European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 33

On January 15 2015 06:11 L1ghtning wrote:

So redistribution of wealth is fair, if it's democratic?
In that case, the confiscation of wealth from the jews in Nazi Germany was fair.

What gives you the right to decide what someone else should do with their own resources?

Traditional Anglo-saxon societies are only the most unegalitarian societies in the eyes of a person who doesn't understand what egalitarianism means.

(Reuters) - Switzerland's franc soared by almost 30 percent in value against the euro on Thursday after the Swiss National Bank abandoned its three-year old cap at 1.20 francs per euro.

In a chaotic few minutes on markets after the SNB's announcement, the franc broke past parity against the euro to trade at 0.8052 francs per euro before trimming those gains to stand at 1.0350 francs.

It also gained 25 percent against the dollar to trade at 0.8900 francs per dollar.

The SNB has been resisting heavy pressure in recent months on the cap it imposed in September 2011 on the stellar rise seen in the franc's value due to investors seeking a haven from the euro zone's economic and political troubles.

The prospect of outright money-printing by the European Central Bank as early as next week has added to the pressure, with the SNB seen by players in the market as buying euros consistently around 1.2009 francs per euro in recent days.

"It has taken the market by complete surprise," said Jonathan Webb, head of FX strategy at Jefferies in London.

"The SNB probably expects the ECB to launch QE next week and along with the Greek elections coming up, it would make it pretty tough on the Swiss to keep bidding the euro. So they have abandoned the cap and cut rates deeper into negative territory. We expect euro/Swiss to trade around 0.90-1.00 francs after all the stop loss orders have been cleared."

As it comes closer to gaining power in Greece, the anti-establishment Syriza party that once advocated a pullout from NATO and expulsion of the U.S. Navy from a base in Crete is moving toward the foreign-policy mainstream.

Syriza is sacrificing its more revolutionary ambitions to the overriding goal of getting better terms for Greece’s economic aid package. With the party holding a slim lead in the polls for the Jan. 25 election, even Syriza’s commitment to rolling back European sanctions on Russia is in question.

“The flagship of their policy is debt relief, and their main preoccupation will be domestic,” said Eirini Karamouzi, a lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Sheffield. “There’s no bargaining chip for Greece right now to lead on the main foreign-policy fronts.”

A party wishlist from mid-2013 rails at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Israel, promises to yank Greek troops from overseas missions and align more closely with Russia and China -- all to strike a blow at the “neoliberal” European Union and “imperialist” U.S.

Now the insurgent party’s leaders are retreating from the rhetorical barricades. It’s a shift witnessed already in the economic sphere as Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras stresses a commitment to fiscal prudence. Greek government bond yields that soared last year at the prospect of a Syriza government have since declined as the threat of exit from the euro was seen to recede.