Ever more bail-outs for the broken euro will not work

From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.

IS there anyone left who still thinks that the euro was a good idea? Well, of course, it is difficult for the euro’s previous supporters to admit they were wrong. So expect a few europhiles and EU-besotted politicians to continue to try to put off the day of reckoning, despite the 1930s depression-era levels of unemployment and ruin in Greece and Spain.

The point is, as it is presently constituted, the euro cannot be fixed. Like most other countries the UK controls its own currency, so our financial errors can be remedied. That doesn’t mean they will be, for our current PM, David Cameron, strangely appears more concerned about keeping a strong euro than fixing our own economy.

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But the euro cannot be “bailed out” in perpetuity. It is broken. And there are two euro crises: a widely discussed debt crisis; and an ignored productivity (differential) crisis. Both are caused by locking disparate and diverging economies together at one point in their currency history. The only solutions are either for the eurozone to become the EU equivalent of the USA overnight or, to dismantle the euro with every EU country returning to their own currency, like the UK has.

It is highly unlikely that the eurozone nations can be melded into a politically and fiscally centralised United States of Europe quickly enough – there are too many national and constitutional barriers. So the best solution is undoubtedly to break up the eurozone. But europhile politicians have a vested interest in preventing this. Hence their dire warnings if it is tried. Yet their failed alternative, on offer for the last two years, has been ever more unbelievable “bail-outs” that do not work and prolong the misery.

From: Dr David Hill, chief executive, World Innovation Foundation, Huddersfield.

THE UK and the EU are fighting a rear-guard action against two mutually independent economic hurricanes, the meltdown of the euro and the rising economic power of the Far East. Both will have devastating consequence on Western nations in perpetuity.

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With most probably over four trillion euros in sovereign debt and possibly up to six trillion euros together with stagnant or regressive economic growth in the EU, a domino effect could bring the world economy to its knees. Italy with over two trillion euro debt is already teetering on the precipice of asking for an EU bailout.

With more economic goods being supplied by China et al than ever before, the West has little hope of recapturing any major economic foothold in the world markets of the future with our present economic thinking. In this respect, the only way that the West can recapture its former economic glory is by totally immersing itself in a new innovative infrastructure that allows all the creative minds in the West to participate whenever they wish.

From: DS Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds.

ALTHOUGH the Chancellor’s extra line of credit is good (Yorkshire Post, June 16), to succeed business also needs lower taxes and less regulation, both of which are in short supply today.

The road haulage sector, a perfect example with the highest fuel taxes in the EU, plus the too-rigid application of EU rules like driver hours which, compounded by a looming serious driver shortage, is leading to more and more company closures, many of these long-established hauliers.

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In order to get the UK economy going, more incentives for both employers and workers alike must be provided, the key to which can only be a genuine serious cut in public spending.

From: JW Buckley, Aketon, Pontefract.

THERE were three connected and interesting articles in your Opinion section (Yorkshire Post, June 13).

Firstly, Bernard Ingham quoting Margaret Thatcher that economic decisions taken for political reasons are invariably doomed.

Secondly, Simon Reevel MP on House of Lords reform, that MPs regard votes in a General Election as cast for their party and particularly for its manifesto.

Thirdly, Steve Wilson asked where our statesmen are.

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To take the third point: we have no statesmen because (from point two) they are all party hacks. Because they are party hacks, they do things for political reasons (from point one). And the result? The present mess. The only beneficiaries of this are the MPs, who play their political games at our expense.

From: MP Laycock, Wheatlands Road East, Harrogate.

DR Glyn Powell (Yorkshire Post, June 8) perpetuates the myth that banks are wholly or mainly to blame for our current woes.

In fact, it is politicians who are chiefly to blame, with some banks playing a secondary part alongside millions of ordinary people who have been busily spending next year’s money.

Politicians, in most developed countries, have sought to gain popularity by spending more money than they dared to raise in taxes.