på fredagen, rapporterar Bloomberg News.
DI 2011-01-03

Jean-Claude Juncker dismissed concerns about the future of the euro, calling it
“the most solid currency in the world,”
“We are not facing a crisis of the euro, but a debt crisis in individual euro nations,”
“The euro’s existence and its essence are not at risk.”
Bloomberg Dec 31, 2010

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
Just joking

The foreign owner of a Greek, Irish or Portuguese bond, for example, faces two specific dangers
One is the risk of a eurozone break-up.
The other is a default risk – in which case the debtor defaults but stays inside the eurozone.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT December 29 2010

Europe preview of 2011
In 1931 the collapse of the Creditanstalt, an Austrian bank, heralded the Great Depression.
Eighty years later could the end of the euro set off a catastrophic chain reaction
tearing down the world’s financial institutions and states?
Bruno Waterfield, Daily Telegraph 24 Dec 2010

Eurons framtid högst osäker
Angela Merkel: ”Det viktigaste är att vi tror på euron
och inte låter oss irriteras av marknaderna”
Toma Lundin e24 2010-12-30

”Just nu vill ingen ansluta sig till euron”
Michael Treschow: – Just nu verkar det inte vara en bra idé
–Jag tror ändå på lång sikt att det är en fördel för ett land med liten valuta att hitta mer stabila spelregler,
men det verkar som det ligger långt i framtiden just nu.
EURON DELAR EUROPA | SvD granskar valutaunionen – del 1, 27 december 2010

- Jag känner väldigt mycket äckelkänslor inför utanförskapet.
Alla har väl någon erfarenhet av detta. Att inte bli vald till knattelaget i fotboll.
Att inte bli uppbjuden på damernas.
Michael Treschow, på moderaternas ekonomiseminarium Aftonbladet 7/7 2003

In Hoc Anno Domini
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.
Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.
Read more here

Joschka Fischer om en ny allians mellan Paris och Berlin
Den irländska krisen har kommit mig att för första gången undra om euron – och därmed EU – kan gå i stöpet.
Trenden går i riktning mot ett ”tyskt Europa”, som aldrig kommer att fungera.
Joschka Fischer, Kolumn DN 28/12 2010

Den tyske förbundskanslern Helmut Kohl tog denna oro på allvar och accepterade tanken på valutaunionen, som ett sätt att förankra det nya starka Tyskland i Europasamarbetet.
Resultatet blev Maastrichtfördraget.
Inför hotet om ett sönderfall kan man enas om åtgärder som vanligtvis ökar EU:s överstatliga karaktär.
Mats Hallgren, e24 21/12 2010

The euro’s struggles could become more pronounced in coming months as traders increasingly use the beleaguered currency to fund so-called “carry trades.”
That may sound surprising, given the yen and the dollar’s singular appeal as currencies is that they cost next to nothing to borrow.
But the euro is perceived to be so vulnerable to further declines on the foreign exchange market that big market participants are zeroing in on trades to bet against it.
Stephen L. Bernard, WSJ Real Time Economics, 21/12 2010

EU, the small dogs och de arbetslösa EUROpéerna
Rolf Englund blog 21/12 2010

The issue is not whether to preserve the eurozone, but how.
The crucial requirement is understanding rightly what has gone wrong.
It has not, as conventional wisdom now goes, been a fiscal failure, except in Greece.
It’s the private sector, stupid!
Martin Wolf. FT December 21 2010

"Can countries inside a fixed exchange-rate system like the euro grow and tighten budget policy at the same time?
I don't think so. It didn't work in Argentina,"

Andrew Bosomworth, head of Pimco's portfolio management in Europe,said.
Daily Telegraph 20/12 2010

The crisis was caused – except in Greece – by large and persistent intra-eurozone private sector imbalances between the centre and the periphery,
which gave rise to large financial flows and bubbles. The European response is not to address the problem directly
but to insist on fiscal discipline and structural reforms.
Wolfgang Münchau, December 19 2010

Look and learn from across the Irish Sea
A generation ago it would have seemed ridiculous to go to Ireland for economics lessons. Not any more
George Osborne, numera finansminister, The Times February 23, 2006

And what did the European Union’s leaders come up with after high-level talks in Brussels? A two-line treaty amendment.
It’s crazy. It might be the case that the euro isn’t worth saving.
This column has certainly argued that it has turned into a bankruptcy machine.
But given that no one is contemplating that yet, it would surely make sense to come up with a credible plan for salvaging the euro.
Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg Opinion Dec 21, 2010

It’s simply stunning that this revolution in the European political system is about to take place under the guise of a “limited treaty change”
that European officials say will not require the votes of member states. It’s hard to believe that anyone truly thinks this is minor;
more likely the EU officials are just frightened that the peoples of Europe will not accept the new regime. Better to impose it before the people can oppose it.
John Carney, Senior Editor, CNBC.com, 20 Dec 2010

ECB Expresses `Serious Concerns' About Irish Proposals to Stabilize Banks
Bloomberg 20/12 2010

Auch deutsche Banken haben sich mit Milliardensummen in Irland engagiert.
Wo die Risiken liegen und wie viel Geld die einzelnen Institute im Feuer haben.
Handelsblatt 18/11 2010

If Germany and its hard-money allies genuinely wish to save the euro – which is open to doubt –
they should stop posturing, face up to the grim imperative of a Transferunion, and
desist immediately from imposing their ruinous and reactionary policies of debt deflation on southern Europe and Ireland.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 19 Dec 2010

Folkomrösta om EU:s fördragsändring för räddningsfonden
Rolf Englund blog 18/12 2010

Ronald Reagans ofta citerade ”Det är staten som är problemet”, har alldeles särskilt kommit att gälla bygget av en europeisk superstat.
Att borgerligheten drev på för ett medlemskap för fredens, demokratins och frihandelns skull är inte skäl att okritiskt älska en politisk koloss som i allt större utsträckning ägnar sig åt annat.
Paulina Neuding chefredaktör för Neo, SvD 19/12 2010

Fredrik Reinfeldt ser ingen överhängande risk för att fördragsförändringen som det beslutats om på mötet skulle kunna leda till nationella krav på folkomröstningar.

- Det ska ligga i linje med vad som kallas ett förenklat förfarande. Det bygger på att man kan fatta beslut på några få månader. Det kräver fortsatt ratifikation i alla 27 medlemsländer, men det behövs inga konvent ihop med EU-parlamentet eller folkomröstningar.
SvD/TT 17/12 2010

Article 48
1. The Treaties may be amended in accordance with an ordinary revision procedure.
They may also be amended in accordance with simplified revision procedures.

The amendment to the Lisbon Treaty will have to be ratified by 27 parliaments, after all.
Der Spiegel 17/12 2010

Två meningar som kan ställa till det rejält
Merkel var orolig för att den mäktiga tyska författningsdomstolen skulle opponera sig mot den tillfälliga krisfond på 750 miljarder euro
SvD, reporter Teresa Küchler, 16 december 2010

Översättning från tyska till svenska via Google:

Valutakris
Euron är i fara - och Europas ledare inte inser den historiska dimensionen av hotet.
Nu behöver en revolution: Alla EU-länder måste samordna skatt, pensioner och löner.
Annars kommer det att gå illa just Tyskland.
Der Spiegel 15/12 2010, av Sven Böll, född 1975, sedan mars 2010, biträdande chef för nationalekonomi.

Sveriges utrikesminister är en av få som öppet argumenterar för fortsatt utvidgning av EU.
Turkiet, Kroatien, Island, Makedonien, Montenegro, Serbien, Albanien, Kosovo och Bosnien/Herzegovina.
Annika Ström Melin, DN 16/12 2010

"Der Euro ist unser gemeinsames Schicksal, und Europa ist unsere gemeinsame Zukunft"
Förbundskansler Merkels ord kommenteras
Rolf Englund blog 16/12 2010

Der Euro ist in Gefahr - und Europas Spitzenpolitiker verkennen die historische Dimension der Bedrohung.
Jetzt braucht es eine Revolution: Alle EU-Staaten müssen Steuern, Renten und Löhne koordinieren.
Sonst wird es gerade Deutschland schlecht ergehen.

Der Spiegel, 15/12 2010, von Sven Böll, Jahrgang 1975, Seit März 2010 stellvertretender Ressortleiter Wirtschaft.

Spain credit rating review by Moody's hits euro
BBC 15 December 2010

So if nothing bad were to happen to force Spain to raise even more money, it will need to borrow €290bn next year, equivalent to a non-trivial 27% of the country's GDP.
Robert Peston, 15 December 2010

SCB:s undersökning om EU- och EMU-sympatierna.
28,9 procent uppgav att de skulle rösta ja till euron om det var folkomröstning i november,
medan 58,2 procent uppgav att de skulle rösta nej.
e24 14/12 2010

The architects of the euro knew that it was incomplete when they designed it.
– unavoidable given that the Maastricht treaty was meant to bring about monetary union without political union.
The authorities were confident, however, that if and when the euro ran into a crisis they would be able to overcome it.
After all, that is how the European Union was created, taking one step at a time, knowing full well that additional steps would be required.
George Soros, FT December 14 2010

Mechanics of a European capital flight
$107bn outflow from Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in Q2
FT Alphaville Dec 13 2010

Moody’s yesterday put the losses of the Spanish banking sector at €177bn
A recession would drive up losses to €300bn, with new capital requirements of €100bn.
Eurointelligence 14/12 2010

How can Germany or France agree lightly to plans that amount to
an EU debt union, with a common treasury, tax system, and budget policy,
the stuff of civil wars and revolutions over the ages?

To do so is to dismantle the ancient nation states of Europe in all but name.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 12 Dec 2010

Eurokrisen farligare än en terrorist från Tranås
Rolf Englund blog 13/12 2010

The Bank for International Settlements,
not exactly the world’s most controversial institution,
said the debate about investor bail-ins triggered by the Franco-German agreement at Deauville
was an important factor in the intensification of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis
Eurointelligence 13/12 2010

Desmond Lachman, now a research fellow with the American Enterprise Institute:
Most people continue to underestimate the severity of the problem.
The euro zone could be in disarray by this time next year
Fortune 13/12 2010

Det osannolika och omöjliga med en uppdelning eller ett sönderfall av euron i en ny monetär flora,
blasfemiskt tal i politiska kretsar men livligt diskuterad i akademiska,
har blivit allt mer sannolikt.

Per Lindvall 10/12 2010

The EU Is Pushing Ireland to the Brink of Ruin
To make sure that the state does not drown in its debts,
the annual rate of growth has to be significantly higher than the interest due on the national debt,
If the Irish economy does not grow by 8-10 percent, then the country will end in a debt-deflationary spiral.
And even the most optimistic government projections are just below 4 percent.
Der Spiegel 8/12 2010

Most economic historians and international economists I know believe a monetary union would fail unless it develops into a fiscal union.
Yet, almost all political and legal experts who specialise in the European Union believe a fiscal union is Utopian.
If both are right, a fiscal union is simultaneously necessary and impossible.
And that would mean – again if both are right – that the euro is doomed to fail.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT December 12 2010

What once could be dismissed as simply a Greek crisis, or simply a Greek and Irish crisis,
is now clearly a eurozone crisis.


The economics is really quite simple.
Greece has a budget problem. Ireland has a banking problem. Portugal has a private-debt problem. Spain has a combination of all three.
all must now endure excruciatingly painful spending cuts.
Barry Eichengreen, 2010-12-09
Higly recommended

A step closer to Eurobond-age
Rolf Englund, Financial Times, Letters to the editor, December 9 2010

Now that markets have been forced to focus on the fact that
EMU members are more likely to default than truly sovereign states,
they have started to charge a variable risk premium
This is very reminiscent of the ERM crises in the early 1990s.
Gavyn Davies blog November 30, 2010

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he
fears the euro will face a "high noon" moment of reckoning early in the New Year.
BBC 8 December 2010

a defining moment for Europe
I make no apologies for repeatedly taxing the reader with commentary on the future of the single currency,
for its crisis is without doubt the most important European story of the decade.
We are fast approaching a defining moment.
Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph 9 Dec 2010

We've heard it before: Spain is too big to fail—and too big to be saved.
The Blame in Spain Falls Mainly on—Chancellor Merkel?
8 Dec 2010 Ash Bennington, NetNet Writer, Special to CNBC.com

In its financial stability report, the ECB warned that some banks are overreliant on ECB funds.
9 December 2010 - Financial Stability Review December 2010

Nu har alla länder i EMU en gemensam valuta, och därmed en gemensam penningpolitik.
Men alla har en egen finanspolitik, och alla är överens om att det ska förbli så.
Och därmed kommer systemet, i sitt nuvarande skick, inte att fungera.
Nils-Eric Sandberg, f d ledarskribent i DN och publicist i ekonomiska och filosofiska ämnen.
i Kristianstadsbladet 2 december 2010

Nils-Eric Sandberg och sökandet efter EMU:s Holy Grail
Rolf Englund blog 9/12 2010

Det är en väldigt liten sannolikhet för att euron kommer att bryta ihop.
Det säger Svenskt Näringslivs chefekonom Stefan Fölster
och menar att krisen är stärkande och kan föra mycket gott med sig för Europas del i framtiden.
e24 9/12 2010

"Hur kunde euroområdet hamna i dagens prekära läge?"
Lars Jonung om "den statsfinansiella krisen" i EU
kolumn på DN:s ledarsida 9/12 2010

Gordon Brown:
'We have a major crisis in the euro area'
The enormous liabilities of the eurozone's banks are
a serious and substantial accident waiting to happen.
BBC, 8 December 2010

Andrew Duff MEP writes in the FT that the EU was “slithering” into a fiscal union.
“What is happening is not very democratic and it will take years for politicians to explain and justify the process by which fiscal union came about.”
Eurointelligence 9/12 2010

Bank runs have not recurred (after Norther Rock), in spite of the eurozone’s continuing crisis.
But the calm ignores a writhing nightmare of worries behind the doors of once unquestionably sound institutions from Dublin to Athens.
Financial Times December 8 2010

Euro-Krise
Vergiftete Staaten von Europa
Es wird gelästert und kritisiert. Es ist eine paradoxe Situation
- die Währung, die Europa eigentlich aneinander binden soll, spaltet den Kontinent zunehmend.
Der Spiegel 9 december 2010

Doubts are growing as to whether the euro has a future
Europe needs a far-reaching debt restructuring mechanism - but strangely,
politicians have shown a preference for issuing yet more mountains of debt. The euro has never been popular with Germans.
But now that they might have to atone for the financial sins of other EU countries,
the number of euroskeptics has been swelling dramatically.
Der Spiegel 7/12 2010

Could Assange escape extradition to Sweden? His lawyer claims the charges are “politically motivated,” but it won’t be easy.
Sweden is employing the fast-track European Arrest Warrant system, which allows few grounds for challenging extradition.
Underlying the arrangement is an assumption that all the signatory states have trustworthy legal systems and share a respect for human rights.
Newsweek 7/12 2010

Irlands nedskärningar motsvarar 110 miljarder kronor
Rolf Englund blog 7/12 2010

For sceptics the question has always been how robust a currency union among diverse economies with less than unlimited mutual solidarity can be.
Only a crisis could answer that question. Unfortunately, the crisis we have is the biggest for 80 years.
Will what the eurozone is able to agree to do be enough to keep it together? I do not know.
We all will, however, in the fairly near future.
Martin Wolf, FT December 7 2010

Ireland
Severe Budget cutbacks will see drop in living standards

Middle-income workers, families and social welfare recipients will bear the brunt of a €6 billion fiscal adjustmeny
Irish Times, December 7, 2010

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has accused his country's current leaders of failing to grasp modern international finance.
He also said the EU lacked leaders capable of crisis management.
BBC 7/12 2010

One of the hallmarks of the unfolding financial crisis is that even “experts” quickly concede that
they do not have answers to most of the really important questions

Gideon Rachman, FT December 6 2010

How Close Did Europe Come to Lehman-Style Crisis?
Before the European bailout package the European banking sector was awash with rumors of an
impending liquidity crunch as interbank lending rates spiked
Many banks with the highest Tier 1 Capital Ratio were struggling to raise money
for more than a 30-day time horizon on the Friday afternoon before the bailout
Patrick Allen, CNBC Senior News Editor 17 May 2010

Direct
How you could possibly create a bond market for which all European Union member countries were responsible, without changing the treaties on which the single currency is based.
Stephanie Flanders, BBC6 December 2010

Any bank requires a continuous flow of funds and the question ceases to be whether it is solvent and becomes simply whether it will be able to refinance maturing debt at an acceptable price.
The worry that it won’t becomes self fulfilling.
The euro area is standing on the brink of such a meltdown today.
Sir John Gieve, Daily Telegraph 7 December 2010

The financial storm has reopened the debate on the euro’s flawed design
The political commitment to the euro may be strong enough to bail out excessive debtors and even to survive a partial default. But it may not be so strong that it can support closer fiscal integration.
Charlemagne, The Economist print Dec 2nd 2010

Direct
Germany Snubs Pleas to Boost Aid, Sell Joint Bonds
Bloomberg 6/12 2010

Reinfeldt, Rolf Gustavsson, Lissabonfördraget och Sudettyskarna
Rolf Englund blog 5/12 2010

Man kan lätt konstatera att Fridolin har fel genom att vända blicken österut.
Finland, en liten ekonomi i Europas utkant och lik vår egen, har klarat sig marginellt bättre än Sverige sedan 1999 med euron som valuta, skrev Carl B Hamilton.
BBCs diagram visar något annat

Despite an €85 billion bail-out for Ireland, the euro zone’s debt crisis is getting worse.
Our first article looks at why politicians’ attempts to stem the crisis are failing.
Our second examines what a break-up of the euro zone might look like
The Economist print Dec 2nd 2010

I become nervous when Angela Merkel says the future of the euro and that of the EU are inextricably linked.
What worries me is that, on the evidence so far, Berlin does not have the political will to rescue the single currency.
Philip Stephens, FT December 2 2010

European Union states have underwritten their financial sectors
with 4.5 trillion euros ($5.9tn) of aid since the banking crisis hit.
Sweden 161.6 bn euros
BBC December 1, 2010 with nice list

Breaking up the euro is not unthinkable, just very costly.
Because they refuse to face up to the possibility that it might happen,
Europe’s leaders are failing to take the measures necessary to avert it.
The Economist print Dec 2nd 2010

De som köpte bostad i Spanien under 2007, innan finanskrisen slog till,
har i vissa fall fått se sitt hus halveras i värde.
Mäklare i Spanien talar om prisfall på allt från 25 till 50 procent.
e24 2/12

It pains me to say this. I’m probably the most pro-euro economist on my side of the Atlantic.
I’m also a believer in the larger European project.
But given this abject failure of European and German leadership, I am going to have to rethink my position.
Barry Eichengreen
Highly recommended

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero:
"[Our banking system] is definitely healthy"
Rolf Englund blog 2/12 2010

Can Europe save the euro?
Slowly, people are beginning to realize that the eurozone's debt problems are structural.
And that means adding more debt to countries like Ireland,
already struggling to repay creditors, is a recipe for disaster

Anthony Mirhaydari, MSN Money 1/12 2010
Highly recommended

Only Trichet can save us now – ECB about to monetise peripheral debt
The second problem is that a large purchasing programme of the kind demanded by analysis
is almost certainly a breach of European law, and German constitutional law.

Eurointelligence, 2 December 2010

The FT has news from the Bank of International Settlements,
according to which Irish banks are extremely exposed to borrowers in Greece, Spain and Portugal,

Irish banks are also the fifth largest global lender in Italy.
Eurointelligence, 2 December 2010

Europe’s sovereign crisis is spreading to the heart of the 16-nation bloc as
investors question Belgium’s ability to cut the euro region’s third-highest debt load
Bloomberg Dec 1, 2010

The only problem that lies in the way of this rational outcome is that
much of Europe is currently burdened by a political elite that can't admit that it was wrong.
There seems to be no desire among these politicians to recognize that that single currency was a mistake
Guy Johnson, CNBC "European Closing Bell" Anchor 29 Nov 2010

Konstruktionen av den fond som sattes upp efter Greklandskrisen i våras har en inneboende svaghet.
Den garanteras av samtliga EMU-medlemmar, men ett land som själv använder fonden faller bort som garant.
Det innebär att ju större behovet är av fonden desto mindre pengar har den att låna ut.
Viktor Munkhammar, DI 2010-11-30

- The survival of the Euro is no longer up for debate
Once this episode is over, almost everybody will be much happier.
Rolf Englund blog 1/12 2010

The others are tapas; Spain is the main course.
Why is Spain in so much trouble? In a word, it’s the euro.
Paul Krugman, New York Times November 28, 2010

2011 will see the first member of the European single currency starting to talk seriously about
leaving the euro zone.
That country will be Germany.
Guy Johnson, CNBC "European Closing Bell" Anchor 29 Nov 2010

Dr. Robert Shapiro (served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs in President Clinton's administration):
The big fear is that a default in Spain could significantly hurt German and French banks since
they hold more than $600 billion in Spanish debt, a large chunk.
And that could create a scenario similar to the Wall Street meltdown of 2008
CNN 30/11 2010

Under a floating exchange rate, some of the pressure would be relieved by a rising exchange rate in the boom and a falling rate in the bust.
With a pegged rate, the collapse in the currency would normally restore competitiveness and growth.
In a currency union, these safety valves are lost. Instead, we have a joint credit and competitiveness crisis.
The solution for the loss of competitiveness is a sharp fall in prices.
But that worsens the credit crisis: this, then, is debt deflation, as Ireland knows
Martin Wolf, FT November 30 2010

European finance ministers have in effect announced that the risks of lending to financially stretched eurozone countries would increase in two and a half year's time
- which is no time at all for many investors.
Robert Peston BBC 29 November 2010

Nigel Farage: The Euro Game Is Up!
European Parliament, Strasbourg - 24 November 2010
YouTube

The public-sector rescue of Ireland's banks is predicated on the idea that the banks' creditors will be reassured
by a lifting in their capital resources from 8% of assets to 12%.
Robert Peston BBC 29 November 2010

Nu börjar Eurokrisen bli riktigt rolig
Rolf Englund blog 30/11 2010

2 triljoner euros
Yields on 10-year Italian bonds jumped 21 points to 4.61pc, threatening to shift the crisis to a new level.
Italy's public debt is over €2 trillion, the world's third-largest after the US and Japan.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 29 Nov 2010

Folkpartiet välkomnar de förslag som EU-kommissionen lagt, även när de innebär steg mot överstatlighet med makroekonomisk övervakning och gemensamma strängare budgetregler.
Ett starkare ekonomiskt samarbete är bästa medicinen för Sveriges och det tättbefolkade Europas ekonomiska stabilitet.
Carl B Hamilton, ordförande i riksdagens EU-nämnd, SvD 28/11 2010

Endgame
The same pattern again. The EU agrees a pact, and the markets are panicking.
This time it took them only a few hours. The EU’s credibility is sinking with each agreement.
We are now fast approach default time. Yields have been rising in Spain and even Italy yesterday afternoon,and the situation continued to deteriorate overnight.
We at Eurointelligence consider a default of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal a done deal.
Eurointelligence 30/11 2010

The markets attention shifted from the immediate funding problems to the underlying solvency issues.
Ireland’s interest rates under the EFSF will average 5.8%, and investors realised that this rate is too high to be sustainable.
As the country’s nominal growth is almost certain to lie well below that number for many years to come, Ireland’s debt will be on an explosive trajectory.
The markets have come to recognise that Ireland is insolvent. This morning, the yields on 10 years were close to 9.5% - which entails a high default probability.
Eurointelligence 30/11 2010

Fear is spreading in Europe. How many countries are going to need bailouts
-- and how many billions of euros will that take?
And is the entire euro alliance at risk?
Der Spiegel 11/26/2010

Europe is edging towards the unthinkable
The eurozone is manoeuvring itself into a position where it confronts the choice between two alternatives considered “unimaginable”:
fiscal union or break-up.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT November 28 2010

Eurokrisen från PIGS till BIIGS
Rolf Englund blog 26/11 2010

The euro crisis
Spreading from Ireland to Iberia
To stop the euro’s meltdown, Zapatero must revive Spanish reform
The Economist print Nov 25th 2010

Think BIIGS:
There's One Euro Country Under the Radar

/Belgien/
CNBC 26 Nov 2010

Credit default swaps (CDS) measuring risk on German, French and Dutch bonds have surged over recent days,
rising significantly above the levels of non-EMU states in Scandinavia.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 26 Nov 2010

Probably one of the best pieces of analytical commentary we have yet read on the eurozone situation
Once the dust finally settles Europe will either be a unified country
with fiscal sovereignty firmly established in Berlin or Brussels,
or it will be fragmented with little chance of reunion.

Michael Petis via Rolf Englund blog 24/11 2010

Eurozone borrowing costs hit record
Don Smith, economist at Icap, said: “Wildfire can be very difficult to put out.

The contagion could eventually spread all the way to France. The markets are very nervous.”
FT 25/11 2010

Europe's fate may be decided soon by the German constitutional court
the legality of the Greek bail-out, the EFSF machinery, and ECB bond purchases
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 26 Nov 2010

Leaving the euro: how would it work?
BBC 25 November 2010

EMU är inget experiment. EMU är ett vågspel.
Ett experiment kan avbrytas. EMU är som att göra fisksoppa av ett akvarium.
Om man ångrar sig är det svårt att göra ogjort.
Rolf Englund 13/7 2003

"There is zero danger"
"It is inconceivable that the euro fails"

Klaus Regling, chief of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF)
CNBC 25/11 2010

"There are no Americans in Bagdad"
Bagdad Bob 2003

The road to self-destruction of the eurozone
Paul de Grauwe, Eurointelligence 18/11 2010
Highly Recommended

Did he sing in the bath?
Lord Lamont was UK chancellor of the exchequer 1990-93 and is co-chairman of the Bruges Group
The problem with the EU is that at times its very nature exacerbates internal tensions.
That is why the euro may eventually break up

Norman Lamont, Financial Times, June 22 2005

Portugal is the next example of a country to demonstrate that austerity in the middle of a financial crisis is a sure recipe for disaster.
The mood in the bond markets is deteriorating sharply, as Portuguese, and Spanish, spreads reach new records,
amid expectation that the crisis is very certain to spill over to Portugal, and possibly even to Spain.
FT Deutschland makes the remark the Portuguese spreads are about as high now as the Greek spreads
were ahead of the rescue.
Eurointelligence 24/11 2010

EU:s "Bagdad Bob"
Europeiska rådets ordförande Herman Van Rompuys retoriska skönmålning av de finansiella krishärdarna i euroländerna
Grekland, Irland, Spanien och Portugal blir alltmer verklighetsflyktiga.
I hård konkurrens med andra EU-höjdare gör han anspråk på titeln EU:s "Bagdad Bob"
Per Lindvall e24, 24/11 2010 med bra bild och länk till Real Bagdad Bob

Back in 2007, Ireland’s net public debt was just 12 per cent of gross domestic product.
This compares with 50 per cent in Germany and 80 per cent in Greece.

Martin Wolf, FT November 23 2010

I Sverige har bostadspriserna rusat i höjden med hela 116 procent på tio år.
Det är lika mycket som i Spanien och betydligt mer än på krisdrabbade Irland
där priserna stigit med 34 procent sedan år 2000, enligt SEB
Expressen 24/11 2010

Den grundlagsförändring som riksdagen den 2 juni i år enhälligt röstade för i en första omgång,
och som kan komma att klubbas igenom den 24 november, innefattar punkter som försvagar det svenska medborgarskapet, grundlagsbefäster mångkulturalismen samt innebär krav på att
grundlagen åter måste ändras i det fall Sveriges vill träda ur den europeiska unionen.
Jimmie Ã…kesson och Kent Ekeroth, Sverigedemokraterna, SvD Brännpunkt 19 november 2010

Den 24 november ska riksdagen fatta det andra och avgörande beslutet för att ändringarna i regeringsformen
som ska träda i kraft den 1 januari 2011.
Med denna nya paragraf blir Sveriges EU-medlemskap grundlagsskyddat.
Konsekvensen blir att medlemskapet i EU cementeras och att det blir svårare för Sverige att lämna EU.

Jan-Erik Gustafsson, ordförande i Folkrörelsen Nej till EU, m fl, SvD Brännpunkt 23 november 2010

The Irish bailout is not, after all, what one normally thinks of as a bailout
— it’s not like the Texas S&L bailout, where national taxpayers assumed the losses of failed Texas banks.
It’s simply an agreement to lend Ireland funds at more or less safe market rates.
We can also see why the bailout isn’t likely to succeed. The basic situation is that given the cost of rescuing Ireland’s banks
and the damage harsh austerity is inflicting on Ireland’s economy,
investors are understandably skeptical that the Irish government will actually be able to meet its commitments.
Paul Krugman New York Times November 23, 2010

Krugman: Det är ingen bail-out för Irland
och några ord om Dagens Nyheter

Rolf Englund blog 23/11 2010

Dagens Nyheter: EU har ännu ingen helt gemensam skattepolitik
"Beskattningsrätten är kärnan i det nationella självbestämmandet och demokratin"
DN, huvudledare 23/11 2010

Den irländska krisen är långt ifrån över och läget för euron är "exceptionellt allvarligt",
enligt Tysklands förbundskansler Angela Merkel. Hon tillägger att hon inte kommer backa från kravet på att
den privata sektorn, i första hand banker och pensionsfonder, är med och tar smällen i det system för
stödåtgärder som 2013 ska ersätta euroländernas stödfacilitet EFSF.
VA TT-Reuters 23/11 2010

It would be nice if the BBC stopped trotting these characters /EMU-suportes/ out as if they were disinterested experts, while presenting those of us who opposed the euro as Right-wing eccentrics.
We don’t want an apology, those of us who got the call right: we just want to be listened to next time.

Daniel Hannan November 21st, 2010

Det var inte folket som besegrade eliten.
Det var den slutna ekonomins särintresse som besegrade den öppnas

Lars Jonung kolumn DNs ledarsida 10/9 2004

Tyska och brittiska banker har stora fordringar på Irland
och det skulle slå mycket hårt om man på förfallodagarna fick svaret: vi kan inte betala.

SvD 23/11 2010

Here's what we Eurosceptics were saying about Ireland and the euro in 1998
Daniel Hannan November 21st, 2010

The eurozone is pressing ahead with the same approach it has followed ever since the collapse of Lehmans
When in doubt, sign another blank cheque to private creditors, and try not to think about the money, or the moral hazard.
Stephanie Flanders, the BBC's economics editor, 22 November 2010

"Can the Euro Still Be Saved?"
The countries of the euro zone are hopelessly divided over the question of how to save the currency in the long term.
Bailouts for individual countries like Ireland and Greece can only be a temporary solution.
Meanwhile, an internal paper drawn up by the German government has revealed Berlin's plans for
forcing private-sector investors to take their share of losses in future crises.
By SPIEGEL Staff, 22/11 2010

British taxpayers should not have to fund a bail-out of the Irish banks because Ireland's financial crisis is “not our problem,”
the former Conservative Cabinet minister John Redwood has said.
Daily Telegraph 22/11 2010

– Det är självklart för Sverige att delta, säger finansminister Anders Borg
om möjligheten att bistå Irlands regering med ett bilateralt lån på 5—10 miljarder kronor
DN 22/11 2010

Det finns jätterisker att det inte fungerar.
Att Irland kommer att misslyckas att få till sin ekonomi i alla fall – att de kommer att gå i statsbankrutt
och vara tvungna att be om att få sina skulder nedskrivna.
Om det händer har privata skulder i banker och finansbolag flyttas över till skattebetalarna.
Ekots Staffan Sonning 22/11 2010

Den verkliga faran är Spanien och kanske även i Italien,
EMU:s tredje respektive fjärde största ekonomier.
Viktor Munkhammar, DI 22/11 2010

The two largest creditors to Ireland are /banks in/ the UK and Germany,
with loans outstanding of $149bn and $139bn respectively

An Irish bank default would affect the German and British banking systems directly, and require significant domestic bank bail-outs.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT November 21 2010

Ireland: An extreme version of the British disease
Robert Peston, BBC 22 November 2010

Peter Wolodarski försvarar EMU om Irland och Grekland
Rolf Englund blog 2010-11-21

Conditions for securing a lasting peace within Western Europe were arguably already in place by 1954
The European creation myth of the 1990’s (“Europe must accept supranational political and economic structures to prevent future conflict”) may be flawed. Such a flaw, to the extent that Europeans no longer believe it, may explain a lot of things, from public referendums rejecting the EU constitution
Stocksthatpay 21/11 2010

De som försöker skuldbelägga Europeiska centralbankens låga ränta för den ohållbara låneexpansionen har en poäng.
Skeptiker till euron vädrar morgonluft och upprepar sin gamla kritik mot den gemensamma valutan:
– Vad var det vi sa, säger de. Euron passade inte för Greklands behov och den passar inte heller för Irlands.
Vad som krävs är en nationell räntepolitik och nationella valutor, som går att devalvera.
Peter Wolodarski, DN Signerat 21/11 2010

Var det den gemensamma valutan som ligger bakom Irlands problem.
Skulle krisen ha dämpats om den irländska riksbanken hade kunnat höja räntan för att kyla av den keltiska tigern? Har landet drabbats av en så kallad asymmetrisk chock?
Ja, svarade Lars Calmfors. Han anser att Irland är ett tydligt exempel på att den gemensamma räntenivån i hela euroområdet kan skapa problem för enskilda länder.
Annika Ström Melin, DN Signerat 18/11 2010

Officials disclosed that the Irish central bank had extended €20bn ($27bn) of exceptional liquidity to the banks in September and October
– over and above the €130bn they had been lent by the European Central Bank,
which itself was one-quarter of all ECB lending to eurozone banks.
Financial Times November 19 2010

It was an old-fashioned property bubble
Ireland Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan warned repeatedly that the credit bubble was out of control and would end badly
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 19 Nov 2010
Highly recommended

This is the most important eurozone news today, much more important, and alarming, than anything that happens in Ireland.
The OECD forecasts that Germany’s current account surplus will rise back to 7% of GDP by 2012.
This means that the forces that driving the eurozone apart, are gathering speed again.
Eurointelligence 19/11 2010

Until the country joined the European exchange rate mechanism in 1979, the Irish pound was virtually identical with the UK pound.
Samuel Brittan 18/11 2010

The conundrum is that the best course for Ireland would be to exit the euro zone,
depreciate its currency and restructure its bank debt.

Yves Smith, writes the blog Naked Capitalism, New York Times November 17, 2010

The Irish government has issued guarantees to its banking system worth approximately 176 percent of Irish gross domestic product. Irish banks, increasingly shut out of private markets, have grown ever more reliant on liquidity provided by the ECB.
Jacob F. Kirkegaard, research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics,
New York Times November 17, 2010

Ireland
What is the fundamental problem that needs to be fixed?
And second, how can that problem be fixed?
Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor 18 November 2010

Ireland borrowed and spent itself into a financial crisis.
Irish banks borrowed abroad and re-lent the money to Irish home buyers on the expectation that home prices would continue to climb.
When the real estate market collapsed, borrowers crashed, the banks came tumbling after, and so did the rest of the economy.
Sound familiar?

Jeffry A. Frieden, a professor of government at Harvard, author of Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century."
New York Times November 17, 2010

The EU has taken its most decisive step towards becoming a genuine unitary State,
by shifting key policies on taxes and public spending from national to federal level.
with almost no public awareness or debate
Anatole Kaletsky The Times November 3 2010

Germany wants to bail out Ireland more than the Irish want to be bailed out.
The Irish financial problem, in contrast to the Greek one, is not caused by excessive government borrowing
but by the enormous losses suffered by the country’s private banks, which owe tens of billions of euros more
to their foreign creditors than they can expect to recoup from their dud property loans.

Anatole Kaletsky The Times November 17 2010

DN och SvD drar inga slutsatser av Irland och EMU
Rolf Englund blog 18/11 2010

Det stora testet kommer när Spanien ber om hjälp.
”Det vill man helst inte tänka på, men det är en tidsfråga”, säger Pär Magnusson, chefsanalytiker på Royal Bank of Scotland.
Annelie Östlund e24 2010-11-17

Noch stehen Irland und Portugal im Mittelpunkt der Euro-Krise.
Doch die wirkliche Gefahr für die Stabilität der Währungsunion geht von Spanien aus.
Würden die Investoren das Vertrauen in das große EU-Land verlieren,
könnte die Schuldenkrise eine völlig neue Qualität bekommen.

Handelsblatt 15/11 2010

Daniel McCormack von der Investmentbank Macquarie.
"Spanien macht zwölf Prozent der Wirtschaftsleistung der Euro-Zone aus, mehr als dreimal so viel wie Irland und Portugal zusammengenommen",
rechnet der Volkswirt vor.

SEK 796 miljarder
Dublin hopes to dress up any bail-out as aid for banks rather than the state,
but the distinction became meaningless when Ireland guaranteed its banks in September 2008.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 18 Nov 2010 with nice pic

Auch deutsche Banken haben sich mit Milliardensummen in Irland engagiert.
Wo die Risiken liegen und wie viel Geld die einzelnen Institute im Feuer haben.
Handelsblatt 18/11 2010

"Irland behöver EU:s lugnande tigerbalsam"
Krisen /för Irland/ bottnar i att boomen i alltför hög grad var lånedriven med banker som använde glädjekalkyler.
Däri ligger också den politiska skulden: man borde ha kylt ned marknaden.
SvD-ledare 18/11 2010

När den amerikanska bostadsmarknaden dök sprack också den irländska fastighetsbubblan.
Bankerna kapsejsade under trycket av svajiga krediter och bostadsköpare som inte kunde betala sina lån.
Staten håller nu ett svårt sjukt finanssystem under armarna.
DN-ledare 18/11 2010

Supply side rabbits
How do you try to convince markets that an economy is going to grow even in the face of serious budget cuts, at a time of already high unemployment?
You produce some supply side structural reforms from a hat, et voila!
Kevin O’Rourke 16/11

Europe heads back into the storm
Ireland’s basic problem is that it now has to choose between its own sovereign solvency and the solvency of its banks.
Other European countries – in and out of the eurozone – may soon face the same choice.
In such a world, keeping banks afloat with public capital risks sinking the sovereign
– and with it, the whole banking system.

Financial Times editorial November 17 2010

The conservative Die Welt writes:
"The unthinkable has happened. The euro, the common currency and pride of the Europeans, is suspiciously close to the abyss."
"Europe is in the deepest crisis since its foundation. The community began as a project for peace and reconciliation. Its credo was: The whole is more important than the individual country. Little remains of that sentiment. The EU of today is like a club of 27 egotists, that are somehow connected through technocratic procedures and the competition for the biggest slice of the European wealth cake.
Europe is exhausted. It lacks strength, ideas, a common purpose and an indentity."
Cit by Der Spiegel 17/11 2010

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"The euro, which was supposed to make European integration 'irreversible' could become its undertaker.

When the euro was launched, it was a big bet that sharing the same currency would make a group of very different economies converge, and so allow the European Central Bank to operate a single monetary policy for all of them.
It was an interesting theory, but it turned out to be wrong.
Matthew Lynn Bloomberg 16/11 2010

Spanish economy - 5th largest in EU
Population: 45.8 million, Budget deficit in 2009: 11.1%, Unemployment in Sept: 20.8%
BBC 17/11 2010

EU:s president och Tysklands förbundskansler pratar strunt
Rolf Englund blog 16/11 2010

The exposure of banks /in Greece, Portugal, and Ireland/ is around $1.5 trillion
Let's assume, which is reasonable, that a meaningful portion of that $1.5 trillion can never be repaid
What would be a disaster would be a disorderly, piecemeal process of public and private sector defaults
Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, 16/11 2010

I dag har jag varit elak, hoppas jag
Några citat om Krisen för EMU
Rolf Englund blog 16/11 2010

Mr Van Rompuy said he was "very confident" the problems could be overcome. But he added:
"We all have to work together in order to survive with the eurozone,
because if we don't survive with the eurozone we will not survive with the European Union."

BBC 16/11 2010

Euro under siege after Portugal hits panic button
'If the euro fails, then Europe fails,'
warned the German Chancellor Angela Merkel last night
DT Tuesday 16 November 2010 with nice pic

Europe stumbles blindly towards its 1931 moment
Unless the ECB takes fast and dramatic action, it risks destroying the currency it is paid to manage,
and allowing a political catastrophe to unfold in Europe.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 14 Nov 2010

It is not an exaggeration to say that there would not be a banking system in Ireland - and therefore not an economy in any conventional sense for the generosity of the European Central Bank in providing loans to Irish banks that the markets won't provide.
Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, 15/11 2010

So why are the possibility of sovereign default, persistent imbalances and lack of a fiscal union incompatible?
Wolfgang Münchau, FT November 14 2010

Coca-Cola last week issued $4.5bn of three-year bonds on a rock-bottom coupon of 0.75 per cent.
Compare Coca-Cola with poor old Ireland whose three-year government bonds are now yielding 8.8 per cent.
Something is wrong.
Tony Jackson, FT November 14 2010

Löpsedelstext från Dublin: 48 Hours to Save The Euro
Irland avvisar spekulationer om EU-stöd
Ekot 15/11 2010, med fin bild

Europas stabilitet är inte längre given
Om boken Peer Steinbrück, tidigare Tysklands finansminister, Unterm Strich
Rolf Gustavsson, SvD 6 november 2010

The Republic of Ireland is in preliminary talks with EU officials for financial support, the BBC has learned.
It is now no longer a matter of whether but when the Irish government formally approaches the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) for a bailout
BBC 13 November 2010

A treaty change will be rammed through under Article 48 of the Lisbon Treaty, a trick that circumvents the need for full ratification.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 31 Oct 2010

The futile attempt to save the eurozone
Samuel Brittan, FT November 4 2010

If you strip out the humbug, the Greek package allows banks and funds to shift roughly €150bn of liabilities onto EU governments, or the European Central Bank, or the IMF.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 31 Oct 2010

Angela Merkel consigns Ireland, Portugal and Spain to their fate
Germany has had enough. Any eurozone state that spends its way into a debt crisis
or cannot adapt to a monetary union set for Northern rhythms will face “orderly” bankruptcy.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 31 Oct 2010

European Financial Stability Facility (Greklands räddningspaket)
Germany’s constitutional court has left Ms Merkel little leeway.
Without a treaty change, the EFSF must run out in 2013
Wolfgang Münchau, FT October 31 2010

Ben S. Bernanke’s push to jump-start the U.S. economy this week may weaken the dollar
Within 33 hours this week, fallout from the Fed could cause even ECB change course if the euro surges
Bloomberg 1/11 2010

Angela Merkel insisterade på att en begränsad ändring är nödvändig
för att landets författningsdomstol inte ska stoppa Tyskland
från att vara en del i det skyddsnät som ska ersätta den tillfälliga räddningsfond som inrättades efter eurokrisen i våras.
SvD Näringsliv 29 oktober 2010

According to EU officials,
Mr Trichet told the summit that signalling to markets that private investors would be more at risk in restructurings could spook the bond market, driving up interest rates for countries such as Ireland and Greece.
The EU officials said Mr Trichet’s warning was met with bitterness by Nicolas Sarkozy, who complained he did not understand the challenges facing heads of state.
FT 29/10 2010

ECB loans to banks down to 514 billion euros (USD 716 billion),
the least since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse in September 2008,
Greek, Irish and Spanish banks took 61 percent of the loans supplied
Bloomberg Oct 29, 2010

Calmfors: EMU klarar inte ytterligare en kris
Blir den stor måste IMF kallas in.
Men det är inte säkert att ens IMF skulle räcka till i en situation
där exempelvis Grekland tvingas ställa in betalningarna och effekterna sprider sig till andra EMU-länder.
E24 29/10 2010

Greece to run a budget deficit for 2010 greater than the 8.1 percent it agreed to as part of a rescue package,
according to a person briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak about it.
At worst a deficit of 8.9 percent, latest revision in Greece’s 2009 deficit — to about 15.5 percent
New York Times, tips by Eurointelligence, 27/10 2010

Political upheaval rocks eurozone debt markets
Hopes of a budget deal in Portugal collapsed
Ireland has announced fiscal retrenchement of €15bn over the next four years,
twice the original plan. It is already cutting public wages by 13pc.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 27 Oct 2010

No governments have yet fallen, and no sovereign debt has yet been repudiated.
The key word is "yet."
Irwin Stelzer, director of economic-policy studies at the Hudson Institute
Wall Street Journal 25/10 2010

French and the Germans have once again been discussing whether /Stability Pact/ sanctions should be automatic or not.
For Jean-Claude Trichet to issue an official note of disagreement – after European Union finance ministers last week drafted a watered-down sanctions package – is extraordinary
Wolfgang Münchau, FT 25/10 2010

Europeiska byrån för förvaltningen av det operativa samarbetet vid Europeiska unionens yttre gränser (FRONTEX)
Klicka här

The new French revolution
Youths as young as 15 are turning France into a battleground in a violent protest over pensions.
Are they becoming unstoppable?
The Times 24 October 2010

Tusentals serber och makedonier har tagit sig till EU efter att visumtvånget för serbiska medborgare avskaffades.
Nu vill Sveriges EU-kommissionär Cecilia Malmström stoppa asylströmmen.
DN 22/10 2010

Är hon EU:s polisminister?
Lördagsintervjun med Cecilia Malmström 23 oktober 2010

Some 200 demonstrators blocked France's Marseille-Provence airport for more than three hours
Thursday as strikes and protests continued across the country
CNN 21/10 2010 with nice video

Is Turkey turning its back on the West?
Europeans are trembling over the prospect of being asked to admit
such a populous state /CIA: 76,805,524 (July 2010 est.)/ into the European Union
The Economist, Oct 21st 2010

Vi har en EU-minister som under det första året inte gjort mycket annat än att i drastiska ordalag förklara hur dåligt Europa är på olika områden och hur skadliga delar av EU-lagstiftningen är för Sverige.
Hon gör ett undantag i och med att hon konsekvent hyllar eurosamarbetet som en universallösning på alla tänkbara problem
Olle Ludvigsson, EU-parlamentariker (S), DN Debatt 21/10 2010


Spanska fastighetspriser

Jag är oerhört besviken över att kommissionen i gårdagens rapport inte verkar för radikala reformer eller neddragningar inom jordbrukspolitiken.
Birgitta Ohlsson, DN Debatt 20/10 2010

Sarkozy warning as French strikes hit power supply
BBC 20 October 2010, with nice video.

