Europe’s German Future

On February 9, 2012, in Uncategorized, by NatK

From Christopher Caldwell, at the Weekly Standard , ” Über Alles After All “: Last week Germany reclaimed its status as the leading power in Europe. In the two years since it became apparent that Greece was, essentially, bankrupt, there have been dozens of emergency meetings of the countries that use the common European currency, the euro. Most of the euro-using states believe that Germany—with a booming industrial economy, vast trade surpluses, a reputation for fiscal probity, and a history that makes it reluctant to reject the counsel of France—ought to cover the bill. Germany has long argued that Greece must become competitive again by selling off state assets and cutting government handouts. More recently, Germany has added another demand—that EU authorities be empowered to discipline Greece and other delinquent countries. At the Brussels summit on January 30, the Germans won. Germany is fortunate to have, in the moment of its triumph, a chancellor who does not scare people. Angela Merkel is an East German intellectual, a physical chemist, the childless daughter of a clergyman. She mumbles. Her taste in clothing runs to pantsuits. She isn’t brawny and forceful like her Christian Democrat mentor Helmut Kohl, who presided over the reunification of Germany at the end of the Cold War. She isn’t eloquent and haughty, or tempestuous and randy, like her Social Democratic predecessors Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder, respectively. “This lack of a presidential demeanor is a big advantage,” says longtime Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber, whom Merkel replaced as party leader. Germany’s economy naturally provides it with a leadership role, but its history means that that role is something Germany cannot be seen to claim. “Neither personally nor politically does she come off as wanting to blow her own horn, along the lines of ‘I am the leader of Europe.’ ” By “Europe” Stoiber means the 27 countries that make up the European Union. The EU was launched in the wake of the Second World War as a way to organize Europe through economics, not war. This is a polite way of saying it was meant to keep Germany from dominating Europe with its army. A decade ago, the EU acquired a common money, the euro, which replaced the franc, the lira, the peseta, and the super-strong deutsche mark. The new monetary regime was meant to keep Germany from dominating the continent with its currency. But the euro has backfired. In 1990 British trade secretary Nicholas Ridley was forced to resign for calling the EU “a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe.” Ridley was quite wrong about Germany’s intentions, but he was right about the result. Joining Germany in a currency union meant playing by its rules. In fact, so big and rich is Germany—particularly now that reunification has brought its population to 80 million—that joining it in anything means playing by its rules. This is not Germany’s fault. It is the classic “German problem” that has confronted Europe for the whole modern era. It was camouflaged for six decades only by Germany’s reluctance to express any wishes whatsoever. As long as Germany wasn’t complaining, others could make free with Germany’s credit card. Once in the euro, Greece, Italy, Spain, and other countries that bankers used to consider reckless or unstable could borrow at the same rates. (The treaties that bound all these dissimilar countries together stipulated that there would be no bailouts for those who borrowed too much, but bankers obviously didn’t believe that.) A boom in lending pushed up wages and prices in those “peripheral” countries, rendering them uncompetitive. After the financial crisis of 2008, the countries that had overborrowed were saddled with more debt than they could comfortably repay. The eurozone’s Mediterranean members have come to think that Germany ought to rescue them. But the Germany to which they are addressing their petitions is not the penitent, diffident, and easily browbeaten land that they came to know over the last three generations. Germany has its own ideas about economics and morality, and it is ready to insist that its weaker neighbors adhere to them. That’s a great piece — pretty accurate all around. Continue reading at the link .

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Did This Treasure Hunter Find a Sunken Ship With $3 Billion in Platinum Bars?

