Blogs : 1st October

L’Autriche vire au brun. Jean quatremer, Les Coulisses de Bruxelles (fr)
Bailouts, 'Illegal State Aid' and the Commission's Value System. Migeru, European Tribune (en)
How To Lead A Revolution On €1200 A Month. Eurosoc2, EuroSoc (en)

Latest Brown/Hitler Video Spoof - House Prices. Irony Too (en)

Bank Deposits head across the Irish Sea. Irony Too (en)

Fledgling democracies. Vitaliy, The 8th Circle (en)

European leaders look to the United States. Julien Frisch, Watching Europe (en)

" ... With ironic amusement and disbelief I am looking at our European leaders who themselves are looking with fear in their eyes to the United States of America, hoping for the US taxpayer to save the world ...

... It is a sign that our own leaders where relying on strength and stability of a global system de facto dominated by the United States without taking preventive measures for a scenario that was kind of foreseeable. Already during university my political economy professor told me that the US economy was based on massive debts and that sooner or later it would crumble ..."

The Wheel Of History Turns Again... Eurosoc1, EuroSoc (en)
"... September 2008: Britain and the US introduce temporary bans on the short selling of certain financial shares. British PM Gordon Brown warns that the ban, due to be reviewed in January, will lead to stricter regulation of the City.
26 September 2008 (Bloomberg Asia): "China's cabinet agreed to let investors buy shares on credit and sell borrowed stock to help develop Asia's second-largest market after prices and trading volumes slumped, an official familiar with the plan said ...
... London's Mayor Boris Johnson said :"I say to the Labour government – you will not make this country or its capital more competitive by driving away talent. You cannot regulate your way out of a recession. You can certainly regulate your way into one ... No matter how much you may dislike the Masters of the Universe, my friends, there are plenty of other parts of the universe that would welcome them.” "

The smoking gun. Richard, EUReferendum (en)
" ... Thus, while Osborne has belatedly come to the view shared by Spencer and Congdon, and evidently passed this view to his boss, neither he nor Cameron have mentioned Directive 2006/49/EC, nor even the European Union. Yet it is the Directive which must be changed ..."

Competitive guarantees. P O Neill, A Fisful of Euros (en)

" ... One of the diagnoses of why the Great Depression was so bad is that countries engaged in “competitive devaluation” — weakening their exchange rates to make exports cheaper, but when all try to do this, no one gains, and confidence runs out ... One wonders today if Ireland has created a new version of this risk with the dramatic government announcement that it is providing a public guarantee to all liabilities of banks with their HQs in the Republic of Ireland ...

... There’s no direct connection between the banking crisis and Lisbon, but other finance ministers might see this as another example of Ireland’s go-it-alone approach to the functioning of the EU institutions.