Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Federal Reserve Bank of Europe?

Bill Bonner, who spends a lot more time in France than I do, has this take on Francois Hollande, who was just elected to the Frnch presidency:
Now, Francois Hollande has a plan. He wants to make Europe more like America…with a central bank that lends to government directly and “mutualization” of credit risk. In other words, he wants to do what Alexander Hamilton did to the US in 1791: make the states collectively responsible for each other’s debt. And then he’ll let the ECB print the money to buy sovereign bonds directly.

Yes, dear reader, the trend towards centralization continues…with central financial planning…central bank counterfeiting…and everybody going broke together.
This is the first I have heard of this being Hollande's plan, but it sure does sound like socialist thinking.

If this is what Hollande will attempt to promote, then stop the break up of the eurozone, it's going to be one big printing fest until price inflation gets really out of control.

4 comments:

  1. Yesterday, Britain's Cameron was talking about how the Euro needs a single government:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/us-britain-cameron-idUSBRE84802K20120509

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  2. looks like gold will have another day or two to shine for those of us uncivilized enough to buy it.

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  3. Until ownership is banned, FDR style.

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  4. The (socialist) Belgian government is already working hard to create the mechanisms necessary to enforce price controls. They're waging a campaign against cash money. Basically they're sending the message that anyone who prefers to pay cash is a criminal (otherwise they would be using a more traceable way to pay people).

    Recently they made it illegal to pay cash for purchases over 5000 euros and they want to go even further and make it illegal to pay cash for purchases over 400 euros.

    It's obvious they're expecting massive inflation. Whether they just want to enforce price controls in an attempt to hide inflation or whether they're already preparing for a devaluation of the euro, I don't know.

    I'm curious. Are other EU countries taking similar steps against the use of cash money?

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