How
much does Spain need to get itself - and the EU - out of the hole
it's in? 25 billion? 40? 100? 250? "Between 370 and 450 billion?
. . . It's anyone's guess, of course, and all these numbers have been
quoted in the last few days. If the Spanish government delays beyond
Sunday with its face-losing bail-out request, I guess the number will
keep on climbing. 500 billion anyone?
Logic
dictates that, eventually, Germany will cave in and agree to whatever
is necessary to save the European Union project, regardless of how
poorly it was conceived and how badly it has been - and continues to
be - implemented. But can anyone say they're inspired by the crisis
management skills demonstrated to date? Organise, piss-up
and brewery are words which spring unbidden to mind. As I may
have said before.
But
anyway . . . Even though I'm a long-time admirer of Simon Jenkins, I
never, ever thought I'd write this sentence - Here from The
Guardian is a brilliant article on the euro.
To
lighten the mood . . . Here's a great cartoon on the EU theme,
putting it in the context of the Euros football competition that
started today.
Now
that the mood is lighter . . . This week I've taken delivery of a
number of items from Amazon. And it's been a joy to take them from
the delivery guy without having to give a (false) ID number or prove
my identity or sign either a piece of paper or a hand-size computer.
BUT . . . I have overdone things with the plastic owl I've
bought in the hope it'll keep the voracious pigeons away from my
table in Veggie Square. It's an eagle owl and it's 18 inches(45cm)
tall and 8 inches(20cm) wide across its chest. So, it's not going to
be inconspicuous and is surely going to earn me a reputation for
eccentricity (at the least) when I put it to good use later in the
month. I guess I'll see who my real friends are then.
James
Michener writes of a strange incident in a hotel in Badajoz some
years ago. At a hotel desk he was told that the daily rate rose
the longer he stayed. This reminded me of the first two houses I
tried to buy (serially) when I first came to Pontevedra. In each case
I put in a decent bid, to be met with an increase in the
asking price by the seller. The only logic I could come up with was -
"If there's a stupid Brit prepared to pay anything like I'm
asking, I must be selling it cheap. And there may be more Brits even
more stupid than he is." I walked away from both opportunities
but never knew whether this surprised or pleased the sellers.
This
in turn reminds me of the time I was helping a friend to buy a house
in the country. He actually accepted the asking price but the seller
put obstacle after obstacle in the way of completing the sale. So I
asked the agent what on earth was going on. She just shrugged and
said - "When Galicians are odd, they are really, really
odd." Maybe he thought, like my putative sellers, that he'd
priced it too low. Eight years later, I bet the property is still on
what passes for a market in Spain these days. At the same price.
Finally
. . . Back to the EU. And an interesting observation on Germany -
Much like the UK, Germany is
undertaking a highly charged internal debate about its place in
Europe. For the first time, the twin pillars of Germany’s
extraordinarily successful post-war settlement are in conflict: its
commitment to Europe, and its belief in sound money and stable
budgets. Whatever the outcome of this debate, it will have a defining
impact on the future of the EU.
On
the cover of The Economist
today, there's a sinking submarine, called The
World Economy. From which a voice
bubble says - "Please can we start the engines now, Mrs Merkel?"
Thank-you
and Goodnight.
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