For ten years now, we have been hearing the same refrain from other European leaders to justify their procrastination towards the German authorities: “After the elections, things will be clearer”! However, from German election to German election, things are not clearer once the vote has been completed, but more turbulent and, from this point of view, we’ve hit the jackpot today. Let us draw the right conclusions: let us explain to Germany what we expect of it TODAY. That would be impossible because there is no government? nor a coalition? nor maybe even a chancellor? Let us take advantage of this: let us explain to each of the German parties what we expect from its nation, and from itself in particular, TODAY.
We recently touched on the quartetengaged in drawing up a composite motion, in order to faire avancer le schmilblick (= to move the schmilblick forward, or in other words to make a limited contribution to solve a complex problem). Before describing their efforts it may be helpful to recall the definition (*) given to it by its creator, Pierre Dac.
Mario Draghi, Jean-Claude Juncker, Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso (in no particular order) may not be aware of the schmilblick. Nonetheless, this has not stopped them from searching for it in the form of a bold compromise formula destined for the next summit, with the aim of exchanging debt pooling measures in return for the reinforcement of the budgetary union held so dear by the German Government. Because this is how the bidding is likely to pan out. But where is the happy medium? Sensibly, this question will be put back to the end of the year.
With the G20 meeting being held in Mexico at the start of the week, our perspective will find itself altered, falsely accustomed as we are to only seeing the debt crisis from a European angle. On the 18th and 19th June, the greats of this world are going to gather in Los Cabos, a tourist resort in Southern Lower California, under the double auspices of debt and global recovery.
To avoid standing idly by whilst confronted by a disaster of its own making, the British Government has just announced a plan to relaunch the economy with banking credit, funded by a Bank of England liquidity programme. In the context of an overall 80 billion programme, there are plans for monthly injections of around 5 billion Pounds (6.1 billion Euros). But the question that needs to be asked is whether the results will be as inconclusive as those obtained from the ECB’s massive injections, or indeed the tireless pursuit of zero-rate loans (from 0% to 0.1%) by the Bank of Japan – still without any further success – and whose 700 billion Euro acquisition programme of private and corporate securities is still in force.
The British Government wants to make these banking loans conditional on the latter making specific commitments, but hasn’t this been heard before? The monetary policy instruments of the Central Banks merely allow more time to be bought, and do not resolve any of the unanswered questions.
Worried by the sight of the Europeans entrenched in their respective positions, Barack Obama reached for his telephone. The day after the G7 videoconference between the Finance ministers and the central bankers, of which nothing came, he successively called David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Mario Monti. With this latter, the strengthening of the discussions centered on the Euro zone and growth. With David Cameron, who is going to meet Angela Merkel in Berlin, it was about the need for an “immediate plan”. Of the conversation with Angela Merkel no details have emerged. All promised to keep in contact with Barack Obama over the coming days, before meeting up on the 18th and 19th June at the G20 in Mexico, a sign that there is still plenty of work to be done before an agreement is found between them.
Expecting nothing from the governments, tensions on the stock and bond markets eased off all the same, bearing witness to their hopes of a renewal of central bank interventions. A meeting of the Bank of England is due on Thursday, as well as the expected appearance of Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Fed. While the ECB, which met today, is keeping its cards close to its chest in order to force European leaders to assume their responsibilities, the Bank of England may well reactivate its debt purchasing programme, which has only been temporarily suspended. Looking further ahead, the possibility of a reduction in the key ECB interest rate, and an eventual third wave of massive loans to banks, continue to raise hopes, though Mario Draghi clearly stated that they are not ready to take these steps at the current time. By opting to not renew his purchases of Spanish debt on the secondary market, he sent a clear signal that the ball is in the court of the governments.
The European Commission in Brussels is getting ready to unveil a project aiming to prevent and cure the banking crises, destined to enter into service in 2014, certain procedures being foreseen for 2018. There is a certain sense of timing, but certainly not a sense of urgency.
The Spanish are now appealing for help, admitting that they have been cut off from the markets, ready to sell off whole swathes of their banking system to save it, calling for direct aid so as not to fall into the clutches of the Troïka. At the end of the G7 finance ministers’ conference call only one important piece of news could be gleaned: the Europeans are committed to a ‘rapid response’ to the crisis, revealed the Japanese finance minister, Jun Azumi. All the other participants endeavoured to play down its importance, which indeed had led to nothing concrete in the short term.
The rest is in keeping. There will be plenty of time to analyze the Commission’s propositions in detail – as long as there are some. What has already come to light, however, is without ambiguity: the project carefully avoids tackling any of the difficult questions. It leaves great latitude to national regulators, in spite of them being suspected of all kinds of leniencies, and it clearly avoids tackling all the financial aspects. Its vagueness allows us a glimpse of the possibility that under cover of relieving states from the costs of banking bail-outs, it leaves the door ajar which will allow them to be asked to contribute in future.
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