On February 3, 2012, in Uncategorized, by

Greg Brooks holds an image of the Port Nicholson in front of a monitor showing the sunken ship. (Photo:AP)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A treasure hunter said he has located the wreck of a British merchant ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Cod during World War II while carrying what he claims was a load of platinum bars now worth more than $3 billion. If the claim proves true, it could be one of the richest sunken treasures ever discovered. Check out this account of the potential discovery: But an attorney for the British government expressed doubt the vessel was carrying platinum. And if it was, in fact, laden with precious metals, who owns the hoard could become a matter of international dispute. Treasure hunter Greg Brooks of Sub Sea Research in Gorham, Maine, announced that a wreck found sitting in 700 feet of water 50 miles offshore is that of the S.S. Port Nicholson, sunk in 1942. He said Wednesday that he and his crew identified it via the hull number using an underwater camera, and he hopes to begin raising the treasure later this month or in early March with the help of a remotely operated underwater vessel.

Brooks describes in the video that you can read the letters of the ship's name but marine life makes it awfully hard to see.

“I’m going to get it, one way or another, even if I have to lift the ship out of the water,” Brooks said. The claim should be viewed with skepticism, said Robert F. Marx, an underwater archaeologist, maritime historian and owner of Seven Seas Search and Salvage LLC in Florida. Both an American company and an English company previously went after the contents of the ship years ago and surely retrieved at least a portion, Marx said. The question is how much, if any, platinum is left, he said. “Every wreck that is lost is the richest wreck lost. Every wreck ever found is the biggest ever found. Every recovery is the biggest ever recovery,” Marx said. Brooks said the Port Nicholson was headed for New York with 71 tons of platinum valued at the time at about $53 million when it was sunk in an attack that left six people dead. The platinum was a payment from the Soviet Union to the U.S. for war supplies, Brooks said. The vessel was also carrying gold bullion and diamonds, he said. Brooks said he located the wreck in 2008 using shipboard sonar but held off announcing the find while he and his business partners obtained salvage rights from a federal judge. Salvage rights are not the same as ownership rights, which are still unsettled. Britain will wait until salvage operations begin before deciding whether to file a claim on the cargo, said Timothy Shusta, an attorney in Tampa, Fla., who represents the British government. He said it is unclear if the ship was even carrying any platinum.

Brooks found boxes in the ship that an underwater robot was unable to move, showing they were heavy and suggesting they could hold the gold.

“We’re still researching what was on the vessel,” he said. “Our initial research indicated it was mostly machinery and military stores.” The U.S. government has not weighed in on the court case yet, and Brooks said he doubts that will happen, since the Soviets eventually reimbursed Washington for the lost payment. A U.S. Treasury Department ledger shows that the platinum bars were on board, Brooks said, and his underwater video footage shows a platinum bar surrounded by 30 boxes that he believes hold four to five platinum ingots each. But he has yet to bring up any platinum, saying his underwater vessel needs to retrofitted to attach lines to the boxes, which would then be hoisted to the surface by winch. “Of course there are skeptics,” he said. “There’s skeptics on everything you do.” Maritime law is complicated, and there could be multiple claims on the ship’s contents. After the sinking of the HMS Edinburgh, an English warship carrying Soviet gold bullion as a payment to the allies during World War II, England, the U.S. and the Soviet Union had claims on the sunken treasure, Marx said. A consortium that owned the salvage vessel was given 10 percent of the prize, while the rest was shared by the other parties, he said. In other big finds, treasure hunter Mel Fisher made international headlines in 1985 when he discovered a $450 million mother lode of precious metals and gemstones from a Spanish galleon that went down off Florida in 1622. In another case, a Tampa exploration company has been ordered by the courts to return $500 million worth of treasure from a Spanish warship to Spain. The ship was sunk by the British navy during a battle off Portugal in 1804. [H/T Business Insider ]

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Oops! MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Spews Hatred of American Exceptionalism: Racist Attack Blogger Walter James Casper III Caught Lying Again!

On January 27, 2012, in Iraq, Uncategorized, by HansonLorna33

Newsbusters has the story, ” Rachel Maddow Sniffs in Disdain at Belief in America as ‘Shining’ City on a Hill .” I’ve been avoiding the racist anti-Semitic hate-blogger Walter James Casper III, but he and his progressive attack posse continue to stalk this blog — and the comments at the American Nihilist

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Is Germany the Envy of the United States?

