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Soros says EU break-up would be catastrophic: report
Chairman of Soros foundation George Soros attends the Avoided Deforestation Partners organization conference on a sidelines of the UN climate talks in Cancun December 8, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Jorge Silva
(Reuters) - A collapse of the euro and break-up of the European Union would have catastrophic consequences for the global financial system, billionaire investor George Soros was quoted as saying.
"Today, the euro is potentially endangering the political cohesion of the European Union," the Business Line newspaper cited Soros as saying in the south Indian city of Hyderabad.
"If the common currency were to break down, it will lead to the break up of the European Union itself. And this will be catastrophic not only for Europe but also for the global financial system."
The euro zone crisis is "more serious and more threatening than the crash of 2008," the Economic Times reported, quoting Soros.
In the near term, some of the euro zone countries may have to take more austerity measures because of the imbalances between the "creditor and the debtor countries," Soros said at a business school event, the Mint newspaper reported.
"Unfortunately, they haven't yet solved the acute financial crisis and that is causing the situation to deteriorate...and (it) is not at all clear it will have a solution," he said.
(Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee in MUMBAI; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)
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In truth, the financial community’s current level of confidence in the Euro and the Eurozone can not be justified. In 2011, the Eurozone’s leaders offered an audaciously clever series of delays, subterfuge, and half measures in place of a solution that might actually work.
In 2011, the IIS went so far as to actually quietly redefine “default”. Under the previous definition that stood for centuries, the ensuing massive CDS payouts would have brought the Eurozone and its banks to its knees.
Now, if a sovereign nation fails to repay bonds according to the original terms of the purchase, it is no longer called “default”; this situation shall henceforth be referred to as a “haircut”, a far more innocuous term that does not trigger CDS payouts.
It is a curious mix of fear and unjustified hopeful sentiments that has been standing against a total collapse, a fragile bulwark.
http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-hungarians-protest-constitution-budapest-174700470.html
What has been the international reaction to the new constitution?
Everything from warnings to genuine alarm. According to Spiegel International, both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) have ceased negotiations with Hungary regarding any potential aid for its economic woes, over aspects of the new constitution that could allow the Fidesz party, and Orban specifically, to grab control over the nation’s banking system, including its central bank, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB). European Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said in a statement on Tuesday that there are no plans to resume negotiations with Hungary anytime soon.
Before the constitution was signed, both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso tried to persuade Orban not to continue with some proposed aspects of the document. Amnesty International has also protested some aspects of the new constitution, which the organization maintains violate international human rights, according to CNN International.
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