The euro
appears to no longer be the global financial scapegoat, as the atmospere at the
end of the annual meeting of the IMF and Worldbank indicated. Differing paths
for stability and growth were emphasized instead.
What
finance ministers from around the world put into their final communique after
the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in
Tokyo on Saturday (September 10, 2012) reads initially like dozens of other
statements that have come from leaders' meetings.
"We
need to act decisively to break negative feedback loops and restore the global
economy to a path of strong, sustainable and balanced growth," the
communique read.
But a
sentence about the eurozone was new to many readers accustomed to reading about
the ongoing debt crisis.
"In
the euro area, significant progress has been made," the leaders wrote
while welcoming a decision by the European Central Bank to buy bonds, as well
as the launch of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Still, the ministers
added, "further steps are necessary."
No panacea
 |
IMF Director Lagarde said there's
no patent recipe for success |
IMF
Managing Director Christine Lagarde said that there's a better political base
now for such action than six months ago. The key at this point would be to
consolidate budgets over the mid- and long-term while enacting structural
reforms to promote competitiveness and growth, she added.
"But
the pace and type of measures obviously need to be calibrated on a
country-by-country basis ... it cannot be one-size-fits-all," said IMF
Managing Director Christine Lagarde.
German
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble expressed satisfaction that the European
debt crisis was no longer the major topic of discussion. "Everyone agreed
that Europe is on the right path," he said.
"Everyone
has a load to carry," Schäuble added, referring to emerging as well as
industrialized countries. While the United States approaches its legal debt
ceiling, emerging nations need to find way of stabilizing growth, according to
Schäuble.
Differing
approaches
 |
German Finance Minister Schäuble
was happy to not dwell on the euro |
Schäuble
said some nations were working toward reforming their institutions and pursuing
sustainable growth while "others sit there and put the blame for falling
growth rates on others." He said there was agreement with emerging
countries that regulation of the banking sector would be key accomplishment,
allowing politicians to refocus on the actual economic situation rather than
being forced to manage the excesses of a financial sector concerned mainly with
itself.
Schäuble
did not comment on an idea floated by ECB board member Jörg Asmussen of
allowing Greece to use bailout money to buy back old bonds as a way to reduce
its soverign debt. The Finance Ministry calculated the costs of such a play a
year ago and concluded that it could reduce Greek debt by 20 billion euros ($26
billion).
"We
have to look at every possibility," Schäuble said. "But the plan for
Greece has to continue, otherwise we will appear unreliable. We will wait for
the troika's report. Until then people can come up with any ideas they can
imagine. But finance ministers will not comment on them."
Related Articles:
“… We told you there'd come a time on the planet when there'd be only five currencies because the continents would decide to put countries together, not separate them. Do you know who was the model? It's the United States. What an experiment you had! Imagine: Could you take many different states that were governed separately, yet didn't have any visible borders, and give them one currency? It worked. It has worked for well over 100 years. Against all odds, it worked.
Fifty years ago, with the end of the last world war, the Europeans saw what the USA did and emulated it. It has become the European Union. After the war, they postulated, "What if we took many of the countries of Europe, ones who have warred with each other since the beginning of recorded civilization, and we unified them? We will take away the borders and give them one currency." They were laughed at! Yet today, you're seeing it.
Today, their monetary system is more valuable than yours! Where am I going with this? Listen - here is an attribute, a postulate, an axiom of this new earth energy: Separatism kills. Unity is the survival of humanity. You will start putting things together and not taking them apart. And the more you put them together, the more you will unify. Then slowly you'll realize that the goal is to put things together, not tear them apart. What has the European Union created? I'll tell you. It isn't the Euro. It has created a group of countries that will never go to war with each other again! They can't. They trade with each other. Think about it. That's what we're talking about. …“
Europe
Let's talk about Europe - Eastern and Western Europe. Look at the history. I want you to look at the history of the Europeans. What do you know about them? What did you study in school about them, American? You had to learn all those dates and facts. You sit in a country that's barely 200 years old and you had to memorize all the battles and all those conquerors and all those army specifics for hundreds of years! Fourteen hundreds, 1300s - all the way to the present century they seemed to be conquering each other on a regular basis. They warred with each other like the tides of the ocean, constant and predictable. When they got tired of that, they conquered other continents. The small country of Spain alone is responsible for conquering all of South America, middle America and well up into North America. Millions today are speaking their language who never did before they arrived.
