For one thing there is a total and utter loathing about spending money there. Our present #EUCO president was Defense Minister of Germany and under her stewardship the Bundeswehr had to ask allies to lend it winter equipment for soldiers during training exercises. (2/6)
Helicopter pilots LOST their license due to lack of minimum flight hours as well. Core Europe might splurge for #Energiewende, but Stout German soldiers can freeze.
Moreover, there's the "hammer and nail" argument. Should you spend on a military instrument, it should help. (3/6)
Militaries are inherently bound to the concept of "Nation" and "borders", so a willingly porous Europe has to keep them below minimum. A strong Army would bring Europe in line with Orban erecting concertina wire. A strong navy would have to control the Sicilian strait. (4/6)
On top of those issues, there is the unlikely event of hot conflicts. That would mean building a clear and unified chain of command, which #NATO would not provide (it would actually demand it of the #EU).(5/6)
The Best "Pravda" cartoon would be two T72 crews sipping coffee in Madrid in front of their tanks, while one asks of the other: "By the way, did the #EU decide the chain of command of the military yet?" (end)
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Germany’s net-zero bills never shrink and the promised boom in green industries and jobs never materializes. via @WSJopinion There's a rookie mistake in the article.(/) @degiorgiod @MeredithAngwin @MarcoCantamessa @petunianelsole @moutetwsj.com/articles/germa…
"[...]plugging the hole will require either higher electricity rates or more taxpayer subsidies."
No, they are not different things: they are DESIGNED to look like different things, and one is meant to be harsher.(/)
If the whole "let's add an elaborate #Wind and #Solar scheme over the existing grid to emit less during the hours those actually produce electricity" was entirely falling on general taxation, those costs would distort the economy by lowering productivity and general demand.(/)
If our hapless western politicians weren't well, hapless, they'd know that THIS is the time to "Show the Israeli flag on buildings". And not for Jews.(/)
@GemmaTognini @AlessandroPonz4 @AndreaVenanzoni @Curini @michaeltanchum @ardigiorgio @BaldingsWorld @moutet @GrayConnolly
Because by not making it abundantly clear that in free country you can express your views, collectively as well, but every citizen is responsible for its opinions and pays for their consequences, and ABOVE ALL there is the same fair treatment for all, (/)
/ governments are destroying both the moral base of our society AND our social contract. Think of it this way:
You are a lower middle class father of two married in church. You join the Truckers in Canada 🇨🇦.
Police in riot gear shot rubber bullets point blank at you.(/)
Since the pro-palestinian framing on main stream media has started in earnest (I am watching a press program now here in #Italy), allow me to give you a vaccine dose. At all times, ask yourself: 1. Is (insert bigwig here) asking for hostage release by Hamas as a precondition?(/)
2. In your opinion, what keeps Hamas from releasing them on their own accord, considering that their official position is that atrocities were tag alongs not at their order?
(/)
3. Why is that no whistleblowing on hostage position is going on by Gaza civilians whose houses are under threat? Israel is affer all composed by a sizeable muslim population, who hold passports, vote. They'd happily give one for those lives.(/)
Deposit insurance is there to avoid runs on banks, where depositors all want to cash in all at once. But the key word is "cash", i.e. the number each of us sees at the #ATM machine or on the bank site as his own cash balance. However that's not cash. (/)
I have seen grandiose public plans about financial education, and deposit insurance is an ex post measure.. non one vaccinated citizens by telling them the truth: "when you deposit cash at a bank, you are LENDING them the money (which ceases to be yours). The bank invests it."(/)
Eric, we've been through a decade of easy money, finance centric solutions of 2008 which was the key to the deindustrialization of the west. Now to some extent is better and to some is worse.(/)
The better part is that goods producing companies have NEVER returned to the blind trust in the banking system they had before. Less leverage, and slamming the door in bank salesmen's faces helped. (/)
Of course there is a whole section of equities which are more financial than Casino chips, but with #Zirp and #NIRP that couldn't be helped. I am not so pessimistic about the industrial base in the #US (#Europe is a different Bedlam). (/)
"you need to have a longer time horizon" roughly translates in my book in "Run for your lives !!".
For one, if you are a final saver... you rarely HAVE a time horizon, nor you need one. Incidentally that's proof of who wrote #MIFID.(/)
MIFID questionnaires have a mandatory section on time horizon. Why that measure? because while for an individual saver that concept is basically meaningless, for those meant to be KEPT from pushing unnecessary risk onto savers it's daily bread.(/)
Banks indeed have time horizons and time preferences well and truly planted into their brains since they have a teeny weeny share capital, and finance their assets through the issuance of debt. They indeed try to match maturities across assets and liabilities. (/)