On January 23, 2012, in barack obama, Uncategorized, by WanderseeFontan338

I’m glad for the Germans. Their economy is certainly the envy of Europe. But I doubt we’ll be seeing these kinds of comparisons in a few years, when the U.S. returns to strong economic growth rates and continued unquestioned leadership of the world economy. At Los Angeles Times , ” Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted “: Every summer, Volkmar and Vera Kruger spend three weeks vacationing in the south of France or at a cool getaway in Denmark. For the other three weeks of their annual vacation, they garden or travel a few hours away to root for their favorite team in Germany’s biggest soccer stadium. The couple, in their early 50s, aren’t retired or well off. They live in a small Tudor-style house in this middle-class town about 30 miles northwest of Frankfurt. He’s a foreman at a glass factory; she works part time for a company that tracks inventories for retailers. Their combined income is a modest $40,000. Yet the Krugers have a higher standard of living than many Americans who have twice that income. Their secret: little debt, frugal habits and a government that is intensely focused on high production, low inflation and extensive social services. That has given them job security and good medical care as well as well-maintained roads, trains and bike paths. Both of their adult children are out on their own, thanks in part to Germany’s job-training system and heavy subsidies for university education. For instance, Volkmar’s out-of-pocket costs for stomach surgery and 10 days in a hospital totaled just $13 a day. College tuition for their son runs about $260 a semester. Germany, with its manufacturing base and export prowess, is the America of yesteryear, an economic power unlike any of its European neighbors. As the world’s fourth-largest economy, it has thrived on principles that the United States seems to have gradually lost. It has tightly managed its budget and adopted reforms — such as raising the retirement age — that some other Eurozone nations are just now being forced to undertake. And few countries can match Germany’s capabilities for producing and exporting machinery and other equipment, or its infrastructure for research, apprenticeships and financing that support manufacturing. “German industry is strong,” said Volkmar, speaking in halting English as he occasionally looks up translations on a laptop. “People work good. That’s why the German economy is best in Europe.” There’s a simple explanation for this. Germany is Germany and the U.S. is the U.S. They have different economies, different economic systems, and different political cultures. And Germany has always been a powerhouse in Europe, or, at least since the end of the 19th century when it made a bid for international mastery and overtook Great Britain in the European balance of power. But it was the U.S. that stopped Germany’s attempt at world hegemony and the U.S. was instrumental in rebuilding the German state into the powerhouse that it is today. The continent has been known for slow growth rates and high unemployment for decades, and a relatively austere fiscal policy over the last few years has enabled the German economy to better withstand recent international financial crises than its regional neighbors. But the U.S. is out of recession and unemployment rates in the American economy are heading downward. As the financial and housing sectors continue to shake out we should see more improvement, particularly after businesses begin to invest and expand their payrolls, putting people back to work. This will take longer should Barack Obama be reelected. Top business leaders have indicated that investment in infrastructure and human resources has been delayed amid uncertainty in the business climate — particularly the threat of continued onerous taxes and regulation, such as ObamaCare and environmental mandates. Get a Republican in the White House and the good news we’re starting to see in the economy will accelerate. And with a couple of quarters of robust economic growth rates of say 4 or 5 percent of GDP, we’ll soon have news articles touting America as the envy of the world again.

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Arson Suspect Could Serve Life in Prison

On January 5, 2012, in Uncategorized, by uwwalum

At LAT , ” Suspect faces life term in arson rampage .” The guy has a history: Harry Burkhart, a 24-year-old who authorities said travels on German documents but was born in the restive Russian region of Chechnya, reportedly came to the attention of Los Angeles law enforcement because he erupted into a rage at his mother’s extradition hearing Dec. 29 in federal court. Burkhart was evicted by federal marshals after an expletive-laced diatribe against Americans and the U.S. government. A federal official who witnessed his tirade recognized him in security camera images from one of the weekend fires.

