WSJ - Ireland's economy slid into crisis in 2008 when the bursting of its property bubble wrecked the country's banks and brought the euro-zone member close to bankruptcy. In late 2010, the government secured €67.5 billion ($91.54 billion) in loans from the EU and IMF, the last of which will be disbursed over the next two months. From next year, the government will have to finance itself exclusively through the bond markets. Finance Minister Michael Noonan told lawmakers that the budget will introduce up to €2.5 billion in new tax increases and spending cuts, saying that Ireland will better the deficit target for 2014 that was set under its bailout agreement. The proposed cuts are the smallest since 2008. Under the budget, the deficit is planned to fall to 4.8% of gross domestic product in 2014 from 7.3% this year. The government is committed to reducing its deficit to below 3% of GDP in 2015. Required to keep cutting its deficit over the next two years, Ireland's government will then be obliged to endure a tight regime of fiscal oversight for many more years to cut its towering national debt.  Despite those constraints, Mr. Noonan told lawmakers that in ending its dependence on EU and IMF loans, the nation would regain control over its own destiny.

"We have a fair wind at our backs to achieve our objectives and to restore our sovereignty," he said.

After the long years of sacrifice, the government is seeking to shore up faltering public support for austerity, describing its 2014 budget as one of the last of the big painful efforts to move the country out of crisis and into recovery. The leaders of the two parties in the coalition government have said there is now clear evidence that the country is emerging from its "national emergency."

There is much at stake for the euro zone, which has also provided bailouts to Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain. A successful return to the bond markets for Ireland would offer euro-zone policy makers a rare opportunity to claim a success for their much-criticized strategy for confronting the currency area's fiscal and banking crisis, one that has relied heavily on austerity.

Mr. Noonan said that for the first time since the onset of the financial crisis, the government will post a primary budget surplus next year. That would mean that excluding interest payments, its tax revenues would exceed its spending, helping to cap its huge debts.

Tuesday's budget means that since 2008, Ireland has detailed cuts to its budget totaling a cumulative €30 billion, representing about 18.5% of the country's annual economic output and making it one of the largest austerity programs undertaken anywhere in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

The EU and IMF and other institutions, such as the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Irish central bank, had urged the government to go further and meet in full a proposed €3.1 billion in deficit cuts, to safeguard its finances. But the coalition projects that it will still meet its bailout budget targets in 2014 and 2015, and help promote jobs.

Same crap allover the place ...

Mark Carney, the incoming Bank of England governor, has appointed Charlotte Hogg, a senior executive at Santander and the scion of one of Britain's most blue-blooded political dynasties, to become the Bank's first chief operating officer.

Hogg, who heads Santander's high street operations, will start at the Bank on 1 July – the day that Carney takes over from Sir Mervyn King. The 41-year-old will head all the day-to-day management functions of the Bank – from personnel to property, IT and security – and become the most senior female employee in its 319-year history.

Hogg, who has been at Santander since September 2011, will collect the same £260,000 salary and benefits as the Bank's three deputy governors. It is a significant pay cut from the £2.5m she earned from Santander last year, including buy-out awards from her previous employer, the credit checking agency Experian.

Carney, who is joining the Bank from Canada's central bank where he reorganised the management structure, said he was delighted to have been able to poach Hogg from Santander. "My tenure at the Bank will oversee a significant transition," he said. "Charlotte brings an outstanding track record and breadth of experience that will help to catalyse that change and I look forward to working closely with her to realise the full potential of the new institutional structure of the Bank."

Hogg, who like Carney studied at Oxford and Harvard, started her career at the Bank before moving to McKinsey in Washington. She also worked at Morgan Stanley, before joining Experian as head of its operations in the UK and Ireland.

"I'm delighted to be returning to the Bank of England, where I started my career in 1992," she said on Tuesday. "I am looking forward to working closely with Mark Carney as he takes over the governorship."

Hogg is descended from one of Britain's most high profile political families – with both her mother and father holding life peerages. Her mother is Baroness (Sarah) Hogg, a senior adviser to Sir John Major when he was prime minister. Her father is Viscount Hailsham, the former Tory cabinet minister Douglas Hogg, who stepped down as an MP after claiming £2,200 expenses for cleaning the moat at his 13th-century country estate.

