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I'm getting exhausted by the EU states never not making the most greedy short-sighted decisions. I wish I could still get angry at the neoliberal chokehold over European politics.
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Apr 22, 2020 10:50
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| # ? May 28, 2024 10:30 |
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The lack of leadership and vision are just so exhausting. I guess to Rutte's credit, it's actually rather difficult to oppose a man who refuses to formulate a vision for the future because like, what are you even trying to refute here? What are you opposing, concretely? That in itself should obviously be disqualifying to even a mildly informed and intelligent electorate, but welp.
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Apr 22, 2020 11:26
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Private Speech posted:the united states treats overly indebted states (not bankrupt as bankruptcy is technically not legal, so they just have to cut everything to the bone instead no matter what) even more harshly then the EU, except noone gives a gently caress because they are usually flyover or periphery ones. Or Michigan. Or because the US is garbage. You don't have to go back all the way to 2016, Mitch is floating it again: McConnell Says States Should Consider Bankruptcy, Rebuffing Calls for Aid
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Apr 23, 2020 15:56
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EU is gonna not do 'rona or Eurobonds, but try to plug the hole with ECB Magic + the European budget. This is about that second part and last night's Eurosummit:quote:EU national leaders on Thursday directed the European Commission to draw up plans for a new long-term financial blueprint for the bloc that would also drive an economic recovery from the coronavirus. One could say EU leaders avoided giving the Commission any guidance on the recovery fund — not on its concrete size, not on how it’s going to be funded exactly, not on how and in which form it will disburse money. But look more closely and you’ll see that big things happened on Thursday, for single members of the European Council and the EU itself. Here are Playbook’s nine takeaways. (yes I know, Politico has a garbage writing style) Also the 2% won't happen - the Germans and Dutch will block that too and it'll all be negotiated down to 1.5%.
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Apr 24, 2020 07:53
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Hahaha yup. Proven right by the FT in under 30 minutes: quote:Agreeing a reconfiguration of the MFF that includes the recovery fund will be difficult given the significant political differences among member states. There were particularly acute divisions during the summit over the form any aid emerging from the fund should take.
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Apr 24, 2020 08:28
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Absolutely hate seeing Macron of all people being right all the time. Union of idiots.
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Apr 24, 2020 09:28
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My impression is Macron is a glory hound, and recognises to gain glory you actually have to accomplish something.
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Apr 24, 2020 09:37
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Macron's talk on the EU has been consistently good. But you know, talk is cheap. He hasn't accomplished poo poo and he's never been willing to actually put his foot down.
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Apr 24, 2020 09:54
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Of course ot has to be paid back, we are doing business after all.Ghost Leviathan posted:My impression is Macron is a glory hound, and recognises to gain glory you actually have to accomplish something. Technichally correct, the best kind of correct.
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Apr 24, 2020 09:57
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Orange Devil posted:Macron's talk on the EU has been consistently good. But you know, talk is cheap. He hasn't accomplished poo poo and he's never been willing to actually put his foot down. Yeah, because it turns out all this nice poo poo he's talking about would require spending money  and he's actually as averse to that as the rest of them.
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Apr 24, 2020 10:12
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Orange Devil posted:Macron's talk on the EU has been consistently good. But you know, talk is cheap. He hasn't accomplished poo poo and he's never been willing to actually put his foot down. Macron is a very "do as I say, not as I do" guy, so for EU politic we get his mostly correct discourses but if he had the power to actually decide by himself EU policy, it'd likely still be the same poo poo we have.
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Apr 24, 2020 10:18
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Politico did an article about the Germans, especially why Germany is such a problem in the Eurozone. Ultimately it argues that Germany will have to concede to bail out Italy in the end:Politico posted:The most convincing argument for bold German action is that Italy isn’t Greece. That is, it’s too big to fail. German industry is heavily engaged in the country, as are German banks. So whether it wants to or not, Germany may have to save Italy to save its own economy.
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Apr 24, 2020 10:33
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Orange Devil posted:Macron's talk on the EU has been consistently good. But you know, talk is cheap. He hasn't accomplished poo poo and he's never been willing to actually put his foot down. Put his foot down and do what?