The armies of Napoleon spread across parts of Europe like water flowing in a river, conquering everything in its path. There are some cities today in Europe that still don't know which country they belong to! This is because their borders kept changing so often! Now, that's history. I want you to look at it carefully. Still, there would be those who say, "This is just what men do. They create borders and cultures and they go to war. That's Human nature."
Fifty years ago, this new energy started to arrive. Oh, the alignments go slow, dear Human Being, but it was here. It was starting; it was beginning. Fifty years ago, something happened in Europe and you didn't hear much about it back then. Some very clear thinkers got together after World War II and said, "If we don't do something different and out of the box of today's thinking, it's all going to happen again because this is what we do. Men make war." Even the young country called America was involved in war. America itself almost split apart before that, because that's what men do. They split good things apart. It was obvious to these wise men that they could try something, something that might work - a uniting instead of separation. And so they formed an idea. Let me tell you what it was.
They said to themselves, "What if we could get as many countries as we can to agree to become a collection of 'country states'? If we start this now and go at it slowly, we could eventually have a system where we would trade together to the point where the borders come down, no checkpoints and no passports. All these cultures and former enemy countries would all trade evenly together, and for that to happen we might even have a common currency. Look at the United States, for this is how it works there. Europe would never go to war with itself again. It couldn't, since it would be allied financially."
Of course, they were laughed at! Everyone who heard it said it couldn't' be done and that there were just too many issues to solve. Those who objected said, "No, no, no. That's not what we do. We have too many different cultures. There's some with strong currencies, there's some with weak currencies. There are too many objections. Imagine going from one country to another without being inspected at the border? That won't work. Who are you to suggest something of this nature?" And the forward thinkers said, "We are unifiers. And we think it's a good idea so we will have strength and will never war again." That was two generations ago, 50 years.
Today, you have the European Union of States. There are more all the time, way past the original number of countries. Some are "standing in line" to be accepted! The borders are gone and the checkpoints are missing and the currency called the Euro is the strongest currency on Earth - stronger even than yours [the USA]. Now, let me tell you what did that. It's a consciousness shift that even 50 years ago was developing. Through two generations, it slowly allowed for free thinkers to unify things that had never been unified before. The result? These countries will never conquer each other again, because "history" ended at that moment. They started a new paradigm for Europe and one that has no historic profile known to man. The old history of the area is gone, and it will not repeat itself.
Those in the old Eastern Bloc of Europe, where there is still to this day very little unity, will still say, "History will again repeat itself. We are victims of it. It's only a matter of time." But not all of them feel this way. There are some who are starting to feel a unity of spirituality within their own cultures that they were never allowed to speak of before. So they are free thinking, out of the box of the old paradigm. It's new.
There are those who are standing on podiums and in pulpits and are proclaiming, "History is ended. It's the end of suffering. It's the end of dictatorships. It's the end of those who would put us in a low place. Instead, it's the beginning of discovering who we are." And although they don't say it in these exact words, they are discovering the creator inside - that which is the unity of God. So it's a full circle back to what the Angel told Muhammad, isn't it? For unity was the key to peace, and still is. It is a sacred principle and will never change.
Who would have thought this would have happened? The United States is what it is because 200 years ago the founders said, "Let us make a group of state countries without physical borders in a system that's never been tried. It's one of unity - the UNITED States of America." Oh, it had its tests, but the unifiers won. And it is why this country is what it is and is seen and respected for what it is and for what it's done. So young, it is, but representing the new energy, it is.
Your Declaration of Independence was channelled. Did you know that? It was collective effort channelling by those who had asked God for help. Go read it and feel that which is sacred inside, for it unifies and does not separate.
