Daily Archives: 18 July 2010

Legal noose tightens on Europe’s monetary union

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

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

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

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

Nice to know it’s being challenged, but I’d be surprised if whatever judges hearing the case didn’t simply do as they were told by the powers that be.

Gen. Casey: America may be in Iraq and Afghanistan for another decade

The United States may still be in the Afghanistan and Iraq region for another ten years, according to Gen. George Casey.

“The types of conflict that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think are likely to be fighting here for a decade or so, are focused on the people,” Casey, the army’s Chief of Staff, said Friday night at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival.

“We are not going to succeed in either place by military means alone. You are only going to succeed when the people perceive there is a government represented by their interests, when there is an economy that can give them a job to support their families, when there are educational systems that can educate their family. All those things are essential to the long term success of the military operation.” (Read more from politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)

I think the dollar will collapse before then.