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Apr 24, 2020 10:51
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Owling Howl posted:Put his foot down and do what? Élan.
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Apr 24, 2020 10:54
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It's good to know that, in the face of a historically unprecedented crisis, the EU has finally decided on action that is equivalent to kicking the can down to the heat death of the universe. Of course, if they are ever questioned on it they will release a statement that explains how actually, the sub-sub-sub-committee was tasked to work closely with the subappellate upper circuit commission, in order to draft a document to submit to the 4th floor council, for amendment and later approval so that we may have a workable proposal within the next 5 years or so and it's just how you get stuff done in liberal-land and can you please come back to the real world 
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Apr 24, 2020 11:03
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mortons stork posted:It's good to know that, in the face of a historically unprecedented crisis, the EU has finally decided on action that is equivalent to kicking the can down to the heat death of the universe. Let's celebrate that come next Europe day!
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Apr 24, 2020 11:06
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Owling Howl posted:Put his foot down and do what? Let's not pretend Paris doesn't have weight to throw around in these EU meetings if it really wanted to. If Macron was willing to play hardball over Eurobonds I'm not saying we'd have them by now, but we also wouldn't have the Dutch government saying they are "dead and buried". Also, there must be a joke in there somewhere on it not being the first time Germany had to bail Italy out in Greece but I can't quite make it work.
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Apr 24, 2020 11:32
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Orange Devil posted:Let's not pretend Paris doesn't have weight to throw around in these EU meetings if it really wanted to. If Macron was willing to play hardball over Eurobonds I'm not saying we'd have them by now, but we also wouldn't have the Dutch government saying they are "dead and buried". Yeah, this is the real key; if France was willing to go hard it would undoubtedly get the support of Italy, Spain and 1/3rd to 1/2 of the Council. But so far that's not the case. I do say so far because we are seeing some movement, glacial though it may be.
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Apr 24, 2020 11:39
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Also to the governments of Southern Europe, please designate the Netherlands as a tax haven to force my government to change their dumb corporate tax laws so that my country is forced to stop enabling corporations stealing tax revenues from the EU plus a whole lot of developing African nations. Thanks.
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Apr 24, 2020 11:43
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Just make every IC transaction with a creditor in a country with oversea territories non-deductible for corporate income tax purposes and you have killed off 90 percent of all tax avoidance schemes that concern income taxes.
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Apr 24, 2020 11:47
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Randler posted:Just make every IC transaction with a creditor in a country with oversea territories non-deductible for corporate income tax purposes and you have killed off 90 percent of all tax avoidance schemes that concern income taxes. that'd go against the spirit of free trade and free movement of capital!
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Apr 24, 2020 12:06
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Orange Devil posted:Also to the governments of Southern Europe, please designate the Netherlands as a tax haven to force my government to change their dumb corporate tax laws so that my country is forced to stop enabling corporations stealing tax revenues from the EU plus a whole lot of developing African nations. Thanks. Let's be honest here, would it really matter whatever Portugal, Spain or Greece did in that case?
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Apr 24, 2020 12:09
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double nine posted:that'd go against the spirit of free trade and free movement of capital! Good, since those things are the root of the problem.
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Apr 24, 2020 12:22
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His Divine Shadow posted:Good, since those things are the root of the problem. *faints* (for the record, i am firmly in favor of 1955 - style capital controls)
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Apr 24, 2020 12:28
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I had another 'how can you be this dense' moment with my best friend. He's against the Eurobonds because it shouldn't be 'we rich' paying for the poor. I'm like, dude you make about 35k a year, you're a single parent and you live beyond your means. You're not part of the elite... And we're talking about rich CEOs paying their goddamn share and the EU just printing money. But then he recently started trading stocks to become fiscally independent. I think I lost him. The thing is , he's a PoC and he's seen first hand how the government screws over the poor but he just thinks because he's not struggling (in his mind) no one is.
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Apr 24, 2020 13:23
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Junior G-man posted:Yeah, this is the real key; if France was willing to go hard it would undoubtedly get the support of Italy, Spain and 1/3rd to 1/2 of the Council. But so far that's not the case. You often hear that France and Germany call the shots in the EU, and I get why Germany is there, and I sort of understand why France is too, but what sort of clout does France genuinely have that Italy or Spain don't?
