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RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
22:01
There we go. 25th now.
Robusto
Robusto
Number 25 with a bullet
Too bad I can't sell badges for money.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Sell it for drachmae instead.
I hear they will become en vogue again pretty soon.
Cerberus
Cerberus
Naaah.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
If they don't you've seen the last of our nice cozy Europe.
Robusto
Robusto
So saith Queen Angela.
Cerberus
Cerberus
22:14
Naaah.
Isn't it sayeth?
Or is that a popular malformation?
MetaEd
MetaEd
Forsooth.
Oooh. I just got bounty.
That was kind of cool.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
@Robusto actually stupid queen Angela is the one preventing it from happening. She's only making the matters worse.
She above all should know better. What's happening in Greece today is what happened to Germany in 1930.
Except that then it was the gold standard. The countries who were smart enough (and able) to let it go got back on their feet rather quickly.
Germany didn't let it go, so it couldn't devalue, leading to a collapse of the economy, mass unemployment, mass riots, yada yada, leading to people voting for nationalist parties.
Now it's the Euro. Greece doesn't let it go, so it can't devalue, leading to a collapse of the economy, mass unemployment, mass riots, yada yada, and now people voting for nationalist parties.
Merkel's answer to all that is that of an Andrew Mellon.
"She's not helping" is quite an understatement.
Cerberus
Cerberus
22:44
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I think the Greeks should be cut some slack.
And the EIB should pump some money into their economy.
To stimulate it.
But in general I think it's good to force them to cut spending and reform.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
You could be writing speeches for Hollande.
Cerberus
Cerberus
One becomes balanced when each head pull in a different direction.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
You'd need six, then.
Cerberus
Cerberus
But yes, I agree with him that some more stimulating is in order—just not by the governments themselves; and they should cut back on structural spending.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Unless the string theory is right — or was it Hawking? or was it TimeCube? —, then you'd need OVER 812.
Cerberus
Cerberus
22:51
EUR 812 billion?
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
No. Heads. You'd need two heads for each dimension.
Cerberus
Cerberus
AH.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
@Cerberus anticyclical is how you should behave, but nobody does that. Ever.
Cerberus
Cerberus
I think I'll manage with three, thank you.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Agreed; but, given that this has not happened, I think it's good to force people to reform now.
Countries won't take the bitter pill when they're not feeling ill.
Even Germany violated the stability pact.
We alone tried to uphold it.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Oh Germany started it all.
Cerberus
Cerberus
22:53
Not exactly started.
The first mistake was letting Italy and Greece in (I was always against that).
The second was making the stability pact too weak.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Actually there was a great article over at Spiegel Online, that described all the events of the past 10-odd years in great detail, and was also very balanced. And in English.
Lemme see if I can find it.
Cerberus
Cerberus
I may have read that.
I think I have.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Well I can't find it. It must be a couple months old by now, and they seem to publish English articles way more often than I imagined.
But yeah, it described how Italy and Greece should have never been let in in the first place, and all the things Germany did wrong, but also all the things it did right with its Agenda 2010, which didn't sit well only with the short-sighted German populace itself.
If not for all the "anti-socialist" things pushed for by the socialists under Schröder, Germany would be in a sorrow state now.
It did cost him his office, and his party like half its membership, alas.
No good deed...
Cerberus
Cerberus
Like labour reforms?
spiegel.de/international/europe/…
This is a more recent article. But we all know these things already.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Yeah that's not the one. And seems too focused on Italy alone.
Cerberus
Cerberus
23:08
I remember how the papers here all quoted experts saying that Greece and Italy should not be allowed to join the Euro, and yet they were.
In 2000 or so.
I also remember how our minister Zalm was the only one to insist on the Stability Pact.
Wasn't it Schröder who threw it away?
And doesn't he work for the Kremlin now?
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Yeah, that article described the reasoning behind that as well, and why Germany got away with it.
@Cerberus I think he's on the Gazprom board of advisors or something.
Cerberus
Cerberus
Germany got away with it? Everybody got away with it, and France was the first to rush for the door.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Yeah, something fishy.
But the problems with the stability pact are now at least partially fixed.
So we have achieved something.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
@Cerberus Well not really fishy. What he does is out there in the open, and he's getting ridiculed for it, sometimes rightfully so, sometimes not.
Cerberus
Cerberus
Sorry, but working for a Russian state-owned giant as a former German chancellor...
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
I mean, what else should he do. He's done so much for the country but in the end that's the place his country assigned him: being friends with Putin. It's a sad state of affairs.
@Cerberus "working" is pushing it. He just states every other year how Putin is a true democrat, is all.
Cerberus
Cerberus
23:15
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 He should just become a professor at some university or something.
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Oh, only that. What a relief.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
I did say it was sad.
Cerberus
Cerberus
Yeah.
But I really need to go to bed, I'm falling asleep as we speak.
user19161
The B B B Beta Eight is hurting my eyes.
Cerberus
Cerberus
Good night, and good luck with your Queen!
You too.
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
Night.
Cerberus
Cerberus
23:17
But better stick with AAA, not BBB.
poof
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
RegDwight ΒВBẞ8
@ClarkKent It's Beta Ve B Esszett Eight.
Calling ß a beta...
Then again that's why I'm using it. To tell the wheat from the chaff.
And now I'm out as well. I thought I'd leave before Cerberus, as always, but the doggy was faster for once.
Night all.
user19161
@Cerberus Good night!
user19161
@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Good night!
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