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Will Obama Get Any Credit for Good Economic News? (ContributorNetwork)

On December 21, 2011, in Uncategorized, by kohler

ContributorNetwork – COMMENTARY | Finally some good economic indicators for the U.S. and Europe are being reported in today’s headlines. The Washington Post reports unemployment dropped in 43 states in November. Markets are blissfully climbing following promising economic indicators both at home and abroad, including news of a successful debt auction from Spain and positive data from German businesses.

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Left Kind of Upset With Politifact’s ‘Lie of the Year’ Choice

On December 20, 2011, in Health Care, Uncategorized, by WillyHoustons

**Written by Doug Powers Politifact has revealed the “Lie of the Year” for 2011. First let’s review the last couple of winners, followed by some on the left who applauded Politifact for those choices. In 2009 , Politifact’s Lie of the Year was “Death Panels.” The left applauded the choice. In 2010 , Politifact’s Lie of the Year was “government takeover of health care.” Another liberal round of applause . This year, Politifact’s “Lie of the Year” is… What? A “credibility-killing choice” says one unhappy former customer. “Politifact, RIP” writes MRC’s Quote of the Year winner Paul Krugman . The latter thinks Politifact is terrified of appearing partisan and made this choice to appease the right. Apparently the only way Politifact could avoid appearing partisan would be to give a claim from the right the “Lie of the Year” distinction every single year . Krugman, et al, are claiming that the Republicans did vote to end Medicare and that Politifact got this one colossally wrong. On that, here’s Avik Roy writing at Forbes.com : Their [lefty critics of Politifact's 2011 "lie of the year" choice] defense of the “ending Medicare” claim, such as it is, is that using private insurers to deliver health care to seniors, instead of a government agency, fundamentally “ends” the program. This is, plainly, ridiculous. When the British government privatized British Rail in 1993, the railway system did not cease to exist. When Germany privatized Lufthansa in 1994, the German airline wasn’t “ended.” Similarly, if the government comes up with alternate modes of delivering the same health care to seniors, the program hasn’t been ended. As PolitiFact notes, a more accurate label would be to say that the Ryan plan “privatizes” Medicare. The problem for would-be liberal demagogues is that privatization isn’t the scare word for most Americans that it once was. But just in case “privatization” is still the scare word it once was, let’s show the “Paul Ryan’s going to kill your grandma” ad one more time : **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