French strikes force petrol stations to shut
BBC 18 October 2010, with nice video

Defiant France ignores the abyss
There is the argument in government ministries and the smoke-free conference rooms of Brussels, as politicians and bureaucrats attempt to define new continent-wide rules to ensure Europe does not slip back into a new and debilitating debt crisis.
But the future of the European economy and its single currency is more likely to be decided on the streets.
Gideon Rachman, FT October 18 2010

Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin"
WSJ OCTOBER 18, 2010 By MATTHEW KAMINSKI

Konventionell ekonomisk visdom säger att det är ohållbart att i längden ha så stora obalanser i världshandeln som vi haft sedan början av 2000-talet. Länder med underskott i utrikeshandeln måste ta sig samman och och sluta att leva på utlandslån (USA, Storbritannien och PIIGS-länderna). Här är euro-området en svag punkt. Den europeiska centralbanken ECB har en mycket rigid inställning till QE. En bedömare som professor Nouriel Roubini menar att ECB är beredd att offra PIIGS-länderna för att slippa vidta QE med hänvisning till inflationsfaran. Roubini pekade i förrgår på att risken för PIIGS-länderna istället är deflation. Nu utmålar han allvarliga risker för att en ny världsdepression är under uppsegling.
Danne Nordling 16 oktober 2010

Portugal’s minority government is to unveil a tough austerity budget on Friday
amid fears that opposition parties will fail to provide the necessary support
FT October 15 2010

Robert Mundell — the Columbia University professor
who advocated the hard-money, low-tax policy mix that broke stagflation in the early 1980s,
and who received the Nobel Prize in 1999 for his work on exchange rates —
He thinks the European Central Bank, along with the Federal Reserve, should intervene in currency markets
to limit movement in the world's single most important exchange rate

Wall Street Journal, 16/10 2010

Mrs Thatcher, 85
The Times: Baroness Thatcher is expected to attend a reception in her honour at 10 Downing Street on Thursday.
Reports suggest that about 150 serving and former ministers will be present.

For four months Belgium has been without a government, its public debt is approaching 100% of GDP
and the spread of Belgian 10-year bonds over the German benchmark is today three times as high as at the beginning of this year.
Is Belgium the next country with a sovereign debt crisis?
Susanne Mundschenk and Raphael Cottin, Eurointelligence 15/10 2010

China wants to impose a deflationary adjustment on the US,
just as Germany is doing to Greece.

Martin Wolf 12 october 2010

Euro disintegration was never a great risk.
The real danger was and remains a collapse of Europe’s financial system
and the slump this would trigger. A sovereign default could easily have repercussions exceeding even those of the Lehman bankruptcy two years ago.
The fact that the aid to Greece was a surreptitious /Obtained, done, or made by clandestine or stealthy means/ rescue of German banks was an important, if unmentioned, reason for Berlin’s willingness to play along.
Financial Times editorial October 12 2010

The Estonia entry decision was made in haste, coinciding as it did with May’s sovereign debt crisis.
The decision was a kind of vote of confidence in the resilience of the Euro Area: “look, we aren’t about to fall apart, we’re even accepting new members”.
Edward Hugh, Fistful of Euros, 11/10 2010

The chances that governments would obey the rules did not exactly brighten when
Romano Prodi, Commission president from 1999 to 2004, asserted in October 2002 that the stability pact was “stupid”
because it provided for sanctions on countries already in financial difficulties.
Tony Barber, FT October 11 2010

The euro:
Dinner on the edge of the abyss
On a spring evening, a group of the world’s most powerful policymakers sat down to dinner at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Eleven days earlier, European leaders and the International Monetary Fund had promised Greece a €45bn ($62bn) bail-out. But the discussions at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue, hosted by Jim Flaherty, Canada’s finance minister, established that this was likely to be far too little.
Tony Barber, FT October 10 2010

Europe is the region in the world most at risk of losing a currency war.
Unlike normal nation states, the eurozone lacks a legal and institutional framework to deal effectively with such a situation.
The most likely outcome would be a further large real appreciation of the euro,
which would ultimately lead to a significant slowdown in exports and growth.
One of the numerous toxic effects likely to occur in such a scenario is the imminent failure of the European bank rescue strategy.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT October 10 2010

Riksdagen sade på onsdagen för första gången nej till ett EU-förslag med hänvisning till närhetsprincipen
Beslutet gällde två förslag från EU-kommissionen om att alla EU-länder ska bli skyldiga att låna ut pengar till andra medlemsländer som inte klarar av insättningsgaranti och investerarskydd.
Sydsvenskan 7 oktober 2010

It seems doubtful that the Celtic Tiger will ever roar again.
How did Ireland lurch into crisis once more
when most other European countries seem to have got to grips with their banking woes?
Sunday Times 3 oktober 2010

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt stressed that the EU is a trading "super-power"
but needed to pool more defence resources, in particular on conflict resolution and management.
A full write-up of the event and an audio recording will be available on our website shortly.
Click here

"One of the most catastrophic political decision taken in post-war Europe"
The collapse of Lehman Brothers was without a doubt the single most symbolic moment of the financial crisis.
But for Europe it was on Tuesday, 30 September 2008, when the Irish prime minister gave a blanket guarantee for the entire banking sector.
Wolfgang Münchau, Eurointelligence 7/10 2010

Joseph Stiglitz sees bleak future for euro as New Malaise takes hold
Exclusive extract: In an updated edition of his critically acclaimed book, Freefall, Joseph Stiglitz analyses the response to the financial crisis and finds new threats stalking the global economy
Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy
Amazon

Wherever I go in Europe I am asked what happened to the Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party?
Some imagine, mistakenly, that they have quietly joined the endangered species list.
Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's Europe editor, 4 October 2010

Mitterrand forderte Euro als Gegenleistung für die Einheit
Aus bisher geheim gehaltenen Protokollen geht nach SPIEGEL-Informationen hervor: Erst die Bereitschaft der Kohl-Bundesregierung, ihren Widerstand gegen die Einführung des Euro aufzugeben, ebnete den Weg zur Einheit.
Der Spiegel 25/9 2010

We received a report submitted from a Spanish blogger who wishes to remain anonymous, in which the author, in 7 brief pages, describes why
in his view Spain's GDP is massively overrepresented.
The report (attached below) provides extensive validation for this hypothesis
by Tyler Durden at zerohedge 30/9 2010

Ireland will take a majority stake in its second-largest bank, Allied Irish Bank
The bail-out costs will lift the fiscal deficit from the planned 11.75 per cent of gross domestic product in 2010 to 32 per cent.
This compares with the Maastricht treaty guidelines of 3 per cent.
FT, September 30 2010

Moody’s downgraded Spain’s government bonds, citing weak economic growth, a deterioration of financial strength and higher borrowing needs.
The downgrade by Moody’s by one notch from its top rating of AAA to Aa1 makes it the last of the three big rating agencies to downgrade Spain
The downgrade, which was also applied to Spain’s Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, known as Frob from its Spanish initials
Victor Mallet, FT September 30 2010

Part 2 of our series on the spring’s sovereign-debt crisis.
The next day, a Friday, euro-zone leaders were due in Brussels for a quick meeting to approve the Greek package. Events were overtaking them: Lending between European banks was freezing up; investors were fleeing weaker euro nations' bonds.
Wall Street Journal 27 September 2010

EU:s Räddningspaketet kollapsar om Frankrike förlorar AAA
Rolf Englund blog 2010-09-27

I spent the best part of last week trying to figure out the mechanics of the eurozone’s €440bn bail-out fund.
The European Financial Stability Facility is in many respects like a gigantic collateralised debt obligation and uses much of the machinery of modern finance.
And finally, the whole edifice would collapse if France was downgraded. This is a non-zero probability event, to put it mildly.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT September 26 2010

Part 1 of our series on the spring’s sovereign-debt crisis.
On the Secret Committee to Save the Euro
Two months after Lehman Brothers collapsed in the fall of 2008, a small group of European leaders set up a secret task force—one so secret that they dubbed it "the group that doesn't exist."
Wall Street Journal September 24, 2010

Den ekonomiska politiken i EU måste utvecklas och det kan bara ske gradvis.
Den nationella budgeten är ett slags kärna i alla medlemsstaters självbestämmande och demokrati.
DN-ledare 26/9 2010

A 69-year-old plan for dealing with imbalances in currency unions
One weekend in September 1941, John Maynard Keynes sat down in his farmhouse in Tilton to consider
how the world’s currencies might be managed once the war was over.
Within a few days the prolific economist produced two papers.
These set out his thoughts on what lay behind the breakdown in the early 1930s of the gold standard, in which currencies were linked at fixed rates to the gold price and so to each other.
The Economist September 23rd 2010

Fervent federalists (and a few Eurosceptics) have rushed to claim that the euro’s long-term survival requires a United States of Europe, with a big central budget.
A United States of Europe is not going to happen, because neither EU governments nor voters want it.
The bigger failing is that several (mostly Mediterranean) members have suffered a huge loss of competitiveness against Germany and other northern countries.
The Economist Sept 23rd 2010

Det är inte uteslutet att ett eller flera länder så småningom kan överge euron som valuta,
säger Ottmar Issing, före detta ledamot i Europeiska centralbankens styrelse.
Ekot 23 september 2010

Among the ex-Commissioners still receiving salaries are
the Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and the Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.
Open Europe press summary: 24 September 2010

A recent IMF study argues that sovereign default in today’s advanced economies (AEs) is “unnecessary, undesirable and unlikely"
The study represents the triumph of dogma over evidence and logic
Willem Buiter cit. by Tyler Durden at zerohedge 23/9 2010

Open Europe’s Chairman Lord Leach
“I’m not against European cooperation…A complete free trade area would be perfect, that brings about prosperity.
But a monetary union is also a political union and there it goes wrong.
The European system of supranationality comes at the cost of democracy.”
Open Europe press summary: 23 September 2010

When asked about the future of monetary union, Lord Leach said,
“Politicians must understand that this isn't a temporary crisis, but a permanent problem.
It is no banking or debt crisis, but a problem of competitiveness. The South of Europe is too far behind on the North and will never be able, within one monetary union, to close the gap…
I can not think of any satisfactory solution which does not lead to a breaking up of the eurozone as it is now.
That could however be either controlled or uncontrolled. Controlled means that vulnerable countries would be led to the exit...
An uncontrolled exit means that financial markets force a break-up.”
Open Europe press summary: 23 September 2010

17 former Commissioners still receive €96,000 per year in allowances from EU despite new private sector jobs
According to EU rules, former Commissioners are paid between 40% and 65% of their final basic salary (€20,278 per month) over a three year period
Open Europe press summary: 23 September 2010

Klart för lettiskt miljardlån
220 miljoner euro (drygt 2 miljarder kronor) från Sverige
SvD/TT 21/9 2010

Jacques Chirac to stand trial
Could face a ten-year prison sentence and 150,000-euro fine if found guilty.
Daily Telegraph 21 Sept 2010

Kronan påverkar extremt mycket. Särskilt när den går under eller över magiska gränser och hela krontal
Och under en magisk krongräns, 7 kronor, gick kronan mot dollarn på tisdagen.
Vid slutet av dagen kostade en dollar 6,96 kronor.
Samtidigt stärktes kursen mot euron till 9,14 kronor.
Så stark har inte kronan varit mot euron på nästan tre år.
DN Ekonomi 22/9 2010

The European Central Bank intervened to stabilise the Irish bond markets on Friday
after a report by a leading UK bank triggered investor fears that the country might turn to the international community for a multibillion-euro bail-out.
FT September 17 2010

The extra yield that investors demand to hold 10-year Irish bonds over German bunds today exceeded 400 basis points for the first time Portugal is also being punished by investors, with the spread on its bonds also touching a record today.
Bloomberg 20 september 2010

Portugal
That is what happens when you cut interest rates suddenly from 16 to 3 per cent
yields back to May crisis levels when the EU faced its "Lehman moment"
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 19 Sep 2010

Ireland has shown what happens when you grasp the fiscal nettle, slashing public wages by 13pc – to applause from EU elites – without offsetting monetary and exchange stimulus.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 19 Sep 2010

A joke doing the rounds in Brussels has Cathy Ashton, the European Union’s foreign-policy chief,
telling Hillary Clinton she now has the single telephone number so that America can “call Europe”.
But when the secretary of state dials it, all she gets is a recording:
“For French foreign policy, press 1. For British foreign policy, press 2…”
Charlemagne, The Economist, Sept 16th 2010

The international community has postponed bank stress tests for Greece
Financial Times September 19 2010

Varken Frankrikes president Sarkozy, Tysklands förbundskansler Merkel
eller Europeiska rådets ordförande Herman Van Rompuy tycker att Turkiet hör hemma i EU
Annika Ström Melin, DN 14/9 2010

France's junior minister for EU affairs has said to the European Commission:
"This is not how you speak to a major power like France, which is the mother of human rights."
"A plane ticket to one's country of origin in the European Union is not a death train, and is not the gas chamber,"
EU Observer 15/9 2010

En form av ohelig allians, där problemtyngda stater garanterar problemtyngda banker,
som i sin tur köper statsskuld med finansiering från den europeiska centralbanken

minskar risken för misslyckade emissioner,
men frågan är hur långt det går att driva detta reptrick innan bubblan spricker.
Martin Enlund, senioranalytiker på Handelsbanken, DI 2010-09-09

A eurozone banking crisis left unresolved
As long as you make sufficiently optimistic assumptions about future income growth, you can pay off any amount of debt.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT September 12 2010

Joachim Fels, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley, said strains had reached a point where "one or several governments" may soon have to tap soon the rescue mechanism.
"Neither the European sovereign debt crisis nor the banking sector crisis has been resolved and both continue to mutually reinforce each other," he said, adding that the EU's stress tests for banks had failed to restore confidence.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 08 Sep 2010

Fintan O'Toole in the Irish Times:
"The choice is now stark: do we go on being "good Europeans" at the cost of destroying our own society or do we become "bad Europeans", lose the trust of our European partners, but save ourselves?"
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 08 Sep 2010

Markets are starting to panic about the eurozone periphery
Sovereign bond spreads rose to new records. Here are the latest ten year spreads:
Ireland 372bp, Greece 944bp, Portugal 355bp, all up substantially yesterday,
in the case of Portugal and Ireland to new record levels.
The FT reports that Portuguese banks borrow a record amount from the ECB in August because
they could not access capital markets.
Eurointelligence 8/9 2010

It is worrying that European policymakers have not created a mechanism for dealing with an insolvent state in the European Monetary Union.
Sushil Wadhwani, FT September 8 2010

Sarkozy förklarade med ödesmättat tonfall:
Vi lever med konsekvenserna av femtio års invandring. Det har slutat med ett stort misslyckande när det gäller integrationen. Varför säger vi ingenting om detta? Är vi rädda?
Talet hölls i Grenoble den 30 juli och finns på Elyséepalatsets hemsida
Annika Ström Melin DN 8/9 2010

Imagine what would have happened, in the absence of the euro.
The exchange rate of the D-Mark would have exploded upwards
The absence of such shocks has greatly enhanced the prospects for the German recovery.
The creation of the eurozone was, for this reason alone, much more than a favour Germany did for its partners. It was also a big economic (not to mention political) gain for Germany.
German industrialists are clear on this, as is the government.
Martin Wolf, FT 7/9 2010

Belgian’s deputy prime minister, Laurette Onkelinx, who is close to Mr Di Rupo, is quoted as saying:
“We have to prepare for the end of Belgium. Not wish for it, but prepare for it nonetheless. We cannot ignore that it is what is wanted by a large swathe of the Flemish population.”
Eurointelligence 6/9 2010

Gadaffi uppmanade Italiens regering att till EU framföra ett krav på minst fem miljarder euro om året som ersättning för att Libyen skulle stoppa den illegala invandringen till Europa.
Utan pengarna skulle flyktingströmmen flöda och Europa skulle bli svart som Afrika, förklarade diktatorn. Utrikesminister Franco Frattini lovade att i Bryssel ta upp frågan.
Hur reagerar EU på sådan öppen utpressning? Nästa toppmöte mellan EU och Afrika hålls i Libyen senare i höst.
Rolf Gustavsson, SvD 4 september 2010

Action-Bildt föreslår fredsinstitut inom EU
Rolf Englund blog 3/9 2010

While the Europeans are celebrating the end of the financial crisis, something strange is happening in the bond markets.
The gap in the yields – the spread – between the 10-year bonds of peripheral eurozone countries and Germany has been growing at an alarming rate.
It is now close to the level that prevailed in the days before the European Union decided to set up its bail-out fund in May.

Wolfgang Münchau, FT September 5 2010

"Risken är att EU plötsligt ger upp andan"
Europeiska unionen är döende, skrev Charles Kupchan i en tankeväckande krönika i söndagens Washington Post.
Det finns tyvärr en del som tyder på att han har rätt.
Annika Ström Melin, Kolumn DN 1 september 2010

As nationalism rises, will the European Union fall?
Charles Kupchan, Washington Post August 29, 2010

Spain’s Unemployment Continues To Rise
Spain’s EU harmonised seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate (which is the interesting number) went up again in July, according to the latest data from Eurostat. It rose to 20.3% from 20.2% in June.
Edward Hugh, A fistful och euros 7 august 2010

For those willing and able to examine our present situation with a reasonably open mind,
a comparison of the recent history of the Spanish and German economies can prove illuminating

As Wolfgang Munchau pointed out in the FT yesterday, Germany entered the eurozone at an uncompetitive exchange rate and embarked on a long period of (quite painful) wage moderation and deep structural reform.
A Fistful Of Euros, 31 August 2010 with many nice charts.

De politiska partierna har en skyldighet att vara tydliga mot sina väljare inför valet hur man ställer sig till en framtida folkomröstning.
En röst på Folkpartiet innebär att vi kommer att fortsätta arbetet för en ny folkomröstning under nästa mandatperiod.
Vi ser tre alternativa datum för en ny folkomröstning: under 2013, i samband med Europaparlamentsvalet 2014 (bäst) eller - men sämre - vid riksdagsvalet 2014.
OLLE SCHMIDT (FP, CARL B HAMILTON (FP) riksdagsman, ordförande i näringsutskottet, talesman för ekonomi- och näringspolitik.
Hamiltons blandning, den 30:e augusti 2010

HQ-styrelseledamoten Pernilla Ström anklagar Finansinspektionen för att ha agerat med politiska motiv.
”Det här sker i ett läge då Finansdepartementet och marknadens parter diskuterar om Finansinspektionen ska läggas ned och tillsynen på finansmarknaden läggas över på Riksbanken”, säger Pernilla Ström i en intervju på sajten va.se.
DI 2010-08-31

Alliansen, EMU och det Östliga Partnerskapet
Rolf Englund blog 2010-08-29

The intra-eurozone imbalances will not only persist, but probably increase.
This will make the economic adjustment for Spain, Portugal or Greece even more difficult than it already is.
Those persistent imbalances, much more than the build-up of debt, are my deep cause of concern about the long-term health of the eurozone.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT August 29 2010

Is the crisis coming back?
After the downgrading of Ireland by S&P, Irish sovereign bond spreads rose from 318bp to 344bp to level higher than before May, and even Greece spreads are now back at close to 10%, the level before the agreement on the EFSF. This means that the European rescue package have failed to calm down the market stress that triggered on those package in the first place.
There was further bad news from the US, where existing home sales declined by a record amount for July, giving rise to expectations of another decline in US house prices.
As ever, Calculated Risk has the best coverage of this.
The Wall Street Journal says in a comment that even a downturn to annualised growth rates of under 2% will feel like a recession.
In a 2% economy, there won’t be any job creation, or wage increases.
Eurointelligence 25/8 2010

This story is also not at all the way it’s being told. Yes, Ireland had fiscal austerity — but it also benefited from a devaluation and an inflationary boom in the UK.
Oh, and Irish interest rates fell sharply, which was possible because they were very high to begin with
So yes, you can boost your economy with fiscal austerity, as long as you also devalue your currency and sharply reduce interest rates.
Paul Krugman June 15, 2010

Av idén om ett politiskt och ekonomiskt alltmer sammansvetsat Europa har blivit
idén om ett alltmer utvidgat Europa, vilket inte nödvändigtvis är samma idé
även om båda idéerna för närvarande samsas under namnet EU
Göran Rosenberg, kolumn DN 24 augusti 2010

The Irish Republic has had its credit rating downgraded
Thinks that the Irish government will spend 90bn euros helping the banks
10bn euros higher than previous estimates.
BBC 25/8 2010

Member countries share a common currency, but when it comes to sovereign credit they are on their own.
This fact was obscured until recently by the willingness of the European Central Bank (ECB) to accept the sovereign debt of all member countries on equal terms at its discount window.
This allowed the member countries to borrow at practically the same interest rate as Germany,
and the banks were happy to earn a few extra pennies on supposedly risk-free assets by loading up their balance sheets with the government debt of the weaker countries.

These positions now endanger the creditworthiness of the European banking system.
"The Crisis & the Euro", George Soros, New York Review of Books, August 19, 2010

The European economy is at risk of sliding back into a recession as governments cut spending to reduce their budget deficits.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, Bloomberg 24/8 2010.

Greece
Banks had lost 8pc of their entire deposit base in the five months to May
Households and companies are running down savings to make ends meet
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 19 Aug 2010

The Euro Crisis
Entering a Death Spiral?
Tensions Rise in Greece as Austerity Measures Backfire
The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece's problems are dragging down the country's economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling
Der Spiegel 18/8 2010

Exactly 70 years ago war-time leader Winston Churchill stood up and addressed parliament to hail the efforts of the aircrew who were fighting overhead.
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," he pronounced in the midst of his speech.
"You shouldn't say it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, I think most of the chaps enjoyed it," said Wing Commander Paul Farnes.
BBC 19 August 2010

Remember Winston Churchill’s phrase about "fighting them on the beaches". Well our beaches are entirely subject to the European Commission’s directives.
One of the great clichés of politics is that Britain has no written Constitution. Britain’s constitution is called the Treaty of Accession. It has been supplemented by the Treaties of Maastricht and Nice.
John Blundell in the Business 12/3 2006

History in maps
Trace the century through Europe's changing borders
BBC

The premium Ireland has to pay over Germany has risen to 3 percentage points
– the highest since March.

Ireland’s budget deficit, at 14 per cent of gross domestic product, is the biggest in the eurozone.
FT 17 August 2010

Spreads on Irish 10-year bonds reached 297 basis points over German Bunds on Wednesday
amid reports the European Central Bank (ECB) is intervening to shore up Irish debt,
a reversal of the bank’s plans to withdraw emergency support.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 11 Aug 2010

Spanish banks asked for a record 130 billion euros ($166 billion) in July
Bloomberg 16 August 2010
Nice chart

Brussels proposes ‘eurotaxes’ to fund EU
The European Commission intends to show how new “eurotaxes” on banks, financial transactions, air travel and carbon permits could help meet a bigger share of the bloc’s annual budget
FT, August 9 2010

Göran Persson varnar för EU-federalism
Rolf Englund blog 2010-08-12

Skäggen i Sarajevo
När jag i början av sjuttiotalet kom till Sarajevo för första gången var det en handfull äldre män som på darrande ben reste sig efter förrättad bön i Gazi Husrevbegs moské. Jag trodde jag blivit vittne till det sista kapitlet av islam som religion i Europa. Det var ett misstag.
I dag är de som ber här många, de flesta mycket unga och muskulösa män.
Richard Swartz, kolumn DN 7/8 2010

IMF report
It isn’t only Spain where the current account deficits are going to persist.
Edward Hugh, A fistful och euros 7 august 2010

In May, the EU and the IMF agreed to loan Greece 110bn euros over three years.
A 9bn-euros loan is due to be given to Greece on 13 September, and is dependent upon the government meeting progress targets.
BBC 5 August 2010

Grekland går inte i konkurs den 13 september

Rolf Englund blog 5/8 2010

Om man, som Maria Rankka, är av uppfattningen att vi i princip bör gå med i EMU, men samtidigt hävdar att vi hittills har tjänat på att stå utanför, men att vi i alla fall nog bör gå med, har man mycket att förklara.
Rolf Englund blog 4/8 2010

"Sist men inte minst ger euron EU-invånarna en handfast symbol för den europeiska identiteten. Det är en symbol att vara stolt över, i takt med att euroområdet växer och mångdubblar fördelarna för sina nuvarande och kommande medlemmar".
EU-Kommissionen


Dollarn har under sommaren sjunkit mot kronan


Euron mot Kronan 12 månader augusti 2010

There are five reasons why Belgium has hung together for the last 180 years: Britain, God, the King, fear and most importantly, money.
Before addressing these, it is necessary to understand why Belgium exists at all.
When in 1815 Britain was the Big Beluga after the battle of Waterloo, it wanted a buffer state to contain France
By those friendly guys from Bedlam Asset Management in London at John Mauldin July 2010

Maria Rankka om EMU, nu när hon slutar på Timbro
Jag är i princip för ett svenskt medlemskap i EMU, men jag erkänner att vi hittills har tjänat på att stå utanför.
På sikt bör vi nog gå med, eftersom det skulle gynna oss.
SvD e24 2010-08-01

Certainly, the stress tests should be based on what one might call a plausible worst-case scenario, not one that represents the absolute worst. Nobody is asking the bank supervisors to stress-test the impact of an alien attack.
But sovereign default in the case of Greece is not such a far-fetched scenario – even if you believe it to be unlikely. It is irresponsible for the stress testers to ignore that sort of event.
That is like a car crash tester failing to consider the possibility of an oncoming vehicle.
Wolfgang Münchau FT July 25 2010

Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, Agricultural Bank of Greece SA and five Spanish savings banks didn’t have adequate reserves to maintain a Tier 1 capital ratio of at least 6 percent in the event of a recession and sovereign-debt crisis
Had the Tier 1 threshold been 7 percent, 24 of the banks would have failed,
said Andrew Sheets, Morgan Stanley’s head of European credit strategy in London
Bloomberg July 25, 2010

Only seven of 91 banks failed the tests
Five of the seven were cajas, Spanish savings banks
The Bank of Spain on Friday indicated that it had sufficient contingent liquidity measures in place to reassure caja customers and counter any threat of a run on these banks.
FT July 23 2010 17:46

Ingen fara säger Bank of Spain
Rolf Englund blog 2010-07-24

Var är utgången ur EMU?
Jag har länge varit en varm tillskyndare av euron, eller närmare bestämt av projektet att med en gemensam europeisk valuta tvinga fram en mer hållfast politisk union
Göran Rosenberg, kolumn DN 23/7 2010

- Jag brukar föreslå min federalistiska tyske kollega att Tyskland och Frankrike kan väl börja med att bilda en federation så kommer vi efter om det går bra.
Jan Zielonka, Oxford University, 14/12 2006

Domedagen II “If HRE is the only German bank that fails, that completely discredits the tests – not just for Germany but for the whole of Europe”.
Eurointelligence skriver i dag stresstesterna, det som gör att, som jag skrev i går, domedagen blir på fredag.

Ett väl godkänt betyg skulle sänka förtroendet helt för ett test som redan mötts av skepsis och ifrågasättanden. Nästa fråga skulle då bli: vad är det myndigheterna försöker dölja? Ungefär så paranoid är finansmarknaden.
Andreas Cervenka SvD Näringsliv 22/7 2010

Domedagen blir på fredag
Då lägger EU fram resultaten, utvalda resultat, av de stresstester de har utsatt de europeiska bankerna för.
Anatole Kaletsky i The Times "undemocratic survival plan for the euro"
Rolf Englund blog 2010-07-20

Our economies are emerging from the worst economic crisis since the second world war, and without the swift and appropriate action of central banks and a very significant contribution from fiscal policies, we would have experienced a major depression.
Now is the time to restore fiscal sustainability.
But the timing remains disputed.
Jean-Claude Trichet, FT July 22 2010

Hungary's IMF revolt augurs ill for Greece
"Austerity is extremely hard to sell to electorates.
The risk is that this moves from a wider financial and economic crisis to a European political crisis as governments are punished by voters.
The approval rating for Lithuanian's prime minister has fallen to 7pc."
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 19 July 2010

The Irish Independent picked up these incredible comments from the Bundesbank in its monthly bulletin
in which it criticised Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece for running "persistently high" current-account deficits over the past decade,
which the Bundesbank says is a "source of danger" for the single-currency region.
Eurointelligence 20.07.2010

My undemocratic survival plan for the euro
If Europe can avoid a financial breakdown at the end of this month, when its banks undergo stresstests to expose which are potentially insolvent, then the euro will almost certainly survive.
Indeed, this could be the year when the single currency mutates from being a morbid enterprise that is threatened by its internal contradictions into the project to create a United States of Europe that its architects always intended.
Anatole Kaletsky, The Times July 14 2010

Det största problemet:
har risken för att exempelvis Grekland ställer in betalningarna verkligen lagts in i testerna på ett ärligt sätt?
Enligt Financial Times har marknaderna tagit höjd för förluster på 60 procent på grekiska statsobligationer – medan regleringsorganen har sagt åt bankerna att räkna med 17 procent.
DN-ledare, signerad Gunnar Jonsson, 20 juli 2010

Cameron
After Thatcher, conservatism in Britain became radioactive. As Tony Blair moved the Labour Party to the center, the Tories moved right, became extreme and thus politically unviable.
Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek 11/7 2010

Theo Waigel, German finance minister in the 1990s:
"In '92 and '93 we had big crises," he says.
The "euro crisis" is no more than media hysteria and political ineptitude.
BBC 19 July 2010

Sverige, Estland och Luxemburg
Den ekonomiska krisen har slagit sönder många länders offentliga finanser.
3 av 27 länder som inte är föremål för EU:s underskottsförfarande
Anders Borg DN Debatt 2010-07-13

Fixing Spain's Savings Banks Means Paying Workers to Play Golf
The central bank has coaxed ailing savings banks to merge, financing the process with more than 10 billion euros. Consolidating the lenders, known as “cajas,” may eventually cost as many as 50,000 jobs, with many workers taking early retirement
Bloomberg July 15, 2010

German and French officials tend not to mention that it was lending by their domestic banks and investors that helped Greece, Spain and others to live so long beyond their means.
Stephanie Flanders, the BBC's economics editor,14 July 2010

Alan Beattie bevakar internationell handel för Financial times.
Han tror helt enkelt inte att Grekland kommer lyckas få sin ekonomi att växa samtidigt som de genomför massiva besparingar.
Och när de inser det om ett halvår eller ett år så blir en skuldavskrivning den enda möjliga lösningen.
Och det här räknar finansmarknaderna med säger Alan Beattie, Ekot 16/7 2010

The snag with Germany’s idea (insolvency rules)is that it goes too far
It is hard to see how such a plan could be imposed, let alone enforced. It would place the debtor nation in a position of colonial submission.
If ever agreed to, this would be politically explosive.
FT editorial July 13 2010

.

Germany reiterates its insistence on an EU sovereign insolvency law
There is still no final agreement on the EFSF, as this is still blocked by the Slovakians. But the fund will go ahead one way or the other.
Eurointelligence 13.07.2010

One Size Fits One
"a lot of the issue can be captured by one picture"
Paul Krugman July 12, 2010

The gap between Spain and Germany
These two countries share a single currency and inhabit the same monetary union.
Spain would benefit from a looser monetary and fiscal policy.
Germany would not.
Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's Europe editor, 9 July 2010

The new Slovak government remains opposed to a rescue package for Greece, Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said Monday, after a meeting with European Union Council President Herman van Rompuy.
Wall Street Journal 13 July, 2010

Germany is now actively (and very secretly) pushing for a plan outlining a set of insolvency rules,
which would require that private investors bear a portion of the rescue burden, and much more importantly,
would see at least a partial give up in state sovereignty
Tyler Durden, Zerohedge, 12/7 2010

Slovakia stalls €440bn bail-out fund
Slovakia's incoming government is also determined not to pay the country's €800m contribution to a €110bn IMF-eurozone rescue plan that was activated in May for Greece. But this has not prevented disbursement of loans to Athens.
FT July 2 2010

The Folly of Currency Pegs
Notwithstanding the highly touted Greek rescue package
Greece will probably default on its debt sometime within the next year

John H. Makin (May 2010

The trilemma in international finance
The United States of Europe may have been too much to hope for
N. Gregory Mankiw, New York Times July 9, 2010

Det är numera tyst om vad som en gång var Jugoslavien.
I höst är det femton år sedan Dayton, det avtal som med undantag för Kosovo satte punkt för de balkanska krigen.
Mycket i Dayton präglades av brådska, improvisation och en hel del ignorans;
att den albanska frågan inte togs upp är bara det mest flagranta exemplet. Men räkningen kom i form av krig med vändande post.
Richard Swartz, kolumn DN 10/7 2010

»Jag är övertygad om att det ekonomiska system som byggts upp i Jugoslavien … tillhör en av vårt århundrades mest betydelsefulla sociala innovationer«, skrev professorn och s-riksdagsmannen Bo Södersten
Tomas Fischer, Fokus 19/12 2008

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,
Should they succeed, of course, the eurozone risks disintegration within days, and perhaps hours.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard July 8th, 2010

Staring into the abyss
As the euro-zone crisis spooks governments, opinions are diverging dramatically about what the union is for
The Economist print July 8th 2010
Nice pic

SPIEGEL: Despite all of these efforts, the central problems with the euro remain. Strong economies belong to the same currency union as weak ones like Greece. Is the euro not doomed to failure?

Thomas Mirow, head of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development:
There are also big differences between the states in the US.
The question is, to what degree are the states there for each other and if there are effective balancing mechanisms. That was kept from the public for a long time.

Der Spiegel 6 July 2010

"I was opposed to the euro, I think it was a great mistake to have monetary integration,"
"We are stuck there and to break up would be the second-biggest mistake to do now, it would generate a huge amount of panic and concern,"
Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1998, told CNBC

Italy could fall into a so-called 'debt trap.'
We think that it might take a decade or more of stagnant or falling wages to restore full competitiveness
Roger Bootle and his team over at Capital Economics
CNBC 6 Jul 2010

The creation of the euro resulted in the disappearance of intra-area exchange rate risk and an expectation of fiscal and macroeconomic convergence among the euro member countries.
This was reflected in a significant narrowing of regional sovereign spreads until very recently.
On the heels of Greece’s fiscal troubles, investors are now re-pricing these risks across the region.
This highlights the need for policymakers to continue to pursue credible fiscal consolidation plans and strengthen economic governance in the euro area.
IMF Global Financial Stability Report, July 7, 2010

Stress test scenarios are not forecasts.
They are only scenarios, of the kind that market participants have already factored into the pricing of bonds.
What else is the implication of a 10 per cent yield on 10-year Greek sovereign bonds?
Wolfgang Münchau, FT July 4 2010
Highly recommeded

Den europeiska stabilitetspakten var feltänkt från början
eftersom det inte är realistiskt med böter mot länder i ett läge just när de har stora budgetunderskott.
Lars Heikensten, DI 2010-07-06

In 1998, four renegade German professors tried to stop the introduction of the euro with a legal challenge in Germany's highest court.
Now, 12 years later, they are fighting against a German bailout for Greece - and this time around, people are listening to them.
Der Spiegel online 30 june 2010

It was 20 years ago that then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl made a lonely decision.
a monetary union for the two Germanys
Instead of one to one, the exchange rate should have been one to three or one to four, to reflect the economic reality
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, Der Spiegel 1st July 2010

Alla kan inte exportera sig ur krisen, för då är det ingen som köper.
Grekland och Spanien måste skära ned drastiskt, inget annat kan återställa finansmarknadernas förtroende.
Tyskland ska ha ordning på statsfinanserna, men ....
DN-ledare 29 juni 2010

"intellectually and politically schizophrenic"
The current debt crisis is a direct result of a governance structure for the single currency that was excessively respectful of national economic sovereignty.
Peter Sutherland, former European Union commissioner, FT 30 June 2010

Spanish banks have been lobbying the European Central Bank to act to ease the systemic fallout from the expiry of a €442bn ($542bn) funding programme this week
FT, June 28, 2010

International capital markets are “closed” to most Spanish companies and banks
chairman of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Spain’s second-largest bank, said on June 14.
the risk premium on Spanish government debt to a euro-era record
Bloomberg 29 June 2010

Only a closer union can save the eurozone
I am aware that, at a time of rising nationalism and regionalism throughout the EU, there is no consensus for such sweeping reforms
Wolfgang Münchau, FT, June 27 2010 19:52

EMU:s Ja-sägare förorsakar Världsdepression
Rolf Englund blog 2010-06-28

Sverige måste aktivt verka för att Turkiet, Kroatien, Makedonien och andra kandidatländer genomför nödvändiga reformer så att de kan bli fullvärdiga EU-medlemmar
när de och deras befolkning så önskar, och att de uppfyller Köpenhamnskriterierna.
Det är vår förhoppning att också övriga Balkan-länder så snart som de önskar kan bli medlemmar av EU.
Avsnittet om Europeiska unionen ur rödgrön slutrapport om utrikespolitiken

En rödgrön regering kommer inte att genomföra en folkomröstning om införande av euron.
Vi respekterar folkomröstningsresultatet och de utfästelser som gavs i samband folkomröstningskampanjen 2003.
Avsnittet om Europeiska unionen ur rödgrön slutrapport om utrikespolitiken

Euron är främst ett politiskt projekt, ett nödvändigt steg mot Europas Förenta Stater.
Om det bara handlade om ekonomi finns det fördelar med euron, men också nackdelar. Jag menar att fördelarna uppväger, men det är ganska jämt.
De politiska fördelarna med att vara med i eurokretsen är däremot huvudskälet för att vara med.
OLLE WäSTBERGS NYHETSBREV 17 JUNI 2010

Reinfeldt tycker fortfarande att en gemensam europeisk valuta är en bra idé,
men för att det ska bli aktuellt med ett svenskt inträde måste euron först leva upp till
den skapelse den var tänkt att vara.

Privata Affärer/Nyhetsbyrån Direkt 2010-06-24

är Sverige med i motståndsrörelsen?
Ett tysk-franskt förslag mötte motstånd på EU-toppmötet. Det blockerades, av England, Tjeckien och Sverige
Rolf Englund blog 18/6 2010

"I am really confident in the medium and long-term prospects for the Spanish economy,
providing the efforts that have to be made will be made,"
IMF-chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, BBC 18/6 2010

Ska EU ha en ”ekonomisk regering” är det i alla fall inte Frankrike som ska styra den.
Tyskland måste å andra sidan förstå att alla inte kan vara exportvärldsmästare samtidigt.
EU har mer kvar att göra innan skuldkrisen är begravd.
DN-ledare 18/6 2010

Setbacks for Merkel at the European Union Summit
The German-French initiative came up against considerable resistance.
British Prime Minister David Cameron blocked it together with his colleagues from the Czech Republic and Sweden.
Der Spiegel online 18 June 2010

The rebellion against the 1930s fiscal and monetary policies of the Euro-complex is gathering pace.
Il Sole has published a letter by 100 Italian economists warning that the austerity strategy imposed by Brussels/Frankfurt risks tipping Europe into a self-feeding downward spiral.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, June 16th, 2010

Annika Ström Melin, president Van Rompuy och EMU
Rolf Englund blog 17/6 2010

Det finns egentligen inte någon Eurokris.
Tvärtom tvingar euron fram reformer som sedan länge varit nödvändiga, vilket alltid har varit ett av de starkaste argumenten för en gemensam valuta.
Stefan Fölster, Magasinet Neo 2010-06-15

In the US, stress test forced weaker institutions to raise capital and turned round sentiment
But politicians in Europe are balking at making public the results of stress tests, because of worries that releasing details of what lies on balance sheets may be counter-productive and create the very crisis that everyone is trying to avoid.
David Oakley, FT June 14 2010

Spain's risk premium, as measured by the yield spread on Spanish bonds over German bunds,
hit its highest level since the creation of the euro
after El Economista reported the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the U.S. Treasury are preparing a €250 billion ($308.68 billion) liquidity facility for Spain.
Wall Street Journal 16 June 2010

"We're not afraid of transparency," said the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), saying the full truth would put an end to rumours battering Spain's instutitions. El Pais reported that the government backs the initiative, putting it on a collision course with Germany which insists on secrecy.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 15 Jun 2010

EU leaders will tomorrow meet in Brussels for a crucial summit.
A briefing outlining recent developments and moves towards what French President Nicolas Sarkozy has labelled an economic government for the EU
Open Europe 16 June 2010

Merkel, Sarkozy Paper Over Differences Before EU Summit
a vague call for an "economic government"
Spielgel Online 15/6 2010

I en ovanligt öppenhjärtig intervju i måndagens Financial Times förklarade EU:s president Herman Van Rompuy att euroområdet var ”på gränsen till ett sammanbrott” i våras.
I motsats till många andra hävdar han också att eurons kris delvis beror på valutasamarbetets konstruktion.
”Euron blev en stark valuta i ett område med små ränteskillnader. Det blev ett slags sömnpiller. Vi var inte medvetna om de underliggande problemen.”
Det är ett anmärkningsvärt uttalande.
Annika Ström Melin, DN 16/6 2010

När EU:s stats- och regeringschefer samlas för att ha förtroliga samtal om Europas politiska vägval skrivs inte ens protokoll.
Herman Van Rompuy leder den minst öppna av EU:s institutioner. Genom intervjuer öppnar han dörren på glänt, men priset för den förändrade maktbalansen i EU är ökat hemlighetsmakeri.
Annika Ström Melin, DN 16/6 2010

Moody's cuts Greece to junk
The rating agency warns that a $1 trillion bailout package may not be enough.
CNN June 14, 2010

Aldrig tidigare har så många varit emot ett svenskt medlemskap i valutaunionen
Om det hade varit folkomröstning om euron i maj i år skulle
28 procent röstat ja och
cirka 60 procent skulle röstat nej.

Omkring 12 procent uppger att de inte vet hur de skulle rösta, enligt Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB).
Ekot 15 juni 2010

Tyska banker har lånat ut motsvarande ungefär 800 miljarder kronor till spanska banker.
Spanska banker har i sin tur lånat ut ungefär 900 miljarder i Portugal.
Noterbart är också att franska banker ensamt står för halva utlåningen till Grekland.
Ekot 14 juni 2010

A blogger who left Britain 20 years ago for rural bliss in Spain has become an unlikely economic sage whose advice has been sought by the International Monetary Fund.
Edward Hugh counts Nobel Prize winner and American economist Paul Krugman among his avid followers.
CNN June 10, 2010

The case against the euro
Travelling between Germany and Spain a disturbing question formed in my mind.
Has the euro been not just bad for some countries but damaged them perhaps for a generation?
Gavin Hewitt, BBC's Europe editor, 11 June 2010
Highly recommended

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Paradigm Lost - the Euro in Crisis.

