Thursday, April 10, 2014

Is The Euro Crisis About To Roar Back?

Top Economists Warn Germany That EMU Crisis As Dangerous As Ever -- Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph

Council on Foreign Relations compares Germany's hardline stance with US policy towards Britain at the end of the Second World War

The eurozone debt crisis is deepening and threatens to re-erupt on a larger scale when the liquidity cycle turns, a leading panel of economists warned in a clash of views with German officials in Berlin.

"Debts above 130pc of GDP for Italy and 170pc for Greece are a recipe for disaster once we go into the next downturn," said Professor Charles Wyplosz, from Geneva University.

"Today's politicians believe the crisis is over and don't want to hear any more about it, but they have not tackled the core issues of fiscal union and public debt," he said, speaking at Euromoney's annual Germany conference.

Ludger Schuknecht, director-general of the German finance ministry, insisted that the debt-stricken states of the eurozone are well on the way to recovery, ending their EU-IMF rescue programmes successfully one by one. There is no need for any major shift in policy. "The strategy has been right. We need to bring down debt and this is now consensus," he said.

Read more ....

My Comment: If the crisis in Ukraine escalates .... and across-the-board sanctions against Russia are implemented .... this shock will generate another Euro crisis .... and I would wager another global financial crisis as was the case in 2008.

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