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The EU’s Big Kazoo

On December 5, 2011, in barack obama, Uncategorized, by AlexisChristensen28

Europe has no time for clichés, so Europe’s currency crisis has skipped two cycles. Instead of allowing one cycle of history to complete itself before it is repeated — first as tragedy and then as farce — the Eurozone nations have decided to pass by the end of the current course, skip tragedy, and go directly to farce. France’s President is pressing hard on the trigger to fire the EU’s “big bazooka” but he can’t fire because Germany’s PM has her finger stuck behind the trigger and isn’t budging. Meanwhile, Mr. Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s Foreign Minister, last week demanded German intervention to save Poland (and the euro). Sikorski said, “I demand of Germany that, for its sake and ours, it help the Eurozone survive and prosper. Nobody else can do it. I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to save this, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear its inactivity.” A week before Sikorski’s plea, EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said that the only way to save the world was to give more power to — wait for it — the EU Commission. If there isn’t an increase in the EU’s power to regulate national economies, Barroso warned, Europe would “hand sovereignty to markets.” Jacques Delors, one of the euro’s creators, echoed Barroso’s remarks saying that the euro wasn’t created on a sound basis. The sound basis, according to Delors, would be centralized economic power in the EU. There’s not a lot to be learned from all this, given the fact that there’s nothing but Keynesian economics going on here. But Barroso and Delors do prove redundantly that for socialists, success and failure are one and the same. They have to be because socialism never works. So when it fails, the reason can’t be that socialism is a bad idea: it has to be that socialism wasn’t tried hard enough. The second lesson — dispensed hilariously by Barroso — is that markets are always sovereign. Dear Jose: read a little history in your spare time (which should be abundant when the euro collapses). Start with the fall of the Roman Empire (resulting in part from the devaluation of its currency), continue through the 1929 stock market crash and proceed to the 2008 banking crisis in which George Bush said we had to break the rules of the free market to save the free market. In those events we — at least those of us who aren’t Keynesians — learned that financial markets will always respond to government policy. But the response will be on the markets’ terms, not on whatever terms the government elites tried to impose. For Sarko, the problem is that the EU’s “big bazooka” can’t go “boom.” In reality, the “big bazooka” — the idea that the European Central Bank will just print enough money to bail everyone out — looks and sounds more like a marching band-sized kazoo. The European Central Bank’s creators didn’t give it the power to be the European lender of last resort. Merkel has said “nein” to that, because she knows the inflationary impact would disproportionately rob Germany and the euro would quickly become valueless. On her side, Merkel wants to rewrite the EU treaty to provide unification of power over national budgets and spending, and a means of enforcement through the EU courts. It’s a technocratic approach, a ten thousand-page repair manual written in German which, even if Greece and Italy promised solemnly to follow it, they couldn’t because their citizens aren’t, well, Germans. What will happen this week is what has happened at every “last chance” summit before it: a lot of window dressing will be peddled without any solutions to the fundamental problems that beset the euro. There will be promises of future action and an attempt to again seduce the markets to not impose the proper penalties that capitalism, in a free market, demands. This time, however, the markets won’t buy it. And they won’t buy the Eurozone nations’ national bonds because the risks are just too high. Even German bonds proved unsellable in their latest round of offerings. The crisis will build, and will probably blow up in another three months or so when Italy, Spain, and Greece have to sell another major round of bonds. If that were all we had to worry about, life would be easy. But we do have our Federal Reserve, and at its head Mr. Ben Bernanke. The Fed, under Bernanke and his predecessor — Henry Paulson — have had a penchant for lending out our money in trillions of dollars and keeping the loans secret. A week ago, we learned that the Fed — in concert with the Eurozone nations’ banks and those of Japan, Canada, the UK, and Switzerland — reduced the cost of borrowing dollars to Eurozone banks. This was, we were assured, just another “credit easing” maneuver. But “credit easing” means providing something to someone at below-market rates. It’s a subsidy and someone has to bear the cost. In this case, the biggest “someone” was, apparently, the United States. Right now, we don’t know what the cost was, or how much it may grow if it’s not repaid. And, even more dangerously, we don’t know what else the Fed is doing. A November 27 Bloomberg News report told us that the Fed — acting without congressional knowledge — gave endangered banks loans and guarantees that may have amounted to over $7.7 trillion in the last four years. In comparison, the now-infamous TARP program dispensed “only” about $700 billion. Think about those numbers. In 2008, the United States gross domestic product — all the wealth created and earned in the year by the entire nation — was about $14.6 trillion. So without our knowledge, acting on its own, the Fed gave guarantees and loans in an amount of 53 percent of our GDP. So now the Fed is in the process of “easing” European access to the dollar. Which means it is subsidizing the EUnuchs to keep doing what they do. Not even their own markets — or their putative partner, Germany — is willing to do that. What’s to prevent the Fed from throwing a TARP over Europe? At this point, not much. Let’s not dash out into the fever swamps of Ron Paulism. We need the Fed to be independent, and not subjected to the whims of the White House or Congress. But it needs to be trustworthy. When it gives loans and guarantees equaling 53 percent of our GDP to certain banks without disclosing them, it cannot be trusted. If it is designing a bailout for the Eurozone on our credit, it cannot be trusted. Let’s not seize the Fed or turn it into another vassal of the president or of Congress. But it needs to be entirely open and above board about what it is doing. Let’s shine a bright spotlight into the Fed’s darkest corners. We need to know what’s going on. It’s our money, damnit.