This is a rare one newspaper-only scoop.
Frankfurter Allgemeine reports this morning that EU officials will start talks about a bail out for Spain, citing unnamed sourced in Berlin. The paper said the situation had deteriorated so much that they did not want wait until the EU summit on Thursday.
The trigger is the freeze in the inter-banking market last week as the markets have lost confidence in the Spanish banking sector.
Eurointelligence 14 June 2010

.The eurozone’s tragic small-country mindset
One of the most important characteristics of a small open economy is that its own actions have little impact on the rest of the world.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT 13 June 2010

Om små nationers karaktäristiska drag.
Richard Swartz, Kolumn DN 2010-06-12

The ECB was part of the shock-and-awe package of policy steps announced last month to arrest the very real risk of a debt-deflationary spiral in Europe.
The ECB is buying government bonds of troubled members of the monetary union, taking on their credit risk, paying for them with newly created money.
So it is ineluctably the case that the ECB has ventured into the fiscal policy realm, de facto monetising the debt of the troubled members.
If there is any doubt about that, the fact that the Bundesbank opposed the action should end that doubt. It was and is what it was and is, and the Bundesbank’s objection speaks directly to that reality.
Paul McCulley June 2010

It was the banks and other financial institutions (e.g. pension funds, insurance companies) that facilitated the boom at the periphery of the eurozone by lending huge sums to Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal under virtually the same conditions as those applicable to Germany and the Netherlands.
In doing so they failed to charge a realistic risk margin. One of the consequences was that European leaders were lulled into a false sense of security. After all, if the financial markets didn’t envisage any problems, why would Europe’s leaders – themselves mere mortals – be troubled? Surely the markets are always right?
Heleen Mees, Eurointelligence 10 June 2010

“What went wrong wasn’t what happened this year. What went wrong was what happened in the first 11 years of the euro’s history. In some ways we were victims of our success. “The euro became a strong currency with very small interest rate spreads [on government bonds].
It was like some kind of sleeping pill, some kind of drug. We weren’t aware of the underlying problems.”
Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Union, FT June 13 2010

The economic situation today is drastically worse than a couple years ago,
and the euro is doomed as a concept,
Nassim Taleb, professor and author of the bestselling book "The Black Swan,"
CNBC 10 June 2010

Carl B Hamilton och Finland
- För att få en känsla för hur Sverige skulle ha klarat sig med euron som valuta kan vi se hur det gått för Finland, som gick med i eurosamarbetet från början och vars ekonomi i mångt och mycket liknar Sveriges
Rolf Englund blog 10 juni 2010

European finance ministers backed Estonia’s bid to become the 17th country using the euro,
overriding the European Central Bank’s warning that the Baltic state may struggle to keep inflation under control.
Bloomberg 8 June 2010

Debunking The "Spain Is Safe" Myth
We’re concerned about austerity in a country that already has 20% unemployment; where home prices are down only 11% with half the newly constructed ones sitting unoccupied; and with $3.4 trillion of household and corporate debt (220% of GDP, one of the highest ratios in the world).
Tyler Durden on 06/08/2010

Spansk strejk mot sparpaket
Mer än 2,5 miljoner spanjorer arbetar inom den offentliga sektorn, lönesänkningar med fem procent.
Dessutom försämras villkoren för pensionärer och nyblivna föräldrar
Spaniens budgetunderskott är det tredje största i Europa, näst Grekland och Irland.
DN/TT 8 juni 2010

Elisabet Kopelman, SEB:s räntestrateg, liknar upplägget /EUs paket/ vid subprimelån
DI 8 juni 2010

European finance ministers put the finishing touches on a rescue fund being backed by 440 billion euros ($524 billion) in national guarantees
The fund will be based in Luxembourg.
Bloomberg June 8 2010

EU har givit klartecken åt att hjälpa Grekland (= rädda i första hand tyska och franska banker från förluster på sina grekiska statsobligaitoner) genom att tillsammans med IMF skapa
en Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) i skatteparadiset Luxenburg, för att kringgå bestämmelserna som förbjuder EU från att finansiera medlemsländernas underskott.
href="http://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2010/06/tyskland-ska-spara-771-miljarder-det.html">Rolf Englund blog 2010-06-08

Tyskland, G20, Grekland EU/SPV
Rolf Englund blog 2010-06-08

Välvilliga spanska sparbanker i kombinaton med spanjorernas önskan att själva äga sina bostäder har eldat på den prisbubbla som ledde fram till landets krasch på bomarknaden.
Bokrisen slår direkt mot ett fyrtiotal småbanker, som kämpar för sin överlevnad och sprider skräck bland ekonomer i hela eurozonen.
DI 8 juni 2010

Tyskland ska spara 771 miljarder
DI 2010-06-07

German Government Agrees on Historic Austerity Program
Right or wrong – whether this plunges the whole world into a deflationary abyss from which there is no escape or if, somehow, this has the desired effect of restoring financial stability over time –
it’s nice to see that there are at least a few elected officials in the world who question the idea of simply piling on more debt to cure the world’s economic ills.
Tim Iacono 7 Jun 2010

Det är en stor och intressant skillnad mellan krisländerna Ungern och Grekland.
Grekland är med i EMU och har euron. Ungern är inte med i EMU och sin egen valuta forint.
Rolf Englund blog 5 juni 2010

Anders Borg tror inte på en folkomröstning under nästa mandatperiod.
Det saknas både opinion och ett blocköverskridande stöd i riksdagen.
– Och det är såpass mycket som måste komma i ordning i euroområdet.
DN/TT 6/6 2010

Sverige bör nästa mandatperiod besluta att införa euron.
Carl B Hamilton, SvD Brännpunkt 2 juni 2010

Bara var fjärde svensk vill införa euron
Om det vore folkomröstning om euron i dag skulle
61 procent rösta nej och
25 procent ja.
För ett år sedan var siffrorna 44 respektive 47 procent.
DI 2010-06-03

It is a union of nation states that has created something less than a federation and more than an alliance.
How much did that vision presume the blurring or even fading away completely of national boundaries and identities?
Was ever closer political union a way of describing a federal or super state?
Chris Patten, FT June 2 2010

CDS prices are over 721bp for Greek five-year bonds, Portugal 345bp, Ireland 260bp, Spain 247bp, and Italy 234bp.
CDS spreads are back to where they were right before that fateful summit May 7, when EU leaders met to work out the mother of all rescue packages
Eurointelligence 3 June 2010

Krisen i euroländerna driver fram förslag om gemensam finanspolitik i EU.
Nu diskuteras nya skatter på EU-nivå. Sverige måste stå emot ökad centralism

Riksdagsledamoten Karl Sigfrid (M) och Mats Persson, chef för tankesmedjan Open Europe, SvD Brännpunkt 31 maj 2010

In its financial stability review, the European Central Bank predicted €195bn in bank writedowns in 2010 and 2011, and warns of dangerous financial contagion as a direct result of the sovereign debt crisis.
Specifically, the ECB warned about “a number of hazardous contagion channels and adverse feed-back loops between financial systems and public finances.”
Eurointelligence 1 june 2010

Hoppet är ute för EMU - Euron kollapsar i Spanien
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-31

Eurozone:
State of the union
Ralph Atkins, FT 31 May 2010

ECB Buying Up Greek Bonds
German Central Bankers Suspect French Conspiracy
gives French banks the perfect opportunity to get rid of their Greek assets
Der Spiegel 31 May 2010

El Pais spoke of a "perverse spiral" in its editorial.
Fitch has not downgraded Spain for lack of austerity
Spain's unemployment was already 20.5pc even before this latest dose of shock therapy.
There are 4.6m people without work.
Dole payments alone account for half the budget deficit
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 30 May 2010

It was no accident that the eurozone created a special purpose vehicle to manage this bail-out.
It is not just the name that reminds us of those notorious financial structures that brought us the subprime crisis.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT May 23 2010

The €750bn financial rescue package
The German constitutional court has still to rule on the package. "natural disasters or exceptional occurrences beyond its control"
Wolfgang Münchau May 30 2010

Flera andra euroländer har slarvat med statsfinanserna
Spanien har ett budgetunderskott på 11,2 procent av BNP, Portugals underskott uppgår till 9,3 procent, Irlands till 14,3 procent – och Italiens statsskuld överstiger 115 procent av BNP.
Till det statsfinansiella eländet skall läggas svag konkurrenskraft i vissa länder, bland dem Spanien. Det försämrar förutsättningarna för att högre tillväxt skall bidra till saneringen.
Per T Ohlsson, Sydsvenskan 16 maj 2010

Fundamental doubts have been raised about the future of the euro and even the European project itself.
Barroso gave a keynote address to the Jean Monnet Conference.
With the EU facing what is possibly the greatest crisis in its history here are some of his arguments.
Gavin Hewitt, BBC's Europe editor 28 May 2010

Grekland, Spanien och grunderna i macro
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-29

Parkinsons lag och ECBs nya skyskrapa, forts.
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-29

An ABC of financial shocks and fiscal aftershocks
“But they bailed out Greece,” said the boy. “So why all the turbulence?”
The big point is that investors are not altogether stupid: they know these are temporary patches; they know Greek indebtedness is going to worsen; they know that other countries in peripheral Europe will find it hard to grow out of their plight
Martin Wolf, May 28 2010
Highly recommended

The fixed-exchange mechanism had gone horribly wrong
The tragedy of the interwar years in Germany was that the Social Democrats - then the world’s foremost socialist party - became fatally tainted by acquiescing in /accepting/ Bruning’s deflation torture from 1930 to 1932.
They did so, of course, because they dared not confront the orthodoxies of the Gold Standard.
The result in Germany was the Reichstag election of July 1932 when the Communists and Nazis won over the half the seats.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 23 May 2010

Spain lost its AAA credit grade at Fitch Ratings
Standard & Poor’s lowered Spain’s ratings to AA on April 28
Bloomberg 28 May 2010

The Bank of Spain has ordered the country's lenders to face up to bad debts and set aside reserves of up to 30pc on property holdings in a bid to restore global confidence
. Deutsche Bank said Spanish lenders need to refinance €125bn by late 2011. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 27 May 2010

Greece is implementing a sweeping austerity plan.
But the underlying maths of its fiscal problems – with its public debt to gross domestic product forecast to hit 150 per cent – makes it extremely hard to believe that Greece will really fix its woes before the aid runs out.
Gillian Tett, FT May 27 2010

The eurozone’s crisis has blown sky-high the idea that developed countries are 100 per cent safe.
A bank can buy all the Spanish debt (current rating: AA) it likes without having to back it up with a cent of capital
Lex, FT May 27 2010

In an interview with the Financial Times, Pierre Lellouche laid bare the French government’s conviction that the emergency stabilisation scheme agreed earlier this month amounted to a fundamental revision of the European Union’s rules and a leap towards an economic government for the bloc.

Pagrotsky:
Det är inte en grekisk kris som har smittat Euroländerna,
det är en kris för Euroländerna som först har visat sig i Grekland
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-28

The eurosceptic case for saving the euro
John Redwood, The Times May 27 2010

SNS, Pagrotsky och Greklands återhämtning
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-28

Joakim Palme tycker att Greklandskrisen belyser svagheterna med valutasamarbetet EMU.
”Det här illustrerar de problem som finns med att ha en monetär union i länder som har helt olika ekonomisk struktur och som också har olika förmåga till att hantera offentliga finanser. Det har funnits väldigt få fördelar att vara med i EMU.”
Joakim Palme i Dagens Industri 2010-05-23

The possibility of a break-up of the eurozone.
Six months ago such a scenario was unthinkable. The political drive behind the euro was formidable and the possibility of its failure was nil. But discord and lack of solidarity over Greece have damaged the credibility of the bloc’s governance. The chance that the eurozone will break up is tiny but it is no longer zero.
Lex FT 23 May 2010

Folkpartiet bryr sig inte om ekonomiska argument.
Folkpartiet vill gå med i euron, helt enkelt eftersom folkpartiet vill gå med i euron.
Katrine Kielos, Aftonbladet 21 maj 2010

Hans tid i karantän borde vara över.
Göran Persson är på en gång vår troligen siste verkligt betydande konservativa ledare och en gestalt rustad med den framgångsrika arbetarrörelsens auktoritet.
Olle Svenning, Aftonbladet 23 maj 2010

Merkel and Cameron disagree on EU treaty change
"wouldn't agree to any treaty that drew us further into the euro area"
EU Observer 21/5 2010

Det är svåra tider för oss som röstade ja till euron.
Tungt för den som sedan länge förespråkat en gemensam valuta för hela EU.
Kanske är det dags för lite eftertanke
Ola Sigvardsson, chefredaktör östgöta Correspondenten, 15 maj 2010

Spaniens centralbank meddelade på lördagen att den tagit kontroll över sparbanken Cajasu
Spanska banker har i stort ridit ut den globala finanskrisen väl, tack vare ett strikt banktillsyn.
Men en sprucken fastighetsbubbla har lämnat de spanska bankerna med 300 miljarder euro i osäkra fordringar.

DN/TT 22 maj 2010

The euro, in its current form, is finished.
The game is up for a monetary union that was meant to bolt together work-and-save citizens in northern Europe with the party animals of Club Med.
No amount of pit props from Berlin can save the euro Mk I from collapsing under the weight of its structural dysfunctionality.
You cannot run indefinitely a single currency with one interest rate for 16 economies, when there are such huge fiscal disparities.
Jeff Randall, Daily Telegraph 20 May 2010

Just 319 out of the 622 members of the Bundestag backed Germany’s €148bn contribution,
Another 195 abstained and 73 voted against.
Financial Times May 21 2010

It was an uncomfortably close call for Mrs. Merkel.
The bill passed by a margin of just seven votes, with half a dozen members of her conservative coalition voting against it.
The left-wing opposition parties refused to support the deal, either abstaining or voting against it.
New York Times May 21 2010

Gnisslet mellan Tyskland och övriga euroländer ger underlag för spekulationer om att tyskarna skulle vara på väg att tröttna på euron och i stället söka sig tillbaka mot gamla D-marken.
Förmodligen rör det sig om helt ogrundade gissningar, men de öppnar ändå för ett dystert scenario där valutaunionen spricker och Europa hotas av ekonomiskt kaos.
Johan Schück, DN 2010-05-21

Det tyska beslutet fattades med stor brådska och utan det breda parlamentariska stöd som regeringen hoppats på.
/> – Ni har ingen linje och inget mål. Ni vet inte vad ni vill med landet eller Europa.
Det omdömet fällde de tyska socialdemokraternas ledare Sigmar Gabriel om Angela Merkels regering i förbundsdagsdebatten i dag.
För Tysklands del omfattar dagens beslut ungefär lika mycket som en halv årsbudget för landet, eller omräknat i kronor 1 500 miljarder.
Ekot 21 ma 2010

Demokratiproblemet:
att den svenska regeringschefen numera fattar avgörande beslut i ett EU-forum som saknar öppenhet och insyn – och att detta forum fått mer och mer makt i EU.
Också som EU-vän måste man tillstå att alltför många viktiga frågor börjat avgöras i slutna rum.
Den förändringen av statsministerrollen är djupt problematisk.
Signerat: Peter Wolodarski DN 2010-05-20

Dagens Ja-sägare:
Birgitta Ohlsson vill tillhöra EU:s absoluta kärna, makt och framtid
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-22

A big step towards fiscal federalism in Europe
When the euro was born everyone knew that sooner or later a crisis would occur.
It was also clear that the stability and growth pact was – as I have said before – “stupid”
Romano Prodi FT May 20 2010

Romano Prodi:
“If you have a common currency of course you need common fiscal policy,”
“We must have supranational control” of policy “otherwise the euro cannot work,”
Bloomberg May 18, 2010

– Det här reningsbadet kommer att leda till ett starkare EMU, säger Fölster, som alltså inte tror att diskussionerna för eller emot valutaunionen kommer att dö ut.

Han får medhåll av Johnny Munkhammar, statsvetare och välkänd författare och debattör.
I samband med euro-omröstningen 2003 var Munkhammar en av de ledande företrädarna för ja-sidan.
Världen idag 2010-05-12

– Precis det som vi motståndare varnade för har nu inträffat, säger Nils Gottfries, professor i nationalekonomi vid Uppsala universitet.
Världen idag 2010-05-12

Germans are amazed at global reaction to their fiscal proposals
FT Deutschland had an interesting culture shock article in which it quotes several economists as saying that
Germany’s debt rule, if applied to the whole of the eurozone, is much more likely to result in investor panic than solve the problem.
Eurointelligence 20 may 2010

Det är nu vi måste påbörja ett snabbt utträde ur de offentliga underskotten.
Jag har fått Parlamentets stöd för krav på en snabb återgång till balans i de offentliga finanserna och hänsyn till välfärdens kostnader
Gunnar Hökmark, Europaportalen 20 maj 2010

Själv ser /Göran Persson/ faror som är långt farligare än Greklandskrisen.
– Jag trodde en gång i tiden att stabilitetspakten var lösningen på den här knuten, men det visar sig att den inte var det. Så då får man väl hitta en annan konstruktion.
Det är klart att jag vill se hur den ser ut innan Sverige kan gå med.

– Svenska folket har sagt nej till ett euromedlemskap med tydlig majoritet. Vi ska inte aktualisera en ny folkomröstning förrän vi har ett riktigt folkligt krav på det. Och det har vi inte idag
Göran Persson. e24 2010-05-19

Behind the drama in Europe lies a global crisis
The euro is under threat – along with our entire free-market system
In Washington the US Senate voted 94:0 to prevent IMF from using its cash to help countries that are inextricably trapped in a debt spiral.

Edmund Conway Daily Telegraph 19 May 2010

Might the eurozone break up? Until recently I would have answered: absolutely no.
This is not because I thought the currency union a wise idea. But the commitment to make it work seemed fundamental to the policies of Europe’s principal powers.
Martin Wolf FT 18 May 2010

Germany's 'desperate' short ban triggers capital flight to Switzerland
A year ago, Germany's financial regulator BaFin warned that the toxic debts of the country's banks would blow up "like a grenade" once hidden losses from the credit crisis caught up with them.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 19 May 2010

Dagens Ja-sägare
Farlig demonisering av euron
Trots att regeringen konstaterat att den gemensamma valutan är bra för Europa och för Sverige har den politiska processen för ett svenskt deltagande i euron stagnerat.
Gunnar Hökmark på SvD Brännpunkt

Pierre Werner – mannen som för fyrtio år sedan presenterade den första eurorapporten.
En del av hans slutsatser bakades in i Maastrichtfördraget som ligger till grund för dagens valutasamarbete. Det som handlade om gemensam ekonomisk politik har inte tagits fram förrän nu.
Annika Ström Melin DN 29 maj 2010

Sex av tio skulle rösta nej, 29 procent skulle rösta ja,
elva procent vet ej

Novus/TV4 17/5 2010

The euro is in danger, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
said in a speech to parliament
CNBC 19 May 2010

The eurozone came extremely close to a breakdown 10 days ago.
What is completely missing in Brussels – and even more so in Berlin – is an understanding of the urgency of the situation.

Wolfgang Münchau, FT May 16 2010

Banks dump Greek debt on the ECB
Foreign holders of Greek and Portuguese debt have seized on emergency intervention by the European Central Bank to exit their positions, leaving eurozone taxpayers exposed to the credit risk.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 17 May 2010

Europa befinner sig i den värsta situationen sedan andra världskriget,
kanske till och med sedan första världskriget.
Det säger chefen för den Europeiska centralbanken Jean-Claude Trichet
Ekot 16 maj 2010

Jean-Claude Trichet tells us the world faced a second Lehman crash in the days and hours before EU leaders launched their €720bn defence fund.
If the European Central Bank’s president is correct, we are in trouble.
The EU-IMF package is already unravelling. What will the West do for its next trick?
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 16 May 2010

Trichet, Krugman och Birgitta Ohlsson
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-16

How do America and Greece compare?
Both nations have lately been running large budget deficits, roughly comparable as a percentage of G.D.P
Greece is caught in a trap. Having your own currency, it seems, makes a big difference.
Paul Krugman, NYT May 13, 2010

På bekostnad av nationalstaterna ställdes Europa i förgrunden och försågs med ett mycket operativt mål: freden var tvungen att säkras. Aldrig mer krig.
Det var en både enkel och begriplig målsättning, länge så framgångsrik att unga européer i dag mest rycker på axlarna åt den eftersom de tar fred som något självklart.
Det är det europeiska dilemmat – något nytt visionärt mål annat än just denna fred har Europa inte lyckats ställa sig.
Richard Swartz, DN 15/5 2010

Barroso modig som har vågat röra vid pudeln kärna i debatten om eurons och unionens ekonomiska framtid.
Euroländerna skulle kunna rösta ned ett lands budget med en kvalificerad majoritet
Medlemsstaterna bör ha mod att säga om de vill ha en ekonomisk union, och om de inte vill det, är det bättre att glömma den monetära unionen helt och hållet.
Teresa Küchler om euro-krisen SvD 14 maj 2010

The European Cental Bank's bailout package is just a $1 trillion fig leaf covering the problem and
a better move would have been to arrange for Greece and Portugal to leave the European Union
, Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics and public policy at Harvard, told CNBC Friday 14/5 2010

Frankrikes president Nicolas Sarkozy hotade med att dra Frankrike ur eurosamarbetet
om inte Tyskland gick med på det räddningspaket som ska hjälpa Grekland ur krisen.
Det uppger den spanska tidningen El País enligt DN 14 maj 2010

Italy's outstanding public debt is €1.7 trillion, seven times the size of Greece's.
Italy "is a big systemic piece," said François Chauchat, an economist with GaveKal, a Stockholm-based economic advisory firm.
"If Italy cannot refinance its debt than it's the end of the euro."
WSJ 14 May 2010

”Centralbanker dumpar euron”
- Det finns trots räddningspaketet i helgen
stora frågetecken kring om euron kommer att finnas kvar som valuta om ett par, 3—4 år
Carl Hammer, chefsstrateg på SEB, DN/TT 14 maj 2010

"Eurons roll som reservvaluta är nu ifrågasatt",
konstaterar SEB:s chefekonom Robert Bergqvist
i ett marknadsbrev på fredagsmorgonen.
E24/TT 14 maj 2010
med diagram

I Grekland-krisens kvarnar mals motståndet mot ökad överstatlighet ned. ”Hela krispaketet som beslutades i helgen är ett stort steg mot ökad samordning”,
Klas Eklund, Nils Lundgren och Calmfors uttalar sig SvD/E24 14 maj 2010

Federalisterna, Jugoslavien, Annika Ström Melin och Göran Persson
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-14

Deutsche-Bank-Chef Ackermann: Greece won’t repay all of its debt
there is no alternative to helping Greece because otherwise the eurozone would have melted down
Eurointelligence 14/5 2010

Exchange offices in the UK have stopped selling 500 euro banknotes
because of their use by money launderers.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency says 90% of the notes sold in the UK are in the hands of organised crime.
BBC 13 maj 2010

Euro remains on the right side of history
At stake in this struggle, ultimately, is the ideology of the omnipotent nation-state.
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, FT May 13 2010

IMFs dödsdom över Grekland och EU:s räddningspaket
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-12

Euron: Krisen handlar om EU:s överlevnad och framtid
Den 9 maj 2010, nästan på klockslaget sextio år efter den allra första Europadagen, samlades EU:s finansministrar till ännu ett krismöte i Bryssel.
Den tydliga och nästan ödesmättade symboliken i detta sammanträffande ska inte överdrivas, men nog finns den där.
Annika Ström Melin DN Signerat 2010-05-11
RE: En lysande artikel

Spansk svångrem kan kväsa tillväxt
Sänkta löner för offentliganställda och inga uppjusteringar
av pensioner eller barnbidrag före 2012
Anders Bolling, DN 12 maj 2010

IMF-rapport varnar
Givet att Grekland ingår i eurosamarbetet är en devalvering inte en möjlig utväg för landet.
Tjänstemännen bedömer i rapporten att Greklands "effektiva växelkurs", inom eurosamarbetet, är övervärderad med upp till 30 procent,
och denna övervärdering måste pressas ut ur den grekiska ekonomin i en "lång och smärtsam process"
Washington Post/DI 12 maj 2010

Varje dag kan vi nu via medierna se hur konflikterna och problemen med EMU tydliggörs.
EMU-tvångströjan kommer bara i en storlek och den passar uppenbart inte alla.
Den här sortens förkeynesiansk deflationspolitik provades under 1920- och 1930-talen och var antagligen den främsta enskilda orsaken till depressionen.
Lars Pålsson Syll, Newsmill 2010-05-08

Regain lost competitiveness
Inside the eurozone, this is possible only with falling wages, higher productivity growth than in Germany (and so soaring unemployment), or both
Martin Wolf May 11 2010

The threat that Portugal and Spain might be cut off from credit markets,
triggering a meltdown in Europe’s financial system, was all too real.
The euro zone’s rescue scheme is big and bold but leaves the ECB looking compromised
The Economist online May 11th 2010

Taking on the 'wolf pack'
President Van Rompuy said:
"We can't have a monetary union at the end without some form of economic and political union,
and that is our big task for the coming weeks and the coming months."

BBC 10 maj 2010

How can a loan guarantee solve a problem of excessive indebtedness?
We should remember that, unlike in Greece, the issue in Spain and Portugal is not primarily fiscal, but an excessively indebted private sector.
So unless José Luis Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister, is going to present the mother of all economic reform packages, it is hard to see how the mother of all bail-outs is going to work.
Wolfgang Münchau May 10 2010

How can a loan guarantee solve a problem of excessive indebtedness?
The funny thing is that the Germans, Ms Merkel probably included, really believed in the “no bail-out” clause.
They were shocked by events. They failed to see that Article 125 of the Lisbon treaty is the kind of law that is irrelevant until needed, at which point it becomes impossible to apply.
Wolfgang Münchau May 10 2010

The second, more worrying step is a European Central Bank decision to buy government bonds “to address... malfunctioning... securities markets”.
With this it caved in to pressure from eurozone sovereigns not to tolerate a bond strike against one of their number.
Financial Times editorial May 10 2010

Vargflocken
Giriga finansvalpar är inte grundproblemet den här gången.
Däremot finns det en politisk kris på flera nivåer.

DN 2010-05-11

There can be no more pretence that monetary union respects the premise on which it was sold to European citizens, Germans in particular.
Financial Times editorial May 10 2010 20:41

Fredrik Reinfeldt om folkets nej till EMU:
vi respekterar det till annat meddelas
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-11

Nu hörs allt starkare röster på mer av gemensam finanspolitik.
En hel rad knepiga val väntar
SvD, Signerat Claes Arvidsson, 11 maj 2010

The two German members of the ECB's council voted against the move
The European Central Bank risks irreparable damage to its reputation by agreeing to the mass purchases of southern European bonds in defiance of the German Bundesbank and apparently under orders from EU leaders.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 11 May 2010

The euro was supposed to lubricate faster economic growth by eliminating the cost and confusion of constantly converting between national currencies. More important, it would promote political unity. With a common currency, people would feel "European."
Their identities as Germans, Italians and Spaniards would gradually blend into a continental identity.
None of this has happened.
Robert J. Samuelson Washington Post May 10, 2010

Quantitative easing
Click here

Grekpaketet handlar om bankstöd och imperiebyggande.
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-10

Ytterst är euron ett politiskt projekt som syftar till att knyta EU:s länder närmare varandra. Men
fram till dess att euroländerna har visat att de är kapabla att reda ut denna kris råder det ingen brådska för Sverige att gå med i valutasamarbetet.
Expressen 10 maj 2010

The nuclear option
The accord profoundly alters the character of the European Union. The walls of fiscal and economic sovereignty are being breached. The creation of an EU rescue mechanism with powers to issue bonds with Europe's AAA rating to help eurozone states in trouble is to go far beyond the Lisbon Treaty. This new agency is an EU Treasury in all but name, managing an EU fiscal union where liabilities become shared.
A European state is being created before our eyes.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 9 May 2010

A few other comments May 10
Click here

Having announced that interest rates would remain at 1%, ECB president Jean-Claude
Trichet said that restarting a programme to buy up government debt had not been considered.
BBC 6 May 2010

PRESS RELEASE
In view of the current exceptional circumstances prevailing in the market, the Governing Council decided:
To conduct interventions in the euro area public and private debt securities markets (Securities Markets Programme) to ensure depth and liquidity in those market segments which are dysfunctional.
ECB 10 May 2010

What we won't do is provide support for the euro
- that has to come from those countries that use the euro."

UK Chancellor Alistair Darling BBC Sunday, 9 May 2010 17:42 UK

The End of the Euro
How the crisis in Greece could lead to the demise of Europe's most ambitious project.
Alarming is the exposure of other EU banks to Greek debt, which totals $193 billion
Niall Ferguson NEWSWEEK May 7, 2010

Det kommer aldrig att bli möjligt att göra någon entydig nyttokalkyl som visar att Sverige gör en nettovinst på att gå med.
Lars Calmfors 2009

Jag har varit väldigt tydlig med att jag inte tycker att det här primärt är en ekonomisk fråga.
Anders Borg, Ekot 20 februari 2010

Det /EMU/ är ett viktigt ekonomiskt politiskt projekt som svenska folket äger makten att påverka om vi ska vara med eller inte i och beslutet har varit att vi ska stå utanför.
Då respekterar vi det till annat meddelas eller tills det att svenska folket ändrar sig.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, Ekot, 10 maj 2010 kl 15:56

Nu krävs det mycket funderande och utvecklande av europrojektet om vi någonsin ska ställa frågan till svenska folket igen.
Mona Sahlin, Ekot, 10 maj 2010 kl 15:56

The political foundations for union were never laid. Governments kept building higher and higher regardless.
History and ordinary prudence dictated that the union might be broad and shallow (a free-trade area) or else narrow and deep (an evolving political union, confined to countries willing to be led there.

Of the two, I always believed that the first was better.

But the architects did not even have the brains to choose the second.

They recognized no limits to their ambitions. They set about creating a union that was both broad and deep. A federal constitution, a parliament, a powerful central executive, one central bank, one currency - all with no binding sense of European identity.
As for scale, well, the bigger the better. Today Greece, tomorrow Turkey. And why stop there? Madness.
Clive Crook is a senior editor of The Atlantic, a columnist for National Journal, and a commentator for the Financial Times. He worked at The Economist for nearly 20 years, including 11 years as deputy editor.
The Atlantic Journal May 13, 2010

Göran Persson: Det finns inte ett enda vackert argument /för Nej till EMU/, utan allt kokar ner till det snöda och egoistiska...
Fichtelius: Vilket är det bästa argumentet emot då, även om det inte är vackert?
Göran Persson: Ja, det enda som jag tycker håller, det är det där med vänta och se. Göran Persson 2003-03-31, Fichtelius, sid. 400

Riskerna är stora - Vinsterna är små
Ett Ja är för evig - Ett Nej kan man ångra-
Sloganer från Medborgare mot EMU inför folkomröstningen 2003

German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused the financial industry of playing dirty. "First the banks failed, forcing states to carry out rescue operations. They plunged the global economy over the precipice and we had to launch recovery packages, which increased our debts, and now they are speculating against these debts. That is very treacherous," she said. "Governments must regain supremacy. It is a fight against the markets and I am determined to win this fight".
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 6 May 2010

Greklands kris är så djup att landet kan tvingas att lämna eurosamarbetet.
Detta skulle i sin tur kunna äventyra hela valutaunionens framtid.
SEB:s chefsekonom Robert Bergqvist DN 2010-05-08

Italy holds the world's third-largest stock of debt after Japan and the US at €1.76 trillion
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 6 May 2010

Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president, said the bank's governing council had not even talked about a possible purchase of eurozone government deb
Gabriel Stein from Lombard Street Research called Mr Trichet's remarks "embarrassingly meaningless" and said it was hard to believe that the ECB had not discussed a move to quantitative easing.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 6 May 2010

Reinfeldt: Ingen folkomröstning om euron
SvT Kerstin Holm 7 maj 2010 - 18:48

Krisen ger EMU-kritikerna rätt
Nils Lundgren och Birgitta Swedenborg SvD Brännpunkt 8 maj 2010

SvD vacklar om Euron
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-07

The Global Crisis of Legitimacy
The greatest systemic risk is not an economic concept but a political one
There were those who were concerned that a united Europe would exist to benefit the elites, rather than the broader public.
George Friedman May 4, 2010 at John Mauldin

Problemen i Spanien, Grekland och Portugal kommer även att tynga Sverige.
"Bastionerna är bemannade", säger Anders Borg och hävdar att Riksbanken, regeringen och Riksgäldskontoret har full beredskap.
DI 7/5 2010

DN har skådat ljuset: "Ländernas konkurrenskraft har också betydelse för valutans stabilitet."
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-07

Varför reagerade ingen i Bryssel?
Det var ett allvarligt misstag. I EU:s korridorer talades det öppet om det grekiska fusket under många år.
2004 inledde EU-kommissionen ett rättsligt förfarande rörande falska rapporter, som aldrig fullföljdes.
DN 7/5 2010

Spaniens problem handlar varken om fusk eller om bristande budgetkontroll. Sedan Spanien blev euromedlem har budgetpolitiken varit ”anmärkningsvärt disciplinerad”, skriver Sapir och Pisani-Ferry.
Budgetunderskotten uppstod först i samband med den ekonomiska krisen 2008.
Bakom Spaniens nuvarande kris ligger i stället en långvarig och successsiv urholkning av konkurrenskraften och växande underskott i bytesbalansen.
DN 7/5 2010

Why should money be poured into Greece to "save the euro"?
Besides the moral hazard effects of the intervention, it makes little sense to prolong a monetary regime which is actually one of the reasons why these Eurozone countries are in trouble.
Gilles Saint-Paul, VoxEU.org, 5 May 2010

Grekland står på randen av statsbankrutt.
EU:s valutaunion har visat att den inte håller måttet.

Att EU:s valutaunion spricker är inte realistiskt, men
att det ”otänkbara” faktiskt diskuteras säger åtskilligt om allvaret.
Signerat, Claes Arvidsson, SvD 7/5 2010

Mrs Merkel made a moving plea to the Bundestag to support the €110bn (£93bn) rescue for Greece.
"Nothing less than the future of Europe is at stake. The happy tale of German history since World War Two and our emergence as a free, united, and strong country cannot be separated from the European Union.
We owe decades of peace and prosperity to the understanding of our neighbours," she said.
Daily Telegraph 6/5 2010

Ett av de vanligaste och kraftigaste argumenten mot europrojektet har just varit att det är svårt och närmast omöjligt att hålla en räntenivå som passar alla.
En given nivå på styrräntan verka stimulerande på en redan het ekonomi med inflation över genomsnittet och
nedkylande på en redan kall ekonomi, som har en inflation under genomsnittet.
Att hålla koll på denna inbyggda och uppenbara brist i systemet och hur den driver kreditutvecklingen borde ha varit prio-1 för ECB. Men ECB har haft så kallad nollkoll.
E24:s börskrönikör Per Lindvall, 6/5 2010

Paul Krugman: "Grekland kommer att lämna euron"
E24 6/5 2010

Many commentators now believe that Greece will end up restructuring its debt — a euphemism for partial repudiation.
I agree. But the reasoning seems to stop there, which is wrong. In effect, the consensus that Greece will end up defaulting is probably too optimistic.
I’m growing increasingly convinced that Greece will end up leaving the euro, too.
Paul Krugman 6/5 2010

Den franska storbanken BNP Paribas har en exponering mot grekiska statsobligationer på 5 miljarder euro (49 miljarder kronor).
E24 6/5 2010

Risken är stor att Spanien hamnar i samma situation som Grekland.
Det säger banken SEB:s chefsekonom Robert Bergqvist.
DI 6/5 2010

The “c” word: Contagion
Is Europe facing a ‘Bear Stearns’ moment?
Gillian Tett, FT May 5 2010

EMU, tre döda och DN manar: Kör hårt
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-06

ECB Drops Minimum Rating Threshold for Greek Collateral: QE Next?
The ECB decided to remove the BBB-rating threshold for Greek collateral on May 3, in contrast to prior statements that the ECB would not apply different eligibility rules for different countries.
Roubini 6 May 2010

The cruel irony of the euro area’s predicament is that, in many ways,
the whole exercise was designed to produce the very credit explosion that bedevils it today
Kenneth Rogoff, FT May 5 2010

Default, Devaluation, Or What?
it looks quite possible that Greece will spiral into domestic as well as debt crisis, and be forced to take emergency measures. And that makes me think of Argentina in 2001
Paul Krugman May 4, 2010

Help Portugal Help Greece
The real fun begins if Spain’s cost of borrowing rises above the pooled loan rate.
It has to lend €9.8 billion to Greece.

Charles Forelle, Real Time Brussels, WSJ 5/5 2010

European governments are hoping that Greece’s 110 billion-euro bailout will stop a crisis that Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says threatens the currency’s survival.
European Central Bank council member Axel Weber today warned about the “threat of grave contagion” as investors speculate that Spain and Portugal may also need aid.
Bloomberg 5/5 2010

SOME REALLY BAD NEWS FROM GREECE – OPPOSITION DECIDES TO VOTE AGAINST THE DEAL
The EU/IMF deal will find a majority in the Greek parliament but last night’s decision by Antonis Samaras, leader of the opposition New Democracy, to vote against the IMF/EU package destroys any hopes of a lasting consensus for reform.
Eurointelligence 5.05.2010

A bail-out for Greece is just the beginning
It is overtly a rescue of Greece, but covertly a bail-out of banks.
Martin Wolf, May 4 2010

EMU:s första dödsoffer
Tre döda i grekisk bankbrand
Publicerat: kl 13:41, 5/5 2010 Ekot, Uppdaterad: 15:01

Robert af Jochnick är grundare av och styrelseordförande för Orifllame
Under folkomröstningskampanjen var af Jochnick en av ja-sidans ivrigaste förespråkare.
Nu, med de grekiska erfarenheterna i bagaget, uttrycker han sig mer försiktigt och menar att Sverige ska ”vänta och se” med ett eventuellt euromedlemskap.
DI 2010-05-04

I mitten av 90-talet visade Sverige att det är fullt möjligt att göra den besparingsresan, men vägen dit är krävande, smärtsam och politiskt riskfylld.
Det finns de som försöker skylla den aktuella krisen på euron, men det är knappast euron som ligger bakom Atens ekonomiska elände.
Peter Wolodarski, DN 2010-05-02

”Euron är en domedagsmaskin”, menar Junilistans före detta ordförande Nils Lundgren,
men bemöts av Folk partiets Carl B Hamilton, som skyller krisen på Grekland.
SvD/E24 2010-05-04

Anders Wijkman:
"Det är nog ingen nackdel att stå utanför EMU"
Krisen för euron gör att tidigare anhängare av ett svenskt EMU-medlemskap börjar svaja.
Att det blev ett nej i den svenska folkomröstningen var ingen nackdel, säger euroförespråkaren Anders Wijkman.
DI 2010-05-04, 16:33

Kommer krisen i Grekland att leda till slutet för valutasamarbetet i EU?
Nej, det mesta pekar för närvarande åt rakt motsatt håll.
Annika Ström Melin, Signerat DN 2010-05-04

Greek crisis exposes default lines running through the eurozone
Initially, it was thought that the eurozone would not be subject to such market brutality /as in 1992/ because, in complete contrast to the ERM, once countries have joined the euro, there is no exchange rate against which speculators can take out positions.
Roger Bootle, Daily Telegraph 2 May 2010

Satsa på en hästkur av samma kraft som Lettland!
Den Atenska smittan kan sprida sig och få förfärliga effekter
Från svensk horisont är det inte så mycket annat att göra än att hoppas
PJ Anders Linder, SvD 2 maj 2010

Latvia has experienced the worst two-year economic downturn on recorde, losing more than 25 percent of GDP.
It is projected to shrink further during the first half of this year
From Latvia to Greece, The IMF's Road to Ruin,
By MARK WEISBROT, May 2nd 2010

SvD har i dag en artikel på ledarsidan om Grekland och EMU.
Rolf Englund blog 2010-05-02

To Angela Merkel and Germany’s political class, the state elections in North-Rhine Westphalia are infinitely more important than the future of the eurozone.
The opinion polls seem to support this attitude. Greek aid is unbelievably unpopular, with 86 per cent opposed according to a poll published last Sunday.
Come to think of it, there are not many issues in a democracy on which 86 per cent of the people agree on.
Wolfgang Münchau, Eurointelligence 29/4 2010

And that’s why a devaluation would help Greece — it wouldn’t reduce the need for fiscal adjustment, but it would reduce the costs associated with fiscal adjustment.
As I argued yesterday, this difference is an important reason why Britain, with a primary deficit as large as Greece’s, isn’t in anything like the same amount of trouble.
Paul Krugman, May 1st 2010

Vem har rätt? Krugman eller Carl B Hamilton?
Rolf Englund blog 1 maj 2010

Vem ska i så fall betala den avskrivningen, är det skattebetalarna i euroländerna?
– Det ska de som äger grekiska obligationer göra, de som dumdristigt har köpt dem till alltför höga priser och alltför låga räntor. Det gäller då framför allt banker i södra och centrala Europa, säger åslund.
Ekot 30 april 2010

De övriga euroländernas finansministrar planerar ett möte på söndag för att ta ställning till
ett förslag till överenskommelse om nedskärningar utan tidigare motstycke.
Ekot 30 april 2010 med bra länkar

Vad tycker du?
Bör Sverige införa euron?
Ekot april 2010

.

Tio års test av euron visar att domedagsprofetiorna kommit på skam.
Under krisen har euron visat sig vara en trygg hamn för euroländerna, och en tillflyktsort globalt.
Carl B Hamilton blog 8 februari 2010

Proud nations such as France, Germany, Britain or Spain would not surrender their identities; but they would pursue their interests collectively. Maddening as it could often be, “Europe” would always be around.
That is what I used to think.
Philip Stephens, FT April 29 2010

Acropolis now
Europe's sovereign-debt crisis
The Greek debt crisis is spreading
The Economist print 29/4 2010

Den grekiska budgetkrisen har nått en kulmen.
EU reagerade på krisen som om den vore den första lånekris som någonsin inträffat.
Redan idag kan vi se kraven – och önskemålen – på att EU-samarbetet fördjupas. Här bör Sverige vara med fullt ut.
Olle Schmidt (fp) och Wolf Klinz (FDP) samt folkpartiets talesperson för ekonomi- och näringspolitik,
Carl B Hamilton, SvD Brännpunkt 30 april 2010

Athens clash at finance ministry over budget cuts
Nice video
BBC 30/4 2010

Om ingenting görs åt Grekland illa kvickt går landet i konkurs.
I så fall kommer Portugal och Spanien likaså att tvingas ställa in sina betalningar, vilket inte alls är nödvändigt.
Då kollapsar en stor del av det europeiska banksystemet.
Europa skulle till och med kunna hamna i ny stor depression.
Anders åslund DN Debatt 30/4 2010

Framöver ställer krisen frågan om en valutaunion är möjlig utan gemensam finanspolitik.
Gunnar Jonsson Signerat DN 2010-04-29

Is a European banking crisis next?
The FT reports that “many European banks have become shut out of the international lending markets because of continuing concerns over Greece, sparking fears that some could collapse as they run out of cash.
Greek and Portuguese banks cannot borrow in the international money markets, while weaker European banks are also struggling to raise money as fears of counterparty risk have grown sharply.”
Even French and German banks have difficulties because of their exposure to Greek debt.
Eurointelligence 30/4 2010

Om åtstramningen går att klara, dödar den i så fall tillväxten?
Gunnar Jonsson Signerat DN 2010-04-29

Den 9 maj är det val i Tysklands största delstat Nordrhein-Westfalen med 18 miljoner invånare.
Händelsevis har eurozonens ledare nu bestämt datum för ett toppmöte om Grekland till dagen efter valet.
Gunnar Jonsson Signerat DN 2010-04-29

What about an outright default? How bad could it be?
Well, it would be big. Bigger than Russia's 1998 default and Argentina's 2001 default put together, in fact.
Robert Plummer, BBC 28/4

.

Inte vår bästa stund
Den europeiska situationen nu är inte alldeles bekväm.
Den grekiska krisens drama går från den ena akten till den andra.
Carl Bildt, blog, 25 april 2010

Bryssel, Belgien och fullskaleexperimentet EMU
Rolf Englund blog 29/4 2010

One senior Dutch central banker, now retired, says most European governments – including his own – agreed the Maastricht treaty 20 years ago without understanding what they had signed into law.
Past barriers to plain speaking about economic and monetary union (Emu).
David Marsh, FT April 27 2010

– Den stora risken i ett krisscenario är att bankerna i Tyskland och Frankrike får en rejäl smäll och att vi får en ny vända av finanskris,
säger Handelsbankens chefekonom Jan Häggström.
Ekot 28/4 2010

This is going to be the most important week in the 11-year history of Europe’s monetary union.
By the end of it we will know whether the Greek fiscal crisis can be contained or whether it will metastasise to other parts of the eurozone.
What we are seeing here is Europe’s equivalent of the US subprime crisis. Unless we hear some implausibly good news from Athens by Friday, it will soon blow up.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT April 25 2010

Belgien är en konstruktion från 1830 som aldrig har blivt en harmonisk enhet.
Den politiska viljan att hålla ihop landet verkar svagare än på länge.
Det bådar inte gott – vare sig för Belgien eller för Europa.
Annika Ström Melin, Signerat, DN 25/4 2010

Germany
Four professors will launch a legal challenge in early May at the Verfassungsgericht (high court).
Should they secure an injunction, EMU may fly apart.
EMU shut the warning signals, disguising risk.
What investors overlooked is that currency risk mutates into default risk in a monetary union
The EU-IMF "therapy" of deflation for Greece repeats the catastrophic errors of Chancellor Heinrich Bruning in the early 1930s and must lead to a depression
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 25 Apr 2010

A country such as Portugal with total debt of 300pc of GDP, a current account deficit of 11.2pc, and a budget deficit of 9.4pc should not think it has the luxury to trim spending at a leisurely pace. Portugal has an ugly choice. If it tightens hard to soothe bond markets, it too risks depression. EMU's Faustian Pact is closing in.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 25 Apr 2010

Friday will be remembered as the day the euro needed rescuing.
Sure it is Greece that has asked to be bailed out but it was still a day that the architects of the single currency had never envisaged.
For when it came to it, there were no plans to save a euro member in trouble.
Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's Europe editor, 24 April 2010

Portugal's economy
The importance of not being Greece
The Economist print April 22nd 2010

Greece debt to foreign banks, total: 302.6 Billion dollars:
- (source FAZ –Finanzmarkt - 09.04.2010)
comment by Dr Jonathan Wilson at Ambrose Daily Telegraph

77 milarder kronor
It has been estimated that Germany will have to contribute over eight billion Euros to the relief effort.
For Merkel, whose coalition government is facing an important regional election in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on May 9, that steep bill is becoming reality sooner than she would have liked.
Spiegel Online 23/4 2010

This report from NRC Handelsblatt tells the extraordinary story of how it happened:
Sarkozy and Berlusconi worked out the deal with Trichet, and then told Merkel that they would go ahead by themselves.
Also, Merkel had insisted on a 6% interest rate. We quote the relevant of the story in full:
Peter Boone and Simon Johnson say Portugal is next
Eurointelligence 13/4 2010

However, Greece had to pay 430 basis points above German rates to borrow one-year money.
Rolf Englund blog med påhopp på DN och SvD 14/4 2010

The voices that matter are those of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Bundesbank, the finance committee of the Bundestag, and ultimately the Verfassungsgericht, or German constitutional court.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard April 12th, 2010

Poland should not rush to sign up to the euro
Slawomir Skrzypek, FT April 12 2010
The writer, late president of the National Bank of Poland, submitted this article before he died in the Smolensk air crash on Saturday. It is published by agreement with Mr Skrzypek’s wife, Dorota, and the Bank

Deflation is the only way Greece can effectively tackle its debt problems,
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was quoted on Monday as saying.
CNBC 12 Apr 2010

Christopher Steegmans, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, decided that the best defense would be to go on the offensive.
In a press conference held in Berlin on Monday, he declared that the state of the European Union's decision on whether to help Greece was "unchanged"
Der Spiegel 12/4 2010

"Tyskland vek sig för trycket - vi ska inte lura oss själva att sådana lån är något annat än subventioner", sa Frank Schaeffler, biträdande finanstalesman för regeringskoalitionspartiet FDP.
DI/Direkt 2010-04-12

What if the Greek loans cannot be repaid? Will they just be rolled over?
And what if other countries like Portugal or even Spain run into difficulty? Will the same facility be made available to them and who will ultimately finance it?
Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's Europe editor, 12/4 2010

Varför frågar ingen Birgitta Ohlsson om Grekland och EMU?
Rolf Englund blog 12/4 2010

European governments offered Greece a rescue package worth as much as 45 billion euros ($61 billion) in three-year loans at below-market interest rates.
Bloomberg April 11 2010

Leaders of the 16 eurozone nations have agreed to fund up to 30 bn euros in emergency loans for Greece
Its total debt stands at nearly 300 bn euros.
BBC, Sunday, 11 April 2010 16:33 UK

As I write, it appears that EU experts have agreed on a package of €20bn to €25bn at 350 points above the IMF tariff, or 5pc.
This achieves nothing. Such wishful thinking has plagued the Greek/EMU crisis from the start.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 11 Apr 2010

Germany's Bundesbank has fired a warning shot at Chancellor Angela Merkel, attacking the joint EU-IMF rescue plan for Greece as
a threat to economic stability and probably illegal.
Leaked extracts from an internal report appeared in the Frankfurter Rundschau
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 8 Apr 2010

Barclays Capital said any rescue would have to be at least €40bn-€45bn to restore confidence and provide Greece the funding it needs to buy time for reform.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 8 Apr 2010

DN är optimister om Grekland, EU och EMU
Rlf Englund blog 10/4 2010

The fix was in. The deal done.
Just a couple of weeks back Greece had been saved

Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's Europe editor blog 9 April 2010

Om en folkomröstning om att ersätta kronan med euron skulle hållas i dag skulle
55 procent av svenskarna rösta nej, 37 procent skulle rösta ja och 8 procent vet inte hur de skulle rösta.
Det framgår av en opinionsundersökning som Demoskop gjort på uppdrag av SEB.
Privata Affärr/Direkt 9/4 2010

Det finns ändå anledning till viss optimism.
Politikerna försöker tona ned problemen och hoppas samtidigt att EU:s löfte om solidaritet ska skapa lugn, utan att behöva omsättas i handling. Men marknadens aktörer låter sig inte övertygas.
Men för alla som anser att EU behövs finns det egentligen bara en slutsats. Den grekiska krisen måste och kan lösas, eftersom den i grunden handlar om EU-samarbetets framtid.
DN-ledare 10/4 2010

The key thing to understand about Greece’s predicament is that
it’s not just a matter of excessive debt.

