Gary North on Euro (today`s article)

Economics Economics Questions
1

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north689.html

This article today left me scratching my head a little bit. In it Gary writes things like: If he is correct about the inability of the ECB to imitate the Federal Reserve System, this means a collapse of the banks. That means the collapse of Europe’s economy.

I mean he almost sounds like bailout of European banks would be a good thing? Like he is sorry European Central Bank doesn`t have the money to bail out European banks?

So, OK the EU cant save the banking sector. Isnt that like a good thing? So that the crisis gets out of the system sooner rather than be prolonged by a bailout? Hurray for the cleansing effects of the crash, no?

Also Gary says Russia is going belly up, but does anyone have much knowledge of what is Russias governments handling of the crisis? Is it any better than US`s performance? It seems to me Russia is not trying to save absolutely everything, but is actually letting some failed investements die off. Is it simply a case where they are worse hit by the crisis and they lack the resources to get everybody on rubber lifeboats, or is there actually a semblance of understanding of economics within its government?

Furthermore, it is mentioned in the article that Eastern Europe is enormously indebted to Western Europe. Is he talking about the loans the governments took themselves? Because I am a little hard pressed to think of an Eastern European bubble that would match the magnitude of the housing bubble in the US…

And while we are at it, what are some of the other opinions on Euro? What do you personaly perhaps think in how big a trouble it is? Because a few weeks ago I was listening to Lew`s podcast with Guido Hulsmann and I came away with the impression that Euro is actually a little healthier than the dollar.

2

I thought that his comments on Russia were really surprising, especially in light of this article: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14178

3

I hope that the segement the article was based on that The Telegraph pulled was never true in the first place. Otherwise there is no hope for the European banking establishent, or the Euro.

Considering the fact that the evidence for the article’s thesis was hidden by governments, this is not surprising.

4

Yes indeed, and here is another perhaps even more on topic piece with some more reasons to belive Russian government was a little less thrilled with the task of saving its plutocrats than the US was with its: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KB03Ag01.html

Note the quote of the deputy prime minister Shuvalov and less than enthusiastic sounding Putin on 25th January, three days before the “famous” Davos speech (both towards the end of the piece).