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Eurozone Leaders to Inject Greece with $10.7 Billion Loan

On November 30, 2011, in Uncategorized, by

BRUSSELS (AP/The Blaze) – Eurozone leaders scrambled to prevent financial chaos from spreading further and driving Europe’s common euro currency into utter ruin. The meeting of 17 nations was dominated by attempts to keep Greece afloat and find enough money to coat a veneer of credibility over Europe’s rescue fund. It came on the third straight day that Italy has taken a beating in the bond markets, with investors growing increasingly wary of the country’s chances of avoiding default. Luckily enough, markets rose for the second day Tuesday on hopes that the enormous pressures on the ministers would produce some results.

Source: Yahoo! Finance

The finance ministers approved the next installment of the Greece’s bailout loan – €8 billion ($10.7 billion). Without that money, Greece would have run out of cash before Christmas, unable to pay employees or provide services. The installment is part of a €110 billion ($150 billion) bailout package from eurozone nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that has kept Greece afloat since May 2010. The new cash came after the EU demanded, and received, letters from top Greek political leaders pledging their support for tough new austerity measures. In the latest sign of trouble, Italy was forced to pay an extremely high interest rate on an auction of three-year debt Tuesday. Demand was strong, but the 7.89 percent rate was nearly three percentage points higher than last month, an enormous increase. The auction raised €7.49 billion euros ($10 billion). “But it’s still worrisome that those yields are past the point which a week ago would have terrified global markets,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist for Prudential Financial. Many analysts have concluded that Italy is too big for Europe to rescue. If it defaults on its €1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) debt, the fallout could break up the currency used by 322 million people and send shock waves throughout the global economy. At the meeting, the finance ministers were discussing ideas that until recently would have been taboo: countries ceding additional budgetary sovereignty to a central authority – EU headquarters in Brussels. Strengthening financial governance is being touted as one way the eurozone can escape its debt crisis, which has already forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal into international bailouts and is threatening to engulf Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest economy. Aside from the money for Greece, some ministers acknowledged Tuesday they probably wouldn’t reach their more important goal of increasing the leverage power of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Analysts believe the fund, which is supposed to be a firewall against financial contagion swallowing up nation after nation, needs to be expanded from €440 billion ($587 billion) to something like €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion). “It will be very difficult to reach something in the region of a trillion,” said Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager. “Maybe half of that.” And the task of agreeing on grand changes that might save the eurozone from splitting up will likely fall to the European presidents and prime ministers attending a Dec. 9 summit in Brussels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her support for changes to Europe’s current treaties in order to create a fiscal union with stronger binding commitments by all euro countries. “Our priority is to have the whole of the eurozone to be placed on a stronger treaty basis,” Merkel said. “This is what we have devoted all of our efforts to; this is what I’m concentrating on in all of the talks with my counterparts.” Merkel acknowledged that changing the treaties – usually a lengthy procedure – won’t be easy because not all of the European Union’s 27 nations “are enthusiastic about it.” But she dismissed reports that the eurozone, or smaller groups of nations, might go ahead with their own swifter treaty. Countries outside the eurozone heaped on the pressure, fearing drastic consequences if the euro were to fail. Bank lending would freeze worldwide, stock markets would likely crash, European economies would go into a freefall and the U.S. and Asia would take a big hit as their exports to Europe collapsed. “I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is,” Radek Sikorski said in Berlin. “I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity. . . .The biggest threat to the security and prosperity of Poland would be the collapse of the eurozone.” Eurozone countries have enormous debts that need to be addressed- with €638 billion ($852 billion) coming due in 2012, of which 40 percent needs to be refinanced in the first four months alone, according to Barclays Capital. The 17 ministers are also discussing jointly issuing so-called eurobonds – an all-for-one, one-for-all way of having the different countries guaranteeing one another’s debts. Currently, each nation issues its own bonds, meaning that while Italy pays above 7 percent, Germany pays about 2 percent. Having stronger countries like Germany stand behind the general European debt would lower Italy’s borrowing rates and perhaps help it avoid a debt spiral toward bankruptcy. However, at the same time, it would raise Germany’s borrowing costs. Of course, one option EU sources said is being is explored is for euro system central banks to lend to the IMF so it can in turn lend to Italy and Spain while applying IMF borrowing conditions, reports TV New Zealand . “We will discuss with the ECB. The ECB is an independent institution, so we will put on the table some proposals and after that it is for the ECB to take the decision,” Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders told reporters. An even more radical solution was proposed Tuesday by the head of Germany’s exporters association: kick Greece and Portugal out of the eurozone. BGA President Anton Boerner told The Associated Press that’s the only way those two nations can spur the growth needed to overcome their crippling debts. Analysts were doubtful that new cash for Greece and mere talk about the stability fund would bring the financial relief that Europe craves. “The marginal impact of these bits of ‘good news’ should be limited at best and investors will still cast a nervous eye towards this week’s bond auctions,” said Geoffrey Yu, an analyst at UBS. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Europe Scrambles to Save Euro, Markets Surge

