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Charlemagne: Banking on it
Excerpt:
So, all is well and good in EuropaLand? Bring out the Champagne!
No? Methinks not. Not ALL is well. But shouldn't Europe get over the tsunami of refugees from the Middle-east and Africa? After all, they did not rape our women in hordes as was expected - and in fact many are going back.
It has just dawned upon them that they have no advanced skills for which European countries are clamoring, and Europe has enough garbage-men for the moment ...
Excerpt:
IN DARKER times language tends to be blunt. But when Europeans are feeling perky, out come the metaphors. And by that measure, things in the euro zone are looking remarkably bright. With the wind in Europe’s sails, it is said, the time has come to clamber through the window of opportunity and fix the roof while the sun shines. Failure will leave the euro exposed when the economic storm clouds gather, or China starts to sneeze.
Three things saved the euro zone from destruction in 2011-12: a €500bn ($588bn) bail-out fund, the rudiments of a banking union, and Mario Draghi’s “whatever it takes” promise—never tested—that the European Central Bank (ECB) would, if needed, unleash a massive programme of bond-buying to protect the currency. Each of these was supposed to be a last resort, as the wildfires of the crisis licked at the bond markets of one country after another. Red lines were crossed, sacred cows slaughtered, rules bent beyond recognition.
Those were desperate measures, necessary when they were enacted. But reform in good times is never easy. As one EU official puts it, when the sun is out you want to go to the beach. Growth in the euro area is up (faster than America), unemployment is down (the lowest since 2009), and businesses and consumers are brimming with cheer. Polls find that Europeans love their currency again. The constant purr of good news has yielded a hashtag, #Euroboom. The tools built to weather the last crisis have proved their worth.
So, all is well and good in EuropaLand? Bring out the Champagne!
No? Methinks not. Not ALL is well. But shouldn't Europe get over the tsunami of refugees from the Middle-east and Africa? After all, they did not rape our women in hordes as was expected - and in fact many are going back.
It has just dawned upon them that they have no advanced skills for which European countries are clamoring, and Europe has enough garbage-men for the moment ...