For all of us tired of hearing and reading the chatterati’s wailing and gnashing of teeth over Brexit the past few weeks have been a pleasant break from the routine agonising about the damage the UK’s leaving the Union would do to the UK economy and the lives of its people. It seems member states have declared open season on Brussels. First Germany routine torpedoed European Central Bank policy when the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that EU fiscal policy violated the German constitution and asserted that German law is supreme in Germany. EU officials begged to differ and announced that the EU law takes precedence over that of member states. If Germany does not support (i.e. stump up for,) the European Central Bank”s COVID-19 financial support for hard up nations policy, economists predict the European Single Currency system (the Euro,) could collapse. The upcoming showdown is likely to be bloodier than the climax of a Clint Eastwood western.
Meanwhile Italy, not a million kilometres removed from the German crisis as it is the Eurozone’s third largest economy and biggest debtor nation, could trigger a different kind of crisis for the EU by making moves to follow Britain out of the Union as the coalition government falters and the biggest thorn in Brussels side, nationalist leader Matteo salvini, prepares to return to power. Italy’s leaving is already being called Quitaly. But look who is sticking his nose in.
Translated from Il Giornale with DeepL translation software
“Fortunately Matteo Salvini’s personal popularity has declined since he left the government, but support for his positions is gaining momentum”:- Soros
New offensive by financier George Soros against leghist leader Matteo Salvini. After the interview given a few days ago to IlSole24Ore, in which the founder of the Open Society Foundations accused the former Interior Minister of wanting to take Italy out of the EU and the euro, the Hungarian-born tycoon launches another strait-leg attack against Salvini.
It is very “important”, according to the financier, the question of how to prevent other countries from following the UK’s path. “I am particularly concerned about Italy. Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, is working to get the country out of the euro and the EU,” he stressed in an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, as reported by the press agency Adnkronos. “Fortunately – continues Soros – his personal popularity has decreased since he left the government, but support for his positions is gaining momentum. What would Europe be without Italy? Italy has been the most pro-European country. Italians had more faith in Europe than in their own governments, for very good reasons, but they were mistreated during the 2015 refugee emergency”.
The European Union, added George Soros, “applied the so-called Dublin rules, leaving all the burden to the first country where the refugees arrived, without any sharing of the financial burden. At this point the Italians chose en masse to vote in favour of the League of Salvini and the 5 Star Movement”. Again with reference to our country, the magnate explains that “the relaxation of the rules on State aid” EU, “which favours Germany, was particularly unfair to Italy, already the weakest subject in Europe, and then also the hardest hit by Covid-19”. Among European countries, Italy once again proves to be at the centre of the financier’s interests.
As reconstructed by IlGiornale.it, the activity in Italy of the financier of Hungarian origin with philanthropic ambitions, inspired by the philosopher Karl Popper, is history of the last 30 years. A friend of Romano Prodi’s, Soros became famous in our country during the so-called “Black Wednesday” of 16 September 1992, when the Italian lira and the British pound were forced to leave the European Monetary System (EMS) as a result of financial speculation conducted by him through the Quantum fund. On that day, the “shark” of finance sells short lire by buying dollars, thus forcing the Bank of Italy to sell 48 billion dollars of reserves to support the exchange rate and bringing our currency to a 30% devaluation. Now, through the philanthropic network of the Open Society Foundations, it actively influences the politics of our country.
Soros and the perpetual bond proposal
In the same interview, Soros relaunches his mainstay of these weeks, namely the proposal to establish perpetual bonds to “save” the European Union. The issue of perpetual bonds, or Consols as they are called in the Anglo-Saxon world where they have existed for centuries, was the lintel of Spain’s proposal. As the name suggests, perpetual bonds do not provide for the obligation to repay the principal, but simply to pay interest. Although in continental Europe they are relatively little known, Soros recalls, the Consols “in Great Britain they were used, among other things, to finance the wars against Napoleon and the First World War, and in the United States they were already introduced around 1870”.
“As the name suggests – says Soros – the capital of a perpetual bond does not have to be returned; only the annual interest is paid. A thousand billion euro issue with a rate of 0.5% would cost 5 billion a year in interest”. The Consol, he explains, “could be issued in several tranches and would be immediately purchased by long-term investors, such as life insurance companies, who need long-term bonds to offset their liabilities”.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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