[WS:] That may be true, but it does not mean that EU will dump the Euro. I think that European governments are much more eager and better positioned to save capitalism from excesses of individual capitalists than their US counterpart.
But the split opinions about the Euro among various EU factions is nothing new - Denmark, Sweden, and the UK refused to adopt it, for various reasons, to be sure, but certainly reflecting the wishes of their elites. I also understand that Poland is not very eager to join the Eurozone either - the elite seems to be split on that.
Wojtek
On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 10:14 AM, Marv Gandall <marvgand at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2011-09-01, at 8:55 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
>
>> "We must rescue banks, not countries. "
>>
>> [WS:] Enough said. Everything else in this piece is just blah.
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 11:11 PM, Marv Gandall <marvgand at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> A sceptic’s solution – a breakaway currency
>>> By Hans-Olaf Henkel
>>> Financial Times
>>> August 29 2011
>>>
>>> Having been an early supporter of the euro, I now consider my engagement to be the biggest professional mistake I ever made. But I do have a solution to the escalating crisis.
>>>
>>> I have three reasons for my change of heart…
>
> The article is significant because German capital drove the formation of the eurozone. So, when Henkel, the former head of IBM Europe and of the powerful Federation of German Industries, says he considers his support for it to have been "the biggest professional mistake" of his life and is now publicly campaigning for its dissolution, it occasions more than a mere yawn - for me, at least.
>
> It indicates that a significant, possibly decisive, fraction of the German ruling class now wants to abandon the euro. As Hinkel intimates, the industrialists are prepared to take a short term hit to their exports as the cost of ending the bailouts which mainly benefit the German banks. When he talks of "rescuing" the banks, it is not, as at present, through further aid to the countries which are heavily indebted to them, but of recapitalizing them and, where necessary, nationalizing the insolvent ones when their substantial euro debt holdings collapse.
>
> Public opinion aside, this apparent ruling class split explains why the Merkel government, accused of vacillation and indecisiveness, would feel itself caught between a rock and a hard place.
>
> But perhaps list members who more closely follow developments in Germany and the eurozone can clarify further.
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