Francois Hollande is going to live with Angela Merkel and her absurd demands for austerity for the time being, I suggest.
That's going to please the right.
It's going to upset the left.
And there's good reason for his doing so.
She is the next leader of Europe to lose power. The Germans will force change in Germany. There's no reason for the French to do so, and every reason for them not to try to do so if it makes change less likely.
I don't think Hollande is a man who will take the risk of helping Merkel be re-elected.
We need growth now. But we need growth more next year than we need a continuation of German austerity. I think Hollande will bide his time. And he will be right to do so. The tide is turning. There's no point in trying to dam the flow now when the flood waters will deliver all he wants in due course.
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“All this talk of promoting growth rather than austerity misses the point entirely. Who is going to give the Greeks, or the French for that matter, the amounts of money they would need to fill the almighty hole in which they find themselves along with most of the rest of Europe, the UK and dare I say it the US? If your answer involves a central bank don’t pass Go and head straight for jail which is where the banksters and their politico/media fan club should all be anyway”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-be-careful-what-you-vote
After Hollande’s victory and his claim that financial constraint will end in France, the BBC News interviewer asked for comment from a spokesman from The Economist whose intriguing reply was along the lines “M Hollande has been trained and programmed to follow our agenda and we do not expect him to wander far off this track.”
I wonder if the same reply would be relevant to Ed Miliband if he were to be elected?
I think that Francois Hollande should act very quickly, before the French start seeing him in the way that we see Blair.
Steve Keen explains here why leaders in Europe must get rid of the Maastricht Treaty.
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2012/04/steve-keen-the-maastricht-treaty-is-a-suicide-pact-for-european-leaders.html
This treaty disallows Keynesian stimulus as it prevents deficit spending beyond 3% of GDP.
Steve Keen advocates a debt jubilee and government created money. Following his advice, (which makes good sense if you understand how banks profit from debt created money), Francois Hollande should take the lead in breaking the Maastricht treaty, or go back to the Franc and internalise his own fiscal policy within France. (Listen to Keen’s advice to Ireland).
I think Hollande should listen to Keen, (and Michael Hudson), as should we all.
100% agree, Sandra. My partner only this week had a letter in Morning Star about this issue. I understand that Keen has been talking to Hudson recently about the land issue (how banks are the main rent-collectors) and will come to understand the important role that land plays in the economy. He wrote as much on my copy of ‘Debunking’:o)