John Redwood get's it EU right

A personal hedge fund

I've always thought John Redwood was far more compassionate than a lot of people have given him credit for. One of his plus points is that he does not shout about caring from the roof tops. He doesn't even answer back when impugned by left-wing attackers keen to imply that only they care. I've noticed that Mr. Redwood is actually a very thoughtful person. His blog will show that.

His latest entry is on the Greek tragedy that is the Euro Debt Crisis. The Greeks have borrowed more than they can ever hope to pay back. They are bust big time. Eric Morecombe used to quip "what's a Greek, Ern?" and the retort was so many drachmas a day. Now the drachma is ancient history and the Greeks don't earn enough euros for anything.

The bond crisis is, as John Redwood states, a matter of morality. The EU chiefs would have us believe it is all about throwing good  fake money after bad fake money. All cloud cuckoo land stuff. Frau Merkel is all in favour of bailling out the Greeks. The silly thing is she runs Germany in a completely different way. Who is accountable in this debt crisis? Will Frau Merkel be responsible for anything? No she won't and neither will the French President or anyone else.

Bankers were rightly accused of failing in their duties. I agree that personal debt such as mortgages is a two way thing. Those who borrowed in order to buy a house (and that includes me) are equally responsible for the outcomes. However, I would just add this. Morality includes such things as temptation and untruths. Quite a lot of people exaggerated their incomes in order to buy a property and quite a few banks tempted their customers with loans that were too much. Greed and personal gain have been an issue on both sides. Those that may have broken laws should be examined by the prosecutors. But that is about individuals. The corporate nature of banks' failures helped to bring about this crisis. But they didn't do it on their own. The rampant borrowing of governments has been the main aspect of failure.

So should the leaders of government be jailed for their recklessness? It's a point but I doubt it. There are no "crimes against economies" as there are crimes against humanity. It could be considered treason but this is all out in the open and agreed at high level. Not exactly the legal definition of treason.

I think they will carry on getting away with it. And that's because we are all in this together by voting them in in the first place. This is about morality. But the question about who might be in jail is a much harder issue to tackle.

Posted in: debt crisis,EU Commission,Greek bailout,John Redwood