by MIKE CAREY
I don’t want to sound alarmist but it looks like Goldman Sachs has taken over Europe. The continent has succumbed to the dictates of global finance, there was no choice. The bankers are holding us all to ransom and have done since the beginning of the GFC in 2008.
The German government’s reaction to its disastrous bond auction a week or so ago, gives a big clue to the real multibillion dollar game being played out in boardrooms from New York to Frankfurt. The most powerful and resilient economy in Europe couldn’t get a bid for 35% of its 10 year bonds on offer. Observers say it was a warning from bankers, on both sides of the Atlantic, do as we say or else!
Germany, through its Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, had been at the forefront demanding that banks share any sovereign bailout losses that eventuate from the European Stability Mechanism, to be up and running next year. The failed German bond auction was the bank’s curt reply and Schaeuble backed down.
Right from the start of the European crisis, the banks have been pulling the strings. Remember when the former Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou announced a plebiscite, to get popular buy-in for his austerity plan and the markets went bananas and he was excoriated. The markets and the banks, not the Greek people, passed judgement and he had to go.
Across the Ionian Sea, former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi hadn’t done enough to satisfy the self-serving screen jockeys and they turned their weapons, their bond traders, lap dog ratings agencies and share market speculators on Italy. Berlusconi was rumoured to be resigning and the bourse rallied. No, he wasn’t going and it fell away again with a promise that it would rocket when he finally and inevitably bowed to massive financial pressure to resign. As night follows day, he was replaced by a euphemism, a technocrat. Nowhere was there much talk about voter’s wishes or rights.
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