Unfortunately, Greece can’t expect a similar performance as US.
Why? Because of the euro.
Paul Krugman, New York Times April 8, 2010

Vad rör sig huvet på en Ja-sägare om EMU?
Rolf Englund blog 2010-04-09

Greek Bonds Drop a Seventh Day, Spread Widens
The yield on the 10-year Greek bond rose 30 basis points to 7.54 percent, as of 10:57 a.m. in London.
The cost of insuring against a default on Greek government bonds rose above that for Iceland for the first time.
Bloomberg April 8 2010

IMF:s förre chefsekonom, MIT-professorn Simon Johnson, och hans professorskollega Peter Boone visar i en lång artikel på ekonomibloggen Baselinescenario.com att
Greklands ekonomiska situation är långt värre än vad den var i Argentina under åren 1991-2001, det vill säga fram till det att Argentina ställde in sina betalningar.
Per Lindvall SvD/e24 2010-04-08

Why the Greek rescue isn’t going to plan
Worries are mounting about the health of the Greek banking system,
raising the spectre of disorderly outflows of deposits
Mohamed El-Erian,FT April 7 2010

Capital flight squeezes Greek banks
FT April 7 2010

Hur ser du på Europas framtid? Beskriver du dig, likt Malmström, som federalist?
– Ja aboslut. Jag tycker att det är viktigt att vi får ett smalare och vassare EU.
EU ska syssla med rätt saker. Bryssel ska inte bestämma över svenska förskolor eller vår äldreomsorg till exempel, det ska vi bestämma på hemmaplan.
Däremot är viktigt att vi har en gemensam valuta, och att alla länder samarbetar ekonomiskt.
Birgitta Ohlsson svarar på SvD.se:s läsarfrågor 6 april 2010

Anyone who doubts that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will do all she can to prevent any of her voters' money from being used to bail out what she sees as spendthrift countries, that didn't swallow the tough medicine Germans took to gain global competitiveness, doesn't understand German politics and sensibilities.
Which bodes ill for Spain: even though its economy is five times as large as Greece's
WSJ APRIL 6, 2010

Mr. Van Rompuy and many investors fear a sovereign default would start a chain reaction of panic and failures, perhaps breaking up the euro zone.
The worries are certainly not groundless, even if Greece’s debt of 270 billion euros is only 4 percent of all euro zone sovereign obligations. A write-down could reduce Greek banks to insolvency.
EDWARD HADAS, NYT April 5, 2010

Grekiska statspapper "massakreras" i en marknad med starkt säljtryck och dålig likviditet.
Tvååriga grekiska statspappersräntor steg drygt 40 punkter på förmiddagen på uppgifter om att Grekland vill omförhandla villkoren i stödmekanismen med EU och IMF. Under eftermiddagen har ränteuppgången förstärkts kraftigt och räntan noteras nu omkring 132 punkter högre, medan den tyska tvåårsräntan endast noteras 2 punkter högre än på torsdagen.
DI/Direkt 2010-04-06 15:39

I am willing to risk two predictions.
The first is that Greece will not default this year.
The second is that Greece will default.

Wolfgang Münchau, FT April 4 2010

Last Monday, when Athens tried to sell 5bn euros' of bonds, it was forced to offer an interest rate barely changed from the previous week. It's still costing Greece twice as much to borrow as it does Germany.
For a country that is meant to have the financial backing of the most powerful economies in Europe and the IMF, this is hardly encouraging.
So now the nub of the problem is that every cent of savings that is squeezed out of the hapless Greek public sector will have to be spent paying this level of interest.
BBC World News business presenter Jamie Robertson, 5 April 2010

Reinfeldt gör sig dummare än vad han är om EMU
Rolf Englund blog 2010-04-04

Värstascenariot för euron
Hur illa kan det gå för euron sedan Grekland avslöjats som bankrutt och Spanien, Portugal och Irland också riskerar att tappa fotfästet.
Vilket blir första land att lämna euron den dag det blir möjligt?
Godmorgon Världen Lördag 03 april 2010

Southern Europe's problem is essentially a competitiveness problem, and not a fiscal one,
and if many states have been having growing difficulty with their negative fiscal balances, this is a symptom of the problem, and not its cause.
Even in the worst of cases - countries like Greece and Portugal - the rising recourse to fiscal outlays has been a response to lack of "healthy" growth, and the root cause of this continuing difficulty in generating real growth has been the underlying lack of competitiveness, and the inability to export your way out of trouble once the burden of debt starts to rise,
so simply pruning the fiscal side isn't going to cure the problem, and by now that simple point should be obvious, I would have thought.
Edward Hugh, Spain Economy Watch March 24, 2010

Finanskrisens härjningar. Kronans svängningar. Greklands ekonomiska kaos.
Plötsligt har euron blivit het inför valet.
Sydsvenskan har talat med alla de fyra borgerliga partiledarna.
De är djupt oeniga i fråga om folkomröstning.
Fredrik Reinfeldt anger två villkor för att han ska lova en folkomröstning.
Sydsvenskan 3 april 2010

I am aware of the commitment of Europe’s elite to the success of the European project.
But the crisis is profound – for the eurozone, the European Union and the world.
As Wolfgang Münchau has pointed out, last week’s European Council was not a solution but a fudge.
Martin Wolf FT March 30 2010

The IMF should impose default on Greece to end the charade
I just had lunch with Carmen Reinhart, author of `This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” and a world authority on sovereign defaults.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics April 2nd, 2010

The Greek crisis and the future of the Eurozone
The structural problem in the Eurozone is created by the fact that the monetary union is not embedded in a political union.
Paul De Grauwe Eurointelligence 11.03.2010

Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government must raise about 53 billion euros this year,
15.5 billion euros of it by the end of May.
Bloomberg March 29 2010

The euro’s big fat failed wedding
The European Union was banking on three forms of convergence: economic, political and popular.
Gideon Rachman March 29 2010

Ireland will begin operating a new “bad bank” to house
€81bn in bad property loans left over from the financial crisis
and set out new capital requirements that are expected to see the further nationalisation of its banking sector.
FT, March 29 2010

Greece Borrows After EU Deal
The bond looked set to be priced at around 6.0 percent
more than twice what Germany pays
CNBC 29 Mar 2010

The two biggest Irish banks, Allied Irish and Bank of Ireland tumbled Monday
Analysts expect the government to direct them to raise new capital to absorb
massive losses on bubble-era loans to real estate developers.
CNN March 29, 2010

The aspect that puzzled me most was the announcement that a rescue would come in the form of a loan at market interest rates.
This surely must imply that the market would not be willing to lend money to Greece at market interest rates.
That is an absurd proposition.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT March 28 2010

For Greece to ‘leave the Euro’ involves the launch of a new curreny.
From scratch. People talk as if the drachma lives on
The Eurozone is not a fixed-exchange rate system, it’s a common currency area.
The drachma has been abolished. This parrot is deceased.
The Irish Economy March 27th, 2010

It was the morning after the night before and I was riding an elevator to the 13th floor in the European Commission.
Two men smiled at each other and one said "I hear Greece has been saved". "Couldn't be better," beamed the other, before disappearing into the vastness of bureaucracy. It felt like news shared from a distant front: "Bastogne has been relieved" or "Malta is holding out".
Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's Europe editor blog 26 March 2010

Fatherland
Det är 1964. USA var inte med i andra världskriget. Hitler överlevde och ska träffa Kennedy.
Spännande "tänk om"-scenario. Rutger Hauser är SS-officer och det tyska Europariket Germania ser ut som en EU-karta
TV 8 SvD Kultur sidan 54, 28 mars 2010

Med Björn von der Esch har svensk konservatism förlorat en färgstark förgrundgestalt
En rakryggad gentleman i politiken har gått ur tiden.
Erik Fichtelius, Fokus 26 mars 2010

I Sverige driver Folkpartiet frågan om det inte vore dags med en folkomröstning om euron under kommande mandatperiod.
år 2013 har det gått 10 år sedan Sverige röstade nej till euron, och någon gång är det förstås klart att frågan bör bli aktuell igen. På lång sikt är det rimligt att Sverige går med i eurozonen.
Men det lär inte bli nu.
SvD-ledare 27 mars 2010

Tänk om Svenska Dagbladet hade vågat, om man nu vill det, skriva att det bör inte vara dags med en folkomröstning om euron under kommande mandatperiod.
Rolf Englund blog 27 mars 2010

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And in Athens in the meantime, they are burning the flags of Europe.
Weidenfeld: Clearly that is not a good thing.
But in this you can also see the meaningful role that Europe now plays.

The monetary union is neither a political nor a fiscal union.
The stability pact calls for each country to cope with its own budget problems.
Neglecting this principle would be dangerous for the acceptance of the European monetary union, especially in Germany.
Thomas Mayer, chief economist for Deutsche Bank, Spiegel Online 25/3 2010

In a landmark judgment in 1993, the constitutional court ruled that, once it came into force, monetary union had continuously to satisfy the full conditions of the “stabilisation treaty”
concluded when the single currency was agreed.
If it did not, the court ruled, Germany would be obliged to leave.
The four professors who took the German government to the German constitutional court in 1998 over Germany’s entry into the euro. Wilhelm Hankel, Wilhelm Nölling, Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider and Joachim Starbatty, FT, March 25 2010

I överenskommelsen som snickrats ihop av Frankrike och Tyskland ingår också att euroländerna vill stärka koordineringen av den ekonomiska politiken
I den franska översättningen står också att stats- och regeringscheferna i sitt Europeiska råd ska vara en ekonomisk regering för EU.
Ljuva ord för en fransman, men väl magstarkt för många medlemsstater och texten har därför mildrats i den engelska versionen.
SvD/Utrikes 26 mars 2010

The accord masks a bitter struggle between Germany and a French-led bloc over the future shape of Europe.
For all the rhetoric, Berlin has refused to cross the Rubicon towards an EU fiscal union, shattering long-held assumptions about the inevitable march of the EU project.
By bringing in the IMF, it ensures that each sovereign state remains responsible for its own debts.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 25 March 2010

Grekland, EMU, bruset och tystnaden
Rolf Englund blog 28/3 2010

France and Germany agreed to bring in the International Monetary Fund to help aid debt-stricken Greece in the face of opposition from the European Central Bank.
Bloomberg March 25 2010

German taxpayers are fiercely opposed to bailing out Greece, which is burdened by debt of nearly 300bn euros
and a public deficit of 12.7% of GDP - more than four times the official eurozone limit.
It is also having to refinance its debt. Because of doubts over its ability to pay, it is having to pay interest at about 6% - around double what Germany has to pay.
BBC 25/3 2010

Germany should boost domestic demand and wages to ease the lopsided euro-region trade flows
that restrict growth in economies from Greece to Portugal, Bank of England policy maker Adam Posen said.
Bloomberg March 25 2010

– Som tysk kansler bär jag ett stort ansvar. Tyska folket litade på att de skulle få en stabil euro när de gav upp d-marken.
Det förtroendet får inte svikas, sa Angela Merkel inför de tyska parlamentarikerna.
Ekot 25 mars 2010

Nästa krishärd Bulgarien
som knutit sin valuta mot euron och därför ser ut att drabbas av samma problem som euroländerna kring Medelhavet.
ekonomism.us 24/3 2010

På torsdag och fredag möts EU:s stats- och regeringschefer i Bryssel för sitt ordinarie vårtoppmöte.
Frankrike och Spanien har krävt ett extra toppmöte /om Grekland/ för de 16 euroländernas ledare just innan det ordinarie toppmötet startar för att lösa frågan.
Problemet är att euroländerna inte är överens. Därför är det troligt att Van Rompuy inte kallar till ett extra möte om länderna inte först har enats om en överenskommelse.
DN/TT 2010-03-24

Diskussionen om Grekland handlar inte bara om pengar, utan ytterst om fördjupat samarbete.
Euroländerna har i dag gemensam valuta, gemensam penningpolitik och gemensam centralbank. Men varje land sköter själv sina statsfinanser och sin ekonomiska politik. Greklands kris visar på riskerna med det
Men om euroländerna ska ge stöd åt den medlem som råkat i knipa kommer det oundvikligen att följas av krav på inflytande över medlemsländernas ekonomiska politik och budgetar.
Henrik Brors, DN 25/3 2010

Opinion polls suggest Angel Merkel’s coalition will lose control of the German Senate in regional elections on May 9.
No wonder she wants to fire a populist shot at voters. But in refusing to underwrite a few billion euros of Greek debt the Chancellor is playing with fire.
Simon Hobbs, CNBC 23 Mar 2010

Turerna för att få till stånd en nödvändig räddningsplan för Grekland och andra allt mer nödställda euroländer börjar likna en bisarr politisk musikteater av sällan skådat slag.
Kanske kan de eurokramande folkpartisterna med vår kommissionär Cecilia Malmström i spetsen istället satsa på att få in en fot genom att satsa på några lämpliga dansnummer.
SvD/24 Per Lindvall 2010-03-25

GAME, SET AND MATCH FOR MERKEL – GREECE WILL HAVE TO GO TO THE IMF
Germany has laid down three conditions for an agreement: an immediately pending catastrophe, involvement of the IMF, and treaty changes to harden the stability pact (or rather a commitment to accept those changes).
Eurointelligence 24/3 2010

Det riktigt stora potentiella bekymret är Spanien.
Spaniens externa nettoskuld är fem gånger så stor som Greklands.
Det skriver Per Lindvall på e24.se i en utmärkt artikel.
Rolf Englund blog 24/3 2010

Hans-Werner Sinn's remarks are apparently listened to as closely as are the Federal Reserve Chairman's remarks in the US. He said:
The Greek drama will have a 'frightful' ('schreklich') ending no matter which course of action is taken.
The objective is to avoid having a Greek default trigger another banking crisis across the EU.
John Mauldin 22/3 2010

The sad reality is that Greece's domestic and external imbalances have reached such a dimension that their correction within the straightjacket of Eurozone membership will necessarily involve many years of painful deflation and of deep economic recession.
Desmond Lachman, /Timbros storasyster/ American Enterprise Institute, March 16, 2010

En viktig slutsats är emellertid att valutaunionen har skapat en mycket stor del av de ekonomiska balansproblem som framför allt de sydeuropeiska länderna står inför.
En annan viktig slutsats är att det är mycket svårt att ta sig ur problemen när man sitter fast i en valutaunion.
Resultatet kan bli en gastkramning av ekonomierna och hela samhällssystemet.
Nils Lundgren Europaportalen 15/3 2010

Utvecklingen har givit oss kritiker av valutaunionsprojektet rätt.
En valutaunion förutsätter en politisk union.
Det krävs att medlemsländerna ger upp inte bara möjligheten att driva en självständig penningpolitik utan även möjligheten att driva en självständig finanspolitik.
Medlemsstaterna blir delstater med mycket begränsat och ständigt krympande självstyre.
Nils Lundgren Europaportalen 15/3 2010

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told investors they shouldn’t expect this week’s European Union summit to agree on assistance for Greece
Greek 10-year bonds fell to their lowest since Feb. 25, with yields rising by 16 basis points to 6.51 percent,
The risk premium investors demand to hold Greek securities over comparable German bonds widened for a third day by 18 basis points to 342 basis points. (3,41 procent)
Bloomberg, March 22, 2010

Once again, Latvia finds itself in crisis mode, after the country’s governing coalition collapsed on March 17.
With the October 2010 parliamentary elections fast-approaching, the People’s Party — the biggest party in the governing coalition — withdrew to distance itself from the government’s unpopular austerity measures.
RGE Roubini 21/3 2010

The beginning of the end of Europe’s economic and monetary union as we know it.
This is the true historical significance of Ms Merkel’s decision.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT March 21 2010 19:35

The fundamental problem with the euro project was overambition.
The difficulties of monetary union without political union were much discussed in the 1990s, and then simply ignored, except in Britain and Scandinavia.
The risk of a single currency was probably manageable with a small group of countries that had a decent chance of remaining competitive with Germany. Bringing in all of southern Europe dramatically raised the stakes.
Martin Taylor, FT March 21 2010

The FT has commissioned an opinion poll from Harris, according to which a majority Germans oppose aid to Greece, want Greece to leave the euro area,
and believe that Germany would be better off with the D-Mark.
Eurointelligence 22/3 2010

On Sunday, Merkel gave a tough radio interview in which she made clear that Greece was not on the agenda of this week’s EU summit
Eurointelligence 22/3 2010

Across Europe, from profligate Greece to newly strait-laced Ireland, countries are promising deep, painful cuts in public spending even as they face the likelihood of a new recession.
But some argue that Berlin is pressing too hard, and that the region’s new fixation on debt has created a “cult of austerity” that could make it harder to recover from the slump.
New York Times 17/3 2010

"economically absurd", "economically erroneous and politically dangerous", "a scandal", "insane"
Europe’s monetary union is in a deep crisis.
In the context of Greece’s debt concerns and emerging problems in other countries, huge current account imbalances have been identified as a major threat.
But since the adoption of a single currency, devaluation is no longer available to correct an unsustainable current account deficit.
Otmar Issing, FT March 18 2010

The Future of the Euro
Moment of Truth for Europe's Common Currency
Part 2: Is Europe Laying the Foundation for a Common EU Economic Government?
Der Spiegel Online 19/3 2010

Chancellor Angela Merkel has halted at the Rubicon.
Has Germany just killed the dream of a European superstate?
So after weeks of Euro-bluff it looks ever more like an IMF rescue for Greece after all, and hence for any other eurozone nation driven to ruin by the wrong monetary policy.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 21 March 2010
Very Important Article

Björn von der Esch är död

Minnesord över Björn von der Esch
av Margit Gennser

Greece, the euro, and the Battle of Jutland
A Gefechtskehrtwendunga 180-degree turn that saves you
Mr Juncker, the Commission’s Jose Barroso, and their allies, have been trying to exploit the crisis to advance the EU Project, pushing the boat stealthily across the Rubicon towards fiscal federalism and a de facto debt union.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 18/3 2010

Latvia is going through a version of this IMF-pain-without-an-IMF-cure treatment, it its case to defend its euro-peg. The IMF expects the result to be a 30pc contraction of GDP from peak to trough, just about a world record. Not surprisingly, the ruling coalition disintegrated yesterday, unable to agree on how to implement this euphemistically named “internal devalulation”.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 18/3 2010

– Valutaområdet är inte optimalt. Det tycks vara för stort och det är för stora skillnader mellan länderna
En harmonisering av EMU:s arbetsmarknad kräver att man gör socialförsäkringssystem och skattesystem mer likartade. Men det är svårt eftersom skillnaderna i Europa är så stora
Klas Eklund, SvD/E24 2010-03-17

Klas Eklund, kunnig och trendkänslig, verkar byta fot om EMU
Rolf Englund blog 18/3 2010

This is a extraordinary story.
Here was the European Council making a political declaration that they would be ready to stand by Greece, and now Germany wants Greece to turn to the IMF for aid.
Eurointelligence 18/3 2010

Många av mina bästa vänner är Ja-sägare
Häromdagen skrev jag här att det skall bli spännande att se vad EMU-ländernas finansministrar kommer fram till. Inte bara spännande, ganska lustigt också, faktiskt.
Det lustiga har redan börjat
Rolf Englund blog 18/3 2010

I’ve always been a mild euroskeptic —
I’m one of the American economists that Jonung and Drea, in a spectacularly ill-timed piece, mock for their doubts about EMU.
Paul Krugman NYT February 15, 2010

We need an agreement that as an ultima ratio it's possible to exclude a country from the euro zone if again and again it doesn't fulfill the requirements,"
Ms. Merkel said in an address to Germany's lower house of parliament.
WSJ March 17, 2010

“The idea that Greece can go from a 12 percent deficit now to a 3 percent deficit two years from now seems fantasy,”
“The alternatives are to default in some way or to leave, or both.”
Martin Feldstein, an adviser to U.S. presidents since Ronald Reagan,
Bloomberg 17/3 2010

Lars Jonung, an adviser to the European Commission in Brussels
and co-author of a January paper on how American economists viewed the euro through the 1990s,
says Feldstein is a “consistent pessimist, and so far he’s been proved wrong.”
Bloomberg 17/3 2010

Does nobody read German any more?
As of today, German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble has not yet agreed to anything beyond a last resort rescue “if insolvency were imminent” and if there were to be a threat to the “financial stability of the euro area as a whole”.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard March 16th, 2010
Very Important Article

In my view, the House of Lords should strike down any EU law that breaches our constitutional tradition (Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, etc) and damn the torpedoes.
God bless the Germans
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard March 16th, 2010
Very Important Article

Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain will cut the demand
So, unless as-yet-unspotted foreign cavalry ride to Europe’s rescue by buying up the continent’s products, aggregate demand will fall.
Less competitive Eurozone countries will be forced to deflate and shrink their economies to match Europe’s diminished and diminishing circumstances.
FT Editorial March 15 2010

Finansminister Anders Borg har flera gånger tagit halvt avstånd från tanken att svenska skattebetalare skulle bidra till en lösning av eurons kris. Det skedde senast i tisdags morse i en intervju i P1-morgon i Sveriges Radio.
Men valutasamarbetet är en viktig, ja helt central del av EU.
DN huvudledare 17/3 2010

Thomas Mayer, economist at Deutsche Bank, said the latest Greek austerity measures could cause the economy to shrink by 4 per cent this year, making the government’s task even more formidable.
“The adjustment remains a Herculean task, and the costs of the adjustment in terms of lost output could be larger than policymakers currently anticipate,” Mr Mayer said.
FT March 15 2010

Grekland och spekulanterna och rådvilla EMU-ministrar
Tänk Dig att Du vore ansvarig för en obligationsfond som skall placera en miljard i statspapper i valutan Euro. Tänk Dig vidare att Du gick in till Din chef och sade att Du hade plancerat miljarden i grekiska statspapper.
Rolf Englund blog 15/3 2010

Olli Rehn /European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs/ is quoted with the dramatic statement that a failure of Greece is a failure of the EU.
"If Greece fails and we fail, this will do serious and maybe permanent damage to the credibility of the European Union... The euro is not only a monetary arrangement but a core political project of the European Union."
Eurointelligence 15.03.2010

If life in the eurozone becomes intolerable, exit will become the default resolution mechanism.
And when you include the legal possibility of an exit, the whole political and economic dynamic changes,

and the threat of an exit might turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This does not apply only to Greece, but to a number of countries that have lost competitiveness to Germany.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT March 14 2010

Eurons framtid avgörs i Grekland
Ekonomiekot Lördag 27 februari 2010

Olle Wästberg, fd Generalkonsul
Om Sveriges svaga och Spaniens starka valuta
Rolf Englund blog 14/3 2010

Den kanske viktigaste opinionsbildaren i modern tid för ett friare Sverige fyller 80 år på torsdag:
Sture Eskilsson.
Dick Erixon 13 mars 2010

Många hade hoppats att EU-medlemskapet 1981 skulle kickstarta en modernisering av den grekiska ekonomin.
I stället blev det ett hejdundrande party när miljarder pumpades in i Grekland och tillät politikerna att ignorera landets strukturproblem.
Festen fortsatte när euron infördes. Grekland fick en räntenivå som var på tok för låg, satt av Europeiska centralbanken med de starka tyska och franska ekonomierna som riktsnöre.
SvD/E24, reporter Tomas Lundin, 14/3 2010

242 miljarder kronor
De 16 euroländerna har enats om att stötta Grekland med ett nödlån på 25 miljarder euro.
De tekniska detaljerna för ett stöd till Grekland är inte helt klara.
Ekot 13 mars 2010

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said no such plan would emerge if Greece doesn't default on its debt.
"There is no such thing as a bailout plan which would have been approved, agreed or otherwise, because there is no need for such a thing,"
WSJ MARCH 13, 2010

“Should a eurozone member ultimately find itself unable to consolidate its budgets or restore its competitiveness, this country should, as a last resort, exit the monetary union while being able to remain a member of the EU.”
Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, FT March 11 2010 19:15

There are some people who might feel that their scepticism towards the euro has been vindicated.
Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, FT March 11 2010 19:15

Greklands ekonomiska problem tvingar EU att ta ett nytt steg ut i det okända.
Vi sitter alla på första parkett och betraktar hur historien vrider sig, ännu ett stycke.
Unionen är en ofullbordad och därmed känslig konstruktion. Det verkar just nu inte särskilt troligt – men kanske hejdar sig unionen i steget och börjar tveka. Då kan det oavslutade bygget i stället börja krackelera.
Annika Ström Melin, Signerat, DN 12/3 2010

Det är inte oundvikligt
Rolf Englund i EU-krönika i Nya Wermlands-Tidningen 2001-09-18
Ett stort tack till familjen Ander som på 1970-talet lät mig skriva ett oräkneligt antal ledare i NWT om löntagarfonderna och som lät mig skriva många förgripliga artiklar om EU och EMU i början av 2000-talet.

Gemensam finanspolitik inom eurozonen kräver att hela EU går i riktning mot att bli en federation, vilket inte är någon önskvärd, om ens farbar, väg.
Skillnaderna mellan EU-länderna är för påtagliga för att de skall kunna styras enligt en politisk agenda.
Men en europeisk valutafond borde kunna hålla EU och euron på det rätta ekonomiska spåret.
Sydsvenskan, ledare med rubriken Eurons sak är vår", 9/3 2010

Sydsvenskan vrider sig som en mask på EMU-kroken
Rolf Englund blog 11/3 2010

SvD tiger medan Joscha Fischer kräver franskt-tysk ledarskap
Kanske P J Anders Linder grubblar över om han skall våga återföra SvD till den euroskeptiska linje som drevs under Svegfors tid
Rolf Englund blog 10/3 2010

För EU är EMF bättre än IMF. Om detta är nu Frankrike och Tyskland överens.
Och det är välkommet att EU tar ett betydligt större ansvar för sina medlemsländers statsfinanser,
i stället för att ringa nödnumret till IMF, Internationella valutafonden i Washington.
Expressenledare, signerad Eric Erfors, 10 mars 2010

The Eurozone's 'Bay of PIIGS'
The PIIGS group clearly poses a systemic risk for the EZ
Roubini Global Economics 2010-03-09

Ever since the federal republic was founded, Germany has had two over-riding strategic objectives: sound money and European integration. These were the twin imperatives learned from the calamities of the early 20th century.
The euro embodies these aims. Now they conflict with each other.
Martin Wolf FT March 9 2010

SORRY, NO EMF – CAN’T BE DONE
Der Chefvolkswirt der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB), Jürgen Stark
wrote in Handelsblatt that an EMF violated the existing treaties
Eurointelligence 9.03.2010

"Nu behövs ett statsmannalikt ledarskap... Europas ledare, först och främst Tyskland och Frankrike"
Ska vi rycka ut för de sydeuropeiska länderna
eller ge upp och låta euron dö?
Den frågan klargör vad hela krisen handlar om: det europeiska projektets framtid.
Joschka Fischer, kolumn DN 10/3 2010

Merkel about EMF
A full-scale negotiation of the EU’s 27 member states would be needed to set up a European Monetary Fund, which would be able to bail out eurozone members subject to strict budgetary conditions.
“Without treaty change we cannot found such a fund,” Ms Merkel told foreign correspondents in Berlin on Monday.
FT March 8 2010

Samtidigt som fokus ligger på ett krisande Grekland har oron för en rad grannländer - de så kallade PIIGS-länderna - ökat.
Spanien, Irland, Italien, Grekland och Spanien som åtminstone har ett gemensamt – de kommer att få svårt att exportera sig ur den kris de hamnat i.
Spanien och Irland har haft en kredittillväxt och en byggbom som gick alldeles för långt, säger professor Lars Calmfors.
SvD/e24, 2010-03-09, reporter Annelie östlund

Wolodarski och räntorna i England och Euroland
- Euroskeptikerna lägger alldeles för stor vikt vid vad en centralbank kan åstadkomma genom att laborera med sin ränta. Se bara på Storbritannien som står utanför EMU, skrev Peter Wolodarski i ett inlägg som jag kommenterade tidigare i dag.
Men Bank of England har hållit räntan högre än ECB under flera år.
Rolf Englund blog 2010-03-08

Wolodarski, 1982 och EMU
Rolf Englund blog 2010-03-08

German constitutional law imposes such tight constraints that any dilution of the no bail-out clause in the Maastricht treaty or the price stability target of the ECB might trigger a forced German exit.
The most one can hope for during the next 10 years is improved voluntary co-ordination in the European Council.
Germany has unilaterally prescribed itself a deficit-to-GDP ceiling of 0.35 per cent from 2016.
Wolfgang Münchau March 7 2010

Greece last week solved its fiscal problem by creating a private sector problem of identical size.
The Greek state – the sum of its public and private sectors – is just as bankrupt today as it was a week ago
Wolfgang Münchau March 7 2010

- EU måste ha förmåga att assistera ett medlemsland i nöd. Det är inte konstigare än att en nationalstat hjälper en kommun eller region i svårigheter, ibland genom tvångsförvaltning, skrev DNs politiske chefredaktör Peter Wolodarski 2010-03-07.
Klarare än så går det inte att uttrycka en federalistisk grundinställning.
Rolf Englund blog 2010-03-08

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is confident the /Euro/currency will survive
“I’m still a believer in the euro,” Volcker said in an interview in Berlin March 6.
The lack of a unified government to back up the European Central Bank is a “structural crack” and “maybe fortunately it’s tested with a country as small as Greece, which doesn’t present an insuperable financing problem.”
Bloomberg March 8 2010

I dag tiger DN, SvD och Expressen om Grekland och EMU
Rolf Englund 6/3 2010

Den nuvarande krisen är ingen eurokris utan en kris för länder som misskött sina ekonomier. ändå debatteras EU:s skuld i det grekiska dramat.
Om Grekland bara hade stått utanför den gemensamma valutan euron och behållit drakman hade krisen varit lindrigare, får vi höra.
Ett annat tema i ”skyll-krisen-på-euron”-debatten har handlat om makten över räntepolitiken.
Peter Wolodarski, DN Krönika 2010-03-07

Spanien är ett skolexempel på att Margaret Thatchers ekonomiska rådgivare, Alan Walters, hade rätt i sin kritik mot EMU
”Spanien hade inte hamnat i det här läget om landet inte hade varit med i EMU.”
, menar professor Lars Calmfors SvD/E24 2010-03-03
reporter Annelie östlund

Det är intressant att läsa att en svensk nationalekonomisk auktoritet som Lars Calmfors påtalar det uppenbara
att det är de nu blottlagda bristerna i EMU- och europrojektet som är orsaken till de gigantiska bekymmer som den absolut största av de sydeuropeiska problemhärdarna, Spanien, har att hantera.
Per Lindvall, SvD/E24 2010-03-03

Greece desperately needs €20 billion ($27 billion) in the next two months to roll over expiring debt.
“We want to be able to borrow at the same rates as other euro-zone countries,” Mr Papandreou said, perhaps optimistically.
On the other hand, as he has also pointed out, Greece cannot afford to go on borrowing indefinitely at 350 basis points over Germany.
The gains from austerity measures could be swallowed up by such a high debt premium.
The Economist print Mar 4th 2010

Athens sold €5bn in 10-year bonds and received orders for three times that amount.
However, the interest rate the country has been forced to pay to attract investors is 6.25%, 2 pp more than Portugal
Eurointelligence 5/3 2010

Våra vägar kom att korsas, bland annat under det av partiet anordnade s k "uppfostringsseminarier" där ledande moderater skulle argumentera för de fritänkande stundenterna och överliggarna så att det inte kom någon marknadsliberal kritik mot den gemensamma valutan
om Lars Tobissons memoarer
Patrik Strömer, fd viceordförande Fria Moderata Studentförbundet, Svensk Linje nr 4/2009

Debatt i Agenda mellan Jan Björklund och Lars Ohly
28/2 2010

Miguel Angel Fernández Ordóñez, governor of the Bank of Spain:
“Unfortunately,” he told a conference last week, “we find ourselves at a historic moment.”
Victor Mallet, FT February 28 2010

Victor Mallet
Born on May 14, 1960, he went to school in England and earned a degree in English language and literature from Oxford University. He is married, with two children.
Victor Mallet also writes a regular column on sailing and yachting in the Weekend FT.

50 procent av de tillfrågade skulle rösta nej till ett svenskt medlemskap i EMU om det var omröstning i dag.
39 procent vill ha euron som ny valuta medan
11 procent är tveksamma.
Det visar en Sifo-undersökning som Agenda har låtit göra.
Rapport 28/2 2010

So we now know the trick.
France and Germany’s contingency plan to bail out Greece would use their state-owned banks, CDC and KfW respectively
An interesting question now is the legal consequence of this shrewd plan.
Charles Wyplosz, FT February 22 2010

Despite a fall in GDP last year of 17.5%,
Latvia seems to have achieved something many thought impossible: an internal devaluation.
This meant regaining competitiveness not by currency depreciation but by deep cuts in wages and public spending.
Jörg Asmussen, a German minister, praised Latvia for its self-discipline.
The Economist print Feb 25th 2010

Om Grekland hade haft kvar sin valuta
Rolf Englund blog 27/2 2010

ECB considers this number far too “sensitive” to release
At present it is estimated that Greek banks hold up to €37bn of the outstanding €270bn-odd stock of Greek government bonds and bills. German banks, such as the Landesbank, are thought to hold a slightly lower amount, while French banks also have a significant chunk of Greek bonds.
It is a fair guess that many, if not most, of those bonds are now with the ECB. After all, what the ECB’s repo operations essentially do is let banks turn a risky asset (ie Greek bond) into something safer (euros).
Gillian Tett February 25 2010

Millions of migrants have arrived in Greece, Italy and Spain over the past decade.
To avoid serious social problems, those countries need to do a better job of making them feel welcome
Time Magazine March 1st 2010

Grekland, EMU, Tyskland och Freden
Rolf Englund blog 23/2 2010

Grekland
One banker said the situation was surreal.
"How can they call the Germans incompetent Nazis and still expect a bail-out?"

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 24 Feb 2010

EU, EMU, Marx och Den Enda Vägen
Rolf Englund blog 23/2 2010

Grekland skyller krisen på nazismen
Greklands vice premiärminister Theodoros Pangalos kritiserade Tysklands hållning till den grekiska krisen och påpekade att hans land aldrig har fått någon ersättning för de ekonomiska följderna av den nazityska ockupationen under andra världskriget.
DI/TT 2010-02-24

EMU skapar social och demokratisk kris
Krisen är djup i Spanien, bruttonationalprodukten sjunker med 3,5 procent. Arbetslösheten är tvåsiffrig
Olle Svenning, Aftonbladet, 21/3 2010

If the purpose of the euro was to bind Europe's tribes together and serve as catalyst for political union,
EU elites must have been chastened by the outpouring of anti-German feeling in the Greek parliament last week.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 21 Feb 2010

Det krävs givetvis en annan penningpolitik i Holland med 3,6 procent arbetslösa än i Spanien, där arbetslösheten i år rusar upp mot 20 procent.
Men EMU-samarbetet tillåter inte det, när räntevapnet har vridits ur händerna på de enskilda länderna.
Värmlands Folkblad 2010-02-17

The euro was meant to be a monetary union but not a political one.
The construction is patently flawed. A fully fledged currency requires both a central bank and a Treasury.
The Treasury need not be used to tax citizens on an everyday basis but it needs to be available in times of crisis. When the financial system is in danger of collapsing, the central bank can provide liquidity, but only a Treasury can deal with problems of solvency. This is a well-known fact that should have been clear to everyone involved in the creation of the euro.
George Soros FT February 21 2010

Det som nu händer är precis det som kritikerna, bland annat nobelpristagaren Paul Krugman och andra, varnade för inför bildandet.
Systemet har mycket svårt att hantera så kallade ”assymetriska chocker” där ett lands konkurrenskraft och betalningsförmåga plötsligt urholkas av någon exogen händelse.
Per Lindvall, SvD/E24, 2010-02-11

Vad var det vi sa! Eurons motståndare firar nu julafton med Grekland, Sydeuropa och Irland som exempel på hur illa det går när nationella valutor slås samman.
I någon mån har kritikerna fått rätt. Irlands ekonomiska kris beror delvis på att landet utnyttjade låga euroräntor mitt i en glödhet högkonjunktur
Nu stärks och fördjupas eurosamarbetet. Därmed blir det också allt mera orimligt att Sverige står utanför.
Göteborgs-Posten 21/2 2010

Portugal, Italien, Grekland och Spanien.
Det är nog ganska klokt att stanna utanför eurozonen i ytterligare ett antal år.
Per T Ohlsson, Sydsvenskan 14/2 2010

På sikt tycker han att Sverige ändå bör införa euron som valuta
– Jag tycker att vi på sikt bör göra det, av politiska skäl.
Jag har varit väldigt tydlig med att jag inte tycker att det här primärt är en ekonomisk fråga.

Anders Borg, Ekot 20 februari 2010

Italy, saddled with the euro region’s second-largest debt, is the “biggest threat” to the economy of the 16-member bloc, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Mundell.
Bloomberg Feb. 17 2010

De som sade nej för att de är emot ökad överstatlighet blir än mer övertygade om att de har rätt.
Den svenska euro-debatten kommer att polariseras.
Klas Eklund February 14th, 2010

är Du federalist, Peter Wolodarski?
Rolf Englund blog 18/2 2010

Less than a year before the euro became the currency of 11 European countries in January 1999, a declaration signed by 155 German-speaking economists called for an “orderly”— ie, long — delay.
The prospective euro members, they said, had not yet reduced their debt and deficits to suit a workable monetary union;
some were using “creative accounting” to get there, and a casual attitude towards deficits would undermine confidence in the euro’s stability.
The Economist print Feb 18th 2010

Många euromoståndare i Sverige varnade för den politiska union som Issing förespråkade.
Statsminister Göran Perssons utdragna eurovånda handlade också om valutunionens konstruktion.
Går det att ha gemensam valuta utan att också ha gemensam ekonomisk politik?
Den frågan vände och vred Persson på under flera års tid.
Det borde vid det här laget vara klart att svaret är nej.

Annika Ström Melin, Signerat DN 2010-02-17

Annika Ström Melin, vårt lands mest kunniga journalist i detta ämne, ställer EMU-frågan på sin spets.
Rolf Englund blog 18/2 2010

Let Greece take a eurozone ‘holiday’
Martin Feldstein FT February 16 2010

The late Eddie George /The former governor of the Bank of England/ once remarked to me that the euro project, which was launched in 1999, came 10 years too early. He was wrong.
It was 20 or 30 years too early or perhaps should not have been launched at all.
Samuel Brittan, FT February 18 2010

The real story behind the euromess lies not in the profligacy of politicians but in the arrogance of elites — specifically, the policy elites who pushed Europe into adopting a single currency well before the continent was ready for such an experiment.
None of this should come as a big surprise. Long before the euro came into being, economists warned that Europe wasn’t ready for a single currency. But these warnings were ignored, and the crisis came.
Paul Krugman, February 14, 2010

Was the real mistake creating the euro in the first place? Since I was one of the few Americans to advocate a single European currency, you would be justified in asking: Am I having second thoughts?
My answer is no, creating the euro was not a mistake, but it could still be a mistake in the making.
The Greek crisis shows that Europe is still only halfway toward creating a viable monetary union. If it stays put, the next crisis will make this one look like a walk in the park.
Barry Eichengreen, 2010-02-15

It seems that quite a number of observers have forgotten what Emu is, and what it is not.
Financial aid from other EU countries or institutions that amounted, directly or indirectly, to a bail-out would violate EU treaties and undermine the foundations of Emu.
Such principles do not allow for compromise.
Once Greece was helped, the dam would be broken. A bail-out for the country that broke the rules would make it impossible to deny aid to others.
Otmar Issing, February 15 2010

This moment is a turning point for Emu, and for the future of Europe.
Otmar Issing, February 15 2010

Is this funny, or not?
Herman Van Rompuy, non-combatant
Charlemagne, The Economist Feb 15th 2010

Europe's monetary union remains an "experiment" with the outcome "likely to remain uncertain for a considerable time to come"
Otmar Issing, Financial Times, April 16 2008

With all the talk about debt crises last weeek, it is easy to forget that there is a real economic crisis afflicting Europe as well.
The fact that little Ireland is having to cut expenditure and raise taxes at a time like this will further worsen our own economic problems, but is of no broader consequence.
How many Irish people have even noticed what is happening in Latvia?
Kevin O’Rourke, The Irish Economy 14/2 2010

årets upplaga av boken Europaperspektiv handlar om hur EU har hanterat den globala krisen
En av författarna som stack ut i panelen var docenten i ekonomisk historia vid Lunds Universitet,
Jonas Ljungberg som pratade om de kontroversiella delarna av eurosamarbetet.
- En del länder i Europa har valt att låta låsa sin valuta mot euron
- Det bästa för dem hade varit en flytande växelkurs, likt Sveriges.
Europaportalen 2010-02-04

SvD skriver om EMU och Grekland!
Rolf Englund blog 15/2 2010

DNs trobekännelse till EMU
Rolf Englund blog 15/2 2010

The EU has issued a political pledge to rescue Greece – and by precedent, all Club Med – without first securing a mandate from the parliaments of creditor nations.
Europe's leaders still refuse to face the awful truth: that monetary union is unworkable as constructed.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard GMT 14 Feb 2010

The worst that could happen now is a leap into the imaginary world of soft options.
That would be the end of the eurozone.
Wolfgang Münchau February 14 2010

Om Aten inte kan betala sina stora skulder kommer det att påverka andra länder med stora underskott.
På sikt hotas eurosamarbetets stabilitet och trovärdighet.
Eurons tioåriga historia visar att den gemensamma valutan är en stor tillgång för EU.
DN huvudledare 14/2 2010

är krisen ett bevis på att eurons införande – som i den antika grekiska tragedin – drevs av hybris och att det är en ödesbestämd nemesis som är under uppsegling?
Utan euron skulle riskerna för europeiskt valutakaos inte vara mindre utan större
Efter valet kan det vara dags att ånyo ställa frågan om Sverige ska vara med i valutaunionen
SvD-ledare signerad Claes Arvidsson 15/2 2010

Stabilitetspaktens uppgift var att lura tyska folket
Rolf Englund blog 13/2 2010

Why eurofederalists should be delighted with recent events
The extreme deflationary policies now being imposed on the weakest eurozone countries point to frightening implications.
The Greek and other Club Med governments can slash their deficits only at the cost of huge falls in economic activity. Without the possibility of devaluation they cannot hope for big export gains
Anatole Kaletsky, The Times 11/2 2010

Euro Currency Union Showing Strains
Rolf Englund, a Swedish economist who campaigned vigorously against the euro in a 2003 referendum whether to adopt it there, said the current crisis underscored why Swedes resoundingly decided to keep the krona.
''It will crack sooner or later, because it's impossible to have a common currency for such a big, and diverse area,'' he said.
''There's no real EU solution for Greece. They're helpless now, and they have no instruments to fend it off.''
New York Times, Associated Press, February 12, 2010

Hur länge kan SvD tiga om Grekland?
är SvD:s politiske redaktör P J Anders Linder en feg opportunist?
Rolf Englund blog 13/2 2010

Europe stumbles upon closer union
The giant currency union has bound 16 European Union states into a monetary bloc. The member countries, however, remain sovereign states with control over their own taxes and spending.
If it organises a rescue of Greece, the EU will cross a political Rubicon, heading towards a more complete union.
Financial Times editorial, February 12 2010

But even for advocates of closer integration in Europe, this is a mistake. The EU suffers from a lack of popular legitimacy. The manner in which the Lisbon treaty was passed was unedifying, giving the impression that the EU is a stitch-up by a small elite.
If Europe, or just the Eurozone, is to become more deeply joined, it should be a deliberate and honest process, not an accidental and covert one.
Financial Times editorial, February 12 2010

Victims of hubris, the Eurozone's original cheerleaders deserve this current crisis.
For some of us writing at the time of the Eurozone's formation just over a decade ago, the current crisis has been all too predictable.
Other currency unions, we pointed out, had been tried in history and always fallen apart.
Andrew Alexander, Daily Mail 12th February 2010

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung oozed indignation.
“Germany is meant to take responsibility for Greek debts – that’s not how the idea of the euro was sold to the Germans,”
the conservative newspaper noted in reference to the single currency’s founding treaty, which banned bail-outs.
Financial Times February 11 2010

“Countries like Estonia and Latvia were once desperate to get in,”
said Alf Vanags, director of the Baltic International Center for Economic Policy Studies in Riga.
“The euro is not looking so attractive now.”
International Herald Tribune 12/2 2010

Grekland:
Svårt fall av svininfluensa
DN 2010-02-04 Signerat/Annika Ström Melin

Die Griechen und der Euro
Wirtschaftsprofessor Dirk Meyer von der Bundeswehruniversität in Hamburg
„Ein Austritt wäre langfristig besser“
FAZ 12. Februar 2010

Credit Suisse says Greece must raise €30bn (£26bn) in debt by mid-year, mostly in April and May.
Greek banks have been shut out of Europe's inter-dealer markets, forcing them to raise money at killer rates. They are suffering an erosion of deposits as rich Greeks shift money abroad.
This could come to a head long before April.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 11 Feb 2010

Sarkozy, Merkel, Bildt och den politiska viljan
Rolf Englund blog 2010-02-12

Nya EU-kommissionen blev godkänd
Ekot 9 februari 2010

Sveriges nytillträdda EU-kommissionär Cecilia Malmström led i dag sitt första nederlag.
Europaparlamentet röstade med bred majoritet röstade mot ett avtal med USA om överföring av bankuppgifter.
Ekot 11 februari 2010

Mr Van Rompuy, the new President of the European Council:
The 16 eurozone countries "will take determined and coordinated action if needed to safeguard stability in the eurozone as a whole".
BBC 11/2 2010

Sceptical commentators in places such as America and Britain have long underestimated the political will within the euro zone to defend the single currency, which was always as much a political as an economic project.
Both Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel said at the Brussels summit that the current economic crisis had generated support across the EU for much closer co-ordination of economic policies within the union. Both talked about moving towards an “economic government” for Europe.
Charlemagne, The Economist Feb 11th 2010

French banks hold €80bn of Greek debts, twice the exposure of German banks, though Greek debt is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Total exposure to Club O'Med is $853bn for France (30pc of its GDP), and $707bn for Germany (19pc of GDP)
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 10/2 2010

Here, in a chart, is why Britain can’t afford to be complacent about the plight of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.
UK banks are exposed to these countries to the tune of 16 per cent of gross domestic product, according to this chart from Stephen Jen of BlueGold Capital Management
(the figures themselves are Bank for International Settlement numbers).
Edmund Conway February 10th, 2010

Jesper Katz och Johnny Munkhammar:
Ge inget EU-stöd till Grekland
Vanligtvis leder sänkta statliga utgifter till minskad tillväxt tillfälligt, men om det leder till sänkta räntor kan en budgetsanering ge högre tillväxt än vad som annars vore fallet.
Europaportalen 2010-02-04

Because of the way the European Monetary Union was designed,
there is in fact no mechanism for a bail-out of the Greek government
by the European Union, other member states or the European Central Bank (articles 123 and 125 of the Lisbon treaty).
Niall Ferguson, FT February 10 2010

Krugman, Nils Lundgren och Europas Förenta Stater
Rolf Englund blog 2010-02-10

Den ekonomiska krisen har också drabbat Europa, men fundamenten har förbättrats.
Johnny Munkhammar til Riksdagen 2010

Mot Europas Förenta Stater
Spain’s troubles reflect “asymmetric shocks” within the eurozone, which were always known to be a problem
It’s almost like a textbook example. Unfortunately, millions of people are suffering the consequences.
Europe is now stuck with this creation, and needs to move as quickly as possible toward
the kind of fiscal and labor market integration that would make it more workable.
Paul Krugman, New York Times, 9/2 2010

Min slutsats är att EU inte idag, och med största sannolikhet inte på många år, kanske årtionden, kan antas uppfylla rimliga krav på att bli ett välfungerande valutaområde. Och det är också viktigt att begrunda på vilket sätt det då kan komma att fulingera. Om det är genom hög internationell rörlighet för arbetskraften, så måste vi skapa ett Europa där stora grupper måste vara beredda att lämna sitt land för att Europa skall kunna ha en gemensam valuta.

