September 17, 2007
Memo to Nicolas: They hear but they don’t listen
Central bankers never criticise each other in public. It’s an iron rule of global finance. And so it proved last weekend when EU finance ministers and central bankers gathered in the sunny Portuguese city of Porto.
Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, was offered the chance at a news conference to have a dig at Mervyn King, his Bank of England counterpart. The UK central bank had just agreed to provide emergency funds to Northern Rock, the beleaguered bank and mortgage lender. Only a few days earlier, King had made a hard-hitting speech that ruled out special assistance to institutions and investors that might be nursing losses because of risky activities.
It would have been easy for Trichet to rise to the bait and make some oblique remark highlighting the inconsistency between King’s words and actions. Instead, the dapper Frenchman stated with all the solemn dignity at his command that he had no disagreements at all with the Bank of England. All central banks in the world had performed well in the present crisis, he opined.
What goes for fellow central bankers, though, does not go for politicians - as was shown when word came out that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France had made another attack on the ECB. He accused it of helping "speculators" by pouring more than €250bn into the money markets over recent weeks. What Trichet really should have done, asserted Sarkozy (not for the first time), was to cut interest rates.
The reaction from central bankers in Porto to Sarkozy’s remarks was unanimous: a) he was wrong, b) there appeared a distinct possibility that he didn’t know what he was talking about, and c) even that didn’t matter, because by now no one in the markets listened to him, anyway. (Attention, forex traders: is that really true?
So the main message from Porto was that, next time he feels the urge to speak out, Sarkozy will have to find a new way of grabbing the ECB’s attention. Otherwise, as Trichet’s late lamented predecessor Wim Duisenberg once succinctly put it when facing down calls for a rate cut, it’ll be a case of "I hear…but I don’t listen."
Interest Rate cuts are easy to make .. and then consumers and industry have to pay the piper 3 times more,shame on all the EU politicians without the nerve to go to the core:Energy Independence from imported oil/gas,shame that EU does not have the will to switch to Hydrogen fuelcells,solar,geothermal,turbines wind/water,hibrid batteries,etc.on a massive scale, SALVATION ACTION ! , shame on the corrupt politicians!, just look at the oil lobby from the Middle East using the profits from the EU petroleum consumers to buy NASDAQ,LSE and the Nordic Exchanges, they are using our EU money to buy our best companies and the EU leaders what do they do ? NOTHING ! NADA! NICHTS! NIENTE! RIEN !A DODO OF A LEADERSHIP ! , in Dubai and the UAE they know now the truth : they are dealing with sissies and souer floffy fruties,so they are taking over the EU Auto Executive Boards to keep all cars/trucks on diesel and gas,and they are now from inside the EU Exchanges able to watch the action and pick and choose, they are getting ready for the kill , and the EU leaders : another meeting on cocktails and custom suits, a criminal shame !
with aprox. 150.000 gas stations in the EU, with 10.000 million euros we can do an Energy Revolution, and this is less than 10 % of what the EU spends yearly on imported oil and gas: Europe is commiting suicide and thanks to the local and continental leaders : shame on the corrupted and criminally incompetent!
to the Young Europeans: if you don’t reverse this ignorant and weak trend, in 10 years our culture will be gone,the Middle East Oil Lobby and their neocon Hedge-Funds partners investing their money will control our Future ,this is already happening in the USA, and what do “George” and the Congress do ? NOTHING ! THEY TALK ABOUT SPENDING ANOTHER 8-10 YEARS IN IRAQ AT 12.000 MILLION DOLLARS A MONTH BETWEEN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN!!!sinking the USA deeper into Middle East oil and violence when just one month cost could launch hydrogen and E-85 in every gas station in the land, EU cannot do the same stupid thing ! if Brussels-EU does not make a smart move right now, get them all out of there !
Posted by: blogger | September 21st, 2007 at 8:19 pm | Report this comment