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Apr 24, 2020 13:31
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100YrsofAttitude posted:You often hear that France and Germany call the shots in the EU, and I get why Germany is there, and I sort of understand why France is too, but what sort of clout does France genuinely have that Italy or Spain don't?
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Apr 24, 2020 13:48
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100YrsofAttitude posted:You often hear that France and Germany call the shots in the EU, and I get why Germany is there, and I sort of understand why France is too, but what sort of clout does France genuinely have that Italy or Spain don't? I can't speak for Spain, but in Italy a common concern is that the political instability hurts us in negotiations, at least when those negotiations happen at the executive level. A French president or German chancellor, once elected, can safely be counted on to be around for five years to implement whatever policy they push. An Italian prime minister is highly likely to be replaced within one year by a different one (or the same one, in Conte's case  ) who will be supported by different parties and have drastically different policies. If he opposes something, it's tempting to just stonewall him for a few months and hope the next one is more friendly.
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Apr 24, 2020 14:18
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A Buttery Pastry posted:Mushroom clout Huh. Yeah I guess now that the UK is out, France is the only country in the EU with that sort of military capacity. They even have an aircraft carrier! (HOLY poo poo, I just looked it up and the US has 20 loving aircraft carriers today, in 2013 they had 19 vs the World's 12. For as much as Trump has completely pissed away the US's influence around the world, that sort of military gap insures American dominance in some shape or form for a while doesn't it?)
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Apr 24, 2020 14:29
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100YrsofAttitude posted:You often hear that France and Germany call the shots in the EU, and I get why Germany is there, and I sort of understand why France is too, but what sort of clout does France genuinely have that Italy or Spain don't? Spain's too politically unstable to do anything and it's leaders can't really project strength in the core of the EU when the country's economy is still reeling from the last crisis and they know they will depend on the EU in the future, even if it hurts them at the same time. It's kinda sad, because the population has always been blindly pro-EU, but that tendency is changing rapidly. I'm still surprised at how many people, even worker class, still support the austerity discourse around here, poor self-conscious bastards.
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Apr 24, 2020 14:54
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https://twitter.com/PES_PSE/status/1253283059643940865?s=20 Pick your favourite former-left-now-neolib-shitbag-party.
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Apr 24, 2020 15:00
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100YrsofAttitude posted:Huh. Yeah I guess now that the UK is out, France is the only country in the EU with that sort of military capacity. They even have an aircraft carrier! (HOLY poo poo, I just looked it up and the US has 20 loving aircraft carriers today, in 2013 they had 19 vs the World's 12. For as much as Trump has completely pissed away the US's influence around the world, that sort of military gap insures American dominance in some shape or form for a while doesn't it?) They need the economic power to sustain their military-industrial complex, but yeah. If you just look at military expenditure as a very rough indication of military power, the US spends more than the 15 next wealthiest countries. They spend over twice as much on their military as China does on theirs.