Om det är genom möjlighet till stora transfereringar och kraftfull regionalpolitik, så måste vi skapa ett Europa där stora delar av våra skatter och transfereringar kanaliseras via Bryssel och Strassbourg.
Nils Lundgren den 21 september 1994

How Greece managed to present fraudulent accounts – with the help of Goldman Sachs
Der Spiegel/Eurointelligence 10/2 2010

As I’ve tried to point out in a number of posts, Spain’s troubles are not, despite what you may have read, the result of fiscal irresponsibility.
Instead, they reflect “asymmetric shocks” within the eurozone, which were always known to be a problem, but have turned out to be an even worse problem than the euroskeptics feared.
There’s a kind of classic simplicity about the story — it’s almost like a textbook example. Unfortunately, millions of people are suffering the consequences.
Paul Krugman, New York Times, 9/2 2010

Parkinsons lag och ECBs nya skyskrapa
Rolf Englund blog 9/2 2010

Det borde Peter Wolodarski igen, om det nu är förenligt med hans anställningsavtal.
Rolf Englund blog 9/2 2010

EU:s själva grundidé har därför varit att försöka förena oss européer i en större, fredlig gemenskap som en gång för alla ska förhindra att vi kör vår europeiska historia som repris.
Denna nyskapade gemenskap har fungerat förbluffande väl trots att den bygger på en inneboende motsättning mellan just gemenskap och nationell suveränitet. Men ...
Richard Swartz, Kolumn DN, 2010-02-06

Tio års test av euron visar att domedagsprofetiorna kommit på skam.
Under krisen har euron visat sig vara en trygg hamn för euroländerna, och en tillflyktsort globalt.
Carl B Hamilton blog 8 februari 2010

Greece's drama has already metastasised into a wider systemic crisis.
For the third time in 18 months the global financial system risks spinning out of control
Flow data shows an abrupt withdrawal of German and Asian capital from Club Med debt markets.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 07 Feb 2010

German Foreign Minister calls for European army under the Lisbon Treaty;
"The EU Common Security and Defence Policy project will act as a motor for greater European integration"
Open Europe/Auswärtiges Amt, 8 febr 2010

Spain is an object lesson in the problems of having monetary union without fiscal and labor market integration.
Paul Krugman, New York Times, February 5, 2010

Whether he likes it or not, Jean-Claude Trichet is not just the president of the European Central Bank.
Mr. Trichet, 67, is also the de facto president of Europe,
at least for the 16 nations that rely on the euro as their common currency.
Jack Ewing. The New York Times, 8 February 2010.
VIA - Very Important Article with good links, if I may say so

Such panics are easily triggered and difficult to stop.
Greek 10-year borrowing costs, at 6.7 per cent, are about 2 percentage points dearer than Ireland or Portugal, the two next riskiest eurozone sovereigns. This air of danger has infected Greek businesses.
Financial Times editorial February 5 2010

The last few days have reminded me of the speculative attacks on sterling and the Italian lira in September 1992.
Wolfgang Münchau February 7 2010

If the Greeks do not regain the markets’ confidence, they may fail to refinance the €20 billion ($28 billion) or so of debt that falls due in April and May.
At that point the government would default or would have to be bailed out.

“If Germany steps in, there will be people on the Athens street who will say the Wehrmacht is back,” an economist remarks.
The Economist print Feb 4th 2010
VIA - Very Important Article

EMU - en snabbkurs
The Greek crisis only confirms the folly of binding a group of disparate countries together in a currency zone
with no mechanism, such as a central fiscal authority, to address its internal imbalances.
The Economist print Feb 4th 2010

överskottsmålet bör behållas på nuvarande nivå och i nuvarande form, men
bestämmas i lag och följas upp tydligare.
Finansdepartementet i en departementsskrivelse 1 februari 2010

“Nej till Euron”
Fighting the Evil Empire in Another Province
By Sean Gabb

Adlon Hotel, Stockholm, Monday 25th August 2003

Greklands sak är vår
Sverige borde så snart som möjligt ta det sista steget in i EU:s monetära samarbete, delta i diskussionerna och ta fullt ansvar för eurons framtid.
DN huvudledare 2010-02-04

Peter Wolodarski är en duktig pojke, som väl förtjänar att sitta på Herbert Tingstens stol.
Men det är synd att han ännu inte har förmått svänga DNs linje om EMU.
Dagens Nyheters ledarredaktion har länge tillhört de sista, snart enda, entusiasterna för ett svenskt EMU-medlemskap.
Rolf Englund blog 2010-02-05

Fears of 'Lehman-style' tsunami as crisis hits Spain and Portugal
The Greek debt crisis has spread to Spain and Portugal in a dangerous escalation as global markets test whether Europe is willing to shore up monetary union with muscle rather than mere words.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 4 Feb 2010

Is the euro forever?
The problem for the eurozone is that Italy is not alone. The CEPS report says: “Portugal and Greece are in a similar situation. These two countries are also running the highest government budget deficits in the eurozone. Even a strong performer like Spain masks under the strong growth a deteriorating competitive position that, were its housing market to slow down, would put its economic performance at risk. Thus, the list of countries at risk is increasing, and could easily become a majority soon.”
Wolfgang Munchau Financial Times 8/6 2005

Should Germany bail out Club Med or leave the euro altogether?
Germany faces a terrible dilemma. Either Europe's paymaster agrees to underwrite a Greek bail-out and drops its vehement opposition to a de facto EU economic government, treasury, and debt union, or the euro will start to unravel,
and with it Germany's strategic investment in the post-war order.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 31 Jan 2010

Another factor that has also been hurting the Greek bond price is a subtle, albeit geeky, discussion that is quietly underway at the European Central Bank in relation to its collateral policy.
Back in the autumn of 2008, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the ECB loosened the rules which govern how banks can get central bank funds. In particular, it let banks use government bonds rated BBB or above in ECB money market operations, instead of merely accepting bonds rated A-, or more.
Gillian Tett, February 4 2010

I dag väntas Sverige fällas i EU:s domstol för att regeringen ännu inte infört EU:s så kallade datalagringsdirektiv i svensk lag.
Ekot 4 februari 2010

Stålbad för greker och press på euron
Den statsfinansiella krisen i Grekland har vuxit till den största oroshärd som eurosamarbetet haft att hantera sedan euron infördes 1999.
DN/TT 2010-02-03

Should Greece be left to go bust?
Otmar Issing, a former board member of the European Central Bank, says an EU rescue would be disastrous.
The Economist online Feb 3rd 2010

Experts in Athens told the country's parliament that it had
uncovered €40bn of "hidden debts"
during an investigation into past manipulation by the financial authorities.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 02 Feb 2010

What the eurozone must do if it is to survive
The clear and present danger to the eurozone is Spain.
Wolfgang Münchau January 31 2010

Greece is not the only country with problems.
The eurozone has a structural flaw in the shape of a north-south financial imbalance.
John Plender, February 2 2010

British chancellor Alistair Darling said Britain would not join any European effort to bail out Greece
FT January 29 2010

Joblessness among young people has surged beyond 40 percent
Spain’s unemployment rate, the highest in the euro region, rose more than expected, threatening to delay recovery from the worst recession in six decades.
Bloomberg Jan. 29, 2010

Armageddon at Parthenon?(nice pic)
The yield on 10-year Greek bonds blasted upwards by over 40 basis points to 7.15pc in a day of wild trading.
Spreads over German Bunds reached almost four percentage points,
by far the highest since Greece joined the euro, and close to levels that risk a self-feeding spiral.
Contagion hit Portuguese, Spanish, Irish, and Italian bonds.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 28 Jan 2010

The deeper concern is Spain, where youth unemployment has reached 44pc
and the housing bust has a long way to run.
Nouriel Roubini said Spain is too big to contain.
"If Greece goes under that's a problem for the eurozone. If Spain goes under it's a disaster," he said
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 28 Jan 2010

Roubini said he’s never been more pessimistic about the future of European monetary union,
saying Spain poses a looming threat to the euro region holding together.
“Down the line, not this year or two years from now, we could have a breakup of the monetary union,”

Roubini said in a Bloomberg Radio interview from the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos
Bloomberg Jan. 27 2010

Nine European banks have balance sheets that are larger than the GDP of their country.
Eurointelligence 28/1 2010

A principled Europe would not leave Greece to bleed
Trichet failed to note that there had long been a double standard – in effect two Maastricht treaties, one for the large and powerful countries, another for the smaller and less powerful.
When France broke the EU edict not to let debt exceed 3% of GDP, there were strong words, but little else.
Joseph Stiglitz guardian.co.uk, 25 January 2010

In tackling the deficit, Greece faces a Hobson’s Choice:
whether to accept social pain with financial and economic stability, or instability. Whatever it chooses, Greece will face economic pain and difficult socio-political fallout.
Roubini Global Economics 27 januari 2010

Not a bang but a whimper: the threat facing the eurozone
Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, has caused a stir in Brussels by reprinting bits
Charlemagne blog, The Economist,Jan 25th 2010

Spanish bankshave some astronomical €325 billion ($456 billion) in non-performing loans by real-estate companies.
That's about a third of Spain's GDP
American Thinker 26/1 2010

The Greek government has promised to slash its fiscal deficit
from an estimated 12.7 per cent of gross domestic product last year to 3 per cent in 2012.
Is it plausible that this will happen? Not very.
But Greece is merely the canary in the fiscal coal mine.
Other eurozone members are also under pressure to slash fiscal deficits.
What might such pressure do to vulnerable members, to the eurozone and to the world economy?
Martin Wolf, January 19 2010

Some, knowing of my opposition to UK membership of the eurozone, may suppose that I find some pleasure in these looming difficulties.
On the contrary, I fear the dangerous consequences.
Martin Wolf, January 19 2010

Secession
Fears of a euro break-up have reached the point where the European Central Bank feels compelled to issue a legal analysis of what would happen if a country tried to leave monetary union.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 17 Jan 2010

The management of the Greek economic crisis raises some disturbing parallels with the aftermath of the Peloponnesian war. The war ended in 404BC
I fear something similar might happen if the eurozone were to impose austerity from the outside, as a quid pro quo for a possible bail-out, which may become necessary if the Greek government were to get into financial difficulty.
Wolfgang Münchau January 22 2010

Fem punkter för Europa
1. Släpp in Balkan och Turkiet
5. Byt kronan mot euron
Dagens Nyheter, ledarredaktionen 2009-09-19

Forex lending represents around 91 per cent of the total in Latvia, 87 per cent in Estonia and 72 per cent in Lithuania
and over 50 per cent in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria
a senior official at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development FT 19/1 2010

Calmfors uttalar sig som forskare ... och avslutar sin artikel med att att Sverige genom att delta i eurosamarbetet skulle kunna ”bidra till ökad politisk integration i Europa”.
Att argumentera för ett sådant synsätt är framför allt politikernas uppgift.
DN-ledare 16/1 2010

EMU - Bra för Sverige?
Det var en gång då SAF och Timbro-högern och de nuvarande allianspartierna gjorde käcka kampanjer på temat Bra för Sverige.
Rolf Englund blog 16/1 2010

De mest aktiva EMU-förespråkarna har närmast velat förlöjliga argumentet om asymmetriska störningar.
Men argumentet måste uppenbarligen även fortsättningsvis tas på största allvar.

Min uppfattning är att det inte går att dra någon klar slutsats om hur balansen mellan för- och nackdelar för Sverige av att införa euron har förändrats.
Lars Calmfors, professor, DN Debatt 15/1 2010

Ekonomen Calmfors säger nej ill EMU, medan amatören Calmfors säger Ja
Lars Calmfors, vår meste EU-utredare och chef för Finanspolitiska Rådet, har på DN Debatt i dag 15/1 2010 lyckats komma fram till slutsatsen att Sverige nu bör gå med i EMU.
Någon annan slutsats är inte möjlig om man skall fortsätta att vara med i etablissemanget.
Rolf Englund blog 15/1 2010

Ja-sidan för EMU och verkligheten
Rolf Englund blog 14/1 2010

Greece will cut spending and raise revenue by about 10 billion euros this year
as part of a three-year plan adopted today to bring the European Union’s biggest budget deficit within the EU limit in 2012.
Bloomberg Jan. 14 2010

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said there was "no chance" that Greece would exit the euro zone,
as the country's reform plans came under renewed criticism from the European Central Bank.
WSJ 14/1 2010

Cecilia Malmströms nya jobb
Fixing Europe's Immigration Problem
Without reforms across the European Union, the Italian race riots will prove only a hint of the darkness to come.
SANDEEP GOPALAN WSJ 13/1 2010

Why Greece will have to leave the eurozone
Having spent a career studying emerging market economies at the International Monetary Fund and on Wall Street, I have seen more than my share of supposedly immutable fixed exchange rate arrangements come unstuck. I have also observed at close quarters the rather well-defined and predictable stages through which countries go as their currency regimes unravel.
This experience informs me that, much like Argentina a decade ago, Greece is approaching the final stages of its currency arrangement
Desmond Lachman, FT January 11 2010
Very Important Article

Under nästa mandatperiod menar vi att det är dags att
grundligt analysera erfarenheterna från eurosamarbetet,
EU:s hantering av den finansiella krisen
samt för- och nackdelar för Sverige att ingå i respektive stå utanför samarbetet.
Ett svenskt euromedlemskap är inte en fråga om höger och vänster.
Anna Kinberg Batra (M), Roger Tiefensee (C), Stefan Attefall (KD)
DN Debatt 14/1 2010

We are about to learn whether the euro can survive a two-speed euro zone.
Irwin Stelzer, WSJ 11/1 2010

Greece was condemned by the European Commission on Tuesday for deliberately falsifying data about its public finances
and allowing political pressures to obstruct the collection of accurate statistics.
FT 12/1 2010

Olli Rehn, nominated as commissioner for economic and monetary affairs
, called on European nations to bring down their deficits, including Greece, where, he said, the problem was “a very serious one” that could spill over.
“It is not so serious yet that it would threaten stability of the euro zone,” he said.
New York Times January 11, 2010

Paul De Grauwe, a Brussels-based economist who advises European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, displayed more than a wry sense of humor when he told reporters, "If there are fears now that a breakup of the euro zone will lead to a weakening of the euro, then that is good news. So we should congratulate Greece for getting us out of … having a euro that is too overvalued."
WSJ 11/1 2010

Unemployment in the eurozone 10 per cent for the first time since the introduction of the single currency. Despite extraordinary measures to protect the labour market during the downturn, 4m have lost jobs across the 16 countries that use the euro, according to the European Commission’s statistical arm.
FT January 8 2010

Enligt marknaden för CDS-kontrakt, är det just nu allra högst risk att låna ut till Ukraina, Argentina och Venezuela.
Grekland, Island, Lettland och Dubai är andra länder som hamnar i pestligan på den internationella marknaden för statspapper med urusla kreditbetyg.
DI 11/1 2010

The European Central Bank has given its clearest warning to date that
there will be no EU bail-out for Greece if it fails to control its spiralling deficit,
raising the stakes in a game of brinkmanship over the future of the euro.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 6 Jan 2010
Nice pic of dark clouds over Acropolis

The new European Union Web site was hacked, and Spanish PM Jose Zapatero was replaced with Mr. Bean.
CNN 7/1 2009

The eurozone’s next decade will be tough
Many have argued that, within a currency union, current account deficits do not matter any more than between Yorkshire and Lancashire.
They are wrong.
Martin Wolf January 5 2010

Southern Europe is being ordered to carry out IMF-style austerity, without the IMF-style devaluation required to rectify the massive imbalances that have built up between North and South under the euro.
The victims are caught like France and Germany under the Gold Standard of the early 1930s, when society was broken on a wheel of deflation decrees.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 20 Dec 2009

Eurozone credit contraction accelerates
Bank loans and the M3 money supply in the eurozone contracted at an accelerating pace in November, raising the risk that a lending squeeze will choke the region's fragile recovery next year.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 30 Dec 2009

EU President Herman Van Rompuy earning more than US President Barack Obama.
The total annual cost for Van Rompuy will be a £22.5 million, including £2.1 million for security, £2.3 million for equipment, £6.2 million for summits and £5.2 million for 22 staff.
His salary is £273,814 (SEK 3,1 mkr/ a year - the US President gets £250,000 /SEK 2,8 mkr.
In addition, the EU is spending another £252 million building a new facility to house the President's office.
Open Europe's Stephen Booth was quoted saying, "It's outrageous".

Moody's downgraded a third of the entire stock of Spanish mortgage bonds or "cedulas" – covered bonds deemed safer than US sub-prime securities – but also made from debt that is sliced into packages. Most were cut from AAA (Aaa) to Aa1. They are largely owned by German or French banks and pension funds. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 18 Dec 2009

It is worth being specific about what much deeper political union would mean.
Those proposing a political federation of 27 EU member countries basically mean a union with much more majority voting, ie a union in which countries can be outnumbered and voted down even on issues that touch on the core political and social contracts between authorities and citizens: issues from taxation to foreign policy.
That is the meaning of all those commentaries from supporters of deeper European integration blaming Copenhagen on the catastrophe of inter-governmental negotiations, in which all countries have a veto.
Charlemagnes notebook, The Econmist Dec 28th 2009

“The unthinkable -- that the ECB would not accept sovereign securities from a member as collateral -- has become a measurable risk, and one exclusively controlled by Moody’s,”
Bloomberg 18 december 2009

We — that is, the United States — have a floating exchange rate. Spain, however, being part of the euro zone, does not. Its wages are too high compared with those of other eurozone members, now that the housing boom and massive capital inflows are over. If Spain still had a peseta, I’d say devalue it; since it doesn’t, wages have to give.
Paul Krugman, December 17, 2009

Former Bank of England policy maker Willem Buiter said Greece may be the first major country in the European Union to default on its debts since the aftermath of World War II.
Bloomberg Dec. 9 2009

Antietablissemangets decennium
Märkesåret under 00-talet är inte 2006 när maktskiftet skedde utan 2003.
Då röstade svenskarna nej till EMU. EMU-omröstningen var ett konkret bevis på att folket kunde vinna över eliten.
Fokus, 18 december 2009 Torbjörn Nilsson

För första gången på sju år är fler svenskar för än emot att Sverige ska ingå i eurosamarbetet.
Sverige har sannolikt tjänat på att stå utanför under de 10 år som gått sedan eurosamarbetet började.
SCB/Ekot 15/1 2009

We are headed towards a situation in which the risk of financial distress and contagion leads to an unconditional bail-out, whether or not Greece is reforming sufficiently.
The reasons we are at this juncture lie in the nature of the stability and growth pact. It is a fair-weather construction, ill-suited to crisis.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT December 13 2009

Greece defies Europe as EMU crisis turns deadly serious
Euroland's revolt has begun.
Greece has become the first country on the distressed fringes of Europe's monetary union to defy Brussels and reject the Dark Age leech-cure of wage deflation.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 13 Dec 2009

Trichet, who is no fool, made an interesting commment last week. He said that the ECB will begin to demand A ratings from at least two rating agencies on bonds whih are deposited with the ECB. This will soon disqualify Greek bonds.
John Livsey 14/12

Standard & Poor's revised its outlook for Spain to "negative" from "stable".
Mr Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, boasted that his Socialist government's generous emergency spending plans had helped stave off economic depression and had saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, even though, according to one measure of unemployment,
about 18 per cent of the workforce in Spain, or more than 4m people, are without jobs.
FT December 11 2009

Standard & Poor's has put Greece on negative credit watch
"The situation in Greece is very difficult," ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet told the European Parliament's economic committee. "So this calls for very difficult, very courageous but absolutely necessary measures."
BBC 7 December 2009

S&P's decision triggers jump in bond spreads to over 200bp;
a downgrade would put Greek government bonds at a level below ECB-accepted collateral
Eurointelligence 8/12 2009

Trade imbalances will grow from their current low levels in the months ahead, and this is politically dangerous.
Deficit country economies remain extremely fragile, and even if they avoid a double dip recession their unemployment rates will continue to rise well into next year.
Kevin O'Rourke Eurointelligence 4.12.2009

Iceland Is Sacrificed to Save EU:
Shame on Britain and Holland

The Brussels Journal, 2009-12-05

David Marsh, author of The Euro: The Politics of The New Global Currency, said the danger for EMU laggards is that the ECB will begin to tighten before they are out of trouble.
It is German recovery that threatens to stretch the North-South divide towards breaking point.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 22 Nov 2009

Dubai and Euroland
What would happen if a member of the euro area could no longer finance its debt?
would default by one euro-zone country threaten the viability of the euro itself?

The Economist print Dec 3rd 2009

Cecilia Malmström; hon är extremt populär i maktkorridorerna men har aldrig kunnat skaffa sig ett starkt, eget, folkligt mandat.
– Hon var trevlig, väldigt pratsam och ganska flamsig.
En go göteborgska som gillade partyn. Jag uppfattade henne som medelmåttig på franska, men det kanske hon inte var, säger en svensk som befann sig där vid samma tid.
Likadant på Göteborgs universitet tio år senare, när hon satt och doktorerade på den statsvetenskapliga institutionen. Få eller ingen tyckte att hon stack ut.
Fokus 20 november 2009

The Euro: The Politics of the New Global Currency
by David Marsh

The spread between Greek bonds and German bunds widened to 153 basis points
FT Alphaville 2009/11/17

210 000 kronor i månadslön, ett startbidrag på 420 000 kronor och 32 000 kronor i månaden i utlandstraktamente.
Det är ett välbetalt jobb som nuvarande EU-minister Cecilia Malmström (FP) får om hon bli EU-kommissionär.
SvD 21 november 2009

Cecilia Malmström
som en äppelkindand evigt tonårig FPU-are

Cecilia Malmström: "Vår vision i ett femton-tjugoårsperspektiv ser ut så här:
Europa, från Atlanten till Ural

Eurons växelkurs har nått smärttröskeln för industrin i euroområdet.
Det är dåliga nyheter för tillväxten i hela Europa.
Det sade ordföranden för den europeiska företagarorganisationen Business Europe Jürgen Thumann
i ett uttalande på måndagen i samband med ett EU-möte om arbetsmarknaden.
DI 2009-11-09

Thirteen members of the European Union have been told to take action and get their budget deficits back in line.
EU requirements mean that they should not exceed 3% of the country's GDP.
However, since the financial crisis most countries have broken that rule.
BBC 11 November 2009

De svenska bolånekunderna får betala storbankernas svarta hål i öst.
På hemmaplan har både SEB och Swedbank bättrat på sina vinstmarginaler på utlåningen.
"Man måste i viss mån förstå att bankerna anpassat sina marginaler med tanke på de ökade riskerna i utlåningen", säger finansmarknadsminister Mats Odell
DI/TT 2009-10-21

Den lettiska centralbanken genomförde stödköp av den egna valutan, lats,
för sammanlagt 16,7 miljoner euro (cirka 175 miljoner kronor) i förra veckan.
TT/DI 2009-11-02

"The euro at $1.50 is a disaster for the European economy and industry,"
said Henri Guaino, right-hand man of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
French finance minister Christine Lagarde said it was intolerable that Europe
should "pay the price" for a dysfunctional link between the US and China.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 20 Oct 2009

15 miljoner arbetslösa i Euroland
BBC 30/10 2009

Klaus, EU och Sudettyskarna
När frågan om Sudettyskarna senast dryftades på högsta nivå var i München 1938
Rolf Englund blog

Time for the ECB to get serious about the overvalued euro
The euros nominal and real appreciation since the end of 2000, resumed with a vengeance during 2009.
The strength of the currency is hurting the exporting and import-competing sectors of the Euro Area.
Unemployment and excess capacity continue to rise.
Willem Buiter's Maverecon October 18, 2009

Concern is growing across the EU that last-minute Czech demands could drag ratification out into next year,
raising the spectre of a British referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if David Cameron wins a general election next spring.
Daily Telegraph 12/10 2009

It was inevitable, I think, that Czech President Vaclav Klaus would take his last stand against the European Union’s Lisbon treaty on the Sudeten German issue.
Tony Barber, FT's Brussels bureau chief, 12/10 2009

Släpp valutan fri
Den lettiska regeringen har svårigheter med att uppfylla omvärldens lånekrav.
Om valutan tilläts flyta skulle den ekonomiska återhämtningen gå fortare.
Så skedde i Sverige i början på nittiotalet.
Efter ett fåfängt och dyrt försvar av kronan släpptes valutan fri.
DN huvudledare, 6/10 2009

Klaus, EU and the Beneš decrees
Whether or not you agree with my position that the post-war expulsion was "macroscopically just", you should be able to understand that this is a potentially explosive issue.
If it exploded, it would be much more important for the Czech Republic than the membership in the European Union or any similar topic of this kind.
Blog 11/10 2009

Släpp in Balkan och Turkiet
Byt kronan mot euron

DN-ledare 2009-09-19

Europe’s plot to take over the world
the G20 is Europe’s Trojan horse
Gideon Rachman, FT, October 5, 2009

Poland's Solidarity-era icon Lech Walesa will be in Ireland on Thursday and Friday to campaign for a "yes" vote to the EU's Lisbon Treaty ahead of the October 2 referendum, his office said.
Walesa, the shipyard electrician turned head of Poland's epic anti-communist Solidarity trade union, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president will be followed by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso who is planning a trip to Ireland on September 19.
Expatica 16/9 2009

EU vill ingå stora samarbetsavtal med Georgien, Azerbajdzjan och Armenien.
Avtalen är en del av det östliga partnerskapet, som EU lanserade 2008
efter förslag från Polen och Sverige.
Anders Selnes, Europaportalen / 2009-09-18

Libertas leader rejoins battle against EU treaty
Irish millionaire and anti-Lisbon Treaty campaigner Declan Ganley has made a late and unexpected return to battle in the country's second referendum on the EU pact.
EU Observer 14/9 2009

State of the Union
"The Irish people had a vote on the Lisbon Treaty. They voted no.
A higher percentage of the electorate voted no than voted for Barack Obama in the United States of America.
Declan Ganley, Irish Times, September 11, 2009

Hitler och den Habsburgska Unionen (HU)
Den engelske historikern Richard Overy ställer frågan om varför det utbröt ett allmänt europeiskt krig i september 1939.
Hitler var, skriver han, uppslukad av tanken på att ur östeuropa mejsla fram en större och grymmare version av det habsburgska imperiet, beväpnad med en ny ekonomisk modell som kallades Grossraumwirtschaft
Rolf Englund blog 9/9 2009

State of The Union
Vad är det som har en flagga, en nationaldag, en nationalsång, en militärstyrka, ett parlament och en högsta domstol.
En stat, naturligtvis. Vad är det mer en stat har? Jo, en valuta.
Det är därför europas ledande politiker har infört euron.
För att vara med om att rita om Europas karta, skapa ett nytt imperium, i Habsburgs efterföljd, som kan utmana USA, som vänstern hatar och högern föraktar.
Rolf Englund Internet 20/1 2003

EU-kommissionären Margot Wallström har under sina tio år tjänat nästan 19 miljoner kronor efter skatt.
Nu väntar ytterligare 4,5 miljoner efter skatt i övergångsersättning
- och därtill omkring 19 Mkr i pension om hon lever till 85.
DI 2009-08-04

Latvia's GDP contracted by a preliminary 19.6% y/y in Q2 2009 and 18% y/y in Q1 2009, the sharpest declines ever recorded
RGE Monitor 12/8 2009

Margot Wallström on Newsnight (Treaty of Lisbon rejection)
Youtube

Despite the region’s small size, the intensifying crisis in the Baltics cannot be treated as a freakish local squall of little concern to outsiders.
Bank failures or plunging currencies in the three Baltic nations – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – could threaten the fragile prospect of recovery in the rest of Europe.
These countries also sit on one of the world’s most sensitive political fault-lines.
They are the European Union’s frontier states, bordering Russia.

Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, August 3 2009

EU spenderar varje år åtskilliga miljarder kronor på tevekanaler, radiostationer, tankesmedjor, trycksaker, kampanjer och resor för journalister.
Kommunikationsinsatsen propagerar för en stark och enhetlig europeisk union. En utveckling som flera folkomröstningar har sagt nej till.
Det visar en ny rapport från Timbro

Tankesmedjans vd Maria Rankka, samt utredarna Philip Thomasson-Lerulf och Hannes Kataja
DN Debatt 2009-07-26

Kommentar av Rolf Englund:
Det är så att man åter blir stolt över att ha arbetat på Timbro
Betyg för Rolf Englund Timbro 1980 - 1995 av Sture Eskilsson

Euron har i den djupa ekonomiska krisen visat sig vara den fasta punkt man eftersträvade när den gemensamma valutan skapades.
Samtidigt är det ett svaghetstecken att en ledande företrädare för unionen behöver framhålla det lilla Islands vilja att delta som bevis på att projektet ännu inte är tömt på sin livskraft.
Johannes åman, Signerat DN 25/7 2009

Det ska bli intressant att se hur det officiella Sverige tar emot ett sådant tabubelagt område.
Timbro är väl fortfarande för Europa, eller hur? ELLER HUR?
Carl-Johan Westholm 27/7 2009

Lettlands finansminister Einars Repse:
– En sak är dock helt klar. IMF tror fortfarande inte att vi kan minska utgifterna i budgeten och minska vårt budgetunderskott med fyra procent per år till vi uppnår Maastrichtkriterierna.
Direkt-DN 2009-07-21

Den ökända banken Parex har fått mer i finansiellt stöd från den lettiska staten
än den lettiska staten kommer snart få från EU och IMF
bloggen Lettland i krisens spår 29/6 2009

Swedbank drabbades under andra kvartalet av kreditförluster på 6,7 miljarder kronor.
"Marknaden hade räknat med en betydligt lägre siffra, 6,1 miljarder kronor".
Rörelseresultatet förlust på 1,8 miljarder kronor, mot förväntade minus 1,3.
DI 2009-07-17

Carl Bildt har suttit i styrelsen för den tankesmedja som jag driver, the Centre for European Reform.
Givet hans kvalifikationer och erfarenhet så borde han vara toppkandidaten till posten som EU:s utrikesrepresentant.
Om Lissabonfördraget implementeras innebär jobbet i praktiken att vara EU:s utrikespolitiska chef och högste ansvarig för embryot till unionens eget utrikesdepartement.
Men Bildts chanser att få jobbet är små.
Charles Grant, Expressen sidan fyra, 15/7 2009

Last week's ruling by the German Constitutional Court, coupled with demands by one conservative party for changes to the constitution,
may not only jeopardize Berlin's schedule for the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The Karlsruhe ruling also threatens future steps toward European integration.
SPIEGEL Staff 6/7 2009

Economic and monetary union (EMU) is perhaps the biggest and most courageous project the EU has ever undertaken. The euro’s success is not only crucial for the economic health of the eurozone and its members but for the credibility of the EU as a whole. European economies are much better placed to succeed in a global economy as part of a single market, with a single currency and integrated capital markets. Unfortunately, it is too soon to talk about EMU being a success. A successful currency union requires very flexible markets, a high level of competition across all sectors, full integration of participating economies and sound management of public finances. These criteria are a long way from being made.
Centre for European Reform about EMU

Germany’s constitutional court ruled that the Lisbon treaty was consistent with German law.
This means Germany will be able ratify the treaty before the end of the year.
But... If you read the entire 147-page ruling, you realise that
the court has given a damning verdict on future European integration.

For example, it declared a hypothetical fiscal policy co-ordination or the establishment of a single European Union military command as unconstitutional.
Wolfgang Münchau, FT July 12 2009

Poland may avoid a recession this year,
while countries that have pegged their currencies to the euro are in for a much tougher 2009.
Floating currencies help states stay above water
FT July 13 2009

Varför ska Sverige gå med i EMU?
Liksom tidigare, använder enligt min uppfattning många EMU-förespråkare delvis fel argument i debatten.
Det kommer aldrig att bli möjligt att göra någon entydig nyttokalkyl
som visar att Sverige gör en nettovinst på att gå med.

Lars Calmfors Sieps JULI Nr 6-2009

Sieps förlorade heder
Rolf Englund blog 12/7 2009

The European Union’s next foreign policy chief, who will get the job?
Bildt, highly experienced and intellectually brilliant though he may be,
has a few too many critics and enemies for his own good

Tony Barber, FT's Brussels bureau chief, July 7, 2009

Anders Borgs plan för balans i EU-ekonomin
Mats Hallgren, Svde24 2009-07-07

Tyskt stopp för Lissabon
BERLIN.Den tyska författningsdomstolen stoppar oväntat ratificeringen av Lissabon-fördraget.
DN 2009-06-30

Lars Christensen, chefsekonom på Danske Bank, blev bespottad och utbuad när han på ett tidigt stadium varnade för en baltisk krasch.
Torbjörn Becker, chef på institutet för tillväxtekonomi vid Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, betonade på att det inte är staten utan hushåll och företag som skuldsatt sig grovt.
Skevheterna uppstod när letter under 15 procents inflation fick låna euro till 7 procents ränta.
"Hushåll fick betalt för att låna i euro, i reala termer", sa Torbjörn Becker och förordade att Lettland släpper sin valutakoppling till euron
DI 2009-07-02

It could be that future generations of German politicians find ingenious ways around the balanced budget law.
Or that they find a two-thirds majority to overturn it.
Or that Mr Sarkozy or his successors follow Germany into a future of austerity.
But as long as one of those three events fails to happen, Germany may discover that unilateral fiscal rigour in a monetary union could prove extremely costly.
For the sustainability of the euro, you surely do not want to get into a position where a large member state has a rational economic reason to quit.
So if Germany and France really do what they both promise,
you may as well start the egg timer.

Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times June 28 2009

Rolf Gustavsson:
Precis som när Maastrichtfördraget behandlades i författningsdomstolen (1992) sätter Tysklands högsta jurister gränser på en lång rad områden för hur långt den europeiska integrationen ska kunna gå utan att hota det demokratiska styrelseskicket.
Domstolen slår fast att EU inte är en ”statsanalog” organisation och att
EU-parlamentet inte representerar ett europeiskt statsfolk.

EU förblir ett förbund mellan självständiga demokratiska stater och EU-parlamentet företräder folken i dessa stater.
Men för att den fortsatta integrationen inte ska skena iväg utom kontroll för de demokratiska instanserna krävs att de ges förstärkta kontrollmöjligheter.
Utan förbättrad parlamentarisk kontroll riskerar demokratin att urholkas, anser domarna i Karlsruhe.
SvD 30 juni 2009, 23.30

Conservative MEPs form new group
The Conservatives' new "anti federalist" bloc in the European Parliament will be "good for European democracy".
The new European Conservatives and Reformists Group includes 55 MEPs from across eight member states.
BBC 22 June 2009

Unfortunately, but perhaps inevitably, the institutions of the EU have become dedicated to the centralisation of more and more power at the EU level.
How this has happened has been analysed by Roland Vaubel, a neoliberal German economist, for the Institute of Economic Affairs*.
The EU has been over many years inching its way forward to what it calls “ever closer union” and Prof Vaubel calls “ever greater centralisation”.
The latest example is the constitutional treaty, rejected by French and Dutch referenda but then revamped with modest amendments to counter specific national concerns
– and to enable the British government to renege on its referendum pledge.
Samuel Brittan, FT, June 11 2009

"legally binding decisions which clarify but do not change the treaty text"
The summit conclusions spell out that other EU member states do not need to ratify the treaty again on foot of the guarantees given to Ireland.
Irish Times June 20, 2009

Margot Wallström beklagar att utnämningen av ny ordförande i EU-kommissionen sker genom ett rävspel i kulisserna utan insyn.
- Att allt ska vara så hemligt tror jag inte ökar förtroendet hos medborgarna.
Det borde inte vara som att utse en påve!

DN reporter Marianne Björklund, 2009-06-18

Johan Hakelius om varför du inte ska rösta i EU-valet
Parlamentet har makt. Det vill ha mer.
Det är precis därför du inte ska rösta den 7 juni.

Johan Hakelius, Aftonbladet 2009-05-29
En lysande artikel

The wording below of the proposed Lisbon “guarantee” in Section A of today’s European Council decision or agreement, even if it were given binding European Treaty status by opening and adding a Protocol to the Lisbon Treaty, which is not intended - is about as useful as a gate in the middle of a field!
It purports to restrict the effects of the Lisbon Treaty on the Irish Constitution in ONLY ONE SMALL AREA - “the area of Freedom, Security and Justice“, which is only one of 13 areas of shared competences in the EU, i.e. shared between the Union and its Member States.
The National Platform - For a Europe of Independent Democratic Co-Operating Nation States, june 2009

Moderaterna och Socialdemokraterna har i åratal gjort sitt yttersta för att förhindra att EU-frågor politiseras och diskuteras i de allmänna valen.
Det gäller särskilt de verkligt skarpa EU-frågorna, det vill säga hur stor makt EU skall ha och vilken balans som skall gälla mellan marknad, juridik och politik.
Om sådana frågor kommer upp på bordet kan väljarna reagera på ett olämpligt sätt, befarar man.
Carl Tham DN 2009-05-29

EU leaders have agreed a deal they hope will secure the Lisbon Treaty
a "Yes" vote in a second Irish referendum.

BBC 19/6 2009

Dollar Again Substantially Overvalued
"principally though not exclusively, against the Chinese renminbi and some other Asian currencies"
requires substantial dollar depreciation as well as a few others like the Swedish krona and the Swiss franc.
Peterson Institute for International Economics June 3, 2009

Lithuania rules out devaluation
“It’s clear that we are suffering a bit more because of our currency board arrangement tying the litas to the euro, but devaluation is not an option,”
Andrius Kubilius, prime minister
Financial Times June 18 2009

The ECB estimated bank writedowns total of $649 billion,
with an estimated $366 billion already announced.
CNBC Reuters 15 Jun 2009

With the backing of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union,
Riga is hoping that if it can impose enough pain on the domestic economy,
it will be able to maintain its exchange rate peg to the euro.

That would allow it entry into the single currency zone within the next four years.
Financial Times 16/6 2009

$375 billion - It seems unfair. This was supposed to be a US crisis.
And now it turns out that the real banking mess is still coming for the eurozone
Adam S. Posen, Eurointelligence 5/6 2009

Barbro Hedvall fundamentalist om EMU
Rolf Englund 2009-06-14

European elections 2009:
Ukip claims political breakthrough
The UK Independence Party claimed a political breakthrough as it
pushed Labour in to third place
Daily Telegraph 8/6 2009

Labourpartiet fick bara 15,3 procent och hamnade efter både Tories med 28,6 och
det EU-fientliga UKIP med 17,4 procent.
Klick

Kronan är en dyrbar lyx.
Omvärlden backar upp Sverige och Sverige backar upp Baltikum.
även om Lettland fortsätter sin svältkur kommer förlusterna att bli mycket stora.
Barbro Hedvall, Signerat DN 2009-06-12

Det märkliga i rapporteringen om Marit Paulsen är etiketten på henne som käringen ”mot strömmen”.
Exakt vad i hennes politik skulle gå mot den ström som i söndags röstade fram ett blått Europa?
Det lustiga är att hon inte ens försökt prångla ut den bilden själv.
Som hon sade till Fredrik Virtanen i en intervju i Aftonbladet (25/4):
”Jag tycker inte att jag är särskilt motvalls. Jag är en duktig avkännare av opinioner.”
Malena Rydell DN Kultur 12/6 2009

Latvia’s currency crisis is a rerun of Argentina’s
Devaluation seems un­avoidable
Nouriel Roubini, Financial Times, June 10 2009

Andrum för Lettland - men behovet av devalvering kvar
Det finns skäl för även Estland och Litauen att släppa nuvarande euroanknytning och i stället hitta en rimlig växelkurs.
Johan Schück, DN Ekonomi 12/6 2009

Kollaps för lettisk finansmarknad
Den lettiska finansmarknaden fungerar inte längre till följd av valutaoron,
sedan Lettlands finansdepartement på onsdagen misslyckades med få sålt statspapper
DI 2009-06-03 16:23

At 70 percent of GDP Spain’s mortgage and consumer credit burden
is the largest of the euro region’s major economies
June 3 2009 (Bloomberg)

Germany's constitutional court is to publish its judgement on
whether the EU's Lisbon Treaty is compatible with the country's constitution on 30 June.

EU Observer 2/6 2009

"Führungsverantwortung"
"Wir wollen kein bürokratisches Europa, das mechanisch pedantische Regelungen durchsetzt
Angela Merkel and president Nicolas Sarkozy
Nej varför skulle Tyskland och Frankrike följa reglerna i fördragen?

Dags låta Lettland devalvera
Allting rasar i Lettlands ekonomi, förutom valutan som hålls stadig mot euron.
Sverige stöder aktivt denna valutapolitik, i de svenska bankernas intresse.
Men priset blir högt, om man motsätter sig en devalvering
Johan Schück, DN 29/5 2009.

"The [free-market] liberalism without rules failed
"We refuse a bureaucratic Europe that mechanically applies the rules ...
We want a European Union that listens to the citizens, innovates, revitalises."
Such a Union would "favour the emergence of strong European enterprises" and
would "protect the European industry."

Angela Merkel and president Nicolas Sarkozy, 31 May 2009 Journal du Dimanche and Die Welt am Sonntag

Nicolas Sarkozy skulle ha träffat den svenske statsministern i Stockholm.
Men häromdagen ställde den franske presidenten in besöket.
Enligt tidningen Le Monde var skälet dock en intervju som den svenske utrikesministern gav i måndagens Le Figaro, om Turkiet.
DN 29/5 2009

är Turkiet i EU bra för Sverige?
Rolf Englund 2009-06-02

De två böckernas författare, Per Gahrton, Stefan Fölster och Johnny Munkhammar,
delar en kritisk grundinställning till en hel del företeelser i dagens Europeiska union.
Annika Ström Melin, SvD Kultur 26/5 2009

Riksbanken har beslutat att återställa valutareserven genom att låna valuta för motsvarande 100 miljarder kronor via Riksgälden.
Beskedet kan ha stärkt oron för att Riksbanken vet något om utvecklingen i Baltikum som inte är allmänt känt.
Riksbanken vill återställa valutareserven i händelse av att de åtaganden som Riksbanken har ingått med bland annat centralbankerna i Estland och Lettland skulle utnyttjas.
Johan Javéus, chefsstrateg för valutamarknaden på SEB Merchant Banking till nyhetsbyrån Direkt, DI 27/5 2009

Margit Gennser lämnar moderaterna
De ”nya” moderaternas politik har blivit allt mer principlös.
Att rättsstaten måste bygga på fasta grundläggande spelregler uppfattas inte längre som viktigt.
Kortsiktighet och ekonomism har blivit politiskt rättesnöre.
Att vara politiskt hemlös är i dag bättre än att vara moderat.
Margit Gennser, pressmeddelande 2009-05-25

Consider what would happen if the UK or US were to attempt Hungarian or Estonian style cuts.
There would be a huge outcry.
So rather than taking the axe to public spending, the British and American governments are borrowing madly,
with no sign of any credible long-term plan to balance the books.
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, May 25 2009

Het EMU-debatt i krisdrabbat Estland
Nu ifrågasätter det största oppositionspartiet den ensidiga fokuseringen på euron.
Arbetslösheten ligger över 10 procent i dagsläget.
"Regeringen pratar bara om euron och bryr sig inte om dem som bli arbetslösa"
DN ekonomi 25/5 2009

Rolf Englund om det man inte talar om:
Konstgjord konflikt mellan s & m döljer den stora frågan
"EU går tydligt mot en federation. Men detta bör sägas rent ut och inte genomföras i smyg. Man skall inte låtsas som om den stora frågan för väljarna är om de skall rösta på den moderata listan eller den socialdemokratiska.
Det skriver Rolf Englund, ekonom och legendarisk EU-kritiker."
Newsmill, 2009-05-25

Qviberg ignorerar helt de risker och problem som finns med att ha en liten valuta vars kurs åker jojo upp och ner jämfört med euron. Det skapar stor osäkerhet för svenska företag och
det är både dyrt och svårt att säkra sig mot valutakursförändringar.
Europaparlamentarikern Olle Schmidt (FP), Newsmill 21/5 2009

Kostnaden för terminssäkring av 10 miljoner kr är 2.000 kr
Klas Eklund, SEB

Man kan låta bli att rösta i EU-valet och vara en lika god medborgare
Roland Poirier Martinsson, chef för Timbros medieinstitut, Newsmill 2009-05-20

Mats Qviberg tar miste om centerpartiet
Rolf Englund blog 20/5 2009

En lysande artikel!
Måndag 18 maj 2009. Statsministern har bred slipsknut och ledsna ögon.
Oppositionsledaren har ny frisyr och ny samarbetspartner sen det sist hölls partiledardebatt i SVT.
Lars Ohly ler utan att visa tänderna.

Signaturen KK (det måste väl vara Katrine Kielos, hon skriver påfallande ofta påfallande bra)
Aftonbladets ledarsida 2009-05-18

Ett nej till Lissabonfördraget skulle kunna bli en nyttig startpunkt
för en mer balanserad reformering av unionsbygget

Henrik S Järrel, tidigare moderat riksdagsledamot, Newsmill 19/5 2009

Det är klart folk ser att kejsarna är nakna.
När politikerna talar om EU-valet låter de som föräldrar som ljuger rart om världen för sina barn.
Man känner att något är lurt. Man känner att man inte riktigt har någon lust att vara med.
Johannes Forssberg, Expressen 20 maj 2009

Spelar det någon roll?
Fölster, Munkhammar och Hökmark

Sverige mår utmärkt utan euron.
Jag är egentligen moderat men den här gången går min röst till ett annat parti
Mats Qviberg, Newsmill 2009-05-19

Förre riksbankschefen Bengt Dennis ingår tillsammans med landshövding Per Unckel i en ny rådgivningsgrupp till Lettlands regering:
upprepar sin kritik av åtstramningsprogrammet och omvärldens villkor.
– De leder inte till målet och de lägger alldeles för stor börda på det lettiska folket,
säger Bengt Dennis, förespråkar istället en ordnad delvalvering.

