Thursday, August 04, 2011

Crisis, what crisis? Oh, that one. Right.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, statement following the Eurozone-rescuing summit of 21 July --

So, ladies and gentlemen, we needed a credible package: we have a credible package. It deals with both the concerns of the markets and of citizens. It responds also to the concerns of all Member States of the Euro area. It is a package that every government has signed up to. For the first time in the crisis, the politics and the markets are coming together.

Jose Manuel Barroso, letter to EU heads of government 3 August --

The 21st of July bold decisions on the Greek package and the increased flexibility of the EFSF (precautionary use, recapitalisation of banks and intervention in secondary bond markets), are not having their intended effect on the markets. Markets highlight, among other reasons, the global economic uncertainties due to both economic growth and the protracted decision on budgetary adjustments in the US but, first and foremost, the undisciplined communication and the complexity and incompleteness of the 21st July package.

Incidentally, for someone complaining about communications problems, his press statement of August 3 is notably less bleak than the letter he was writing at the same time and which was made public today and from which the above passage is taken.

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