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Apr 24, 2020 15:08
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100YrsofAttitude posted:Huh. Yeah I guess now that the UK is out, France is the only country in the EU with that sort of military capacity. They even have an aircraft carrier! (HOLY poo poo, I just looked it up and the US has 20 loving aircraft carriers today, in 2013 they had 19 vs the World's 12. For as much as Trump has completely pissed away the US's influence around the world, that sort of military gap insures American dominance in some shape or form for a while doesn't it?) much like in the 1940s, when japan clinged to their big battleships that were effectively just giant expensive targets for crappy planes and got clowned by a bunch of converted merchant ships carrying said lovely planes. in current times carriers are that, giant expensive targets for cheap missiles carried by converted cargo trucks they are incredibly intimidating though, and they work incredibly well against people whose most expensive war tech is three 1960s soviet export planes (see: every neocolonial client state) there's an *extremely* good reason why despite incessant rattling, there hasn't been an iran war yet. losing a carrier or two would immediately blow up the currently ruling party, even if through some miracle the war was then somehow won. so clearly it'll be done by a dem president/congress, not trump
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Apr 24, 2020 15:16
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100YrsofAttitude posted:You often hear that France and Germany call the shots in the EU, and I get why Germany is there, and I sort of understand why France is too, but what sort of clout does France genuinely have that Italy or Spain don't? France is in the P5, has nukes, and has kept overseas territories in all oceans. These factors mean that it's a member of more international clubs than Italy or Spain. France hosts more international organizations than Italy and Spain combined. There's also the issue of language, as it's an indirect relay for influence. French is still an international language of diplomacy, Spanish is too, to a lesser extent, but Italian doesn't have much. Geographically, France is the hub of Western Europe, occupying a central position between the UK, the Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. That gives France a position as the middle-ground between the Germanic North and the Latin South. Italy and Spain also suffer from political instability, a problem that France got rid off with the Fifth Republic (during the Fourth Republic it was just as instable). 100YrsofAttitude posted:Huh. Yeah I guess now that the UK is out, France is the only country in the EU with that sort of military capacity. They even have an aircraft carrier! (HOLY poo poo, I just looked it up and the US has 20 loving aircraft carriers today, in 2013 they had 19 vs the World's 12. For as much as Trump has completely pissed away the US's influence around the world, that sort of military gap insures American dominance in some shape or form for a while doesn't it?) Only half of those 20 are real aircraft carrier. Or, to put it in other words: if the USA have 20 aircraft carriers, France has 4, Japan has 4, the UK, Italy, India, China, Australia, and even Egypt have 2 each, Spain, Thailand, South Korea have one each. Turkey is getting one, India and China are busy building more. That's 20 to the rest of the world's 23. Now if you only count real aircraft carriers, then the USA have 10 while the rest of the world has just one (France's).
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Apr 24, 2020 15:25
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Cat Mattress posted:France is in the P5, has nukes, and has kept overseas territories in all oceans. These factors mean that it's a member of more international clubs than Italy or Spain. France hosts more international organizations than Italy and Spain combined. There's also the issue of language, as it's an indirect relay for influence. French is still an international language of diplomacy, Spanish is too, to a lesser extent, but Italian doesn't have much. Geographically, France is the hub of Western Europe, occupying a central position between the UK, the Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. That gives France a position as the middle-ground between the Germanic North and the Latin South. Cool I knew all this to some extent but it helps to see it spelled out. I guess it wasn't one of the Europe's great powers for nothing. Cat Mattress posted:Only half of those 20 are real aircraft carrier. Or, to put it in other words: if the USA have 20 aircraft carriers, France has 4, Japan has 4, the UK, Italy, India, China, Australia, and even Egypt have 2 each, Spain, Thailand, South Korea have one each. Turkey is getting one, India and China are busy building more. That's 20 to the rest of the world's 23. Whether "real" or not the difference is still pretty obscene.
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Apr 24, 2020 16:01
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Truga posted:there's an *extremely* good reason why despite incessant rattling, there hasn't been an iran war yet. losing a carrier or two would immediately blow up the currently ruling party, even if through some miracle the war was then somehow won. so clearly it'll be done by a dem president/congress, not trump
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Apr 24, 2020 16:01
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Carriers are the gunboats of the 21st century. In the sense of gunboat diplomacy.
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Apr 24, 2020 16:42
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Macron is absolutely a terrible "liberal" centre-right politician in a domestic French context. But in a European context despite that hes still far, far more reasonable than the vast majority of schwarze null obsessed politicians from Germany or the Netherlands. And/or the far right really terrible leaders in the East like Orban or Law and Justice in Poland. Thats why he always comes across so comparatively reasonable in wider-European matters so frequently.
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Apr 24, 2020 16:55
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Because it's occasionally nice to post Good News: quote:French court upholds order limiting Amazon deliveries amid coronavirus risk
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Apr 24, 2020 19:49
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| # ? May 28, 2024 10:30 |
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Given how reliant France, Spain, Italy are on their service sector, and that nobody loving knows if the holiday July/August season will even be possible ... https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1254130558050934784?s=20 Strap yourselves in everyone.
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Apr 25, 2020 20:37
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