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The BillyB, Aster & JR8 roundtable!

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Post by aster » Mon, 16 Jan 2012 8:13 pm

Friday (Jan) 13th, 2012: The day ratings agencies became the laughing stock of the world. :D

Massive downgrades and pretending that they actually have something important to say... and the world laughs and downplays all that banter completely. Finally the day came that nobody gives a flying $hit what the rating clowns draw out of the hat...

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Post by JR8 » Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:26 pm

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Post by JR8 » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:41 pm

After Croatia, who is next in the EU queue?
Voters in Croatia, part of the former Yugoslavia, go to the polls this weekend to decide whether or not to join the European Union.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... queue.html
------------------------------------------------


Interesting after major structural cracks start to tell in the EU empire, and Germany faces taking over all of it's neighbours you might have thought that the EU would slow or stop it's reckless empire building.

But no.

The queue to join, is surely a list of economic stalwarts of which any German would be proud, er, to help pay for...

Croatia
Montenegro
Madedonia
Turkey
Iceland
Serbia
Albania
Kosovo
Bosnia and Herzogovina

Then we have Morocco, Tunisia and Israel waiting in the wings too.

I'm wondering what the advantage to the average man in the north European street is of all these countries joining. On the face of it they seem like Greece's candidature, only even less reputable.

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Post by BillyB » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 8:15 pm

JR8 wrote:After Croatia, who is next in the EU queue?
Voters in Croatia, part of the former Yugoslavia, go to the polls this weekend to decide whether or not to join the European Union.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... queue.html
------------------------------------------------


Interesting after major structural cracks start to tell in the EU empire, and Germany faces taking over all of it's neighbours you might have thought that the EU would slow or stop it's reckless empire building.

But no.

The queue to join, is surely a list of economic stalwarts of which any German would be proud, er, to help pay for...

Croatia
Montenegro
Madedonia
Turkey
Iceland
Serbia
Albania
Kosovo
Bosnia and Herzogovina

Then we have Morocco, Tunisia and Israel waiting in the wings too.

I'm wondering what the advantage to the average man in the north European street is of all these countries joining. On the face of it they seem like Greece's candidature, only even less reputable.
They want free handouts!

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Post by JR8 » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 8:26 pm

They want free handouts, and the EUrocrats want to continue empire building.

Yes, maybe it really is that simple...


p.s. I wonder if Zimbabwe applied to join they'd realise it was a pi$$-take... or maybe they're be flattered...

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Post by BillyB » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 8:38 pm

JR8 wrote:They want free handouts, and the EUrocrats want to continue empire building.

Yes, maybe it really is that simple...


p.s. I wonder if Zimbabwe applied to join they'd realise it was a pi$$-take... or maybe they're be flattered...
We'll give you ONE TRILLION Zimbabwe dollar to join the Euro......




Isn't that about 50 squid?!

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Post by zzm9980 » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 9:12 pm

You can buy 100 Trillion Zimbabwe dollars on eBay for ~$5 US:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-TRILLION-DO ... 582wt_1247

That's too funny.

I also like that the most esteemed national symbol they could think of for this 100 Trillion Dollar note was a pile of rocks.

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Post by aster » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:38 pm

Well over in Rhodesia you apparently need a wad of cash to buy a can of coke. ;)

As for newcomers to the EU, I don't quite see anything wrong with Croatia. Never been there, but I certainly don't see why they're having to join after the last two newcomers to the community...

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Post by JR8 » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:57 pm

aster wrote:Well over in Rhodesia you apparently need a wad of cash to buy a can of coke. ;)

As for newcomers to the EU, I don't quite see anything wrong with Croatia. Never been there, but I certainly don't see why they're having to join after the last two newcomers to the community...
Simple: Unresolved, until now, border disputes with Slovenia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_ ... pean_Union

As for Bulgaria and Romania, yes why indeed would anyone in their right mind open their borders and wallets to those mafia-ridden basket cases. Ah yes, that'll be the EUrocrats again! :roll:

p.s. 'Not seeing anything wrong' is hardly justification for the huge expense of Croatia joining the EU.

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Post by aster » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:11 pm

Yes, they have had some disputes with Slovenia and a few issues with harbouring some wanted individuals, but I'd take them over one of the mob-run states. Or even the financial forgers that are on constant financial life-support...

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Post by JR8 » Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:48 pm

aster wrote:Yes, they have had some disputes with Slovenia and a few issues with harbouring some wanted individuals, but I'd take them over one of the mob-run states. Or even the financial forgers that are on constant financial life-support...
The financial forgers, ah yes the Germans :) After all they were in breach of the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact (S&GP) when they acceded to the euro. I expect they made a special exception for themselves (with their poodle France agreeing to it), as they always do.