Her paternal grandfather was Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, a former lord chancellor. His father, her great-grandfather, was also a lord chancellor. Her maternal grandfather was Lord Boyd-Carpenter, a former chief secretary to the Treasury.

"You can have too much of a good thing in one family," Hogg once told her local newspaper.  Paul Tucker, the Bank's deputy governor for financial stability who lost out on the top job to Carney, announced his intention to leave the Bank last week.  Santander UK's chief executive Ana Botín said: "During her two years at Santander Charlotte has reshaped our retail distribution business. Her work has made us a more customer-centred organisation and has put us in a strong position for further development."

Hogg's responsibilities at Santander will be taken over by Martin Bischoff and Miguel Sard. Prior to Hogg, the most senior woman at the Bank was Rachel Lomax, who served as a deputy governor from 2003 to 2008.

Hmmm...I wonder what would the master EU idiot - Ollie R. say about this ...

Telling people that they can lose their deposits, even possibly below guaranteed amount (100,000 euros), which later was retracted, had not been a mistake. Firstly people realized and got used to the idea that such thing was no longer unthinkable. Secondly, by hitting deposits above 100,000 euros with up to 40% (or even maybe up to 60%) tax, it was made clear that such hit can be very hard indeed. Not some 6.75% or 9.9% as originally mooted: so now it is matter for the 'financial markets' to extend their target, below 100,000 euros. It is indeed a very primitive piece of social engineering and coaching people for the forthcoming loss. It is preparing psychologically all countries in Europe for the next step of the largest heist in history: direct and hard targeting of people's deposits. There is also a rather ironic twist in the events in Cyprus. It has been widely reported that many billions of euros held in banks in Cyprus came from all sorts of dodgy businesses (Russia?). There is even a whispering subliminal propaganda designed to make it easier to accept this new phase of the largest heist in history. The message is that there is nothing wrong in stealing money from the thieves.

Technically what happened there was that the billions of euros in cash deposited in Cyprus was used to redeem for a lot of toxic waste of the financial institutions (it is called 'making investments' in a financial language, with depositors cash). So, as expected, those who had cash ended up with nothing and those who held (and are still generating) zillions of toxic waste, got another tranche of their heist. The largest heist in history continues. Now...if it is true, as it is widely rumored, that many billions of euros of mafia money have been kept in Cyprus and now something like 40% or even 60% are going to be lost, one could wonder whether European politicians, central bankers, who drive this process, e.g. finance ministers, or some other decision makers, even lower down the chain, are going to sleep comfortably. Or are they going to think more about their own and their families safety? Is mafia going to accept such multibillion euros loss? Or would they plan to teach a lesson in order to get their money back, to get a compensation for the current 'inconvenience' and mess and to make sure such a thing is unthinkable in the future. Mafia starts wars when there is big money at stake. And in Cyprus some powerful groups lost billions of euros. Therefore we can also look forward to listen to some interesting news. Don't be surprised.

The U.K. coalition government has suffered its first significant Commons defeat as MPs voted by 307 to 294, majority 13, to back a Tory rebel call to cut the EU budget.This vote is not binding on ministers. But it is nonetheless a major embarrassment for ministers. So, the EU and the evil corrupt politicos who run it. Razor's principle: All things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the truth.The EU is a massively complex and expensive mistake. It is a fundamental falsehood and the lies are wearing thin. So now the greatest democracy in the world has dealt a serious blow to this behemoth and like biblical prophets of old have drawn a line in the sand from which the nations of Britain can reclaim sovereignty. I hope that the UK gets its referendum and finds a way out of this EU.You could build up an example, that life outside this mess is better and bring it this way to a collapse. At least the EU-skeptical Scandinavians would follow soon.The wealth and cultural richness of this continent was the result of (peaceful) competition and search for better solutions in smaller units and not of an gigantic federal state, that will destroy all differences. The EU can not be Europes answer to the globalization, it will just accelerate its decline.

Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there has been considerable progress with Greece but no deal has yet been done. He added that Greece must meet conditions before the next trance of its bailout can be paid. He said it was unlikely that the Eurogroup would receive the Troika report on Greece before 11 November. He added that there were also no concrete deals wit Cyprus yet and he did not expect them to start before next year.

