Monday, September 18, 2017

Bill Mitchell — Jean-Claude Juncker in denial and somewhat delusional

Last week (September 13, 2017), the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, presented his State of the Union Address 2017 in Strasbourg before the European Parliament. My only query arising from the speech was which Member State has left, given that the President began his speech by thanking “the 27 leaders of our Member States” (joke). He opened by saying how unity among the Member States had “showed that Europe can deliver for its citizens when and where it matters”. I wonder which Planet he was referring to. I thought Europe was on the Mother Earth and it certainly hasn’t been delivering for its citizens, if the usual measures are considered. Juncker’s speech just continues what I considered to be ‘Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale’, which was the subtitle of my 2015 book – Eurozone Dystopia: Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale. It is amazing that the denial continues after 10 years and that guys like Juncker can still command an audience and a salary.…
Translation of the speech: The European elite is doing very well. The little people don't count. Welcome to capitalism, which is the system that favors capital formation and the accumulation of capital as foundational and the ultimate criterion.

Capitalism is oppsed to socialism as the priority of all the people, and environmentalism as the priority of land. These are means for increasing capital under capitalism, and their use is based on the priorities of capital.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Jean-Claude Juncker in denial and somewhat delusional
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

2 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"So for the President, 3 years into the plan to admit that it had “triggered €225 billion worth of investment so far”, when the aim was to add € 315 billion, signals failure."

So they are about 90b behind... they are buying 60b/mo at the ECB which requires 6b of new capital at the banks at a LR of 0.1

36 months at 6b/mo = 216b so there you go ... hard to overcome this capital drain ... they have to just largely rely on increases in fiscal withdrawals alone which haven't been that robust...

Matt Franko said...

"Both ratios are still well below the pre-GFC levels and are now falling."

They are falling because the institutions have to establish 6b/mo of additional regulatory capital to accommodate the additional 60b/mo of reserve assets being created by the ECB at LR of 0.1... its in effect a "capital drain" of 6b/mo....