Germans say “bring back the mark!”
And one can hardly blame them:
“The return of the mark? I can imagine that we could see the rise of a German Tea Party focusing on precisely this issue,” says Thomas Mayer, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, referring to the conservative American political movement…
Pollsters like Matthias Jung from Forschungsgruppe Wahlen say that they can imagine the formation of a protest movement coalescing around euro-related fears. “The government has to prove that the bailouts for Greece and Ireland serve our own needs in Germany,” says Jung. “If the billions in aid are not convincingly justified, it will lead to a legitimation crisis.”
Germans are especially afraid of the specter of inflation, which haunts them from the time in the 20s when a stamp ended up costing—well, take a look:
The rapid increase in German inflation can be seen in the postage stamps that were issued during this period…In 1920 the highest valued stamp issued was for four marks. In 1923 the denominations were changing so rapidly that the post office could not design new stamps fast enough and resorted to using old dies and then overprinting them with new values. The highest value reached in 1923 was for 50 billion (50,000,000,000) marks.
I see this as a most hopeful sign. The “one world” idea of government/currency is flawed and to see it recognized as such brings promise. This can only be seen, in my mind, as a positive development on the world stage. Carry on!
dustoffmom: agreed. But I wonder if the “one currency” forces can be stopped.
The Germans tend to be realistic about their money and jobs, but in other things the romatic worldview takes over. Little is said about the companies that trade with Iran and little was made over oil for food, but let one ounce of genetically modified grain get into a trainload and the sky starts falling. I have very little patience with the éœbermorality on one hand and the anything for a buck attitude on the other. I can still remember the TV on-the-street interviews with people who said they felt more European than German.
Oh, fat chance of a grass roots, dependent movement in Germany, particularly even slightly pulling to what is can only laughingly be called ” the center” in Germany.
The (business and union) elites have to want out. This is possible, but not before there is a lot o damage done.
Der Spiegel is essentially the Time Magazine of Germany, with a but if the NYT thrown in–take its “reporting” with a large grain of salt.
Its the failing of communism in another form, again…
its interesting but on wiki, there is only a tiny reference to the stuff that Bukovsky has said about the European union and its formation
In the run-up to the 1991 presidential election Boris Yeltsin’s campaign considered Bukovsky as a potential vice-presidential running-mate (other contenders included Galina Starovoitova and Gennady Burbulis). In the end, the vice-presidency was offered to Alexander Rutskoi.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Bukovsky
Bukovsky warned about some parallels between the formations of the Soviet Union and the European Union.[10] source: to:www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865
the link above is the source of the quotes…
“It looks like we are living in a period of rapid, systematic and very consistent dismantlement of democracy. Look at this Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. It makes ministers into legislators who can introduce new laws without bothering to tell Parliament or anyone. …
This can make a dictatorship out of your country in no time. 2006
Its also interesting to note that many years before the EU was even discussed you can find references to planning among some interesting historical characters..
I can still remember the TV on-the-street interviews with people who said they felt more European than German.
That’s interesting. The unification of the German states, especially, is a relatively late thing. We have a friend from Bavaria who said he always felt more Bavarian than German. Also knew a Spaniard who felt more Catalonian than Spanish. Of course, Catalonia has/had its own language and Bavaria has its German dialect. Ironic that those who want us to be open to “other cultures” on the one hand seem to want to iron out any differences on the other.
Socialism is so toxic that dosage only influences when, not whether…
The European Monetary Union was/is a fraud, because it lacks enforcement powers. It is all well and good for the member states to have all agreed to limit growth of each nation’s deficit to 3% yearly, but Greece simply lied, and the other countries pretty well ignored their own pledge. Greece was rewarded, not punished, by a bailout; and Greeks are pretty uniformly opposed to the belt-tightening imposed, which is nothing near as severe as it should be.
It’s the same old story: Other People’s Money.
Germany is very gradually getting sucked into becoming the unwitting mother of Euro bailouts. Germany is the only major EMU member that can afford to leave the Euro and return to its own national currency. The day will perhaps come when Germans wish they had a military as a cop to enforce agreements. But the French hold that trump card.
So, let me get this straight. The idea that we take many really weak economies and a couple of strong ones, meld them together, and end up with everyone involved becoming rich didn’t work out?
You mean that when the richer nations gave their money to the poor nations those nations didn’t suddenly have industry spring up? That they didn’t suddenly find minerals and resources unknown in the country, that their exports of things no one wanted didn’t suddenly become wanted, that the ones that simply mismanaged their money didn’t have those policies suddenly work because now they had more? Ge golly wiz – who woulda’ thunk it?
*Gasp* If *only* someone out there could have predicted this would occur! Think of all the hurt this would have solved. Alas no one could have foreseen this occurring and no one can in the future either.
I bet if Germany hurries and give as much as it can to the weakest things will turn around though – after all at *some* point you will have to have given those lesser monied countries enough to be happy!