Never mind that the majority of Germans didn't want to join the euro in the first place. Whatdya think the EU is, a law-abiding democracy or something!

Hey look who is scheduled to join the euro in 2014, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania. With Poland, Romania and Bulgaria hot on their heels in 2015. Ok, there is the small issue that not a single one of these stalwart economies actually meet the requirements of the S&GP, but hey I expect exceptions can be made as with Germany, Greece and all the rest. Just temporarily of course :wink:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_convergence_criteria

The only country in Europe that actually meets the financial requirements of the S&GP is... [drum roll] ... Switzerland! Perhaps because it is the only economy that has yet to be completely buggered by membership of the EU. Ironic no!? :lol: :P

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Post by aster » Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:53 am

The Germans are the ones holding this entire continent together financially. Without them you could forget about the European economy altogether... because if they went down then the continent would collapse with a domino effect.

Banks will try to bust up the Euro as it's a thorn in their back-end. Kind of hard for the gang... banksters to play each country as they like and to shear each nation on every single transaction when they're part of a single currency. Of course in the UK the ones sponsoring the anti-Euro campaign... were those who were (or rather still are!) constantly ripping off the British consumer on a daily basis. Go figure...

The Euro will be fine, any talk of an end to the currency is completely laughable. Leave it to the tabloids, so that they can insert such an article between the ones titled "Aliens abducted by mother-in law" and "Clairvoyant claims Barcelona will face relegation next season." :)

The Euro is here to stay, it is and will continue be one of the world's most important currencies, and the European economy as a whole will be just fine. If Greece has to leave, so be it. Good riddance! It will actually make the Euro-zone stronger in the long run to offload the gimme-gimme-tribe...

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Post by JR8 » Mon, 23 Jan 2012 8:58 pm

Spanish 4Q Q-O-Q GDP fell 0.3%, and the Bank of Spain estimate GDP will contract by 1.5% in 2012.

Time for a reality check you'd have thought!

What are Spain doing instead?

'Spain’s month-old government may postpone deeper budget cuts until after a regional election in March, adding to the risk the nation misses its deficit goal for the second year.'


“[PM] Rajoy doesn’t want to get burnt before the Andalusian election,”

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Post by Mi Amigo » Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:19 pm

[quote="JR8"]Spanish 4Q Q-O-Q GDP fell 0.3%, and the Bank of Spain estimate GDP will contract by 1.5% in 2012.

Time for a reality check you'd have thought!

What are Spain doing instead?

'Spain’s month-old government may postpone deeper budget cuts until after a regional election in March, adding to the risk the nation misses its deficit goal for the second year.'


“[PM] Rajoy doesn’t want to get burnt before the Andalusian election,”
Be careful what you wish for

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Post by JR8 » Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:31 pm

aster wrote:The Germans are the ones holding this entire continent together financially.

One could respond on many levels:
- No that's not true, all EU countries are contributing to the EFSF, and many more indirectly via the IMF.
- The citizens are spitting tacks, given the choice they wouldn't be funding anybody.
- Isn't it a sad indictment of how far the EU has wrecked the European economies over the past decade that it has come to this?


Without them you could forget about the European economy altogether...

No. The European economies were doing perfectly ok relative to now say 10-15 years ago. It is the EU and euro that has dragged them down. Germany (together with France) is the author of this destruction.


because if they went down then the continent would collapse with a domino effect.

Yes, because perversely the markets for some reason see Germany as the last-resort back-stop. However in reality the citizens certainly have nil interest in bailing out anybody, and Merkel will never swing it.

Er, yeah, the rest below reverts to fruit-loop-land so I'll just leave you to it :)


Banks will try to bust up the Euro as it's a thorn in their back-end. Kind of hard for the gang... banksters to play each country as they like and to shear each nation on every single transaction when they're part of a single currency. Of course in the UK the ones sponsoring the anti-Euro campaign... were those who were (or rather still are!) constantly ripping off the British consumer on a daily basis. Go figure...

The Euro will be fine, any talk of an end to the currency is completely laughable. Leave it to the tabloids, so that they can insert such an article between the ones titled "Aliens abducted by mother-in law" and "Clairvoyant claims Barcelona will face relegation next season." :)

The Euro is here to stay, it is and will continue be one of the world's most important currencies, and the European economy as a whole will be just fine. If Greece has to leave, so be it. Good riddance! It will actually make the Euro-zone stronger in the long run to offload the gimme-gimme-tribe...

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