SvD 13 maj 2009, reporter Fredrik Braconier

More than 1 million households in Spain now have no one in work to support them,
and a third of working age Spaniards under 25 are unemployed.
Financial Times May 14 2009

Carl B Hamilton:
På sina håll i näringslivet, regeringskansliet och facket anser man att Sverige i krisen drar fördel av den flytande växelkursen
Rolf Englund 2009-04-23

Senast 2011 vill Jan Björklund ha en ny folkomröstning om EMU
Sverige har klart förlorat på att avvisa euron.
Cirka 100 miljarder kronor enligt en beräkning som han hänvisar till.
DN/TT 2009-05-11

Ireland is ECB's sacrifical lamb to satisfy German inflation demands
Put bluntly, Ireland is being forced to roll back the welfare state and tighten fiscal policy
in the midst of a savage economic contraction
in order to uphold the deflation orthodoxies of Europe's monetary union.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 12 Apr 2009

Inga-Britt Ahlenius och den svenska stalinistiska historieskrivningen
Rolf Englund 19/4 2009

Germany’s government is finalising “bad bank” plans to deal with toxic financial assets
as part of efforts to restore confidence to the banking system that also include a
takeover offer launched this week for Hypo Real Estate, the stricken property lender.
Financial Times April 10 2009

The eurozone faces three threats more serious than any in the US or Britain:
the extreme vulnerability of Germany's economy to collapsing exports,
financial instability in Eastern Europe and
the growing tensions between the core and the periphery of the eurozone.
Between now and the German general election on September 27,
these dangers could combine into a perfect storm
Anatole Kaletsky The Times 9/4 2009

Irlands ekonomi står inför en djup svacka.
Priserna faller, arbetslösheten är på väg upp över 14 procent och
budgetunderskottet har vuxit till nästan 13 procent av landets BNP, enligt landets centralbank.
Skär ned och försök undvik skattehöjningar. Det är centralbankens rekommendation inför krisbudgeten
DN 2009-04-03

The success of the Irish government’s plans to set up a “bad bank” rests on details that have not yet been finalised.
The loans have a nominal value of €80bn-€90bn – about half of Ireland’s annual economic output.
Financial Times April 8 2009

If Gordon Brown was embarrassed by his recent rhetorical skewering at the hands of Daniel Hannan,
a Conservative member of the European Parliament (MEP),
Britain’s established media can sympathise. Indifference from those accustomed to managing the flow of information from politicians to voters
failed to stop the speech from attracting more than a million internet viewings within a week
The Economist print April 2nd 2009

Daniel Hannan - den nya internetstjärnan!
Hånad, för radikal, bråkstake - ja det finns många beskrivningar för den brittiske europaparlamentarikern Daniel Hannan, men likt en sann saga har han nu fått sin revansch på sina avundsjuka partikamrater och blivit världskändis - allt tack vare internet.
Det hela handlar givetvis om Daniel Hannans brandtal mot premiärminister Gordon Brown
inför några hundra sömniga parlamentariker som orkat pallra sig hela vägen till Strasbourg.
joinsimon blog 27/3 2009

The Bank of Spain is to take over Caja Castilla la Mancha in
the first bank bail-out in Spain since the global financial crisis began.

The government will also back the bank with 9bn euros (£8.4bn) in guarantees. BBC 30/3 2009

Ex-Bundesbank chief Karl Otto Pohl has just said that Ireland and Greece
are in danger of defaulting on their sovereign debts and/or may be forced out of the Euro
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Daily Telegraph Feb 26, 2009

AMF Pensions förre vd Christer Elmehagen menar att
Lundby-Wedin och övriga styrelsen försöker undkomma det ansvar som de har som styrelseledamöter.

Ekot 30/3 2009

Företagarnas vd Anna-Stina Nordmark Nilsson sprider nu vanföreställningen
att räntenivån är lägre i Euroland än i Sverige.
Men enligt Financial Times är det i Europa bara Schweiz, som inte finns med i Euroland,
som har lägre räntor än Sverige.

Kronan räddar jobben, Tomas Fischer Fokus 26/3 2009

Lithuania is regarded as the next most likely European Union state
to beat a path to the IMF’s door, following in the footsteps of Hungary, Latvia and most recently Romania.
Financial Tmes, March 26 2009

European Union hopes for a new era in relations with the US were thrown into chaos
when the holder of the EU presidency condemned
American remedies for the global recession as “the road to hell”.

Financial Times March 25 2009

IMF and other lenders to provide Romania 20bn euros (USD 27bn) in aid.
Romania is the third EU nation to be given IMF aid recently, after loans were given to Latvia and Hungary.
BBC 25/3 2009

The Bank of England may have averted a catastrophe.
If ever there was a time when this country needed its own monetary authorities this is the moment.
Those nations with fossilised or timid central banks clinging to outdated ideologies are not so lucky.
Even less lucky are those such as Spain and Ireland that have surrendered policy to a body that is deaf to their pleas and constitutionally obliged to ignore the welfare of their particular societies.
They face crucifixion.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph, 08 Mar 2009

Margot Wallströms pension från EU — cirka 21 miljoner kronor
TT och SvT 23/3 2009

Makin vid American Enterprise Institute mosar Bildt
Sverige kunde stimulera efterfrågan genom att låta kronan flyta
("Sweden was able aggressively to reflate and stimulate demand for its output by allowing its currency to float.

Rolf Englund blog 2009-03-11

"Kronan räddar Sverige"
Att Sverige står utanför euro-samarbetet är vår räddning.
Det säger den franske analytikerräven Charles Gave.
"Jag är extremt oroad över Europa", säger han.
Dagens Industri 2009-03-13

Den stora kursnedgången gör att vi nu har beslutat oss för att ta in de panter vi har i Sparbanksstiftelserna.
säger Anders Sundström, vd i Folksam, tidigare styrelseordförande i Socialdemokrater för Europa.
SvD Näringsliv 6 mars 2009

The next government in Germany should start to cut spending by 2011 at the latest
to help achieve a balanced budget, European Union finance ministers said at a meeting in Brussels today.
Bloomberg March 10 2009

Cirka 300 miljarder kronor
The World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank
unveiled a lending package of up to $31bn to help central and eastern Europe’s battered banking systems
Financial Times February 27 2009

Lissabonfördragets slutgiltiga öde avgörs i Irland i höst
Rolf Gustavsson SvD 27/2 2009

Oroligt Ukraina på väg mot konkurs
Kostnaderna för Ukrainas utlandsskulder på 105 miljarder dollar är de högsta något land med dollarkoppling har förutom Ecuador, som gjorde statskonkurs i december ifjol
SvD 2009-02-23

Austrian banks have lent a total of $300bn to clients in the region (Eastern Europe),
equivalent to 68 per cent of Austrian gross domestic product, according to (BIS).
If Bank Austria, which is owned by Italy’s Unicredit, were included, the figure would rise to about 100 per cent
Financial Times February 25 2009

Latvia debt rating cut to ‘junk’
reflecting growing fears that its $9.6bn IMF-led rescue package could unravel
Latvia is the second European Union state to receive junk level status after Romania
Financial Times February 24 2009

If Latvia’s fixed exchange rate regime collapsed it would send shock waves across eastern European markets
and lead to huge losses for the Swedish banks that dominate the Baltic banking sector.
By Robert Anderson in Stockholm,
Financial Times February 23 2009

Will Germany deliver on the Faustian bargain that created monetary union?
The German finance ministry is drafting rescue plans to prevent
default on the edges of the eurozone
leading to a full-blown collapse of Europe's monetary system.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 23 Feb 2009

Eastern crisis that could wreck the eurozone
The crisis started in the US, but Europe is where it might turn into catastrophe
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times February 22 2009

"Riksbankens nya stjärna" - Karolina Ekholm - En lydig kvinna
Rolf Englund blog 2009-02-14

European stocks tumbling to a six-year low
"We're near the cliff's edge, very close to capitulation, the mood is very gloomy," said Jean-Claude Petit, head of equities at Barclays Wealth Managers France.
"I'm not sure that governments and central banks are realizing what's really going on.
The gaffes made by West-European banks in East Europe revealed recently are having a devastating effect"
CNBC 20/2 2009

Folkpartiet låter Paulsen toppa listan i valet till parlamentet den 7 juni
SvD/TT 7/2 2009

Marit om Murens fall:
Omprövningens tid! Det är med stor osäkerhet jag försöker beskriva ett slags förvirring, rent av en smula hjälplöshet inför det som händer i östeuropa.
Vart tog alla drömmar vägen? Vart är alla de ORD jag har använt? Var är de begrepp jag tänkt i?
Marit Paulsen i TCO-Tidningen nr 2/1990

Can The Euro Survive?
Ever heard of the four PIGS?
John Mauldin Feb 02 2009

SNS-gruppen har haft en förödande otur med sin tajming.
Den utvärderade EMU efter tio år av vackert ekonomiskt väder.
Medan den slutförde arbetet utbröt full storm. En global finanskris!
Därmed faller argumentet att Sverige inte har haft någon nytta av egen valuta och penningpolitisk självständighet.
Nils Lundgren, Birgitta Swedenborg, Rune Andersson och Sven Hagströmer, GP 2009-02-02

"There is no risk that the euro will break apart," said Jean-Claude Trichet,
the European Central Bank's president, speaking at the World Economic Forum.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Davos 30 Jan 2009

EU officials are furious over comments this week by Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
head of the International Monetary Fund, who said the euro could prove unworkable unless
the member states give up some control over fiscal policy.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Davos 30 Jan 2009

äras den som äras bör
Det förefaller vid närmare betraktande som om det var Neo
som var först med nyheten om
RADERNA /om EMU/ SOM REDAKTöREN /på DN Debatt/ SLäNGDE
Håkan Tribell — last modified 2009-01-27 11:52

I många medier har dock budskapet från konjunkturrådet tolkats som en plädering för ett svenskt EMU-inträde. Men det tillbakavisades när rådets ordförande Harry Flam på tisdagskvällen presenterade rapporten
- Dagens Nyheter strök de tre viktigaste meningarna i vår debattartikel där vi drog slutsatsen att det på ekonomiska grunder inte går att säga att Sverige ska gå med.
Riksdag och Departement 28 Januari 2009

Att vi förlorat på att stå utanför Euro-samarbetet tycker jag personligen är ganska uppenbart.
Teoretiker må ha avvikande meningar, men det måste också vara tillåtet för en det internationella samarbetets och handelsutbytets praktiker att tycka att stabiliteten har betydande fördelar.
Carl Bildt blog 27/1 2009

Den rörliga växelkursen dämpar krisen på hemmaplan - exportindustrin gynnas samtidigt som importpriserna stiger när kronan sjunker.
Men det finns andra argument som talar för en euroanslutning.

Eurofrågan är i grunden politisk.
Håkan Boström, Signerat DNs ledarsida 28/1 2009

Germany's constitutional court has been handed a second complaint over the EU's Lisbon Treaty
with the potential to delay the country's final ratification of the document for several months.
The complaint is being brought by... former MEP Franz Ludwig Graf Stauffenberg
EU Observer 27/1 2009

Frågan huruvida Sverige ska ansluta till EMU inte är ekonomisk, utan politisk.
Anders Borg SvDe24, 27/1 2008

SNS-Konjunkturrådets rapport 2009:
Ska Danmark, Sverige och Storbritannien ansluta sig?
Nu är det gynnsamt för Danmark att ansluta sig till valutaunionen
medan det för Sverige och Storbritannien inte är helt klart att vinsterna av ökad handel och ökad växelkursstabilitet överväger kostnaden av att mista en självständig penningpolitik.
SNS Pressmeddelande 2009-01-27

Lettland nästa Argentina?
hur har SEB-chefen Annika Falkengren och Swedbankchefen Jan Lidén
skött sina uppdrag som centralbankschefer åt Estland, Lettland och Litauen?
Gunnar örn, DI 2009-01-20

S&P downgraded Spain's credit rating to AA+ from triple A, following a similar cut for Greece last week.
Ireland and Portugal were put on credit watch, and Italy may be next in line.

Wall Street Journal 23/1 2009

Being a member of the eurozone doesn’t immunize countries against crisis.
In Spain’s case (and Italy’s, and Ireland’s, and Greece’s) the euro may well be making things worse.
Paul Krugman, New York Times January 19, 2009

According to a cruel joke making the rounds these days,
the difference between Iceland and Ireland is one letter and six months.

Speculation that the euro zone's breakup is imminent
Wall Street Journal 23/1 2009

The eurozone economy will shrink 1.9% in 2009, the European Commission has forecast.
a "deep and protracted recession".
Unemployment in the the 16 countries using the euro is expected to exceed 10% in 2010
BBC 19/1 2008

What if one of the member states of the eurozone were to default on its debt?
On the occasion of the euro’s 10th birthday, this has become the most frequently asked question about the single currency zone.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times January 18 2009

The PIIGS
The euro zone faces tough times as the PIIGS — Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain —
will need a flexible exchange rate to compensate for the economic slowdown
so some of them may decide to break free from the single currency's straightjacket

Hugh Hendry, Chief Investment Officer and Partner at Eclectica, CNBC 12/1 2009

Fördel att stå utanför EMU
Stefan de Vylder, Politiken.se, 8/1 2008

The euro marks its 10th birthday on New Year’s day at a perilous moment in global finance. This month, the euro hit its highest level ever on a trade-weighted basis.
Ralph Atkins, Financial times December 30 2008

Why The IMF’s Decision To Agree A Lavian Bailout Programme Without Devaluation Is A Mistake
Edward Hugh, Paul Krugman (and Anders åslund)December 23, 2008

Min sedvanliga julhälsning
In Hoc Anno Domini
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar. Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.
Wall Street Journal Editorial since 1949 published annually

Pound hits new low against euro
BBC 30/12 2008

Santander, the euro zone's largest bank by market value,
said its clients had an exposure of €2.33 billion ($3.1 billion) to Mr. Madoff's investment funds

Wall Street Journal DECEMBER 15, 2008

From a European perspective, there is an acute danger of an extreme exchange-rate overshoot, which on top of the fall in global demand for European export goods could have devastating effects on exporters, much worse than anything we have seen so far.
Unlike 10 years ago, there is not much scope for wage cuts this time, so this crisis will hit profits.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times, December 21 2008

Peter Wolodarski ny politisk chefredaktör på DN
"Jag har blivit ännu mer övertygad om att Sverige ska vara med fullt ut i Europasamarbetet, inklusive EMU"
DN print 28/11 2008

We should not try to avoid 1929. We have already failed.
The best we can do now is to avoid 1930, 1931 and 1932

What about the €200bn European Union stimulus package that was agreed in a watered-down form by EU leaders on Friday?
Unfortunately, it is a public relations exercise first and foremost, designed to dupe people into believing that the EU is finally doing something.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times, December 14 2008

Ynkedom i riksdagen vid grundlagsbeslut
De skamliga Ja-sägarna om Lissabon i riksdagen
Rolf Englund 22/11 2008

Den ende som i slutändan gick rakt mot det egna partiet var riksdagsmannen Sven Bergström som röstade nej till Lissabonfördraget.
Ekot 21/11 2008

Is this the time for the British to swallow their pride, admit they made a mistake and beg to enter the eurozone?
A growing number of people argue it is. They are wrong.
The reason for having a floating exchange rate is that it should float. In an uncertain world, an economy needs mechanisms of adjustment.
The exchange rate is the most powerful such mechanism

Martin Wolf, Financial Times, November 18 2008

Svenskt Näringsliv gör helt om, dock utan att göra en pudel
Rolf Englund blog 2008-11-16

Utrikesutskottet ställde sig på torsdagen (13/11) bakom regeringens förslag att godkänna EU:s Lissabonfördrag.
Bakom ställningstagandet står fem av riksdagens sju partier: Socialdemokraterna, Moderaterna, Centerpartiet, Folkpartiet och Kristdemokraterna.
Riksdagen debatterar och beslutar torsdagen den 20 november.
Newsdesk 14/11 2008

Litmus test for European economic unity
As economists and academics gathered at Frankfurt’s InterContinental hotel, official data confirmed that the region had fallen into its first recession.
FT November 14 2008

Uppåt ett tiotal av regeringspartiernas riksdagsledamöter vill stoppa EU:s Lissabonfördrag.
Majoriteten för fördraget är stor i riksdagen, men det krävs bara en sjättedel av riksdagen för att skjuta upp förslaget ett år.
Ekot 13/11 2008

I nästa vecka ska riksdagen debattera och anta Lissabonfördraget. Det bästa vore om man i stället valde att vilandeförklara beslutet.
I elfte timmen har ett antal borgerliga riksdagsledamöter insett att Lissabonfördraget är av sådan karaktär att det påverkar den svenska grundlagen. Bland de insiktsfulla finns riksdagsledamot Anne-Marie Pålsson (m) från Lund, några kristdemokrater och centerpartister.
Kristianstadsbladet 14 november 2008

Investors Raise Their Bets on Defaults in EU Countries
the cost of swaps linked to euro-zone countries including Italy and Greece has doubled in the past month.
Wall Street Journal, 31/10 2008

Lissabonfördraget
Anne-Marie Pålsson anser att det finns mer att analysera när det gäller överlämning av makt till EU.
Riksdagen måste förhålla sig på ett mycket korrekt sätt och i det här sammanhanget tycker jag att man skulle kunna ikläda sig någon form av försiktighetsprincip. är man i närheten av en grundlagsfråga då ska man vara extra försiktig och kanske ta till mera än vad en strikt juridisk tolkning kräver att man ska göra
Ekot 13/11 2008

En ny folkomröstning om euron bör hållas senast 2011.
Det kräver nu folkpartiets ledning, som anser att finanskris och stundande lågkonjunktur gör att frågan om att byta valuta har blivit ”akut”.

SvD 2 november 2008

Obamas segermarginal mindre än hälften av Nej-sidans i EMU-omröstningen
Rolf Englund blog 5/11 2008

Flash
Lissabonfördraget lämnar efter sig ett påträngande behov att följderna av vårt medlemskap i EU återspeglas i grundlagen
Lissabonfördraget tar de sista avslutande stegen i en flerårig reformprocess
För att synliggöra detta behöver regeringsformens ändras
Rapport från Sieps, Författare: Carl Fredrik Bergström, oktober 2008

Sahlin säger nej till EMU-omröstning
Vid ett maktskifte 2010 blir det ingen ny folkomröstning om att införa euro i Sverige.
DN 2008-11-02

Carl Bildt hoppas nu på en ny debatt om en svensk euro-anslutning.
"Sverige och EU ska tacka sin lyckliga stjärna för att euron finns, säger Bildt
"Man kan ju tänka sig vilket kaos det hade blivit i Europa i den här situationen utan euron
Dagens Industri/TT 27/10 2008

Spanish unemployment hit a four-year high in the third quarter as tens of thousands of jobs were lost at the end of a decade-long housing boom
Until last year Spain was one of Europe's engines of economic growth and job creation.
Largely thanks to a massive home-building boom, the economy created over a third of all new jobs in euro zone in the past decade.

Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2008

För att försvara den danska kronan höjer Nationalbanken räntan med 50 punkter till 5,50 procent.
Nationalbanken har spenderat stora delar av valutareserven
"I början av månaden hade man omkring 160 miljarder danska kronor, de nya siffrorna kommer i månadsskiftet, men mitt antagande är att den summan minskat med cirka 40 procent."

DI 2008-10-24

Skall Urban Bäckström och Svenskt Näringsliv tvingas göra en pudel?
"Vi anser att aktiv stabiliseringspolitik inte skall bedrivas."
Rolf Englund blog 26/10 2008

Euroskeptics are easy to find in the Nordic capitals, and they won't accept that the financial turmoil has boosted the argument for the common currency.
"That's a totally ludicrous (amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity) assertion.
My view is that the euro will burst, and the sooner the better," said Rolf Englund, an economist who campaigned against the euro when Swedes rejected the currency in a 2003 referendum.

International Herald Tribune, October 16, 2008

EU hade som union ingenting att ställa upp med. De åtgärder som vidtogs efter mötet, där Gordon Brown från England utanför Euron, var tongivande, gjordes av medlemsländernas regeringar.
Inte av EU, inte av EU-kommissionen, inte av EU-rådet.
Rolf Englund blog 18/10 2008

Vill moderaterna introducera euron som Sveriges officiella valuta?
Läs moderaternas svar här

Varför vill moderaterna inte ha folkomröstning om Lissabonfördraget?
"Vi anser att Lissabonfördraget ska hanteras på samma sätt som tidigare fördragsändringar, genom en öppen process med debatter och propositioner i riksdagen."
Bilagan Europafakta, Medborgaren nr 5 2008

ECB policy rates are now at 3.75%, and it was not even the most important decision the ECB took yesterday.
That was to make unlimited funds available to the banking system at the new repo rate.
In terms of liquidity policy, this is the nuclear option.
The ECB is now providing banks with unlimited funds of 3.75%.

Illiquidity can no longer be a reason for a bank to get into difficulty. Whatever problems we are seeing now, they will be do to insolvency.
Eurointelligence 9.10.2008

Krugman har fått Nobel-priset
Krugman published two seminal papers in 1979 and 1980 that made sense of the fact that Toyota sells cars in Germany and Mercedes-Benz sells cars in Japan.
Edward L. Glaeser, an economist at Harvard, New York Times October 13, 2008

Paul Krugman about the break-up of EMU

Has the international financial crisis exposed the cracks in the European Union's single market?
And are concerns over the economic national interest now over-riding the broader goal of European integration?
These are the questions being asked by those committed to an "ever closer union" referred to in the words of the EU's founding Treaty of Rome.
BBC 6 October 2008

One can sympathise with Berlin. But sharing debts with Italy and Spain was implicit when they agreed to launch the euro.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 08 October 2008
Very Important Article

Ireland was once dubbed the Celtic tiger economy and a model for the accession states of the European Union. However, with its construction and property markets stalling, last week it became the first country among the 15 members of the euro single currency to declare it was officially in recession.
With money markets frozen, Irish banks are seen as particularly dependent on interbank funding to finance loan expansion, which is seen as a vulnerability.
FT September 29 2008

Germany will guarantee all private savings accounts
Hypo Real Estate, Germany's second biggest commercial property lender, is in trouble after a 35bn euro rescue plan collapsed.
Ms Merkel had previously been strongly critical of the Irish and Greek governments' decisions to take independent action to protect all savings deposits.
BBC 5 October 2008

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, deputy leader of Social Democrats,
"The world will never be as it was before the crisis,"

"The United States will lose its superpower status in the world financial system. The world financial system will become more multi-polar."
Reuters 25 Sep 2008

Ireland leads euroland into recession as property crashes
Ireland has become the first country in the eurozone to slide into recession as the torrid housing boom of recent years turns into a deep slump.
Construction was 21pc of GDP at the peak last year, which is even worse than Spain (18pc) and far worse than America (11pc) at the height of the bubble,
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Daily Telegraph 25 Sep 2008

"Det var en väldigt stökig dag. Ingen har velat hålla i Swedbankobligationer,
så handeln med dessa har pajat ihop"

DI 2008-09-24

- Den fasta växelkursen är en av hörnstenarna i vår ekonomi
Andrus Säälik, 32, chefsanalytiker Estlands finansdepartement, DN Ekonomi 26/6 2008

Mona Sahlin om Anna Lindh:
"käcka lilla Anna med den rosa kavajen"
Mona intervjuad i DN 2008-09-10

The crucial problem on this side of the Atlantic is that the largest European banks have become not only too big to fail, but also too big to be saved.
The total liabilities of Deutsche Bank (leverage ratio over 50!) amount to about €2,000bn (more than Fannie Mae) or more than 80 per cent of the gross domestic product of Germany.
This is simply too much for the Bundesbank or even the German state, given that the German budget is bound by the rules of the European Union’s stability pact
Daniel Gros and Stefano Micossi, Financial Times, September 23 2008

Could the credit crunch destroy the Eurozone?
The historical precedent is not the Great Crash of 1929.
Rather, it is the Japanese property bubble of 1989 and the deflation and long-term stagnation which followed.
George Irvin, EU Observer, 31/7 2008

Spain's Children of the Boom Confront the Bust
Time Magazine, August 7, 2008

Det ryktas, obekräftat hittills, att planer finns att i östra östra Europa, av vissa tidigare delar av den tidigare Sovjetiska Unionen, däribland Georgien, Stalins födelseland, skapa en ny östeuropeisk union Eastern European Union - EEU.
Rolf Englund blog 2008-08-19

Mostly Spain
Banks becoming addicted to the liquidity window in Frankfurt
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph, 21/8 2008

Mona Sahlin i Almedalen 2008
Lyfte fram sin roll i den ekonomiska krisuppgörelsen 1992.
Medan Fredrik Reinfeldt slogs om ordförandeposten i Muf, lekte hon med de stora grabbarna
Lotta Fogde, Kolumn DN 16/7 2008

ABG Sundal Collier spår högre baltiska kreditförluster för Swedbank och SEB.
DI 2008-07-29

Gatorna är klädda med såväl Frankrikes som Europeiska Unionens flagga.
Men det jag kommer att titta speciellt på är vårt Gripen-flygplan i parad över Paris.
Det är det ungerska flygvapnet som deltar med ett av sina Gripen-flygplan.
Jag kommer att applådera.
Carl Bildt 14/7 2008

Demokrati blir mest ett hinder
FRA-lagen och förringandet av irländarnas nej till Lissabonfördraget är två nyliga, illavarslande tecken på att grundläggande värden nu är hotade
Sverker Gustavsson, Aftonbladet 8/7 2008

"Very nice dear, but what's it for?"
Sarkozy's Club Med
Mark Mardell, BBC 11 Jul 2008

Will Sarkozy's Mediterranean union be more than a big photo-op?
Herald Tribune 14/7 2008

De nordiska bankerna har tillsammans en utlåning på 450 miljarder kronor i Baltikum.
Störst utlåning har Swedbank och SEB med 182 miljarder kronor respektive 139 miljarder kronor
DN 2008-07-03

Nicolas Sarkozy will perform a diplomatic feat on Sunday when he
gathers together 40 prime ministers and presidents to launch the Union for the Mediterranean,
his drive to revive economic and political co-operation between the northern and southern shores of mare nostrum.
Financial Times, July 10 2008

Den stigande räntan drabbar inte svenskarna lika hårt som i många andra länder i Europa.
Den svenska ekonomin är betydligt bättre än i övriga EU, vilket gör det möjligt att kombinera räntehöjningen med en expansiv finanspolitik med bland annat sänkta skatter.
Lars Calmfors, Ekonomiekot 4 juli 2008

Spain, Ireland `Thrown to the Wolves'
July 4 2008 (Bloomberg)

Goldman Sachs sågar Swedbank
Den nya rekommendationen är sälj från tidigare neutral
Goldman räknar med att Swedbanks vinst kommer att falla med tanke på kommande kreditförluster i Baltikum.
DI 2008-07-04

The referendum is a device viewed with suspicion by those who believe in representative government.
Yet first the French and Dutch, and now the Irish, have used the referendum to defend representative government.
Larry Siedentop, Financial Times July 1 2008
Very Important Article

There are so many shoes dropping now that you could have the whole of Imelda Marcos’s wardrobe falling off now.
The biggest lending has been by the Austrian banks into areas like Poland, Hungary, and this is where we see the contagion risk coming back into developed Europe.
In the Baltic States, however, it’s the Swedish.
Gillian Tett, Financial Times February 3 2008

Trots den höga inflationen skall ska Estlands valuta fortsätta att vara bunden till euron.
- Den fasta växelkursen är en av hörnstenarna i vår ekonomi
Andrus Säälik, 32, chefsanalytiker Estlands finansdepartement, DN Ekonomi 26/6 2008

I can think of only two reasons, why the loss of Lisbon should excite such anger and determination.
First, it doesn’t matter what the treaty does. It is just unacceptable for one small country to thwart the will of the political leaderships of the big countries.
The second reason could be that the treaty is crucial because it is the next stage in the drive for political union, which began with the Single European Act and continued with Maastricht and the creation of the Euro. Lisbon, in itself, is a disappointingly small step towards political union.
But - if it is stopped - the whole process is stopped.
And that is unacceptable.

Gideon Rachman, Financial Times June 24, 2008

Dilemmat för de baltiska länderna är att de har bundit sig hårt till euron.
Likheten med Sverige för drygt femton år sedan är en ekonomi som går in i väggen.
Hög inflation och fast växelkurs har tillsammans en förödande inverkan

Johan Schück, DN Ekonomi 2008-06-27

Jag hittade i dag en gammal artikel av mig själv.
Rösta inte på partierna som lägger sig platt.
Vi måste förhindra att EU-författningen kuppas igenom

Rolf Englund, Barometern 31/3 2004

Ett lagförslag för att registrera och kontrollera bloggare har röstats igenom av Europaparlamentets utskott för kultur och utbildning.
Media är viktigt för att skydda demokratin, och bloggar är ett betydelsefullt bidrag till mångfalden, konstaterar kulturutskottet.
Men de tillägger att det finns ett behov av att kontrollera att inte felaktig information sprids.

Dagens Nyheter 2008-06-26

Ett övertygande nej från Irland som sänder chockvågor över Europa.
DN 13/6 2008

The Irish No campaign won by 862,415 votes to 752,451. Turnout was 53.1%.
Irish PM Brian Cowen said he respected the vote but it had caused a "difficult situation" that had "no quick fix"
"The government accepts and respects the verdict of the Irish people."

BBC 13/6 2008

Ireland should vote no to EU treaty
As the only EU country to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, Ireland today carries the can for the cowardly evasions of its partners.
Daily Telegraph 12/6 2008

Det finns tydliga tecken på en rejäl avmattning i Estland, Lettland och Litauen.
Inflation, svagare privatkonsumtion, sjunkande huspriser och lägre byggnadsinvesteringar
Det framgår av Nordeas årliga rapport "Baltic Rim Outlook"
SvD E24 11/6 2008

Nej-sidan växer på Irland
Svd 10 juni 2008

Ett irländskt nej skulle stoppa detta ”mini-fördrag” som tillkom som en nödlösning efter nederlagen för EU-konstitutionen i Frankrike och Nederländerna 2005.
Både politiskt och tekniskt skulle ett irländskt nej innebära ett mycket dramatiskt bakslag för EU-samarbetet.
Rolf Gustavsson SvD 11/6 2008

Ireland is in a unique and historic position as the only country required to ratify Lisbon with a democratic vote.
Ireland has a duty to vote no on June 12. Then the EU must work to address the democratic deficit which lies at the heart of its problems.
And then all the EU citizens must have their say.
Gary Byrnes, Dublin, The Guardian, June 11 2008

“June 12 is a great opportunity to hand Europe back to the half a billion people it belongs to.
We have to send a firm message to Europe’s leaders and send them back to the drawing board,” Mr Ganley, the businessman who leads Libertas, told reporters.
Financial Times 11/6 2008

Irish voters were warned on Monday that the rest of the European Union would look at them with “gigantic incomprehension” if they rejected the bloc’s Lisbon reform treaty in Thursday’s referendum.
FT June 9 2008

Europa håller andan inför EU-omröstning
Rolf Gustavsson SvD 31 maj 2008

Irlands folkomröstning och mp:s utträdeskrav
Per Gahrton (mp) 2008-06-08

Danmark
47 procent, vill övergå till euron
45 procent vill behålla kronan.

När Gallup, som gjort undersökningen, för bara två veckor sedan frågade samma sak, ledde euroanhängarna med 52 mot 40 procent.
Rapport 9 juni 2008

The global credit crisis is threatening to undermine the stability of the banking systems of Sweden and Norway
Financial Times June 4 2008

I Lettland är inflationen den högsta inom EU och
lönerna steg rekordsnabbt med smått ofattbara 30 procent förra året.

Ekot 9 juni 2008

Irland ska rösta om Lissabonfördraget den 12 juni.
Fördraget är ett stort steg mot Europas förenta stater.
Ett nej vore välkommet eftersom detta är en sämre kopia av det tidigare förkastade konstitutionsförslaget.
Vi Europavänner är inte nöjda med lite ökad insyn från våra nationella parlament. Detta är centralism om än i demokratiska former
Carl-Johan Westholm Dagens Industri 7 juni 2008

Daniel Cohn-Bendit är fortfarande vår fiende
So what if the Irish did vote No?
In an interview with Le Monde, MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit said
that an Irish No vote will put the question about the functioning of Europe back on the table of the French presidency and with it the question of veto rights. He argued a No vote should have consequences: If a country votes No, it should leave the European Union.
Eurointelligence 9/6 2008

On February 4, the French Parliament voted in the bill modifying title XV of the French Constitution in Versailles, and three days later, on February 7, the Treaty of Lisbon was formally ratified.
How did we go from the voters’ refusals to the adoption of the text by Parliament in 2008?
Online Journal June 5, 2008

Fördraget på LO-kongressen - ingen blev överkörd
I ett känsloladdat anförande talade hon,
kongressordföranden Eva Nilsson,
om vikten av sammanhållning.
Lars Nyberg, EU-samordnare på LO 2008-06-05

Majoritet mot EU-fördrag i Irland
Motståndarna mot EU-fördraget är för första gången fler än anhängarna i Irland där en folkomröstning hålls nästa vecka
DN/TT 2008-06-06

Ireland May Reject New EU Treaty, Irish Times Poll Indicates
The new European Union treaty may be defeated in a referendum in Ireland next week
Bloomberg

A special report on EU enlargement
The Economist print May 29th 2008

European banks harder hit by credit crunch
Of the $387bn in credit losses $200bn was suffered by European groups and $166bn by US banks,
Gillian Tett, FT June 5 2008

Vattnet vid 23 svenska badplatser uppfyllde inte EU:s krav förra året, enligt EU-kommissionens rapport
DN nyhetsplats 2008-06-02

Remember Winston Churchill’s phrase about "fighting them on the beaches".
Well our beaches are entirely subject to the European Commission’s directives.

John Blundell, 12/3 2006

S kör över LO om Lissabonfördraget
Socialdemokraterna kommer inte att följa LO-kongressens beslut att socialdemokraterna ska vänta med att rösta ja till Lissabonfördraget. LO vill att omröstningen äga rum först efter att regeringens utredning av den så kallade Vaxholmsdomen är klar.
Men socialdemokraterna tänker inte vänta.
Ekot tisdag 3 juni 2008

LO visade vägen - Men socialdemokraterna valde att inte sätta press på regeringen
Inte för allt smör i Småland ville LO-ledningen och den socialdemokratiska partitoppen koppla ihop godkännandet av det nya EU-fördraget i riksdagen med att ställa krav på regeringen att säkerställa fackliga organisationers rätt att vidta stridsåtgärder för att tvinga fram kollektivavtal.
östran 4/6 2008

LO-kongressen beslutade sent på måndagskvällen, efter ett par timmars debatt, att regeringens Vaxholmsutredning blir klar innan riksdagen tar ställning till Lissabonfördraget.
Anders Selnes, Europaportalen, 2008-06-03

På vissa politiska frågor finns inga självklara lösningar. Hur fackföreningsrörelsen ska hantera följderna av EU-domstolens dom i Lavalfallet är en av dem.
Klart är att domen innebär en allvarlig inskränkning av fackets konflikträtt.
Om domen blir vägledande kommer utländska företag kunna etablera sig i Sverige och betala löner som ligger långt under de svenska.

Martin Lindblom, politisk redaktör för LO-Tidningen, 2008-06-03

Jean Claude Juncker announced that
the deadline for a balance budget is postponed from 2010 to 2012
Eurointelligence 3/6 2008

There is no excuse for Britain not to join euro
The case for the UK shedding sterling and adopting the euro has never been clearer.
Willem Buiter, FT June 2 2008

Why would the euro fall? Because the currency is still an experiment in cooperation.
At some point, one or more of the weaker European countries is going to need more monetary stimulation than the majority of the countries in the union, for a variety of reasons.
Will they pull out to be able to issue their own fiat currency?
John Mauldin May 30 2008

Finansministrarna ska bland annat diskutera erfarenheterna från de första tio åren med EMU - som på det stora hela varit framgångsrika och gett oss en ny, stark, världsvaluta.
Anna Kinberg Batra (m) 2008-06-02

Regeringen har beslutat överlämna Lissabonfördraget till Lagrådet
Regeringen 29/5 2008

Nergelius tycks mig alltför kategorisk när han säger att ”Sverige hade och alltjämt har en skyldighet att gå med i EMU”.
Olle Abrahamsson, rättschef i Justitiedepartementet, Europaportalen 30/5 2008

Sveriges chefsförhandlare, handelsminister Ulf Dinkelspiels uttalande
Riksdagen skulle besluta om en övergång från fas två till fas tre i EMU.
Vid de avslutade förhandlingarna hade Dinkelspiels uttalande även tillägget att
det var ”Mot bakgrund av denna position [var Sverige berett] att stänga kapitel 23 om ekonomisk och monetär politik."
Den svenska positionen var alltså ett villkor för att anse förhandlingarna stängda.
Jesper Katz, Europaportalen 2008-05-27

Britain is better off outside the euro
If a country is to join the eurozone, its people must be willing to cope with the consequences forever,
however unpleasant they may sometimes be.

Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 29 2008

ECB marking its 10th anniversary June 1, has failed in each of the last eight years to achieve its aim of bringing inflation below 2 percent.
Sticking with the current number may result in ``a pyrrhic victory by pushing inflation within target but having destroyed the real economy,''
says Thomas Mayer, chief European economist at Deutsche Bank AG in London.
Bloomberg May 27 2008

Emu’s second 10 years may be tougher
Martin Wolf, FT May 27 2008

Ministers fear Irish may reject Lisbon treaty
The yes camp can point out that it has a significant lead, having gone up 3 per cent since the last poll. But the no camp has been heartened by the fact that its increase has been 5 per cent, its best-ever showing.
The Independent Monday, 26 May 2008

Munkhammar: Sverige har missat eurons fördelar
Regel nummer ett i politisk kommunikation: Ljug inte om sådant som kan kontrolleras.
Europaportalen maj 2008

EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy:
No Sane Person Would Read Lisbon Treaty
Deutsche Welle 24.05.2008

Our shared Anglo-Celtic culture has long been a well-spring of free enterprise
(with Dutch, Swedish, and Hanseatic help in fighting European absolutism along the way), and
that is what is so threatened by the Lisbon Treaty, the treaty to end all EU treaties.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 26/05/2008

Om boken "En olaglig folkomröstning" /EMU/ av Joakim Nergelius
Rolf Englund 21 maj 2008

Som lagrådet påpekade i sitt yttrande över det konstitutionella fördraget ”synes det ... väl kunna hävdas att principerna för statsskicket påverkas enligt det nya fördraget”.
Remissvar Lissabonfördraget Siep, Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier, 25 mars 2008
Nu med Ny Gratis länk till Lagrådet!

Trots den positiva opinionsvinden består skillnader i stödet till EU mellan olika sociala och politiska grupper.
Sieps European Policy Analysis 2008:5, Författare: Sören Holmberg

Germany - an emerging superpower?
Comparisons with the 1930s
Sara Moore The European Journal, May 2008

Dags för euron i Sverige
Sverige förlorar i storleksordningen 100 miljarder i exportintäkter på att inte vara med i eurosamarbetet.
Anders Ekberg (fp) 2008-04-09

Swedish Foreign Minister Awarded Foreign Policy Award
Turkish State Minister Mehmet Aydin said Bildt made important contributions to Turkey`s accession process to the EU. turkishpress.com 5/13/2008

"Starkt stöd för EU"
Nästan en majoritet av svenskarna är nu positiva till medlemskap.
Stödet för införandet av euro som valuta går dock svagt nedåt.
Frågan om Sverige bör anta EU:s nya fördrag visar att en överväldigande majoritet (70 procent) ännu inte har tagit ställning.
Sieps Nyhetsbrev Maj 2008

"Positiva opinionsvindar för EU"
Siep 2007

Ett eventuellt irländskt nej till Lissabonfördraget skapar en ny kris för EU:s ledare.
I Sverige skulle anti-EU-krafterna stärkas.

På spel står det med möda ompaketerade fördraget, i stort sett detsamma som förkastades 2005.
DN huvudledare 19/5 2008

Vi vill öka möjligheten att pröva om tillämpningen av lagar och förordningar strider mot vår grundlag
genom slopande av det så kallade uppenbarhetsrekvisitet och inrättandet av konstitutionell kammare - en författningsdomstol inom ramen för vår domstolsordning.
Medlemmar av Grundlagsutredningen som företräder samtliga allianspartier samt miljöpartiet, DN Debatt 20 maj 2008

BBC: Irish referendum
The Irish Republic is the only European Union member state to have a public vote
Four high-profile voices in the debate
Click on the links below to read what they have to say.
12 May 2008

The European Emperor wears new clothes:
he has thrown off the insignia of statehood. But he has not abandoned the substance of the old constitutional treaty.
Professor Roland Vaubel, The Bruges Group 2008

Folkomröstningar är måhända inte den optimala formen för beslut i komplexa frågor.
Det är angeläget att vi får en tidsplan, inför nästa mandatperiod, för en EMU-anslutning och så småningom för ett införande av euron.

Det tror jag skulle öka framtidstron bland för små- och medelstora företag.
Marie Weibull Kornias (m), Europaportalen 2008-05-12

Marie Weibull Kornias (m) frågar sig hur länge EU kommer att tolerera att vi inte inför euron.
Svaret på den frågan är enkel. Så länge som vi är en självständig stat kommer de att göra det. Lissabonfördraget kan dock bli ett problem.
Erik Lakomaa och Rola Brentlin
Europaportalen 2008-05-16.

The risk that the Irish will vote No to the Lisbon
treaty on June 12th is rising

The Economist print May 8th 2008

One of the non-party-political groups that opposes the Lisbon treaty is a free-market ginger group known as Libertas.
It kicked off its "no" campaign at the start of this month with giant posters of Tony Blair's former spin doctor and the slogan underneath: "Say no to Mandelson's Europe".
Click

även Irland och kanske England
Mycket lutar åt att det blir två danska folkomröstningar i höst,
när statsminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen ska hålla sitt löfte att fråga väljarna om de vill avskaffa de fyra undantag Danmark har i EU-samarbetet.
Regeringen tror att det vore oklokt att ha med frågan om eurons införande bland de andra, eftersom danskarna då kan säga nej til hela paketet.
Europanytt 15/05/2008

Quotable Quotes:
“the proposals we dare not present directly”
The /Irish/ National Platform EU Research & Information Centre

The EU power game has begun
Behind closed doors, over diplomatic dinners, in the corridors of departments, embassies, ministries and chanceries, Europe’s rulers are playing a “once in a lifetime” game for the future of the European Union.
Bruno Waterfield, 11 May 2008
Highly Recommended

Vem ska bli svensk ambassadör för Sveriges EU-ambassad i Bryssel.
Problemet är att ende sökande är en person som utrikesminister Carl Bildt absolut inte vill ha, nämligen Göran Perssons förre statssekreterare Lars Danielsson.
Ekot 16 maj 2008

Europadagen - överhetens stora dag
Rolf Englund blog 9/5 2008

EU har av vissa kallats för fästning Europa.
Det är nu hög tid att vi slår hål på fästningen och låter mer av den fria rörlighet som vi har inom unionen också gälla för de människor från länder utanför unionen som vill komma och arbeta och bidra till Europas välfärd.
Migrationen i världen ökar. Den främsta orsaken till att människor lämnar sina hemländer är att de vill lämna fattigdom och svåra förhållanden bakom sig, med förhoppningar om arbete och en bättre ekonomisk framtid någon annanstans, kanske i Sverige eller i övriga EU. Dessa människor varken kan eller bör hållas borta genom fler gränskontroller och murar.
Tobias Billström och Cecilia Malmström, SvD Brännpunkt 9 maj 2008

What is remarkable is that the European Commission is departing from the previous line that economic reforms should be dealt with purely under the framework of the Lisbon Agenda.
This report acknowledges that there are euro area-specific, rather than EU specific, externalities in economic reforms.
And while the Commission does not favour a new Lisbon Agenda for the euro area alone, it proposes structures to deal with implementing reform policy co-ordination at the euro area level.

Eurointelligence 8/5 2008

To those loudly insisting all this week that Britain should have joined the euro ten years ago,
I can only say: are you completely mad?

