SHOCK: Collapse of the euro is 'inevitable': Bailing out Greece is futile, says French banking chief

Finally some good sense from the Euro Block.  With an economy 1/14th the size of Germany's, Greece shouldn't be a part of the ECU.  Do not bail.  Bring in the IMF, force some actual austerity on the free-spending Greeks and kick them out of the currency union, so they have some flexibility with monetary policy.

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The European single currency is facing an 'inevitable break-up' a leading French bank claimed yesterday.

Strategists at Paris-based Société Générale said that any bailout of the stricken Greek economy would only provide 'sticking plasters' to cover the deep- seated flaws in the eurozone bloc.

The stark warning came as the euro slipped further on the currency markets and dire growth figures raised the prospect of a 'double-dip' recession in the embattled zone.

Claims that the euro could be headed for total collapse are particularly striking when they come from one of the oldest and largest banks in France - a core founder-member.

In a note to investors, SocGen strategist Albert Edwards said: 'My own view is that there is little "help" that can be offered by the other eurozone nations other than temporary, confidence-giving "sticking plasters" before the ultimate denouement: the break-up of the eurozone.'

He added: 'Any "help" given to Greece merely delays the inevitable break-up of the eurozone.'

The alarming claim came a day after European Union leaders promised 'determined and co-ordinated' action to shore up Greece's tattered public finances, but disappointed traders by failing to provide specifics.

The European single currency is facing an 'inevitable break-up' a leading French bank claimed yesterday.

Strategists at Paris-based Société Générale said that any bailout of the stricken Greek economy would only provide 'sticking plasters' to cover the deep- seated flaws in the eurozone bloc.

The stark warning came as the euro slipped further on the currency markets and dire growth figures raised the prospect of a 'double-dip' recession in the embattled zone.

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Comments

[DailyBail]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1250433/Greece-debt-bailout-EU-leaders-split-euro-crisis.html

Collapse of the euro is 'inevitable': Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says FRENCH banking chief

[DailyBail]

Lagarde cautions on bets against Greece

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b97d170a-1818-11df-91d2-00144feab49a.html

[DailyBail]

Europe trailing in dust of US recovery

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fc0536d2-17ac-11df-a74d-00144feab49a.html

[DailyBail]

Greece turns on EU critics

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3cfeab9e-1813-11df-91d2-00144feab49a.html

[Benny and the Talibanks]

Funny, I was just penning an article titled, "Shock- collapse of the dollar is 'inevitable': bailing out Bank of AmericaCountrywide, Wells FargoIndymacWachovia, Goldman Sachs, CITI, AIG and JPMorganChaseWamu is futile."

[mark mchugh]

Where do you post, Benny?

[Benny and the Talibanks]

Mark,
I was just kidding about penning an article and I was playing with DB's title. I would love to have a blog, but I have to work and pay for bank bailouts. Because if no one pays for the bailouts, how are upper management of bankrupt companies like Citi, Wamu, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and AIG going to make 100,000,000.00 per year in bonuses.

[James Street]

Nothing is inevitable except death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin

(and possibly the death tax.)
James Street

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.
Mark Twain

[James Street]

The value of a nation's currency is determined not only by economic factors but by cultural and historical factors, which is another way of saying that economics rests on more than simply the amount of goods and services exchanged by a nation's citizens.

If we look at the history of European unity we see that, for example, the Spanish Empire was definitively displaced by the American Empire with the defeat of Mexico in 1845 and the annexation of the Western United States. After that, Spain never succeeded in becoming a truly unified empire. In the Spanish mainland, at least four language groups, including Spanish, exist along with their independent traditions. Until recently, after the Civil War of the Anarchists, the only force capable of holding anarchist Spain together was the military dictatorship of Franco.

Italy is also divided into incompatible regions and usually wavers between de facto dictatorship (Berlusconi) and anarchy (rule by family and mafia.)

Both Germany and Italy only became countries in the late 19th century and Germany, after a long history of a patchwork of dictators and republics, is still a patchwork of dialects and loosely connected regions and traditions which include Austria, Switzerland, East Germany and West Germany and the regions each country contains.

Compared with the United States, France has been in a state of anarchy since the defeat of Napoleon and has been described by one of its leading sociologists as a Blocked Society, constantly at war with itself and its own interests.

After factoring in Germany's disastrous early 20th century history, it is not easy to believe that the Euro will become a world currency because it is far from clear that Europe CAN unify, not to mention whether Germany, Italy, France and Spain can unify themselves.

America represents Anglo-Saxon civilization which has dominated the world in the form of the British Empire since the defeat of Napoleon. The American Revolution placed America in a position to exploit the massive resources of the North American continent and to surpass Britain itself in economic output by the beginning of the twentieth century.

World War I and II weakened Britain's colonial empire and, to Britain's shock and humiliation, gave America the opportunity to take over Britain's role as ruler of the world, which of course we did. After the defeat of communism, America has had no other rival or enemy on earth OTHER THAN HERSELF.