Jean-Claude Juncker, leader of the eurozone finance ministers' group, called on Greece to solve the remaining issues it has with its international lenders and said the Eurogroup would look to conclude talks on the Greek loan program on 12 November. He added that the conclusion of talks with Greece hinged on Athens implementing agreed reforms before the deal was made. That statement from Jean-Claude Juncker, Eurogroup president, has now been published. Here's what he had to say: The Eurogroup took note of the progress made towards a full staff level agreement between Greece and the Troika on updated program conditionality, including ambitious and wide-ranging measures in the areas of fiscal consolidation, structural reforms, privatization and financial sector stabilization. We called on the Greek authorities to solve remaining issues so as to swiftly finalize the negotiations with the Troika institutions. The Eurogroup expects to further discuss the Greek adjustment program at its next regular meeting on 12 November on the basis of the relevant program documentation and seek to conclude on the program, subject to the completion of prior actions by the Greek authorities and of national procedures in Member States, in line with the established practice.

Super writting by Helena Smith - The Guardian

Up close Angela Merkel is very static. She stands immoveable, her eyes flashing this way and that. In Athens, as she stood behind a lectern following talks with the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, the German chancellor was so restrained she hardly moved at all. The Greek capital resembled Fort Knox – with riot police guarding her every move, helicopters roaring overhead and sharp shooters installed on the rooftops of buildings great and small – but Europe's most powerful woman was having none of it. The angry chants and hoarse slogans of the thousands of protesters who had also come out to greet her, eliciting one of the biggest security operations ever put on by near-bankrupt Greece, belonged to another world. As did the copious amounts of acrid teargas that wafted through the Athens air.

In the hushed marble interior of the mansion that is the prime minister's office, Merkel had a message and on this, her first visit to Greece since the eruption of Europe's debt drama, it was a message she was determined to convey.

"I have not come as a task-master," she said, her eyes elevated towards the room's ornate sunlit ceiling as if focusing on some indefinable spot. "And nor have I come as a teacher to give grades," she added, now focusing intently on the marble floor. "I have come as a friend to listen and be informed." Three years into the crisis that began in Athens, Merkel also wanted to say that she understood "a lot" was being demanded of Greece. She was not the austerity warmonger that critics had painted her to be. "I come in full and firm awareness of what the people of Greece are going through," she insisted. But, she continued, Europe's weakest link was badly in need of change – and, if reforms were not made now, they would come back "in a much more dramatic way".

"I come from East Germany and I know how long it takes to build reform," she said, almost by way of reassurance. "The road for the people of Greece is very tough, very difficult, but they have put a good bit of the path behind them. I want to say you are making progress!"... But even as the leader attempted not to sound like the matriarch in charge of the family till, there is no denying that that is exactly what she is.

"Saying that she is not here to preach is bullshit," said one of the small retinue of Berlin-based journalists who follow her every move. "She is here to tell them exactly what to do."  For the vast majority of Greeks, no person is more identified than Merkel with the punitive measures that have ensnared the country in unprecedented recession and record levels of poverty and unemployment.

As up to 300,000 took to the streets in a massive display of fury over the savage cuts and tax increases that have brought growing numbers to the brink of penury, it was the woman who is widely seen as the "architect of austerity" that was firmly in their sights.   "If I met her I would say if you had read Greek history you would have been more aware," said Takis Stavropoulos, a bearded leftist who had converged with thousands of other protesters on Syntagma square. "If she had done that she would have known we would resist."   No government has been in as difficult a place as the ruling coalition that Samaras has lead since June. Although Merkel's surprise visit was seen as a major coup, with officials hailing it as further proof of Berlin's new-found willingness to keep Greece in the 17-member eurozone, there was also an acceptance that the chancellor's six-hour presence in Athens, while rich in symbolism, did not yield much in the way of substance.   Merkel's Calvinist approach to dealing with Europe's crisis-hit southern periphery may have softened, as the leader looks to re-election next year, but as tiny Greece stares into the abyss with enough funds to survive only until the end of next month, the message was clear: apply more draconian measures and the rescue funds will keep pouring in. Echoing the complaint of German commentators, Greek analysts agreed that the visit was long-overdue.

