What can any European Country do to sustain its own inefficiency without going bankrupt? To spend more than it collects? Once upon a time, in extreme cases such a country would simply have devalued its currency. All of the Country’s citizens simply became 20% to 30% poorer. Exports increate due to the more competitive pricing of the Country’s goods. The people tightened their belts and everything went on as normal. The advent of the Euro meant that this type of thing was no longer possible, however, increasing the level of public debt by issuing more Government Bonds has remained a viable option. To all intents and purposes, Government Bonds have replaced the ability to print more money. The product to debt ratio is a good indicator of a nation’s health. The less it produces and the more it gets into debt, the closer the Country comes to bankruptcy. The issuing of debt by means of government bonds has no limit, as long as someone is prepared to buy the bonds and the government is able to meet its interest payment commitments and pay back the monetary value when the bonds expire. If public finances decline, as in the case of the so-called PIIGS, the interest payable on government bonds already issued increases and the number of buyers decreases due to the increased risk of default. If the PIIGS fail, then their creditors, namely the virtuous Countries of northern Europe, could also fail in turn. The European banks in Germany, Holland and France, which are indebted to the tune of hundreds of billions of Euro, would be totally swept away should Italy or Spain ever default. There is something truly diabolical about the issuing of debt and its calculation. The creation of debt is totally beyond the control of the average man in the street. In the past year, for example, Tremorti has managed to increase the Italian population’s level of debt by around one hundred billion Euro, without asking or saying anything to anyone. He then sold this debt on, partly to the very same Italians that he plunged into debt in the first place (the perfect 69, isn’t it?), and the rest he spread around the entire planet. The security of the debt lies in the apparent security of the government bonds. Their yield may well be lower than that of other investments, but they are deemed to be a safe investment. It would appear that the reimbursement of the face value of the government bonds at the time of expiry is guaranteed, which is not true in the case of shares traded on the Stock Exchange, which are subject to market fluctuations. Government bonds, in other words the purchase of third party debt, are somewhat like a totem pole: a State cannot fail. This popular belief enables Countries to sell off their debt, thereby enabling them to make yet more debt. If a Country fails, it usually loses all of its invested capital in one fell swoop due to so-called "debt restructuring ", which is a nice way of saying that the parties that purchased the debt are left standing in their underpants. In order to avert bankruptcy, Europe has agreed to buy up any government bonds issued by the PIIGS that would otherwise have gone unsold. For this purpose, Europe needs the 750 billion Euro that have already been allocated (not enough according to many analysts). This in order to buy up any debt made by reckless governments. The myth of intangible government bonds that will be bought back in any event upon expiry must be eliminated once and for all. A Country should be assessed in the same manner as one would assess any public shareholder company, in other words, if its financial value drops, its share value for the shareholder must drop accordingly. Investments would then focus more on the creation of value rather than its destruction. Making debt is something done by the reckless, selling it off is something metaphysical and purchasing such debt is an act of pure folly.

Ps. The Friends of Beppe Grillo in Roma wish to advise that the hearing scheduled for 12 May, in the trial of Warrant Officer Vincenzo Lo Zito, has been postponed for reasons of legitimate impediment, being the non-availability of the Warrant Officer's defence attorney to attend the hearing. A new date for the hearing will be announced shortly.