As expected, the Bank of England has hiked interest rates by 0.5%, to a 14-year high of 4%. The 10th consecutive rise…
UPDATE: The European Central Bank has also raised rate 50 basis points. Yesterday the US Federal reserve raised rates 25 basis points.
The EU’s Internal Market Commissioner and Euro-federalist fanatic Thierry Breton is giddy with glee, as for the first time, the EU has given itself the power to “borrow money for Europe and Europeans”. This week, fiscally conservative Germany finally capitulated to let the European Union assume shared responsibility for some debt. The EU will now issue €390 billion worth of grants and €360 billion worth of loans. It’s the first time the EU has borrowed money like this to give out as grants to countries…
The frugal EU nations of Austria, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands have softened their opposition to fiscal union. One thing Eurosceptics and hardcore Euro-federalists have always agreed on is that EU monetary union without fiscal union is bonkers. The sceptics saw this as an argument to not pursue monetary union as fiscal union would in effect create a United States of Europe, which was not desirable. The federalists saw the former as a way to pursue the United States of Europe by the backdoor…
This week’s move is not yet the famous ‘Hamiltonian moment’ – where the now famous United States founding father and first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton persuaded Congress to allow the United States as a federal entity to actually assume the debts of all 13 distinct colonies in the 1790s – yet the federalists at the heart of the EU project see this moment as a first step towards that assumed inevitability. They probably dream that one day there will be a musical depicting Guy Verhofstadt dancing with Ursula von der Leyen. The United States of Europe project marches on…
The Euro has fallen sharply against the pound as a result of a sweeping host of measures from the European Central Bank aimed at stimulating the ailing Eurozone economy. The bank today announced a 10 bps rate cut, aggressive forward guidance, and open ended quantitative easing at €20 billion every month. With panicky measures like this, the last thing the Eurozone needs now is a No Deal Brexit…
A damning report by IMF watchdog the Independent Evaluation Office has slammed a “culture of complacency” in Christine Lagarde’s organisation. Focusing on the IMF’s response to the Eurozone crisis, the report claims that the Fund was riven with “issues of accountability and transparency”, claiming Lagarde and senior management established “small, ad hoc staff task forces” to plan for the possibility of bailouts, rather than holding executive board meetings. The report slams the “lack of board involvement”, with management failing to discuss – sometimes despite direct requests – issues around the unfolding crisis. Preparations made by management lacked “analytical depth, rigor, or specificity”. Most damning of all, however, is the IMF’s “groupthink” and unquestioning links to European policy – particularly their irrational fervour for the Euro. The report concludes:
“At the euro area level, IMF staff’s position was often too close to the official line of European officials, and the IMF lost effectiveness as an independent assessor.”
So much for that independent report, eh Remainers?
This is what Rudd, Mandelson, Straw and the rest of the Remainers really want. Cat out of the bag – that’s a live fat cat, not to be confused with a dead one on the table. This one is running…
Leave message: Stay and we’ll be paying for the Eurozone’s failure.
Remain message: Cameron, Farron, Harman and Bennett united: Leave must make plans clear.
Cut through: Polls changing drastically in Leave’s favour.
Leave social media count: 456,041 likes, 51,907 followers.
Remain social media count: 456,247 likes, 34,318 followers.
Odds: Remain 4/9, Leave between 11/5
Latest poll: Remain 43% (-1), Leave 48% (+1) (ICM, online). Poll of Polls is now Remain 51%, Leave 49%.