"It is hard not to see that this visit had a more important message for Germany ahead of [next September's] general elections than it did for Greece," opined the prominent commentator Yiannis Pretenderis.  The sad reality remained. After the biggest debt write-down in the history of world finance and two EU-IMF-sponsored bailouts worth a mammoth €240bn, Greece was still far from being saved and, even worse, was slipping inexorably into social meltdown with its political arena becoming ever more radicalised.

The draconian €13.5bn package of spending cuts that is the price of further aid could, many fear, push Greece further to the edge.  Back at the heart of the government, untouched by the discord of everyday life, the awkwardness of Greece's disharmonious relationship with its big brother Germany was on full display in the awkwardness of the body language of its prime minister.   As Merkel, the pastor's daughter, spoke, Samaras, whose background is privileged elite, Harvard and moneyed, looked on and winced.

"Greeks are a proud people," he said. "And our enemy is recession. But we are not asking for favours. In my discussion with the German chancellor I pointed out, however, that the Greek people are bleeding."  As he spoke, Merkel remained absolutely static before pursing her lips and looking away.  Police fired teargas and stun grenades to hold back crowds chanting anti-austerity slogans and waving Nazi flags while Merkel's host, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, welcomed her as a "friend" of Greece.  On her first visit to Greece since the euro zone crisis erupted three years ago, Merkel struck a conciliatory tone.  She reaffirmed Berlin's commitment to keep the debt-crippled Greek state inside Europe's single currency but offered Samaras no concrete relief ahead of a new report on Greece's reform progress due by next month.  "I have come here today in full knowledge that the period Greece is living through right now is an extremely difficult one for the Greeks and many people are suffering," Merkel said at a news conference with Samaras just a few hundred yards from the mayhem on Syntagma Square, outside parliament.

"Precisely for that reason I want to say that much of the path is already behind us," she added. (source guardian.uk)

Germany gets to show its eurosceptic side

The preamble of the constitution makes Europe into a major premise of our constitution," says Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the head of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) group in the European Parliament. "Today's judges treat it like an annoying postscript. That's alarming."

Yes, and the actual central clauses of the constitution state that that all power derives from the people.

The european parliamentarians are particularly noisy about the court daring to interfere, at this time. They're probably still sore about the fact that the Court ruled that the European Parliament didn't meet "international democratic standards", and so wasn't a suitable receptacle for future transfer of sovereignty.

From memory, the international democratic standard they saw the european parliament failing had to do with one MEP representing 300,000 germans, and 50,000 maltese....Ah well. Germany gets to show its eurosceptic side, for a change.

The euro zone fiscal compact has lost what remained of its credibility

(Reuters) - Dutch Queen Beatrix has asked for parliament to be dissolved so that elections can be held on September 12, leaving the country open to months of political and economic uncertainty after the government collapsed in a row over budget cuts. The triple-A rated Netherlands has been one of the euro zone’s most stable countries but has been plunged into a political crisis, worrying financial markets focused on the region’s debt troubles. “The euro zone fiscal compact will lose what remains of its credibility if even one of the AAA members is politically unable to implement the austerity measures required to adhere to this rule,” Rabobank said in a research note. After losing his main ally, care-taker Prime Minister Mark Rutte is desperately trying to find support from opposition parties for budget cuts to put the country on track to meet the European Union’s deficit targets. The largest opposition parties on Tuesday refused to back his 14 to 16 billion euros package of cuts, and now he has less than a week to win support from smaller parties so he can present his plans to the EU by April 30. With doubts growing across Europe about the price of austerity, parties to Rutte’s left said trying to meet the EU’s deficit target of 3 percent of gross domestic product in 2013 would hurt the economy and the Dutch people. A statement issued by the prime minister’s office said the Queen of the caretaker government requested the dissolution of the House of Representatives, to allow elections to go ahead on September 12. Rutte’s centre-right government tendered its resignation on Monday after only 18 months in power and the elections will be the fifth in ten years. Rutte’s two-party coalition had relied on the Freedom Party headed by Geert Wilders, the eurosceptic, anti-Islam politician - to get legislation through parliament, even though the Freedom Party remained outside the government.  But Wilders withdrew that support at the weekend after seven weeks of negotiations on the extra budget cuts, without which the deficit is forecast to reach 4.6 percent of GDP next year.