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Is this really the end?

Unless Germany and the ECB move quickly, the single currency’s collapse is looming

Nov 26th 2011

Even as the euro zone hurtles towards a crash, most people are assuming that, in the end, European leaders will do whatever it takes to save the single currency. That is because the consequences of the euro’s destruction are so catastrophic that no sensible policymaker could stand by and let it happen.

A euro break-up would cause a global bust worse even than the one in 2008-09. The world’s most financially integrated region would be ripped apart by defaults, bank failures and the imposition of capital controls (see article). The euro zone could shatter into different pieces, or a large block in the north and a fragmented south. Amid the recriminations and broken treaties after the failure of the European Union’s biggest economic project, wild currency swings between those in the core and those in the periphery would almost certainly bring the single market to a shuddering halt. The survival of the EU itself would be in doubt.

Mere HER i The Economist.

Sanity in Numbers

Tim Congdon – December 2011

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is reputed to be a sensible, level-headed lady. So when she claimed in the eurozone bail-out negotiations that their failure could threaten continued peace between Europe’s nations, the media latched on to her words. Could it really be true that, 66 years after a world war that had been calamitous for her country and its people, the leader of Germany was warning of a similar horror? Would that be the price to be paid by Europe’s citizens if their single currency area were to disintegrate?

A fair comment is that Merkel’s remarks caused bemusement to many not directly involved in the negotiations and able to maintain a degree of objectivity. The United Nations has 193 members, while the European Union has 27 and the eurozone 17. One hundred and seventy-six countries do not have the euro as their currency and 166 do not even belong to the EU.

Mere HER i Standpoint Magazine.

How Brussels Stifles Democracy in Europe

Daniel Hannan -December 2011

How could so many clever people get it so wrong? The flaws in the euro project are not just clear with hindsight; they were visible at the outset and were widely pointed out. It was never going to be possible to jam widely divergent economies into a single monetary policy. It was plainly reckless to invite Italy and Greece to join the new currency when their government debt was at twice the permitted level of 60 per cent of GDP. Plenty of doubters said so at the time. Yet, in every national parliament, in every central bank, in every university faculty, in every television editorial conference, there was a collective suspension of disbelief.

Why? What were they thinking? If you listen carefully to what Euro-integrationists were saying when the single currency was launched, you hear a subtext. It’s not so much that they liked the euro, it’s that they disliked the people who opposed it. Listen, for example to Charles Kennedy in 2002:

Mere HER i Standpoint Magazine.

Andre kilder: Standpoint Magazine, Standpoint Magazine, The Telegraph,

Video & artikler: Egyptens dødskamp trækker ud – nyt holocaust rykker nærmere

Folks, it doesn’t look good for Egypt:

Looting the Egyptian Currency: Democracy in Action

By David P. Goldman – November 25th, 2011

The ugly denouement of the so-called Egyptian Spring is visible in the collapse of Egypt’s stock exchange (down 11% in the first three days of this week) and the impending collapse of the Egyptian pound, as residents and foreigners flee to hard currency. A unique sort of brutality characterizes Egypt’s currency crisis: banks cannot meet the demand for currency because it is impossible transport bank notes. Mobs hijack the armored cars, as Al Ahram reported today:

“Demand on the dollar increased by 100 per cent since Saturday,” said Bilal Khalil, deputy head of the exchange division of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FCC).

Khalil went on to say that many people prefer to convert pounds to dollars in times of crisis. “The exceptionally high demand on the American dollar resulted in a shortage of supply and a higher cost,” he said.

Mere HER hos Pajamas Media. Kan også læses her hos Free Republic.

What Do Totalitarians Do When They Gain Power Democratically?

November 25, 2011 – by Barry Rubin

In the last scene of the film “The Candidate,” about a U.S. Senate election, the victorious candidate expresses American cynicism about politics by asking, “What do we do now?” The idea is that politicians just want to get into power but have no idea of how to deal with problems or even a coherent worldview. Soon deadlock will set in and nothing is really going to change.  It is the sarcasm fit for an open, non-ideological system where individual ambition prevails.  But as long as there’s always another election, we know that things will be all right and life will be tolerable.

Not so in the Arabic-speaking Middle East.  These politicians know precisely what they want to do: seize state power (albeit by peaceful means, if possible), fundamentally transform their societies, and hold onto state power forever. And they are capable of changing things a lot.

Naïve Western officials, journalists, and “experts” think that an electoral victory for the Islamists is just fine and dandy. They will obey the rules; be worn down by the necessary compromises of democratic politics; have to focus their effortson collecting garbage, running schools, and fixing roads; and then another election will come along and things will always be all right.

Mere HER hos Pajamas Media.

Egypt: between the devil and the deep blue sea

By Melanie Phillips – 23 November 2011

The violence in Egypt has continued to escalate as the demonstrators out on the streets insist that the army council step down immediately. A brief truce brokered by clerics earlier today appears to have collapsed. There is no doubt that Egypt’s military regime has behaved, and will continue to behave, with great brutality. But as I wrote here two days ago, Egypt is between the devil and the deep blue sea. Bad as the military regime may be, the most likely alternative of a Muslim Brotherhood regime would be worse. The army cracks down on dissent, which is bad enough; the Islamists, however, crack down on the freedom just to be.

Mere HER i The Daily Mail. Kan også læses her på Melanie Phillips blog. Og dødstrusler. Nyt folkedrab forude? Den søde, kærlige venstrefløj og deres presse ville omgående gå til angreb på enhver, der forsøgte at forhindre det. En ting er, at arabere siger, de vil myrde. Men at sige, at de siger det? Nej, der går grænsen. Det ville være dæmonisering og det kan vi jo ikke have:

Cairo rally: One day we’ll kill all Jews

Muslim Brotherhood holds venomous anti-Israel rally in Cairo mosque Friday; Islamic activists chant: Tel Aviv, judgment day has come

Eldad Beck – November 25, 2011

Arab hate: A Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo’s most prominent mosque Friday turned into a venomous anti-Israel protest, with attendants vowing to “one day kill all Jews.”

Some 5,000 people joined the rally, called to promote the “battle against Jerusalem’s Judaization.” The event coincided with the anniversary of the United Nations’ partition plan in 1947, which called for the establishment of a Jewish state.

Mere HER i Ynetnews.

Michael Coren on batshit crazy Egyptian politician

Here’s your “Arab spring.”

Andre kilder: Pajamas Media, The Telegraph, National Review Online, The New York Daily News,

Video: Michael Coren & Pamela Geller om voldtægt i Afghanistan

Hvad laver alle de vestlige tropper i det gudsforladte land? Det er jo en parodi. Fra i går:

Michael Coren with Pamela Geller: Afghan rape victim

Again, why are we in Afghanistan? I’m all for killing those who conspired in the 9/11 attacks, but why did we stop there and allow this crap to remain?

Video: Ezra Levant om hykleri og Greenpeace

Fup og Svindel A/S. Kun få timer gammel:

Ezra Levant: Greenpeace, the multinational corporation

Ezra warms up by discussing Climategate 2.0 and then focuses his attention on foreign multinational, Greenpeace.

Video: Mark Steyn & Ezra Levant – igen

Steyn er tilbage på The Source. Kun få timer gammel:

Ezra Levant & Mark Steyn: Section 13 & Obama

Mark Steyn joins Ezra Levant to discuss Conservative MP Brian Storseth’s private member’s bill calling for the repeal of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) which deals with hate speech.

In the second segment they discuss Obama’s love for tyrants.