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 08 May 2008
Highly recommended

The unemployment rate in Spain jumped the most in 15 years to a three-year high
as the building market contracted. The jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent
April 25 2008 Bloomberg

Celebrating 10 years of the euro?
By Stephanie Flanders
Economics editor, BBC News 7/5 2008

The pain in Spain
Spain's long property boom has come to a painful end
The experience of Sweden, where housing investment declined by 71% between the peak in 1990 and the first (not final) trough in 1995, suggests that such adjustments can be dramatic.
The Economist April 22nd 2008

German conservative MP Peter Gauweiler repeated his intention to bring the treaty before the country's constitutional court.
"What Brussels is supposed to get in powers is not compatible with our democratic principles,"
He said his reason for bringing the case is the constitutional court's loss of power to the European court. The constitutional court has until now kept an eye on the inalienable rights of German citizens given to them by Germany's constitution (Grundgesetz), he noted.
EU Observer 25/4 2008

Even in a border-free Europe, everyone wants a homeland
The Economist print edition March 27th 2008

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's 'Mr Euro',
matters could get out of hand unless America took steps to halt the slide in the dollar.
Daily Telegraph 19/4 2008

The euro hit a record high against the dollar after data
showed eurozone inflation hits its highest level since the introduction of the single currency. - 3.6 per cent in March.
FT 2008-04-16

Europe's monetary union, which launched the euro almost a decade ago,
remains an "experiment" with the outcome "likely to remain uncertain for a considerable time to come"
writes Otmar Issing, who served as the European Central Bank's chief economist for its first eight years
Financial Times, April 16 2008
Highly Recommended

The collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is mutating into a global phenomenon,
with real estate prices swooning from the Irish countryside and the Spanish coast to Baltic seaports
New York Times 14/4 2008

Lavaldomen i Vaxholmsfallet är bara det senaste exemplet på att EU-projektet syftar till att förvandla Europas oberoende nationalstater till ett federalt Storeuropa.
Det betyder att den socialdemokratiska partiledningen har svikit sina väljare eftersom man alltid lovat att motarbeta att EU utvecklas mot överstatlighet.
Sören Wibe, DN Debatt 2008-04-16

Though many observers are rightly concerned about Spain, it may be Ireland that becomes the next serious test of EMU’s one-size-fits-all monetary policy.
Alan Ahearne, Eurointelligence 6/4 2008

In truth, as the euro approaches its tenth birthday celebrations, it is facing the biggest test of its short life
The euro is about to show the world that it is not yet an optimal currency area — and the demonstration may not be a pretty one.
The Economist print, April 10th 2008

The ECB chief reiterated that the bank remains "inflexibly attached" to its goal of maintaining price stability.
"If we had reduced interest rates, the moral hazard is that we would have been asking citizens to bail out the banks."
EU Observer 26/3 2008

EU Reform: Hidden Agenda
A stable framework would be the purpose of a genuine constitution. It would set out clearly those matters that are the responsibility of the E.U., and those that remain the responsibility of the member states. It is this that Europe badly needs.
And it can be secured if, and only if, the federalist dream is explicitly abandoned.
Nigel Lawson, Time Magazine 26/3 2008

Transport: EU-fördraget måste behandlas som en grundlag
Martin Viredius, andre vice ordförande, Europaportalen, 2008-03-25

Det är dock inte tillfredsställande att grundlagen ger ett så vagt och otydligt besked om förutsättningarna för Sveriges medlemskap i EU. Som lagrådet påpekade i sitt yttrande över det konstitutionella fördraget ”synes det ... väl kunna hävdas att principerna för statsskicket påverkas enligt det nya fördraget”.
SIEPS remissvar på Lissabon

Nästan alla politiska rörelser i Sverige är motståndare till en EU-stat, också de flesta EU-anhängare.
Man måste som EU-kritiker inse att ett aktivt utträdeskrav riskerar att motverka huvudsyftet med EU-kritiken - nämligen att förhindra att demokratin och självbestämmandet krossas under en överdriven och odemokratisk överstatlighet.
Per Gahrton DN Debatt 29/2008

Persson misstog sig om EMU.
Helt fel idé, sa Ulvskog. Fel tidpunkt, sa Nuder.
Olle Svenning, Aftonbladet 2008-03-01

Hos de nya moderaterna frodas starka euroskeptiska strömningar.
Dokumentet avspeglar hur de nya moderaterna försöker gå dessa opinioner till mötes, vilket rent partitaktiskt naturligtvis är begripligt.
Valet till EU-parlamentet nästa år hotar bli en katastrof för partiet.
Rolf Gustavsson SvD 17 februari 2008

Fredrik Reinfeldts linjetal om Europas framtid i Europaparlamentet
Europaparlamentet den 19 februari 2008

Det finns groteska exempel på hur EU-parlamentets ledamöter har brukat pengar de får för att betala assistenter.
Det säger två svenska ledamöter som läst en intern rapport om hur pengarna används och redovisas.
DN 25/2 2008

LO och förbunden, egentligen hela den samlade arbetarrörelsen borde kräva ett undantag för den svenska arbetsmarknadsmodellen i förhandlingarna om Lissabonfördraget – EU:s nya grundlag.
Att inte ställa detta krav är ett svek mot svenska löntagare.
Alternativt måste en folkomröstning komma till stånd.
Johan Lindholm, Ordförande Byggettan, Roland Ljungdell, Ordförande Byggnads Södra Skåne, Tomas Emanuelsson, Ordförande Byggtolvan Göteborg
LO-Tidningen 2008-02-22

The European Commission Predicts Weaker Growth, Higher Inflation in 2008
The economy of the 15 nations that share the euro will expand 1.8 percent this year, the weakest since 2005.
Inflation will average 2.6 percent, the fastest since the euro was introduced in 1999
Feb. 21 2008(Bloomberg)

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist,
The European Central Bank's mandate, which sets price stability as the sole objective, is ``flawed'' because it prevents ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet from supporting job creation.
Bloomberg Feb. 26 2008

-Vi har det som i dag är EU att tacka för att militärdiktaturer har ersatts av demokratier, att Berlinmuren fallit, och att kommunism och planekonomi ersatts av frihet och marknadsekonomi.
Rapport från Nya Moderaterna, februari 2008. Författaren till rapporten är ingen mindre än EU-nämndens ordförande,
Anna Kinberg Batra

Spanish banks doubled their share of the ECB’s weekly funding auctions, taking their borrowing up to €44bn.
Financial Times February 11 2008 22:01

EU treaty ratification may be delayed in Germany
The text then needs to be signed off by the country's president, Horst Kohler.
If Mr Gauweiler, a centre-right politician from CSU put a case before the he country's constitutional court...
EU Observer 20/2 2008

Regeringens överskottsmål sågas av Assar Lindbeck
"Jag föreslår att man avvecklar överskottsmålet", säger han
Veckans Affärer 2008-02-20

”Niklas Wykman, ordförande i moderata ungdomsförbundet”:
Folkomrösta om EU:s nya fördrag”
Den gemensamma valutan är ”ingen frihetsidé” utan ”ett maktprojekt från Bryssel”
Muf gillar heller inte EU:s nya fördrag.
SvD Nyhetsplats 15 januari 2008

Moderaterna måste "förnyas eller dö", enligt statsminister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Nu har turen kommit till Europapolitiken.
I fredags presenterade partiets ledning en rapport inför valet till Europaparlamentet våren 2009.
Den europeiska valutan tillägnas tre meningar.
DN huvudledare 11/2 2008

Persson om Bildt och folkomröstning om EMU

”Det är helt enkelt så att vår tids riksdag inte är komplett utan en EU-flagga”,
skriver bland andra EU-nämndens ordförande Anna Kinberg Batra (m) i en motion.
Cecilia Malmström är positiv till att pryda kammaren med EU:s fana:
Det handlar om att bryta tabut att EU bara är utrikespolitik. Europadagen, den 9 maj, ska bli allmän flaggdag.
SvD nyhetsplats 15/10 2007

Nergelius anser att folkomröstningen om euron var ”ett fullkomligt gigantiskt fiasko för hela det svenska politiska och ekonomiska etablissemanget, utan motstycke i modern svensk historia”.
Efter folkomröstningen om euron 2003 har tystnaden emellertid varit nästan total, trots att hela det etablerade Sverige efter det totala nederlag som omröstningen utgjorde borde ligga på analyssoffan.
Annika Ström Melin, SvD Kultur 6/2 2008
i anledning av Joakim Nergelius, ”En olaglig folkomröstning. Sverige och EMU” (Santérus förlag).

Carl Bildts anförande i riksdagen 1997
Klicka här

Frankrike godkände nya EU-fördraget
Skillnaderna mot det ursprungliga förslaget är i mångt och mycket symboliska, som att delarna om en EU-hymn och flagga har tagits bort.
Omröstningen skedde i skuggan av den franske presidenten Nicolas Sarkozys bröllop och föranledde inte några större diskussioner.
DN, reporter Marianne Björklund, 4/2 2008

Regeringen skrotar förslaget om sänkt arbetsgivaravgift för vissa tjänsteföretag
på grund av de krav som EU ställer.

Nu måste man hitta på ett nytt alternativ för att inte svika sitt vallöfte.
Rapport 5 februari 2008

Reformfördraget måste ratificeras, och dess genomförande under 2009 måste konkret förberedas.
Vi måste se över de olika fredsinstrument vi har - diplomatiska, ekonomiska och militära.
Skall vi vara en verklig fredsmakt måste vi också ha instrument som fullt ut svarar mot våra ambitioner.
Carl Bildt DN 2/1 2008

Allt ”svenskt” uran är EU:s egendom
Våren 2009 när vi skall välja politiker till EU-parlamentet kan vi börja protestera.
Björn von der Esch, Västerbottens-Kuriren 29/1 2008

Carl Bildt (m) och Margot Wallström (s) förefaller plötsligt stöpta i samma slev.
”Nu måste vi göra EU till en militär fredsmakt”
Lars Bergquist, Carl Björeman och Karl Erik Lagerlöf, SvD Brännpunkt 3/2 2008

Med det nya Lissabonfördraget får EU en tydlig röst i utrikespolitiska frågor och arbetet för fred och säkerhet stärks.
förena våra krafter och resurser för att bedriva en verkligt samlad och enhetlig utrikespolitik för EU
Margot Wallström SvD Brännpunkt 13/1 2008

Låt oss rösta om EU-konstitutionen
Margit Gennser, Björn von der Esch och Rola Brentlin,
Västerviks-Tidningen 2008-01-23

En dag på Finanspolitiska Rådet
Ni kommer väl ihåg EMU-debattens inslag om Buffertfonder, en EMU-skatt
Rolf Englund blog 29/1 2008

Tur för USA att dom inte är med i EU för då hade stabilitetspakten lagt hinder i vägen för stimulanspaketet.
Tur för USA att dom inte är med i EMU, för då hade dom inte haft någon ränta som kunde höjas eller sänkas.
Rolf Englund blog

Yet if the storm is peaking in the US, it has hardly begun in Europe.
"The next really big shock to financial markets is likely to be the risk of collapse in the EMU credit bubble: the private sector credit consequences are likely to be catastrophic"
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Jag, Kajsa och Daniel har idag en artikel i Aftonbladet som handlar om folkomröstning om EU-konstitutionen
och hur Reinfeldt borde lyssna på sin kollega Cameron.
Läs den nedan: (finns ej i nätupplagan) januari 10, 2008
"Jag heter Rola Brentlin och är 22 år gammal.
Jag är internationell sekreterare för Moderata ungdomsförbundet."

Det handlar om så stora förändringar av demokratins grundfundament att det är orimligt att beslutet behandlas som vilken fråga som helst.
Om Riksdagen ratificerar fördraget innebär det att de fattar ett beslut som inte kan återställas annat än att Sverige lämnar EU.
Detta är dessutom en fråga där riksdagen saknar mandat att fatta beslut.
Margit Gennser (m), ordförande nätverket folkomrostning.net, Björn von der Esch (kd), riksdagsledamot 1998-2006, Rola Brentlin (m) internationell sekreterare Moderata Ungdomsförbundet

Sundsvalls Tidning 14/1 2008

Stiftelsens styrelse har av resursskäl beslutat att Sverige i Europa i varje fall tills vidare inte skall bedriva någon operativ verksamhet.
Ulf Dinkelspiel, Sverige i Europa

The Dogs Have Barked and the European Caravan Must be Stopped
– A short history of where we are, how we got here and what we do next
Bill Cash, The European Journal

Byggkrasch nära i Spanien
Det är en konsumtionsstyrd ekonomi som i hägnet av gemensamma euron har häpnadsväckande underskott i utrikeshandeln.
Fredrik Braconier

Spain and Italy threaten EMU stability
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

When the flag is removed from the treaty it should also, I guess, be removed from all public institutions in the European Union.
Rolf Englund

"The success of the Monnet method is based on satisfying immediate needs in Europe in a manner consistent with meeting longer-term objectives but actually separate from them. Maybe the inclusion of the flag and the anthem blurred the difference between the short term and the long term in an unhelpful way."
The Federal Union blog /Pro Federal Union/

Can the troubles of the US currency be confined to the financial world or are they set to undermine Washington’s place on the international stage?FT

More about Exit Pax Americana

Ett nytt fördrag är okej,
men någon antiturkisk gränsdragning ska det inte vara.

DN-ledare 2007-12-11

Lissabonfördraget startade som en medborgarnära idé men slutade på det vanliga sättet med politiskt rävspel och frampressade kompromisskrivningar
Det blir inte mer lättsmält av att det i grunden är detsamma som fransmän och holländare har sagt nej till.
SvD ledarblog 2007-12-13

Enskild EU-medborgare berörs minimalt av nya fördraget
Ekot 13 december 2007
EU leaders have signed a treaty in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, that is expected to greatly alter the way members govern themselves.
The treaty creates an EU president and a vastly more powerful foreign policy chief for the Union's 27 nations.
At the same time the document scraps veto powers in many policy areas.
BBC 13/12 2007

The Dutch and French rejections appeared to highlight everything that critics said was wrong with the EU at the time – an inflexible, over-bureaucratised organisation full of arrogant ambitions and convinced that it knew better than the bloc’s 495m people what was good for them.
EU leaders reacted by dropping the concept of a “constitution” from their treaty but keeping as much of the document’s detail as possible.
Financial Times 2007-12-13

Kunde Chavez utlysa folkomröstning om den nya konstitutionen så borde väl Fredrik och Mona också kunna göra det
Rolf Englund blog 13/12 2007

På torsdagen undertecknades det nya EU-fördraget av 27 regeringschefer.
Det är många som kräver folkomröstning men EU:s ledare har verkligen tagit varandras händer i Lissabon för att se till att fördraget går igenom.
Ekot 13 december 2007

Bosnia’s future is crucial to greater Europe
Following the stalling of talks on the future of Kosovo,
a political crisis has now gripped Bosnia.

Tomas Valasek, FT November 28 2007

Companies in Britain and Europe have failed to place a single high-yield bond since the credit crunch kicked off in August, and may now have to wait until next year before the credit market reopens for business.
Will Europe survive the euro?
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph, 29/11/2007

Ett ja till Kosovos självständighet är det enda möjliga, moraliskt och praktiskt och ett samlat europeiskt ja är det enda politiskt möjliga.
PM Nilsson Expressen 25/11 2007

Inflation fears hit eurozone
FT 27/11 2007

ännu en folkomröstning om euron kommer att hållas i Danmark.
För svenska politiker blir det allt svårare att tiga om EMU.

DN-ledare 24/11 2007

Folk har en tendens att inte rösta som politikerna vill när det gäller EU.
Kanske är det därför Fogh Rasmussen inte vill tillåta någon omröstning om det nya EU-fördraget (den så kallade konstitutionen).
Så agerar en full-fjädrad taktiker.
SvD-ledare 24/11 2007

Margit Gennser on the Reform Treaty
European Journal Nov/Dec 2007

As the euro brushes $1.50 against the dollar,
We now have to start asking whether the EU itself will survive in its current form.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 23/11 2007

Referendums on the new European Union Treaty were "dangerous"
and would be lost in France, Britain and other countries, Nicolas Sarkozy has admitted.

Daily Telegraph 2007-11-14

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards
including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries.

BBC 15/11 2007

Nine member states from central and eastern Europe join EU Schengen border-free zone in December.
Checks at internal land and sea borders will be abolished on 21 December,
with air borders to follow in March 2008.
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic
EU Observer 8 november 2007

The European Union Court of Auditors releases it’s key assessment on how our money is spent by the EU.
In a damning indictment of the Brussels institutions, the clear message of the EU’s very own Court of Auditors report is one of fraud, mismanagement and waste.
The Bruges Group, November 2007

Ingen av de moderater som under det senaste året avslöjats som skattefuskare och licensskolkare har vare sig försökt förklara eller försvara sina handlingar, tvärtom har ursäkterna framstått som så patetiska att de gränsat till krokodiltårar.
Anders Isaksson DN 2007-11-06

President Sarkozy urged the US to maintain a strong dollar policy,
warning that “monetary disorder risked turning into economic war”.

FT November 7 2007

The euro soared to another record high against the sagging dollar,
climbing above $1.47 for the first time

CNN 2007-11-07

Carl och Charlotte (Cederschiöld)

Bäste Tomas Tobé!
Jag blev mycket förvånad när jag läste din blogg.
I min enfald förmodade jag att en riksdagsledamot åtminstone skulle vara förmögen att läsa en lagtext.

e-brev från Mikael Gennser oktober 2007

Det moderata ungdomsförbundet Muf fick inget gehör för ett nedbantat EU-fördrag
eller för att Sverige ska begära undantag för euron.

Under lördagen diskuterade den moderata stämman Europafrågor i Gävles konserthus.
Debatten blev stundtals hätsk mot de två muf: are som företrädde en EU-skeptisk hållning.
Anders Selnes, Europaportalen / 2007-10-29

The EU's new treaty is the same as the rejected constitution
- only the format has been changed to avoid referendums, says Valery Giscard d'Estaing,
architect of the constitution.

Le Monde and other European newspapers EU Observer 29.10.2007

Bästa Maria Abrahamsson!
Du skriver på din clogg (corporate blogg):
"Fransk protektionism hör definitivt inte till de intressen som EU:s arresteringsorder är tänkt att skydda."
Var står det i lagtexten?
e-brev från Mikael Gennser oktober 2007

"Regardless of the treaty's merits, this has to be wrong."
On October 18th the leaders of the European Union took the constitution that voters in France and the Netherlands had rejected in 2005,
changed the odd phrase, muddled the odd concept and presented the Lisbon “reform treaty” to the world, boldly declaring
“Ceci n'est pas une constitution” — so there is no need for it to be put to any difficult referendums.

The Economist print 2007-10-25

Muf:are vill ha folkomröstning om EU-fördraget
SvD 26 oktober 2007

Beware the grip of the Euro monster
The impartial think tank Open Europe has found that the two texts are 96% the same.
Indeed, they both extend to the same length, about 63,000 words. Reading them side by side,
the casual reader would judge them to be the same document, with the odd tweak here and there.
The Sunday Times , October 21, 2007

Gordon Brown ruled out further European integration for at least a decade yesterday
as he sought to counter calls for a referendum on the latest transfer of power to Brussels.

But Jose Socrates, the Prime Minister of Portugal, said:
“This treaty is not the end of the story because there is no end.”
The Times, October 20, 2007

Gordon Brown: No more power to Brussels
Gordon Brown has launched a desperate attempt to halt the campaign for an EU referendum with a high-risk pledge to block any further extension of Europe’s power for at least a decade.

With link to Daniel Hannan: Those Euro-myths exploded
Daily Telegraph 20/10/2007

Jose Socrates, the Prime Minister of Portugal, said:
“This treaty is not the end of the story because there is no end.”
The Times, October 20, 2007<

The prime minister was accused by Tories of “treating the British people like fools” by claiming the new treaty was fundamentally different from the treaty thrown out by Dutch and French voters in 2005.
Financial Times 19/10 2007

Folkomröstning om grundlagen
Motion till riksdagen 2007/08:K393
av Sven Bergström m.fl. (c)

Klicka här

Svenskarna måste få folkomrösta om det nya EU-fördraget. Det kräver flera allianspolitiker i strid med regeringens linje.
Folkpartiets EU-parlamentariker Olle Schmidt är en av dem
SvD 18/10 2007

Gunnar Hökmark (m): Europaflaggan symboliserar frihet och samarbete
Carl Schlyter (mp): För mig är det Europarådets flagga som EU kopierat och gjort till sin. Den har gått från att vara en symbol för mänskliga rättigheter i alla länder i Europa till att bli en symbol för stormaktsambitioner
SvD 16/10 2007

Enligt en opinionsundersökning som tidningen Financial Times presenterade på torsdagen
70 procent av väljarna i de stora EU-länderna Storbritannien, Frankrike, Tyskland, Italien och Spanien vill ha en folkomröstning.
DN 18/10 2007

Some 76 per cent of Germans want a referendum, 75 per cent of Britons, 72 per cent of Italians, 65 per cent of Spaniards and 63 per cent of French.
Financial Times 18/10 2007

"Some thougths about the future of the euro"
The real threat to the cohesion of the monetary union is not Italy, or even a post-property-crash Spain.
The real issue is the political gulf between France and Germany.

Susanne Mundschenk and Wolfgang Münchau, Eurointelligence 18/10 2007
Very Important Article

The Economic Implications of the Revived and Renamed EU Constitution
Robert Oulds, Bruges Group, October 2007

I want Britain to hold a referendum on the European Union’s new treaty.
For the European crowd that I know well, advocating a referendum is not simply an act of political treason. It is a gross social faux pas.
There is a range of adjectives that is readily applied to the pro-referendum camp:
xenophobic, spit-flecked, swivel-eyed, Little Englander.
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, October 16 2007

We believe the time has now come when we need not only to reject the impetus to further intervention that would flow from this treaty,
but finally face up to the need to negotiate a new relationship within Europe that better serves our national interests.

Lord Blackwell and Ms Ruth Lea, Financial Times 17/10 2007

EU-nämnden håller ett öppet sammanträde onsdagen den 17 oktober klockan 13.00.
Vid sammanträdet samråder statsminister Fredrik Reinfeldt med EU-nämnden inför det informella stats- och regeringschefsmötet i Lissabon den 18-19 oktober.
Läs mer här

Nu är den svenska politiska debatten om EU:s konstitution lika het som en oktobernatt i Kiruna.
Och inte ska det kallas konstitution heller, utan ”reformerat fördrag”
då det skrämmande k-ordet anses väcka associationer till Europas Förenta Stater, enligt EU-ledarna.

En bombmatta av tillägg till tidigare EU-fördrag och som innebär att en promille av EU:s medborgare kan sätta sig in och förstå den
Expressen ledare 15/10 2007

Arbetsgruppen som genomdrev den stora pensionsreformen 1994.
Utan den insatsen kunde Sverige ha blivit som Italien, ett land med gigantiska svarta hål i form av pensionsskulder
Logiska, självständiga ingenjörstyper som moderaten Margit Gennser och socialdemokraten Anna Hedborg
Niklas Ekdal, signerat, DN 23/9 2007

Sverige betalade näst mest av EU-länderna till unionens budget 2006
TT/di.se 2007-09-24

Det är svårt att se på vilket sätt medborgarnas ställning förbättras genom en EU-grundlag där medlemsstaterna förlorar ytterligare nationell suveränitet och EU:s makt stärks och konsolideras.
Det enda rimliga är att Europas medborgare - inte ett politiskt etablissemang - självständigt avgör om de verkligen får en starkare ställning genom EU-grundlagen.
Nils Lundgren, Europaportalen 4/9 2007

The dollar broke above $1.40 per euro for the first time
Bloomberg 20/9 2007

En folkomröstning om fördraget ”ett reformerat fördrag för EU” är inte lämpligt av flera anledningar.
Det är inte ett bra instrument när en fråga är omfattande och komplex , i det här fallet en lagtext på 450 sidor.
Det skriver Rikard Lind (fp) och Erik åslin Liberala Studenter.
Europaportalen 31/8 2007

Ni blandar ihop fördragstexter
Om man inte ens kan hålla reda på vilken fördragstext som gäller så bör man nog undvika att tala om vad andra människor kan eller inte kan hantera i en valsituation.
Mikael Gennser 2007-08-31

Tryckfriheten
Den andra utmaningen kommer från EU där många länder har en annan tradition.
I valet mellan öppenhet och integritet - särskilt för de mäktiga i samhället - har den kontinentala betoningen ofta legat på det sistnämnda värdet.
I detta avseende har Sverige (och Finland) ingen anledning att EU-anpassa sig.
DN ledare 30/8 2007

David Blunkett, the former home secretary,
challenges Brown on EU vote refusal

Daily Telegraph 30/8 2007

Questions are being raised in Germany about the new treaty,
following Germany’s failure to ratify the constitution.
An appeal lodged with the federal constitutional court obtaining an injunction from the court
preventing the federal president from signing the instrument of ratification
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung/Freeeurope.info

Folkpartiets EU-politiker Olle Schmidt tror att han blir ensam med kravet på folkomröstning av EU-fördraget vid folkpartiets landsmöte i nästa vecka.
Partistyrelsen har föreslagit en ny folkomröstning om euro, eftersom som de anser frågan vara av en avgörande karaktär.
—Det är ologiskt att rösta om euron men inte fördraget. Jag ska tala för folkomröstning i båda fallen, säger Olle Schmidt.
Anders Selnes, Europaportalen / 2007-08-29

Dagens Nyheter, centerpartiet och grundlagsfrågan
Rolf Englund blog 29/8 2007

"Europe must progressively affirm itself as a first-rank player for peace and security, in co-operation with the United Nations, the Atlantic Alliance and the African Union",
"France is not strong without Europe, just as Europe is not strong without France".
Mr Sarkozy said 27 August 200.
EU Observer

Om Centerpartiet
De interna kritikerna har i stort sett tystnat. Meningskiljaktligheterna är vilande.
Nu manifesteras de nästan enbart av den marginaliserade EU-kritikern Hans Lindqvist.
I en motion som bara bär hans namn pläderar han för en folkomröstning om EU-konstitutionen.

Skulle partiet börja rasa i opinionsmätningar skulle fler av partiets mer konservativa nationalstats-romatiker börja höras igen. Men än så länge är EU-frågan död.
DN huvudledare 29 augusti 2007

Ministers began a fightback against growing calls for a referendum on the European Union amending treaty on Tuesday,
insisting the draft document was essentially different from the failed EU constitution.

"the constitutional concept has been abandoned"
Alex Barker, Financial Times Political Correspondent, 29/8 2007

Lars Leijonborg blir kvar i regeringen även när han avgått som partiledare för folkpartiet.
DN nyhetsplats 29/8 2007

Eftersom Malmström och folkpartiet just nu verkar så entusiastiska för folkomröstningar vore det enda anständiga av dem att se till att vi svenskar tillåts folkomrösta om det nya EU-fördraget.
åsa Sundh, Junilistan, Västerbottens-Kuriren augusti 2007

European lawmakers want to see Jose Manuel Barroso grilled over a scandal involving funds to his Social Democratic Party in Portugal
– something also likely to fall under a criminal investigation by the Portuguese state prosecutor.
EU Observer/Financial Times 27/08 2007

En fjärdedel av centerns riksdagsledamöter tar strid med alliansregeringen om hur man ska tackla centraliseringen av EU:s beslutsordning.
Regeringen vägrar att låta svenska folket få säga sitt om EU:s nya "reformfördrag" som ska klubbas vid EU-toppmötet i oktober.
Bara en folkomröstning om EU-fördraget kan skapa legitimitet åt Sveriges roll i det europeiska samarbetet
sju centerpartistiska riksdagsledamöter med Sven Bergström i spetsen
DN Debatt 25/8 2007

I flera EU-länder vill medborgarna folkomrösta om det nya EU-fördraget.
Regeringarna bör fortsätta att säga nej.
DN-ledare 25/8 2007

Axel Weber, president of Germany’s Bundesbank, may rue his choice of words eight days ago.
The bail-out of IKB, a previously little-known listed bank that had been caught in the fallout from the US subprime mortgage crisis earlier in August, was an “isolated, institution-specific incident”, he said.
By late last Friday night, it had happened again.
Financial Times 22/8 2007

The first comparative text of the new constitutional treaty
– it’s exactly the same length as the constitution
Open Europe 16 August 2007

The Action Committee for European Democracy describes itself as "a private and independent initiative by European citizens aiming at overcoming the present stalemate in the EU after the two no-votes on the Constitutional Treaty"
Sixteen in all, they include Giuliano Amato, Michel Barnier, Jean-Luc Dehaene, Danuta Hübner, Sandra Kalniete, Wim Kok, Paavo Lipponen, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, Chris Patten, Otto Schily, Costas Simitis, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, António Vitorino and Margot Wallström.

Conservatives have stepped up the pressure on Gordon Brown to stage a referendum on the new EU Treaty
- by publishing a translated version "in plain English".
Conservative Party August 7, 2007

- The proposed new treaty and supplementary protocols take over almost all the innovations contained in the constitutional treaty. They only leave aside the symbolic changes which were introduced by the constitutional treaty – such as the title of the treaty or the symbols of the union – which are peculiarly linked to the constitutional character of the treaty signed in Rome on 29 October 2004.
Margot Wallström m fl i "The Action Committee for European Democracy" 2007

Vem vet bäst - ECB-chefen Trichet eller Lena Ek (centerpartiet)?
ECB under ledning av Jean-Claude Trichet har skrivit till EU:s ordförandeland Portugal.
Banken vill ändra det nuvarande förslaget till nytt EU-fördrag för att säkra sig från framtida politiska påtryckningar.
—Jag är inte säker på att hans tolkning av förslaget är korrekt, säger EU-politiker Lena Ek (c).
Anders Selnes, Europaportalen / 2007-08-17

The ICM poll for the Daily Mail showed that 82 percent of voters as whole
- and 80 percent of labour voters -
want a referendum on whether to accept the treaty or not.
EU Observer 20/8 2007

The euro slipped to a six-week low against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday and
high-yielding currencies stayed weak as investors continued to unwind risky positions
on concerns that fallout from the U.S. subprime problems is spreading to other countries.
CNBC/Reuters August 14, 2007

Varför betalade ECB 1.800 miljarder kronor för att rädda euron?
Rolf Englund blog 15/8 2007

It says a lot about the state of the European Union that EU leaders want to avoid a referendum at all cost, as a treaty referendum runs a big risk of being defeated in almost any EU countries, perhaps not in Spain or Italy.
I believe that once a referendum makes a call, even one I disagree with, it should not be overriden by parliament, and only by another referendum.
Wolfgang Münchau 19.06.2007

EU skall få en "president" med uppgift att leda EU:s toppmöten och formellt företräda EU utåt.
Dessutom skall EU få en "utrikesminister" som samtidigt ska vara vice ordförande i EU-kommissionen.

Om EU:s regeringschefer fortsätter att utse svaga anpassliga personligheter, som José Manuel Barroso, så ändras inte mycket.
Rolf Gustavsson SvD 21/7 2007

EU:s makt växer på demokratins bekostnad
Tydligare än så kan de europeiska regeringarna inte gärna demonstrera sitt förakt eller sin rädsla för folkstyret. De svenska socialdemokraterna och den borgerliga alliansen har utan protester medverkat i denna skandalösa hantering.
Carl Tham, LO-Tidningen 2007-08-09

In a letter sent to the EU presidency ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet asked for specific changes that would guarantee that the bank has a special status,
separate from other EU institutions such as the parliament and commission.
EU Observer 13/8 2007

The EU's new treaty was deliberately made as unintelligible as possible so as to make it easier to win new powers for Brussels.
That was the lesson they drew from the ill-fated EU constitution when it was voted down by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
The Economist print August 9, 2007

Speculation is mounting that the European Central Bank will seek to arrange a currency swap
with the US Federal Reserve that would allow it to lend dollars to
European banks struggling to meet short-term dollar funding needs.
Financial Times, August 13, 2007

Slutförhandling om Sveriges framtid i EU inleddes den 23 juli.
Sverige tvingas frånsäga sig sitt tidigare självbestämmande över egna nationella angelägenheter, i utbyte mot två procent medbestämmande i EU-politiken.
I höst kommer EU:s nya fördragstext - redan klassad som bedragstext - att presenteras för folket som definitiv.
Björn von der Esch, Göteborgs-Posten 7/8 2007

The European Central Bank scrambled to head off a potential financial crisis on Thursday by pumping an emergency €94.8bn ($131bn) into the region’s banking system
after liquidity in the interbank market started to dry up, threatening banks’ access to short-term funds.
Financial Times 8/10 2007

STATE OF THE UNION
The Reform Treaty is nothing but the old draft in a new guise to avoid another round of referendums. And as a result, the EU's democratic deficit is not narrowing but widening.
Roland Vaubel, Wall Street Journal 30/7 2007

The EU border control agency, Frontex,
has come under pressure to continue the bloc's southern border control mission aimed at limiting illegal immigration
EU Observer

Texten (277 sidor) till det sk EU-fördraget
finns än så länge enbart på franska

Mikael Gennser, internet 23/7 2007

British/American Special Relationship and European Union
Britain cannot have two best friends
John Bolton, Financial Times 1/8 2007

Why a Referendum? Because of Fundamental Change
Bill Cash, MP
The European Journal, July 2007 (pdf)

In “The Coming Collapse of the Dollar,” James Turk and I said this about the effect of a falling dollar on other countries:
The only reason Japan or Europe can generate even their current meager rates of growth is the willingness of U.S. consumers to buy their Hondas and BMWs.
John Rubino 7/20/2007

Silverkask med plym
Livgardet har fått den stora äran att representera Sverige vid president Sarkozys parad
President Nicolas Sarkozy håller ett storslaget nationaldagsfirande i Paris. Sarkozy vill genom ett stort firande uppmärksamma ett enat Europa
Försvarsmakten

Oläsligt och skapat för att slippa folkomröstningar.
Det tycker den italienske ex-statsministern Giuliano Amato om det fördrag som EU-ledarna kom överens om på toppmötet i midsommar.
Sara Ahnborg, Europaportalen 2007-07-16

There is no doubt that containment of Germany
– usually politely put as the banishment of war from Europe –
has been fundamental to the development of the EU.

Gideon Rachman, Financial Times July 17 2007

Mr Sarkozy's calls for a “European economic government”
A second headache is the reopening of old debates about how sovereign states should align their economies and merge currencies, but at the same time remain democratically accountable to voters.
The Economist 12/7 2007

Jag undrar hur länge det dröjer innan det stora staterna i Europa börjar på att säga att
det är orimligt att all makt ligger hos Centralbanken

Fransmännen talar ju redan om ett stabilitetsråd
och om man skall lyfta dessa saker till europeisk nivå, vilket jag mycket väl tror kan bli resultatet av EMU,
då byter vi karaktär på den europeiska unionen och går mot en mer federativ lösning.
Göran Persson 1997-10-13, Fichtelius, sid. 391

Professor Paul de Grauwe
"Without further steps towards political union, the eurozone has little chance of survival"

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 16/7 2007

Comment by Rolf Englund:
Much better to have a Euro-collapse now than a Politicial Union, that will only delay, not prevent, the inevitable Euro-collapse.

So what if the euro rises above $1.40?
What will the Europeans do in that case?
What we are most likely to get is confusion followed by panic.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times, 16/7 2007

Novelist Frederick Forsyth writes to Tory leader David Cameron
Pledge a referendum on Europe
The quandary derives from two questions: what is the exact destination of the EU; and do the British people really want to go there? We both know both answers, do we not?
Financial Times, July 16 2007

Since the start of the year, the Spanish economy has felt like a huge party on the Titanic, cruising heedlessly on to an iceberg of corporate debt.
The danger signs were there for all to see: a real estate bubble; corporate borrowing up 37 per cent in a year; frenzied M&A activity, and last but not least
a current account deficit that has ballooned to become the second largest in the world in absolute terms after the US.
Leslie Crawford, FT July 14 2007

Troops from all 27 EU nations marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris, at the invitation of new French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and other senior EU figures, were also welcomed, underlining France's commitment to Europe despite the rejection by French voters of a proposed EU constitution
Read more here

Germany needs to formulate a response to Sarkozy or the only proposal on the table will be Sarkozy’s anti-stability, anti-competition, pro-currency-intervention proposals.
Wolfgang Münchau, Eurointelligence 12/7 2007

The long-run performance and success of the EMU depends on whether economic convergence or divergence is occurring.
Nouriel Roubini, New York University and RGE Monitor, 28/6 2007

The Empire Speaks
Margot Wallström talar - likt Stalin - inför parlamentet om ja till grundlagen utan folkomröstningar
Källa: EU Referendum 11/7 2007

Barroso Empire
As might have been expected this exchange was followed by frantic sounds of rowing back - a desperate attempt to unsay what had been said. Too late, the cat was out of the bag.
Already editors in the more eurosceptic corners of the continent were setting up 24 point headlines coupling the words 'Europe' and 'Empire.' 'Referendum,' they screamed.
Peter Sain ley Berry, editor of EuropaWorld, EU Observer 13/7 2007


To go back on these promises /on referendums/
now requires those governments to show that the new treaty is truly minimalist and
involves no substantial transfer of power to Brussels.
They can't, because it does.

The Economist, June 28th 2007

The euro has continued its dramatic surge to record highs against the dollar, causing serious strains in southern Europe and renewing concerns about the long-term viability of monetary union.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph, 12/07/2007

Very important
At Tuesday's press conference in Strasbourg, the Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was asked what the European Union would be after the new reform treaty has been negotiated and agreed.
His answer: Europe is an empire, a non-imperial one, must be said.
But still, an empire.

EUX.TV 10/7 2007

The European Parliament is considering flying the EU flag and playing the EU anthem more often in its own buildings
as part of a political message to member states who have scrapped the union's symbols from the proposed new EU treaty.

EU Observer 11/7 2007

The country that most troubles outsiders is Latvia.
It has a whopping current-account deficit: some 21% of GDP in 2006, soaring consumption and debt, financed mainly by foreign-owned banks.
This points to a need for tough restraining measures. But the currency, the lats, is pegged to the euro, so the central bank's ability to raise interest rates is constrained.
RE: Like in Sweden before 1992 and allt that
The Economist print July 5th 2007

Angela Merkel hyllas av ledarskribenter och kommentatorer. Berömmet för hennes taktiska skicklighet inför och under EU:s toppmöte är gränslöst och kritiklöst.
Det handlar faktiskt om medlemsländernas framtid som självständiga stater och därmed om den europeiska demokratins villkor.
Nils Lundgren, Carl Schlyter, Lars Wohlin m fl, DN Debatt 10/7 2007

Sarkozy’s postponement of the balancing of France’s budget in compliance with the European Union stability and growth pact by two years until 2012 has immediately attracted widespread condemnation by the European Commission and several EU governments
This hurried, almost mechanical reaction is misguided
Charles Wyplosz, FT July 5 2007

I would expect serious political tensions to emerge inside the eurozone – especially between France and Germany.
One should remember that the euro would not exist today if during the 1990s these two countries had not papered over their philosophical differences over the right conduct of monetary and fiscal policy.
Wolfgang Munchau, FT July 2 2007

Angela Merkel:
“The new treaty will not include state-like nomenclature or symbols,”
“Many of our partners feel these stand for the European superstate.

Det började med en kol- och stålunion, utvecklades till en inre marknad och slutade med en gemensam valuta.
Jag skriver slutade, därför att den allt starkare politiska gemenskap som var den oskrivna förutsättningen för såväl den inre marknaden som den gemensamma valutan, ungefär just då började visa sig ouppnåelig.
Eller snarare, i samma ögonblick som den oskrivna förutsättningen sattes på pränt i ett skriftligt fördrag,
Maastrichtfördraget, började hela projektet att svikta.

Göran Rosenberg DN 6/7 2007

Svenskarna sade 2003 nej till att ersätta kronan med euro.
Men redan denna mandatperiod ska folket gå till valurnorna igen,
föreslår Birgitta Ohlsson (fp) SvD 12/6 2007

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing - The architect of the draft EU constitution
Leaders should not be afraid to tell citizens that they are essentially trying to preserve the text of the constitution
Writing in Le Monde, cit. by EU Observer 2007-06-15

French and Italian industrial production both unexpectedly fell in April
as a stronger euro crimped exports, suggesting Europe's fastest growth in six years may have peaked.
Bloomberg June 11 2007

If you want to understand what is happening to the European Union’s constitution, the EU flag is a good place to start.
European leaders will agree to delete references to the flag in the constitution.
Everybody knows the flags will keep flying.
The words in the constitution will change.
But the substance will remain the same.

Gideon Rachman, Financial Times June 12 2007

Lotta Fogde:
Under en kort period går innehållet återigen att påverka. Då väljer Fredrik Reinfeldt att förorda så få ändringar som möjligt i det ratade konstitutionsförslaget.
Det är en hållning som måtte orsaka rysningar hos alla som någon gång deltagit i en förhandling inom EU.
Reinfeldt prioriterar en klapp på huvudet från Angela Merkel framför reellt inflytande i det maktspel som kännetecknar varje EU-reform.

De politiska besluten om fördragets innehåll tas redan på EU-toppmötet 21- 22 juni i Bryssel
När regeringen informerade riksdagens konstitutions- och utrikesutskott den 24 maj visar de stenografiska protokollen att
det är på det kommande EU-toppmötet den 21 – 22 juni som fördragets innehåll ska avgöras.

Vad för slags text som stats- och regeringscheferna eventuellt kommer att enas om är det fortfarande för tidigt att säga något mer bestämt om.
Större möjlighet att nå en gemensam lösning lär inte Europa få. ännu ett politiskt misslyckande riskerar att splittra unionen, kanske till och med för gott.
DN-ledare 10/6 2007

Ekot:
65 procent av de holländska väljarna vill ha en ny folkomröstning om EU:s omstridda författning.

European ministers to press ahead with plans to develop a satellite navigation system to provide “independence” from the US
Transport ministers agreed unanimously to end talks with a private consortium and to spend $3.2bn to build it themselves instead

Kommentar av Rolf Englund:
Ett tydligt bevis för att ambitionerna bakom EU är att bygga inte bara en superstat, utan en supermakt, som ett led i sin europeiska ideologi byggd på bland annat USA-hat av gammalt europeiskt aristokratiskt och vänsterintellektuellt märke.

Sverige har aldrig begärt något grundlagsfäst undantag från skyldigheten att gå med i valutaunionen, så som Danmark och Storbritannien har.
Den svenska regeringen har nu bara några veckor på sig att få till stånd ett sådant.
Leif Pagrotsky Expressen 7/6 2007

President Nicolas Sarkozy
"How can you continue to export if the euro is the only currency in the world that is overvalued compared to the dollar, the yen and the yuan?

Daily Telegraph 7/6 2007

EU-ordföranden Angela Merkel har en plan.
I minsta möjliga grupp, i högsta möjliga fart och under största möjliga tystnad vill hon lösa EU.s författningskris genom att ompaketera det omstridda förslaget till EU-grundlag - och hålla väljarna utanför.
Ingrid Hedström DN Nyhetsplats 4/6 2007

A small group of politicians - The "Amato Group" - have published a repackaged treaty
EU Observer 5/6 2007

Ta itu med föreställningen om nationen som en homogen etnisk enhet och om nationalstaten som något av historien givet och därför enda tänkbara samhällsform.
Ingmar Karlsson, Fokus 1/6 2007

Min poäng är att EU-parlamentet inte alltid är den öppna institutionen som den ofta framställs som.
En positiv utveckling av EU är bara möjligt om denna konstitution faller.
Jonas Sjöstedt 1/6 2007

Barroso has warned both Poland and the UK not to block attempts to agree a new treaty for the European Union.
Mr Barroso indicated it was time for Warsaw to show the same solidarity it demanded on issues to do with Russia towards solving the EU's internal problems.
EU Observer 1/6 2007

Solidarity began in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards
Comment by Rolf Englund 1/6 2007

Vaclav Klaus finds Free Europe Constitution important:
It would be a good "mini-treaty".
May 30, 2007

Angela Merkel om Fredrik Reinfeldt:
Om alla vore som han skulle det vara det lätt att vara EU-ordförande.
Sverige har ännu inte ratificerat fördraget, men krånglar inte. Fredrik Reinfeldt är även beredd att acceptera ett så kallat minifördrag om det skulle göra det lättare för Frankrike och Holland att trots allt säga ja i efterhand.
DN nyhetsplats 1/6 2007

Brown, Blair and the constitutional treaty
Brendan Donnelly, Federal Union 29/5 2007

De hemliga förhandlingarna om EU:s nya fördrag går in i slutfasen. Om tre veckor ska frågan behandlas av unionens stats- och regeringschefer på ett toppmöte i Bryssel.
Fortfarande vet medborgarna knappast någonting av vad som är i görningen.

Aftonbladet ledare 31/5 2007

Mr Sarkozy seeks a stronger “political Europe”:
a permanent EU presidency, a foreign minister, “reinforced co-operation” between smaller groups of member states, and more majority voting - QMV.

Financial Times editorial 28/5 2007

Rome, Habsburg and the European Union
Archduchess Walburga of Austria
Ledamot av utrikesutskottet (m)

The battle over the constitution is likely to be won by the minimalists
The Economist print edition May 24th 2007

Vaclav Klaus in a new speech:
Redefine the whole concept of the European Union

Deloitte Speech 18 May by the Czech President

Nationalstaten kontra Europa. Det är det klassiska temat i EU-debatten.
Senast har det aktualiserats i samband med förslaget om ett konstitutionellt fördrag för unionen. Redan rubriken uttrycker spänningen mellan Europanivån och den nationella - ett "fördrag" sluts ju mellan stater, medan en "konstitution" reglerar maktfördelningen inom en stat.
Ulla Gudmundson, författare och diplomat, DN 26/5 2007

Han anser att den polska debatten påminner om den svenska i början av 90-talet.
- Man har gått med i en organisation och märker sedan att den görs om till något annat, säger Reinfeldt
SvD/TT 28/5 2007

Axel Weber, the hawkish head of the Bundesbank, is alarmed by a 10.9pc surge in the M3 money supply
In an unprecedented rift, the heads of the Bundesbank and the Banque of France have contradicted each other in public,
exposing an emerging rift between Europe's north and south.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Daily Telegraph 18/05/2007

A voting share of 53 per cent sounds impressive. But a closer analysis of the French presidential election throws up a perplexing result. According to Ipsos*, the polling organisation, 18-59 year olds – those who work and pay most of the taxes – overwhelmingly voted for Ségolène Royal, the defeated Socialist candidate
Mr Sarkozy is now the president of France as a result of an extraordinary degree of homogenous political preferences by pensioners. Mr Sarkozy won an unbelievable 68 per cent among those over 70, and 61 per cent among the 60-69 year olds.
Wolfgang Munchau,Financial Times May 21 2007

Det visas att man i Sverige helt felbedömde den Europeiska centralbankens (ECB) roll inom Eurosystemet.
ECB är varken systemets gemensamma centralbank eller ens en sann centralbank.
Den har därför varken förmågan att utjämna inflationsskillnader inom EMU, som Lindahl ansåg vara den centrala uppgiften för huvudcentralbanken, eller att verka som ”lender of last resort”.
Denna viktiga institution saknas helt inom Eurosystemet
Otto Steiger, Ekonomisk Debatt nr 2/2007

Den svenska riksbanken har nämligen blivit en något stympad ”lender of last resort”. Den kan kanske inte längre i tillräcklig kvantitet tillhandahålla de nationella betalningsmedlen?
Ur Margit Gennser: EMU - en kritisk analys, Fischer & Co 1997

The right course is not to return to a mythical past of monetary sovereignty, with governments controlling local interest and exchange rates in blissful ignorance of the rest of the world.
Governments must let go of the fatal notion that nationhood requires them to make and control the money used in their territory. National currencies and global markets simply do not mix; together they make a deadly brew of currency crises and geopolitical tension and create ready pretexts for damaging protectionism. In order to globalize safely, countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability.
Benn Steil, Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and a co-author of Financial Statecraft
Foreign Affairs, May/June 2007

European finance ministers
The incoming French president was warned there was no enthusiasm for his election calls for the ECB’s mandate to be amended to focus it on creating jobs and growth as well as fighting inflation.
Financial Times 9/5 2007

Alain Lamassoure, tipped to be the new Europe minister in the Sarkozy government, said Paris will agree to stick "as much as possible to the original text."
"we will play the European hymn or fly the flag whether it is mentioned in the new treaty or not."
He added that the same applies to the exact title of the future EU's foreign affairs minister. "As long as his status and powers are preserved we're fine with [a title change]."
EU Observer 9/10 2007

Sverige har inte missat särskilt mycket på att avstå från euron, menar professor Clas Wihlborg vid Handelshögskolan i Köpenhamn.
I samarbete med junilistan har han granskat en rapport av professor Harry Flam och Kommerskollegiums chefekonom Håkan Nordström, där det beräknas stora förluster i form av utebliven export.
Johan Schück, DN Ekonomi 8/5 2007

I år är det 50 år sedan Romfördraget undertecknades.
Vi samlas på Nalen 9 maj 2007
Medverkar gör bl a Cecilia Malmström och Margot Wallström

"The Irish are heavily dependent on exports of tech-goods to the US, so they're hit hard by the rising euro," said Bernard Connolly, chief strategist at Banque AIG.
Daily Telegraph 25/4 2007

The eurozone has now split into two incompatible camps.
"The euro is our currency but everyone else's asset," bemoaned Josef Christl, from Austria's central bank.
Ambrose Evans- Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 30/4 2007

Last year alone, Spain started to build 800,000 new homes
Unfortunately, the number of new houses was not just more than France, Germany and Italy combined built last year. It was also more than anybody wanted to buy.
FT editorial 28/4 2007

Euro helps topple Spanish property
Bank of Spain's governor, blamed the bubble on the wrong interest rates caused by euro membership
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 26/04 2007

The pain in Spain
It was the same in Spain, until this week. Then, hola!
Financial reality crashed through the roof of the property market.
Jeff Randall, Daily Telegraph 27/4 2007

Europe's leaders are united around two incompatible beliefs.
The first is that their citizens want them to press ahead with reviving most or all of the constitution.
The second is that it is wisest to avoid testing this thesis by asking those citizens directly in new referendums.

