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Is Mario Draghi just about to give us our money back?

Is Mario Draghi just about to give us our money back?

Monday 5th January 2015

Today saw the Euro heading towards its lowest point against the US dollar for nine years or more. That’s great news for Euro based exporters to US dollar denominated economic regions but it’s of course bad news for the huge benefit this country could be getting from the collapse in the oil price – cheap oil, priced in dollars, is a moving target for Euro countries.

And the cause of this Euro collapse? – Well, part of it is self-inflicted as Mario Draghi hums and haws about how he intends to stimulate the moribund Euro economy. The other reason for concern is the rise of the naysayers in Greece.

Could Greek communists help Nigel Farage destroy the Euro zone?

On the 25th of January next, the hard left Syriza party, headed by communist Alexis Tsipras, could head Greece’s next government. According to a range of commentators, it could mean the biggest challenge yet to what has been a post-crash consensus among euroland leaders about the need to cut spending and hike taxes to shore up national finances.

In defiance of the Troika, Tsipras wants to reverse minimum wage cuts, end the sale of state assets and maintain Greece’s public sector workforce. Sound familiar? But for the man who said he would renege on paying back Greece’s massive debt, the smell of power – as so often happens – has softened his tone. This is realpolitik. He now says he wants to keep the euro and renegotiate rather than renounce the 2010 Greek bailout deal. It appears that even he recognises, what a handful of his fellow travellers refuse to, that is, if you renege on debts, you not alone cause the probable complete collapse of your home economy but you could bring the entire Euro project down with it.

The UK’s far right and Europe’s hard left have a common purpose

It’s ironic that the far right of Britain and the hard left elsewhere in Europe seem to have some common goals. As a non-political organisation, ISME respects the rights of all to their views. But when it comes to threatening the Euro zone – a critical market for our small Irish economy – then ISME has to speak up to protect not just our members but the future of all businesses on the island. It’s time that the million or so, who have jobs on this island and the hundreds of thousands who would like to have a job, stood up to the nonsense economics of those who think there is another secret path to economic success, to which only a handful of superior intellects have access. This is the stuff of fantasists, narcissists and conspiracy theorists. If it were true then it would be public knowledge in about fifteen minutes.

If the ECB buys bonds they’ll have to buy our ‘bank bonds

What is far more real and far more interesting is the claim, yesterday, by leading economist Moore McDowell that a Mario Draghi inspired ECB bond buying programme could mean our bank bailout bonds being bought by Europe and that we might get our money back.

Now that would make it a Happy New Year.