'So farewell, then, €.......'

There has been so much tub-thumping, breast-beating and other forms of histrionic posturing from the Lords Of the Universe about the state of the Euro-economy that reliable information has been has been as rare as rocking-horse poo.

So let’s have a look at some of the numbers.

First, the total debt (public and private) league table.

1.   Germany (yup!) with €2061 billion.

2.   France with €1591 billion.

3.   UK with €1362 billion.

4.   Italy with €800 billion.

5.   Spain with €642 billion.

6.   Greece with €329 billion (bet that surprised you).

7.   Portugal with a miserable €161 billion.

Let’s now rank them as a percentage of GDP.

1.   Greece at 165.6% (that’s more like it).

2.   Italy at 119.1%.

3.   Portugal at 106%.

4.   France at 86%.

5.   Germany at 82%.

6.   UK at 80%.

7.   Spain (eh?) at a modest 67%.

So where’s the risk?

Greece owes most to France and Germany. French banks in particular seem to be in very deep. Portugal owes most to Spain, Germany and the UK. France owes Italy a whacking €365 billion. The UK owes €321 to Germany and €325 billion to Spain. It doesn’t have premier-division exposure to Greece.

The Garlic belt is the overall winner.

What about Ireland? The latest figure available is debt at 94.9% of GDP, but it has returned to growth at 2%, and industrial growth is spectacular at 9%. Its case is entirely different from the other casualties. Its economic management was excellent up to the property melt-down. Its problems were entirely caused by membership of the Eurozone. And the villains of the piece were banks and property speculators.

Greece is another matter; corruption, incompetence, greed, paying absurd social benefits with someone else’s money (how does €30,000 a year pension for a retired garbage truck driver grab you?) and unfamiliarity with the notion of actually paying your taxes. Greece is now a zombie state, but still our masters can’t bring themselves to recognise that it’s ‘position impossible’ within the Euro.

The only exit for  the Euro-wide crisis is Eurobonds to mutualise and equalise debt across the Eurozone. How can Spain possibly compete against Germany when it is paying 6% on its bonds and Germany has just issued short-term paper at 0%? But there is a ‘no entry’ sign here.

So what’s the hold-up? The key-holder is Germany and it will not co-operate; Frau Merckel would get an early bath from the voters if she agreed that German pensioners should take a cut to fund someone else’s. And cannot because, so we’re led to believe, it would be unconstitutional.

It stick out like a greyhound’s gonads that the game is up for the Euro; it was based on a lie and a gross deceit and all the chooks are coming home to roost at the same time.