The Economist print edition, April 26th 2007

EU-grundlagen
En tredjedel eller till och med en fjärdedel av dem /medlemsstaternas parlament/ bör kunna stoppa initiativ från Kommissionen.
Björn von Sydow, DN Debatt 17/4 2007

– Vi kan tänka oss att lämna idén om konstitutionellt fördrag, som ju ibland tolkats som ett slags superstatskonstruktion, till att nu tala om ett tilläggsfördrag
att man moderniserar och utvecklar beslutsmetoderna.
Reinfeldt och Sahlin, Ekot 26/4 2007

Merkel vill ha snabbstart för en ny regeringskonferens i juni
Brevet talar till och med om att använda andra ord samtidigt som den juridiska innebörden inte förändras.
Ekot, Herman Melzer, 21/4 2007

- Det kan finnas fördelar för Sverige att inte delta i EMU vid en ekonomisk kris.
Det sa finansminister Anders Borg till Nyhetsbyrån Direkt på lördagen efter ekofinmötet i Berlin.
Han utvecklade sin syn från fredagen, då han sa att Sverige inte bör ha någon brådska att gå med i EMU eftersom det varken finns tydliga ekonomiska eller politiska kostnader.
DI/Direkt 2007-04-22

– Sen kom det en utredning i slutet på förra året som Lars Calmfors och andra forskare på handelshögskolan hade gjort. Där de tyckte sig se större effekt än vad de hade trott när det gällde handelsutbytet mellan euroländerna ökade snabbare än mellan de länder som inte är med i euron.
Carl Bildt oense med Anders Borg, Ekot 21/4 2007

Generationen borgerliga politiker som kämpade för EU-medlemskapet har inte förmått att förändra sin syn på samarbetet i takt med att EU ökat sin fokusering på att likrikta medlemsländerna och reglera näringslivet.
I generationen borgerligt sinnade personer som vuxit upp med unionen finns däremot många som är kritiska till denna utveckling inom EU.
Det skriver en rad yngre borgerliga politiker
Expressen Sidan Fyra, 14/4 2007

Lundin Petroleum är ett företag med mycket dåligt rykte. Det är pestsmittat i USA och dess verksamhet i folkmordets Sudan har fått hård kritik från människorättsorganisationer.
Bildt skadade sin trovärdighet när han dyrt sålde sitt goda renommé till Lundin.
Detta är en av förklaringarna till att han aldrig fått något nytt stort internationellt uppdrag efter Balkan.
PM Nilsson, Expressens ledarsida 18/4 2007

– Det har inte varit någon avgörande ekonomisk nackdel för Sverige att stå utanför, det kan inte jag se.
Det är inte heller så att ekonomin växer bara för att valutan heter euro.

Anders Borg, Ekot 21/4 2007

It became conventional to say that Germany was prevented by the European monetary union from having a needed devaluation.
But Germany has had a real devaluation.
Samuel Brittan, FT April 13 2007

är svenska kronan en skvalpvaluta?
I augusti 1998 påstod den dåvarande moderatledaren, Carl Bildt, att den svenska kronan var en skvalpvaluta
Ekonomisk Debatt nr 8/2002

Det är fascinerande att på detta sätt få en väldokumenterad inblick i maktens mekanismer. Det är på många vis ett lysande reportage.
Själv har jag nästan alltid tyckt illa om Persson. Min ovilja har emellertid fått sig en allvarlig knäck med denna bok
Ronny Ambjörnsson, DN 11/4 2007

EU has been working towards the "ever closer union of the peoples of Europe".
The European Project, from the very start, has been about building a European super-state – though cleverly masked as an economic exercise.
A looser and more open Europe is surely the way forward for the 21st century.
Ruth Lea, Daily Telegraph 20/11 2006

The Dutch government has said the renewed talks on an EU treaty should focus on the current shortcomings in the system rather than aiming to become an overarching "constitutional treaty."
"We will simply not put to ratification a treaty that was rejected by a large majority of the Dutch population", but...
EU Observer 11/4 2007

Aldrig ensam alltid ensam
Det betyder emellertid inte att boken saknar intresse
Håkan Arvidsson SvD-ledarsida 11/4 2007

Rolf Englund 2007:
Göran Perssons vackraste tal
(en gång röstade jag på honom)

På de 600 sidor som Erik Fichtelius redigerat träder en annan Göran Persson fram,
inte helt olik teveprogrammens men mer komplicerad - och mer sympatisk.

Barbro Hedvall, signerat DNs ledarsida 11/4 2007

Mr Sarkozy wants a pared down treaty that can be approved by national parliaments only, while Ms Royal and Mr Bayrou - who also favours a slimmer treaty - both want a referendum.
EU Observer 10/4 2007

Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier inbjuder till seminariet "Positiva opinionsvindar för EU"
25 april 2007

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, and Angela Merkel, German chancellor, are painfully aware that Mr Brown’s expected arrival in 10 Downing Street this summer will coincide with their efforts to revive parts of the EU’s moribund constitutional treaty,
a document he regards as a distraction at best.
Financial Times 9/4 2007

The French created the European Union, so it would be appropriate if they destroyed it.
Of course, Mr Sarkozy and Ms Royal would reject any suggestion that they are eurosceptics. Both argue that they want a “better Europe” or a “different Europe”.
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, April 10 2007

Teveprogrammen med Göran Persson
och det ömtåligaste av det ömtåliga - nejet till euron har väckts upp
Barbro Hedvall, signerat DNs ledarsida 5/4 2007

Cross-border banks require a single regulator
Wolfgang Munchau

Europa är liktydigt med demokrati, rättsstat, åtskillnad mellan kyrka och stat, jämställdhet mellan könen, yttrandefrihet, en fungerande marknadsekonomi och ett avståndstagande från ideologiska frälsningsläror.
Ett avfärdande av Turkiet på religiösa grunder vore i synnerhet efter den 11 september 2001 en falsk och en farlig signal. Ett sådant beslut skulle förneka att islam i dag är en europeisk religion och en del av den europeiska vardagen.
Ingmar Karlsson

Kan man ha samma ränta men olika konjunkturer?
Göran Perssons svar förblir i grunden nej
DN 5/4 2007 huvudledare

TIME: You have said that Europe risks unraveling. Why?
Jacques Delors:
The European Union has been through other crises, but this one is more serious.

Time Magazine 22/3 2007

The claim that "Enlightenment values" define the soul of Europe would be rather odd
We do not admire the Enlightenment for reasons of national spirit, but on the contrary for its universal worth.

Ian Buruma, Financial Times, 1/4 2007

Turkiet måste med i EU!
Ingmar Karlsson försöker inte dölja sin ståndpunkt.
Om boken "Europa och turken. – Betraktelser kring en komplicerad relation"
åke Svidén, Politiken.se 29/3 2007

Förste vice riksbankschefen Eva Srejber avgår med omedelbar verkan.
- Jag är jätteglad, säger Eva.
Johan Schück, DN 30/3 2007

Do current account deficits matter inside a monetary union?
Martin Wolf, FT 28/3 2007

“we are united in our aim of placing the European Union on a renewed common basis before the European parliamentary elections in 2009.” This is code for: we want to bring back the European constitution by that date
The Economist, under rubriken "Don’t mention the constitution" om Berlin-deklarationen.
See also "Don't mention the war"

Under 90-talet var det drömmen om federationen som dominerade sinnena och euron fick symbolisera den nya europeiska staten.
Trots att den europeiska integrationen präglats av vardaglig, gråtråkig pragmatism har EU hela tiden också varit ett utopistiskt projekt.
Den eviga freden! Europas förenta stater! En motvikt till USA! En social union! En klimatunion som ska rädda världen! sa man nu i februari.
PM Nilsson, Expressen 25/3 2007

Länderna utmed Medelhavets södra strand bör på sikt bli medlemmar i unionen.
PM Nilsson, Expressen 25/3 2007

Göran Persson blev rasande när dåvarande näringsministern Leif Pagrotsky deltog på nejsidan inför folkomröstningen om EMU.
DN 22/3 2007

Samtidigt framgår med stor tydlighet hur Persson själv under åren från 1997 till EMU-folkomröstningen 2003 vacklat, och av och till själv varit motståndare till en svensk anslutning:
I oktober 1997 vill han inte gå med...
DN 22/3 2007

Today it seems Europe is swimming in slow motion.
The reason is simple: there is disagreement over the essentials of the European project.
Public opinion is sceptical, political elites are fatigued
Pascal Lamy, Financial Times 21/3 2007

EMU-motståndet har ökat från 56 till 60 procent
på drygt tre år - opinionen mot den gemensamma valutan euron är nu ännu starkare än inför folkomröstningen 2003
Skop, TT, Expressen 25/3 2007

What was meant to be Europe's ``ever closer union'' is turning into an ever more divided one.
As the European Union marks its 50th birthday this week, it faces a growing backlash against the federal visions of its post-World War II founders, who gave Europe a common market, a currency, a flag and an anthem.
March 19, 2007 (Bloomberg)

Is Latvia about to devalue?
Although Latvia in 2007 may not be Thailand in 1997, there are worrying similarities.
Lex, Financial Times 21/3 2007

I do not understand why a constitution should be a priority. Nothing is going to turn the EU into a United States of Europe.
In the end, the EU will remain a structure for co-operation and competition among states embedded in a shared institutional framework.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times 14/3 2007

Comment by Rolf Englund:
The problem is that they will try. They will fail, but not without a lot of pain for the peoples of Europe. What we have to to is to roll back EU before it becomes a sort of USE when the roll-back with be much more painful for everyone.

en högre form av nationalism,
"från Karl den Store till EMU"

DN-ledare 14/3 2007

The G-1 (G-7 slang for the US) has traditionally led the opposition to multilateral exchange rate management.
The Fed doesn’t want to subordinate domestic monetary policy to an external target.
Brad Setser Mar 13, 2007

Lars Calmfors konstaterade att Sverige hittills har tjänat på att inte vara med i EMU.
"I efterhand kan vi se att Sverige gjorde rätt som inte gick med i EMU. ECB:s ränta skulle vara fel i förhållande till den svenska ekonomin."
I den årliga ekonomiska rapporten från European Economic Advisory Group
DI 6/3 2007

Ségolène Royal’s faltering presidential campaign was dealt a further blow on Monday as François Hollande,
the leader of her Socialist party and father of her children,
admitted he was worried she would be knocked out in the first round of France’s election next month.
Financial Times 13/3 2007

Thus began Plan D - for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate - launched by Communications Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom. This embraced a number of initiatives, including the European Citizens Consultation project, which is being organised through various European foundations.
By Peter Sain ley Berry, editor of EuropaWorld 2/3 2007 at EU Observer

Germany’s export strength also makes it export-dependent and vulnerable to a downturn in global demand.
Any distress in the US will transmit to the rest of the world economy via the financial markets.
Direct trade has long ceased to be the main transmission mechanism of transatlantic shocks, at least for the UK and the eurozone.

Wolfgang Munchau, FT March 4 2007

The real reforms needed to secure the euro’s future
Desmond Lachman, Financial Times 1/3 2007

Göran Persson om Margot Wallström
Det räcker med att jag hör fanskapet
Lars Adaktusson berättar från en intervju med GP 2003
i Viasat Magazine Mars-April 2007

Balkan-medlaren Carl Bildt, Lundin Oil i Albanien och Anna Lindh
Klicka här

På längre sikt kan Ahtisaaris plan bara fungera om både Serbien och Kosovo förs in i EU tillsammans med sina grannar på Balkan.
Timothy Garton Ash, kolumn DN 23/2 2007

Den tyska förbundskanslern Angela Merkel siktar som EU-ordförande på att före sommaren ena de 27 medlemsländerna om hur EU-krisen med den havererade konstitutionen ska lösas.
Det ser ut att bli ett tufft uppdrag. Regeringarna är redan djupt oeniga.
Ingrid Hedström, DN nyhetsplats 12/2 2007

Om EMU på Centerns website 5/2 2007:
Centerpartiet ville inte att Sverige skulle gå med i den Europeiska Monetära Unionen då det 2003 var en folkomröstning i frågan. Anledningen till detta ställningstagande var att vi vill ha en självständig Riksbank.
I lägen av nationell eller internationell ekonomisk kris skulle det bli för komplicerat för den europeiska centralbanken att tillgodose alla medlemsländers behov.
Att ha kvar den egna Riksbanken medför att vi har kontroll över de verktyg som finns till för att förhindra nationella ekonomiska kriser.
Centerpartiet vill:
Hålla Sverige utanför EMU:s tredje steg om att införa den gemensamma valutan Euro i enlighet med folkomröstningens utfall 2004.

An overwhelming majority of citizens in the big eurozone countries believe the euro has damaged their national economies, highlighting the popular scepticism that still surrounds Europe’s eight-year-old monetary union.
Almost two-thirds of Germans say they preferred their former currency, the D-Mark.
Financial Times 29/1 2007

Idag vill centerledaren inte säga var hon står i frågan.
Hon vill lyssna till sina partimedlemmar, och hon säger att hon har öppnat för att delta i en diskussion om EMU.
Ekot 5/2 2007

The European Idea is the catchword for every European politician who wants to look like a statesman.
Luncheon address at the Heritage Foundation,
Washington DC
Dr Carl-Johan Westholm

överskottsmålet för budgeten bestämdes på ad hoc-mässiga grunder
Srategin bygger på att vi arbetar med underskott som är betydligt större än vad EU:s stabilitetspakt tillåter
Urban Bäckström DN Debatt 22/1 2007

Författaren och journalisten Kers­tin Vinterheds nya bok
"Europa, det är jag. Om EU:s fäder och Europas identitet"
Ja-sägarna skriver ostört EU:s historia
Peo Hansen DN Kultur 15/12 2007

In April last year the European Commission ran an exercise in which it pretended a commercial insolvency was threatening to bring down two banks, one of them big.
The Economist print 18/1 2007

"Its like riding a bike", wrote Percy Barnevik about the EU project,
"either you go forward or you fall",

Desillusionerade Europaanhängare längtar efter en djupare mening med den gemensamma valutan, strukturfonderna och sjätte momsdirektivet.
Att formulera europeisk identitet och europeisk kulturell gemenskap anses vara en väg ur EU:s nuvarande politiska och existentiella kris. Nationellt identitetssökande ska mötas med europeiskt, nationell gemenskap ska ersättas av europeisk och nationell kultur med Europas.
Annika Ström Melin, Axess nummer 9, 2006

Det blev för mycket jobb, för lite sömn, för lite mat, för mycket huvudvärkstabletter och alkohol,
säger Kristina Axén Olin i DN 15/1 2007

Germany's parliamentary democracy is under threat from the European Union
which is slowly taking away all the national parliament's powers
Roman Herzog, the country's ex-president, has said in Welt am Sonntag.
EU Observer 15/1 2007

Det blev inte Hökmark
Centre-right MEPs from the biggest political group in the European Parliament have elected a new chairman - Joseph Daul from the UMP party of French president Jacques Chirac.
EU Observer 10/1 2007

Let us wait and see if the euro area's fixed exchange experiment really works
Thomas Willett Dunaway, FT 11/1 2007

Kul för Sverige
Gunnar Hökmark har chansen att bli vald till ledare för den största partigruppen i Europaparlamentet, EPP-ED (i vilken både moderaterna och krist-demokraterna ingår). Det skulle vara ett utmärkt val. Hökmark är ”moderat classic”
SvD-ledare 8/1 2007

Kommentar av Rolf Englund:
Unckel landshövding i Stockholm i eget palats nära Slottet, Carl Bildt i Arvfurstens Palats och nu Hökmark, före Reinfeldt ansvarig för den ekonomiska politik som ledde till moderaternas valkatastrof under Bo Lundgren
Läs mer om Bunkergängets återkomst - Evil Empire Strikes Back

A monster lives again
European leaders are about to squander their second chance to get the constitution right
The Economist print edition 4/1 2007

Daniel Tarschys ny utrikesminister?

ökad handel är det starkaste ekonomiska argumentet för att Sverige ska införa euron
DN-ledare 7/9 2003

"Docenten på ärten" - Aktuella exempel är höstens politiska envig kring a-kassan, för tre år sedan var det EMU-frågan.
DN huvudledare 5/1 2006

Slovenia's plan to adopt the euro on New Year's Day is one change too many
"We are an independent country," she lamented.
"We should have our own currency!"
Herald Tribune 28/12 2006

Lars Calmfors på DN Debatt 2/1 2006:
Ett exempel på missbruk av forskning är Svenskt Näringslivs kampanj inför EMU-omröstningen 2003.

Man byggde upp en pseudovetenskaplig argumentation för att ett svenskt medlemskap skulle ge många nya jobb. Sedan visade man att högre produktionstillväxt kortsiktigt, över konjunkturcykeln, samvarierar med högre sysselsättningstillväxt. Men i slutändan "glömde man bort" att det första ledet handlar om långsiktig produktivitetstillväxt och det andra ledet om kortsiktiga konjunktursvängningar. På så sätt gav man intryck av ett långsiktigt samband mellan produktions- och sysselsättningstillväxt som egentligen inte existerar.

Kommentar av Rolf Englund:
"Man" innefattar Assar Lindbeck

Ségolène Royal, socialist candidate for the presidential elections:
It's not for Mr Trichet to dictate the future of our economies: it's a matter for our leaders chosen by the people.
Daily Telegraph 27/12 2006

Even Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy are attempting to divert the blame for France's ills on to others by taking cheap shots at the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
Financial Times editorial 29/12 2006

In 2007 the European Union marks the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome
Government leaders have already agreed to celebrate it ceremoniously, restating their commitment to “ever closer union”
The Economist 27/12 2006

Carl Bildts bästa julklapp:
The EU-Governance Game EUROCRACY

Förre talmannen Björn von Sydow utses i morgon till ny ordförande i Vetenskapsrådet av regeringen/utbildningsminister Lars Leijonborg
SvD nyhetsplats 20/12 2006

Brev till Talmannen Björn von Sydow
Riksdagen måste ges möjlighet att på lämpligt sätt ta upp frågan på nytt, för att ge medborgarna tillbaka deras rättmätiga inflytande i en demokrati.
Eftersom Du är den ytterst ansvarige för att riksdagen i sin maktutövning respekterar de grundlagar svenska folket beslutat skall gälla
Björn von der Esch, den 10 augusti 2005

Vid en folkomröstning om euron i november 2006 skulle ca 51 procent rösta nej
och ca 35 procent rösta ja.

SCB 19/12 2006

Det första paradigmskiftet var när Gustaf II Adolf 1630 landsteg på Usedom i norra Tyskland och inledde den epok som i vår historieskrivning något pretentiöst kallas stormaktstiden.
Det andra paradigmskiftet kom nästan två sekler efter det första när Jean Baptiste Bernadotte vände alla stormaktsdrömmar ryggen och 1812 inledde den långa period som vi kan beteckna som den nationella småstatsperioden.
Det tredje stora paradigmskiftet i vår utrikespolitik är det som tog sin början när vi 1995 fullt och helt blev medlemmar i den Europeiska unionen.
Det råder det knappast någon tvekan om att detta var ett paradigmskifte av samma dignitet som 1630 och 1812.
Utrikespolitiska Institutet 19 december 2006, Carl Bildt, Utrikesminister

I stället för att samla ihop kanonbåtar att sända till farvattnen runt Afrika borde de /EU-ledarna/ anta en plan för invandring till den europeiska arbetsmarknaden.
Europa åldras, redan därför behöver vi inflyttare.
DN huvudledare 15/12 2006

Immigration is no way to fund an ageing population
A little analysis shows that even a very large increase in immigration would have only a very small impact on the revenue needed to deal with the ageing population
Martin Feldstein, Financial Times 14/12 2006

French premier Villepin attacks ECB amid call for return to franc
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 13/12 2006

Evil Empire or Medieval Empire
- Jag brukar föreslå min federalistiska tyske kollega att Tyskland och Frankrike kan väl börja med att bilda en federation så kommer vi efter om det går bra.

Men jag skrev inte det i boken, för jag ville låta populistisk.
Professor Jan Zielonka, Oxford University, 14/12 2006 ABF-huset, Stockholm

Germany's envoy to the European Union, Wilhelm Schoenfelder, said the EU has until December 2007, to resolve the issue if the charter is to take effect by mid-2009 as planned.
"If we do not succeed this time, this thing will be dead. We'll be in a very deep crisis"
Herald Tribune 6/12 2006

Germany yesterday unveiled a master plan for resurrecting the European Union constitution
Home Secretary, John Reid, said the constitution was a "dead, deceased parrot"
David Rennie, Daily Telegraph 7/12 2006

On 5 December 2006, the Commission adopted the Convergence Report 2006, which re-assessed the conditions for adopting the euro in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden
Read more here

The recent flurry in foreign exchange markets probably signals the start of a process of unwinding global imbalances. Suppose the market brings about the requisite dollar depreciation.
Then, if China and Japan were to maintain their dollar exchange rates there would be a large effective appreciation of the euro with potentially devastating effects on Europe.
Vijay Joshi, FT 15/12 2006

Kronan - årets valuta
Dagens Industri 2006-12-05

TCW-index,
1992-11-18=100.

Sverige bör, liksom England, hålla sig utanför euron så länge som möjligt.
Det säger Martin Wolf, biträdande chefredaktör på Financial Times
Ekonominyheterna 4/12 2006

Few have realised the most dangerous feature of Emu:
it has locked Germany into a seriously uncompetitive real exchange rate

Martin Wolf, Financial Times, March 31, 1999

The Iraq invasion, disastrous though it has been, may not go down in history as the greatest political blunder of the past decade.
That dubious honour will probably belong to an event most people still regard as a triumph: the creation of the euro.
"the beginning of the end of the European project"
Anatole Kaletsky, The Times 26/10 2006

It does not take a PhD in economics to understand the essential issue in the euro debate:
Should ultimate responsibility for the management of the British economy stay in Westminster or be transferred to Frankfurt and Brussels?
If Britain keeps the pound, we must accept currency movements.
If we join the euro, swings in inflation, unemployment and wages will potentially increase.
Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, June 12, 2003

Nu handlar det om framtiden för främst de cirka 100 miljoner européerna i sydöstra Europa.
Kiev är en stad med djupare europeiska rötter än vad vårt eget Stockholm kan skryta med
Carl Bildt och Cecilia Malmström DN Debatt 30/11 2006

Carl Bildt
Cecilia Malmström

Why break-up of faltering euro could be the way ahead
At the end of the day, EMU is no more than a glorified system of fixed exchange rates. We know from past shocks – ERM 1992, Asia 1997 – that such constructs can collapse in days if for any reason the markets start to smell blood.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph, 18/09 2006

Euron spricker när dollarn faller
Rolf Englund, NWT 8/1 2001

Joaquín Almunia, EU monetary affairs commissioner 280-page report on the low pace at which countries have adapted to the euro since its launch in 1999.
fear that a downturn could exacerbate problems in unreformed economies and heighten political and public criticism of the euro
Financial Times 23/11 2006

Proffset tror på Stockholm
DI 24/11 2006

The booms in Spanish and Irish real estate make the US real estate boom look timid
Charles Gottlieb of the Center for European policy studies, Nov 21, 2006

"tensions" from "persistent divergences in growth and inflation" among its members, the European Commission warned
The report represents one of the sharpest official warnings that the euro remains fragile
Wall Street Journal 23/11 2006

Comment by Rolf Englund:
"a potential problem for cohesion"
= Eurospeak för att EMU kan spricka

In December 1999 Europe’s leaders agreed, after a few minutes’ debate, that Turkey would be a candidate member. Its accession would not be a matter of if, but of when. Now a number of leaders, perhaps a majority, are trying to wriggle off the hook.
Would Turkey’s accession be a good thing? For Turkey it would probably be the best thing that could happen to it, even though enthusiasm for membership there is waning. For the EU it would be a bad thing.
Frits Bolkestein, Financial Times 9/11 2006
Member of the European Commission 1999-2004

France's prime minister Dominique de Villepin:
"Let us equip ourselves with a real exchange-rate strategy which integrates the objectives of growth, protection of our industry and, of course, employment. It is a major subject which we should address at European level."
Wall Street Journal 15/11 2006

Det är fel att bortse från den positiva utvecklingen med stigande sysselsättning på den tyska arbetsmarknaden.
- Detta kan ha olika orsaker, inte minst de konjunkturella, och behöver inte bero på just att a-kassan sänktes.
säger Johnny Munkhammar, programansvarig på Timbro.

Germany's plans to put the EU constitution back on track early next year have been dealt a blow by the country's constitutional court in Karlsruhe.
The court on Tuesday (31 October) said it would not rule on whether the EU charter was compatible with the German constitution until after a final decision had been taken on the overall fate of the document
EU Observer/Die Welt 2/11 2006

Speculation is mounting that Javier Solana, the EU's top diplomat, will step down for health reasons with the former Swedish, Slovak and Austrian prime ministers reportedly first in line to succeed him.
Another strong candidate who has been doing the rounds is Sweden's former prime minister Carl Bildt
EU Observer 20/10 2006

I Tyskland sänktes ersättningen i a-kassan drastiskt förra året.
Ett av målen med reformen var att få arbetslösa att acceptera jobb med låga löner.
Men effekterna på arbetsmarknaden har uteblivit, enligt forskare.
Kristian åström, Ekot 25/10 2006

DNs rubrik "Svart måndag" (17/3 2003) syftar naturligtvis på "Black Wednesday", September 16 1992, när England tvingades låta pundet flyta. Men den svenska regeringen, med Bildt, Unckel, Alf Svensson och Ulf Dinkelspiel, följde inte England. Däremot lånade Ulf Dinkelspiels fondfirma, öhmans, dagen efter, 750 miljoner kronor av Riksbanken, till en ränta om 34 % medan andra fondkommissionärer samtidigt fick betala 500 % ränta för motsvarande typ av lån.
Läs mer här

Italy’s debt was downgraded on Thursday by two of the world’s leading credit ratings agencies
in a damaging blow to the centre-left coalition government of Romano Prodi, prime minister.
Financial Times 19/10 2006

Dum och lurad
Hösten 1992 misslyckades den svenska regeringen i sin ekonomiska politik, den 19 november släppte den kronförsvaret. Det kallades ett misslyckande - och alla satt kvar.
Fler än jag måste rimligen ha känt som jag - lurad och dum.

Efter det röstade jag blankt. Till i år. Då framträdde alliansen med ett måttfullt reformprogram för att ersätta bidrag med arbete.
Regeringsbildaren var noga med att poängtera att han ville se sin regering som hela Sveriges regering, att det handlade om att överbrygga klyftor och övervinna utanförskap.
Men ändå. När ett parti går till val med det bärande temat: Vi har tänkt om, vi har lyssnat, det här är vad vi nu vill göra, har vi då inte rätt att bli besvikna när de visar sig ha sina gamla, av väljarna en gång förkastade idéer och attityder kvar?
Barbro Hedvall, DN 13/10 2006

Europeiska byrån för förvaltningen av det operativa samarbetet vid Europeiska unionens yttre gränser (FRONTEX)
Click

Finansminister Anders Borg sade till de svenska journalisterna på plats att regeringen inte har för avsikt att söka medlemskap i valutaunionen EMU.
Dina Pengar/TT 10/10 2006

Förnyelsen efter valförlusten får inte göra moderaterna till en experimentverkstad. Moderaterna har varit det drivande partiet inom borgerligheten därför att vi hållit fast vid våra idéer. Vi måste rakryggat stå emot alla tendenser att anpassa budskapet efter lättflyktiga opinionsvindar eller tillfälliga nycker från våra borgerliga systerpartier.
Gunilla Carlsson, DN Debatt 17/4 2003

Cecilia Malmström

Ur Regeringsförklaringen, om EU

German reporter Hans-Martin Tillack's claim that the European Commission punished him for exposing EU fraud by using the Belgian police to snatch his files has not been proved, EU courts ruled
EU Observer 4/10 2006

Det är förstås utmärkt att Carl Bildt har fått frågan och tackat ja.
PJ Anders Linder SvD 7/10 2006

Vari består egentligen felet med att den borgerliga majoriteten i riksdagen under hösten godkänner EU-konstitutionen?
Expressen 27/9 2006

How to ensure the eurozone does not unravel
Simon Tilford, FT 4/10 2006

EU justice ministers meeting to discuss how to present a more unified front on tackling immigration have ended up taking side swipes at each other about who is to blame for the thousands of mainly African migrants coming to Europe's southern shores.
EU Observer 22/9 2006

Mr Sarkozy's "mini treaty" would include key provisions of Part I of the constitution such as member states' voting weights provisions
and plans to create an EU foreign minister, on which there is a "large consensus."
EU Observer 14/9 2006

Göran Persson stod på toppen av sin popularitet i valet 2002, men i och med det stora nederlaget i EMU-folkomröstningen 2003 började nedgången.
Henrik Brors, DN 18/9 2006
Läs mer här

Många problem har vi tillsammans, också frågan om hur vi ska ställa oss till vårt gemensamma Europa.
DN huvudledare 17/9 2006

Lars Wohlin tillsammans med brittiske konservativa europaparlamentarikern Daniel Hannan
Dick Erixon blog

"Ett välfungerande EU behöver självklart ett fördrag. Junilistan vill att ett helt nytt förslag läggs fram till Europas befolkning, ett förslag som tas fram av representanter från EU:s alla medlemsländer i en demokratisk process och som sedan läggs fram i folkomröstningar i samtliga länder",
skriver Nils Lundgren på Europaportalen.se

A decade of red-hot growth in the Spanish housing market fueled a jump in such things as jobs and consumer spending, turning Spain into one of the fastest-growing countries in the euro zone.
But now, economists say the real-estate boom is coming unmoored from the economic fundamentals that once drove it, and they worry the market is headed for a hard landing that could have repercussions for the rest of the economy.
Wall Street Journal 9/11 2006

The agreements that established the euro contain no provisions to allow exit. However, if some government – let us suppose the Italian one – decided to leave, there is nothing Europe could or would do to stop it.
But what exactly would a government set on such a course – or forced into it – do?
John Kay, FT, 12/9 2006

Sett från Bryssel är det obegripligt hur Europa-politiken blivit så undanskymd i valrörelsen.
I det tysta tickar en tidsinställd politisk bomb under vänsterblocket, men ingen verkar bry sig. Inte ens den borgerliga alliansen, som tycks frukta samma spöke som den socialdemokratiska ledningen: en ny folkomröstning om EU.
Rolf Gustavsson, SvD 10/9 2006

Den gemensamma valutan är integrationens mest synliga tecken, och förmodligen det mest långtgående steget mot en europeisk gemenskap
En del experter menar att en gemensam valuta aldrig kommer att fungera utan en gemensam ekonomisk politik och en verklig solidaritet mellan länderna
Jakub Swiecicki, Utrikespolitiska Institutet 2006/8

In a landmark speech mapping out his vision for Europe, Mr Sarkozy called on European leaders to agree a "mini-treaty" that would salvage the urgently required institutional reforms laid out in the original draft constitution.
Such a mini-treaty, the French interior minister stressed, would require only parliamentary ratification, but no referendum.
Financial Times 9/9 2006

One Country - One President
In Mr Sarkozy's vision, the commission president would himself be elected by the European Parliament - which would provide him with a democratic mandate.
EU Observer 9/9 2006

Germany in their revived bid to create an EU superstate.
They want the 25 member states to scrap their national boundaries
New "trans-national" EU regions. Kent and East Sussex would join northern France as part of a new land called "TransManche".
Most of England and Scotland would be lumped with parts of Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium and Holland as the North Sea region.
Se kartan här

Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, on Friday delivered a stiff warning to eurozone finance ministers to back off in an escalating dispute over the bank’s independence.
Mr Trichet pointed out that it was his signature on euro banknotes and that it was unlawful under the EU treaty for finance ministers to give instructions or try to influence the bank.
Financial Times, 9/9 2006

EU-grundlagen är vår grundlag
med info om Lars Leijonborg om EU och EMU
Rolf Englund på internet 6/9 2006

Varje svenskt val är också ett EU-val.
Europaparlamentariker debatterar 11 september 2006, kl 17:00 till 19:00
Plats: World News Café, Kulturhuset, 2 vån
Debatten kommer att direktsändas av SvT 24 med början kl 17:05
Kommittén för EU-debatt

Fördraget innehåller bland annat bestämmelser om ett djupare samarbete inom tredje pelaren, det vill säga polisiärt och straffrättsligt samarbete.
Detta, och andra delar av fördraget, kan genomföras redan nu utan att fördraget godkänns.

Vad hände(r) med den konstitutionella krisen i EU?
Sieps 2006:6 September 2006

Lars Leijonborg om EU och EMU

Centerpartiet och Allians för Sverige vill ha ett smalare och vassare EU, som tar sig an de stora frågorna.
Maud Olofsson, 28/8 2006

Vi kommer "inte att förhandla bort vår uppfattning om EU-fördraget och att det skall tas av riksdagen"
Bosse Ringholm till Svenska Dagbladet 1/9 2006 (s22, ej online)

Fördragsfrågan har knappast diskuterats i valrörelsen, trots att frågan kommer upp under mandatperioden.
Mats Hallgren, SvD Nyhetsplats 2/9 2006

Vad ska hända med den på is lagda EU-konstitutionen?
Och varför är Sveriges riksdag och det svenska folket så ointresserade av att debattera EU-frågor?

Den statliga "Kommittén för EU-debatt" 1/9 2006

Germany wants to bind Russia to EU
EU Observer 1/9 2006

ämbetsmän kan inte undgå att tänka på sin karriär.
"Det finns inget tystare än en ämbetsman klättrande i sin karriärstege".
Assar Lindbeck, DN Debatt 1/9 2006

EU in reality only has one policy and that is political integration. And, in seeking to achieve this, it has become past master at exploiting situations of concern, in this particular case concern about terrorism.
EU Referendum 29/8 2006

I partiernas manifest inför höstens val är EU-utbudet genomgående påfallande magert.
Kommittén för EU-debatt, 28/9 2006

It would be unfair to demand that the federalists simply abandon their ideal of political union in Europe. We are all entitled to our dreams. But they should recognise that in the current political situation they lack both the power and the legitimacy to press on with "the project".
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, August 29 2006
Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist

Brussels is using terrorism to further its federal ambitions
Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph 29/8 2006

"Statsradions ledning sitter säker. De sju riksdagspartierna kommer inte att utkräva ansvar för detta. Landets ledarskribenter kommer inte att kritisera. Etablissemanget håller ihop"
Nils Lundgren på Aftonbladet Debatt 2006-08-26

EU leaders have set 2008 as a target for making changes to the EU rule book, which are needed for further expansion.
BBC 19/6 2006

Ingen gemensam skogspolitik i EU lovar Finland, som nu är ordförandeland.
Fan tro´t. Snarare en politisk beställning inför Sveriges val.
Vi avhänder våra barn och barnbarn deras suveräna rätt till Sveriges naturtillgångar.
Björn von der Esch 10/8 2006

Recent comments about the accession of Eastern European states and the preoccupation with low paid jobs shows an astonishing naivety what Bulgaria is really about.
New Economist, 22/8 2006

- Anser Du fortfarande att Sverige skall gå med i EMU?
Jag har haft och har den uppfattningen. Dock har jag sagt att vi kommer inte att aktualisera frågan förrän det finns ett starkt folkligt krav på att så sker, därför att det här skall underställas en folkomröstning och nästa gång en regering lägger fram det här, och då talar vi om perioden efter 2010, så skall vi i så fall vara i ett läge där vi vet vet att vi har folket med oss.
Göran Persson, Ekots partiledarutfrågning, 21/8 2006

Eureka - vägar ut ur krisen (för EU-grundlagen)
I antologin medverkar Ursula Berge, Henrik Dahlsson, Fredrik Erixon, Lotta Fogde, Hillevi Larsson, Håkan Larsson, Jonas Morian, Jonas Sjöstedt och Maria Weimer.
Boken ges ut av Kommittén för EU-debatt och nätverket Nytt Europa.
Läs mer här

The Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, to call it by its proper official name, is not just another EU treaty.
This Treaty (Art.IV-437) repeals all the existing EC/EU treaties from the Treaty of Rome to the Treaty of Nice and then founds or establishes quite a new EU, based on its own Constitution.
Legally, constitutionally and politically this new European Union would be quite different from the existing EU.
EU Referendum

Socialdemokraterna och de fyra borgerliga partierna i EU-parlamentet, som tydligen inte har några moraliska betänkligheter att köra över folkviljan.
I januari i år röstade de glatt för “att alla tänkbara åtgärder vidtas för att se till att konstitutionen träder i kraft under 2009".
Vilka är dessa “tänkbara åtgärder”?
Nils Lundgren m fl i Värmlands Folkblad 15/8 2006

Bryssel är redan i dag ett långt viktigare beslutsforum för många, viktiga frågor än Helgeandsholmen.
Men att döma av diskussionerna inför höstens val kan man fråga sig om det över huvud taget pågår något organiserat samarbete på EU-nivå, i vart fall om Sverige deltar i detsamma.
Europaperspektivet är som bortblåst från valdebatten. Stendött.
Anders Wijkman, SvD Brännpunkt 18/8 2006

Kommissionen har blivit lite tuffare och de har särskilt påtalat att de svenska domstolarna inte tillräckligt uppmärksammar EG-rätten
I Sverige har både Högsta domstolen och Regeringsrätten agerat väldigt irriterat när det här har tagits upp. Jag tror att det är riktigt att man inte tillräckligt beaktat EG-rätten och ibland låtsas att den inte fanns.
Ulf Bernitz i Ekot 20/8 2006

Europe has to face threat of US trade deficit
This cumulative process could be enough to send some European economies into recession.
Martin Feldstein, FT August 1 2006

För första gången någonsin har EU satt in en gemensam gränspatrull för att vaka över unionens gräns.
Syftet med insatsen är att stoppa de unga afrikaner som i fullastade småbåtar ger sig i väg från Afrikas kust mot Kanarieöarna
"Ett historiskt ögonblick för EU:s invandringspolitik", sade EU:s invandringskommissionär Franco Frattini
DN 16/8 2006

Ms Merkel’s star has tumbled over the past week as the government’s reform agenda has come unstuck.
Only seven months ago she enjoyed the highest popularity ratings ever recorded by a postwar chancellor.
Today it looks as if the grand coalition of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats is failing to deliver change.
Wolfgang Munchau, Financial Times 9/7 2006

One could make a case for budgetary consolidation during a cyclical upswing, but a systemic policy of real devaluation is destructive from the perspective of the eurozone as a whole.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times 15/5 2006

Politicians will not take Non for an answer
George Parker, FT’s Brussels bureau chief, FT July 10 2006
About the book "The Constitution for Europe, Legal Analysis,
By Jean-Claude Piris, Cambridge University Press

In the continuing controversies about Europe's bold experiment in monetary union, there has at least been some agreement about where the costs and benefits lie. The costs are macroeconomic, caused by forgoing the right to set interest rates to suit the specific economic conditions of a member state. The benefits are microeconomic, consisting of potential gains in trade and growth as the costs of changing currencies and exchange-rate uncertainty are removed.
A new study by Richard Baldwin works out that the boost to trade within the euro area from the single currency is much smaller: between 5% and 15%, with a best estimate of 9%
The Economist, 22/6 2006

En valutaunion ökar handeln. Det kan röra sig om 30–50 procent på lång sikt.
Assar Lindbeck SvD 8/9 2003

Den arbetsmarknadsreform som den förra regeringen Schröder genomförde (Hartz IV) och som var avsedd att spara och få fler att arbeta mer har visat sig lika verkningslös som kostsam.
Barbro Hedvall, DNs ledarsida, 22/6 2006

SCB: 48,7 procent skulle rösta nej - 38,1 skulle rösta ja
DN 20/6 2006

Slovenia is now clear to join the 12-member eurozone on 1 January 2007 and EU finance ministers are due to set the exchange rate next month.
BBC 16/6 2006

What to do with the failed Constitutional Treaty?
That the old Constitutional Treaty is dead is obvious to everyone although officially acknowledged by few.
Carl Bildt, blog 17/6 2006

EU:s regeringar får drygt två år på sig att försöka enas om hur EU:s kris ska lösas.
Ekot 16/5 2006

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said the leaders had dropped the idea of making "absorption capacity" an additional criterion for further enlargement.
However, the leaders asked the European Commission to produce a report this year to define what the EU's absorption capacity is.
The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, told the BBC

Sceptics and enthusiasts for the European Union are united in one thing: they do not like muddle.
The Europhobes want to boil the union down to a free-trade zone. The Europhiles want it to turn into a federal state.
But Jan Zielonka, an Oxford-based political scientist, thinks this is a false choice. His new book suggests that Europe should adopt a "neo-medieval" way of looking at itself.
The Economist 8/6 2006

Stability pact
In a report to be published on Tuesday, Mr Almunia will say.
"On average the structural balance for the EU [in 2006] will not improve and for some member states will even deteriorate, turning the fiscal stance expansionary and pro-cyclical."
Financial Times 13/6 2006

One year after the French non and the Dutch nee, it is time to bury the EU constitution
Underlying those objections was a belief that the European project has been carried forward by an elite that has paid little heed to the views of ordinary people. It would be a travesty of democracy for the elite now to order the people to keep voting until they give the “right” answer.
The Economist, editorial, 25/5 2006

Otmar Issing, Europe's high priest of monetary orthodoxy, has confessed that the euro was launched on flawed foundations and is now threatened by "big tensions" between north and south.
"The proper functioning of a monetary union requires flexible labour and good markets. These conditions have not been fulfilled from the start."
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph 31/5 2006

Germany’s national economic strategy consists of two planks, budgetary consolidation and a beggar-thy-neighbour real devaluation inside the eurozone as Germany improves its competitiveness through wage moderation.
One could make a case for budgetary consolidation during a cyclical upswing, but a systemic policy of real devaluation is destructive from the perspective of the eurozone as a whole.
Wolfgang Münchau, Financial Times 15/5 2006

När ett barn inte vill äta fisken som serveras vid middagsbordet kan det fungera att skära maten i småbitar och säga att det är pannkaka.
En liknande metod funderar nu EU:s ledare på att tillämpa för att få medborgarna i medlemsländerna att acceptera förslaget till ny konstitution.
Marianne Björklund, DN 29/5 2006

"Oron för ett ”Europas förenta stater” är obefogad"
Trots att Sverige är medlem sedan mer än tio år anser inte de politiska partierna att detta är viktiga frågor.
SOM-institutet vid Göteborgs universitet: lika många svenskar är för ett medlemskap som emot. En fjärdedel kan inte ta ställning.
Sydsvenskan ledare 27/5 2006

98 procent av dem som röstade nej i franska folkomröstningen ångrar sig inte - medan tio procent av dem som röstade ja gör det.
Det är kanske dags för EU-ledarna att välja sig ett nytt folk
Nytt Europa 20/5 2006

Den period för reflektions som utlystes för ett år sedan när Holland och Frankrike röstade nej till EU:s författning kommer att förlängas ytterligare.
Ekot 28/5 2006

Han /Göran Persson/ prioriterar politisk och ekonomisk stabilitet, han är ytterst misstänksam mot partiets utopister och avstyr konsekvent radikala förslag.
Det var därför han inte lyckades övertyga om EMU - det projektet gick på tvärs mot hela hans person.
PM Nilsson, Expressens ledarsida 28/5 2006

Instead of seeking to resist the dollar’s shift to a more competitive level,
governments in Europe and Asia should focus on developing policies to maintain aggregate demand in their individual economies as their export sales decline.

Martin Feldstein, Financial Times 26/5 2006

Skillnaden mellan partierna har aldrig varit mindre. Numera är politiken mera en tävlan i kompetent management än en kamp mellan olika samhällsmodeller. Hur kommer det sig då att tonläget är så uppskruvat och tricksen så smutsiga?
En plausibel förklaring ges i nyutgåvan av DN-kolumnisten Anders Isakssons bok "Den politiska adeln" (Bonnier Fakta). Politikerrollen har förvandlats från förtroendeuppdrag, baserat på ideologisk övertygelse, till födkrok och karriär.
Niklas Ekdal, signerat, DNs ledarsida 28/5 2006

Vet folk detta?
En enig riksdag gav på tisdagen grönt ljus till Rumäniens och Bulgariens EU-anslutning.
Enligt tidsplanen ska de två länderna träda in i unionen vid årsskiftet.
Riksdagen Tisdagen den 9 maj 2006

East Capitals Turkiet-fond marknadsfördes på bred front med hjälp av förre statsministern Carl Bildt. Men så här långt har det blivit en rysare. Sedan starten har fonden backat 25 procent.
Fonden hårdlanserades, bland annat med hjälp av förre statsministern Carl Bildt som sitter i East Capitals investeringskommitté.
Affärsvärlden 24/5 2006

Skrota LAS och CSN, men ja tack till EMU.
Det är tre av besluten från centerungdomarnas riksstämma.
DN 13 maj 2006

Centerungdomar vill ha månggifte
Centerpartiets ungdomsförbund är positivt till att tillåta månggifte. Det enades förbundets riksstämma om i örebro på fredagen.
DN 12 maj 2006

The question of a constitution for Europe is back.
A plan to solve Europe’s crisis of legitimacy
The writer is an emeritus fellow of Keble College, Oxford
Larry Siedentop, Financial Times 11/4 2006

Paul de Grauwe, professor of economics at the University of Leuven in Belgium and an adviser to Mr Barroso, fears that a lack of political integration is undermining the single currency project.
BBC 14/5 2006

Det finns en EU-fråga som den kommande svenska riksdagen ska bestämma helt på egen hand. Den ska avgöra om Sverige trots allt ska ratificera EU:s konstitutionella fördrag
Att vänta med ett andra beslut till 2010 verkar däremot inte realistiskt, vilket innebär att riksdagen som väljs i höst eventuellt kommer att få ta slutlig ställning till fördraget.
Annika Ström Melin, skribent och kanslichef vid Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier, Sieps, SvD 25/4 2006

Riksdagen debatterar lagen i morgon 10/5
A majority of Finns would like to have a say on the country's adoption of the EU constitution.
57 per cent those asked want a referendum, while only 23 per cent agree that the Finnish parliament should adopt the constitution without consulting the people directly.
EU Observer 24/4 2006

Det var med en knappt dold suck av lättnad som de svenska riksdagspartierna i juni förra året godtog statsminister Göran Perssons beslut att lägga "Fördrag om upprättande av en konstitution för Europa" på is och stoppa riksdagens behandling av förslaget. Sedan har det varit tyst om EU i svensk politisk debatt. Inför höstens val verkar Europafrågan stendöd.
- Det finns en liten öppning för det tyska ordförandeskapet att starta en ny offensiv när valen i Frankrike och Nederländerna är över, konstaterar det tyska EU-utskottets ordförande Matthias Wissmann
Ingrid Hedström, DN 8/5 2006

Till krisen för konstitutionen för Europa kan vi nu lägga en högst självförvållad konstitutionell kris i Sverige.
Vi vet inte längre om det krävs två riksdagsbeslut med mellanliggande val – eller om det räcker med ett enkelt beslut