On November 28, 2011, in Uncategorized, by

The euro could be days away from collapsing, analysts warned Monday at the start of a critically busy money-raising week for eurozone countries. Markets surged anyway on hopes that European leaders, with their backs to the wall, are readying an overdue solution to the crisis. In the run-up to the next European summit on Dec. 9, a raft of new ideas circulated on how Europe could once and for all cap the financial contagion that began in Greece two years ago and has now spread to bigger economies, notably Italy. As mentioned earlier on The Blaze , among the ideas floated was a plan for the eurozone’s six “AAA” rated nations to pool their resources via a joint bond to provide assistance to some of the single currency bloc’s most indebted members and a fast-track move to a fiscal union between the 17 countries that Germany wants in return for its money. Whatever materializes and however many denials–and no one can deny this–that fact remains: the euro project is in grave danger. Evolution Securities economist Gary Jenkins said the series of government bond auctions this week “may determine the future of the EU.” Financial Times columnist Wolfgang Munchau wrote Monday that the common currency “has 10 days at most” to avoid collapse. The latest bout of turmoil to afflict the eurozone came last week after Germany failed to raise all the money it wanted in a bond auction and Italy had to pay through the roof to get investors to part with their cash. If a busy bond schedule this week meets with an equally-poor reception, then the euro’s countries will be in real danger of being locked out of international markets and facing the devastating prospect of defaulting on their debts. As governments nervously tap bond markets, Germany looks like it’s getting ready to ask its eurozone partners to back measures for a deeper fiscal union. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said late Sunday that Germany is pushing the EU parliament to allow the 17 eurozone members to draw up treaties that would grant outside powers the right to reject national budgets in eurozone nations that breach EU regulations. Such a move would allow for stiffer new regulations to be enacted more swiftly. “At the moment, we have a very low level of trust in the eurozone, that is our problem,” Schaeuble said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD. “We must now achieve what we failed to 10 years ago through a stability union.” The prospect of a deeper fiscal union, where in effect Berlin will have a greater say on developments in Athens, Rome and Lisbon, has been greeted positively in the markets. But it’s likely to take a long time to come to fruition. “We do seem to be moving slowly towards more of a fiscal union but at a pace that may result in all the components being put in place after a complete meltdown of the financial system,” Evolution Securities’ Jenkins said. Many think the ECB is the only institution capable of calming frayed market nerves and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s continued dismissal of a greater ECB role has frayed market nerves. And the pressure keeps building for Germany to go along with the ECB plan. Potentially, the ECB has unlimited financial firepower through its ability to print money. However, Germany finds the idea of monetizing debts unappealing, warning that it lets the more profligate countries off the hook for their bad practices. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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