Europe: Deal Or No Deal?

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 13:21 | Categorized as

13/12/11 -- Just a few days after EU leaders put on a brave face and announced their new "deal" to sort out the European debt crisis the market remains unconvinced.

Yields on Italian ten year bonds are back up again today, not too far away from the "unsustainable" seven percent mark at 6.76% and with their Spanish counterpart rising close to six percent at 5.92%.

Yet again it seems that the politicians have come up with very little in real terms.

In fact just about the only thing that seems to have been written into a rather empty looking tablet of stone is that there will be another bloody meeting in March.

Meanwhile we've already had Sarkozy's opposition saying that they want to renegotiate the new "deal" - and we won't know if they're going to be in power until after the May 6th presidential election.

Will all the countries in the eurozone be able to (and really want to) push the necessary changes through, and even if they do how long is that going to take? Suppose some decide, or are forced by the disgruntled unemployed or pay-frozen masses, to hold a referendum on the issue?

And finally after all that what actually happens to any country that doesn't stick to the rules? What are these "possible sanctions" - nobody seems to know.

Once again we have a lot more questions than answers.