Madleine O Hosli ‘Euro’

By

Sampson Onwuka

Madleine O Hosli in the book titled ‘Euro’ raised the issue of price stability and EMU, in respect to the currency that the “…provisions of EMU suggest that the predominant goal of the ECB is to maintain price stability with some factors rendering this task difficult in practice – but possibly at the expanse of some global exchange rate stability”, that for instance, Euro may rival Dollars, sprawling a world of competition that may affect the total market and financial stability of the world. The author goes on to argue that “If monetary policy were to be dominated by political interests, however, and political rationales were to determine the external value of the euro, for example, European monetary integration would constitute a threat to outsiders.” Why this point looks solid on paper, it looks very bad in practice, for sure and in reality, the issue of threat to outsiders in terms of investment can only be possible if and when the price of Euro become expensive. That may also refer to the issue of real estate since in reality the strength of the Euro, may even welcome the exportation of dollars or sovereign wealth to ECB via Arab oils and dollars. The author of the book however made the point about trans-border trade that clear that ‘The European experience, as Barry Eichengreen contends, supports those suggesting that stable and extensive trade relationship are important prerequisites for a smooth functionary of the International Monetary system”

The fundamental difference between US banks and those of Euro is that US Banks are not allowed to engage in any form of securities lending, which is notionally the act of removing ‘debt from a company’s balance sheet’. Euro Banks are allowed to engage in both forms of lending and in all forms of securities, irrespective of the Insurance product. Until Glass-Seagull Act of 1933, US Banks were allowed to participate in all forms Securities lending, to such disputable degree that the stock market failed, the banks failed as well. And secondly, these Banks and their owners were prone to manipulating the stock market and inventing their own Rating and setting their own prices, a problem that somehow manages to make reappear in various forms. As such the houses and other components of the real estate rose and decline as the Banks saw fit, and when the political forces appeared, Banks will to being held responsible for leading or misleading the generality of the Public. These Banks pretty much operated like the European counterparts, but the rules set for SEC following the depression made impossible for them to act like their European counterparts. Thirdly, whatever happens in Europe somehow manages to affect US, in spite of the best that can be said is that Glass-Seagull Act may have inadvertently worked for the benefit of American market, which if Europe is willing to adopt it may also help Europe.

William emphasized the role of Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) which should stay very clearly away from the power banks that occupy the ranks of the general rating agency and investment institutions. In essence, the presence of TARP without adequate follow-up on their part will lead, may lead to ‘Too Big to Fail’. The incident of AFX as an accounting failure became that much of back drop, it should have meant that the operation board were not aware of what was available the time of incident. The problem may however require the general participation of the Banking world, where institutions that make our life possible “Canada has embraced a Universal Banking model with its top five banks representing approximately 90% of its banking model with its top five banks representing. Approximately 90% of its Banking business, and yet these institutions never pose a “too big to fail’ threat”. William mentioned that “Unlike the United States, Canada has only one regulatory body, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI). This prevents agencies from sending mixed signals and Banks from the playing the regulatory arbitrage game, seeking the most lenient overseer. The OSFI sets Capital constraints more stringent than Basel II guidelines, and banks are required to set Interval Capital target.”

As some experts once mentioned that we take it that “…the future of the idea of Europe! If it has one, depends less on central banking and agricultural subsidies, on investment in technology or common tariffs, subsidies, on investment in technology or common tariffs, than we are instructed to believe.”

We take it that Idea of Europe – the subject of George Steiner’s Essay (2004; 2012) is on Europe as upon a fair, for here as perhaps elsewhere Europe for Steiner “…is the place where Goethe’s garden almost borders on Buchen wald, where the house of Corneille abuts on the marketplace in which Joan of Arc was hideously done to death.” In the drama that follow parts of James Joyce and his Ulysses, the author is no longer at ease with the art, his reflection is a character from perhaps an influence no longer affair for Ireland. It is not here that imaginations fail to impress than character is subject upon a ‘blue guitar’ as if Europe with ‘all its fears’ is consigned to the deep of history. The rise of Europe and its civilization began with Christianity, it staggered along the corridors of Judaism, Islam and the Gypsies, with the collapse of Christianity and others, it yields to its decline. It is the negative that is the picture.

We invoke here the character of Rob Riemen and his interpretation of Steiner’s Essay that false is going forth when an idea is not upon an act. There is something of uncertainty is an act, original on how it evolves and like a play, it leads somewhere, perhaps not a play it is riddled with uncertainty. It is the resonance of an act endears as a play, for a play is upon an act, hold differently alters as well.

Where George Steiner could not have imagined his essay upon a Joyce Country, his shift of apathy and invocations on Spinoza; ‘All things excellent are as difficult as difficult as they are rare”, swallow his commandment that you ‘do not shy away from that which is difficult’. A green guitar for Europe upon a blue outfit may or may not impress, but there is an understatement that a gap exist between what defines the difference between polar ends and actions which a natural reactions authors for a moment. In all reality, there are limits of expectations in history and for a moment, an act in the moment defines history, history defines an idea, and idea defines certain aspect of character.

Rob Riemen thus says, “Europe committed suicide by killing its Jews. The destruction of six million European Jews, the destruction of six million European Jews, the destruction of the world of Mahler, Alban Berg, Hofmannsthal, Booch, Kafka, Celan, Karl Kraus, Walter Benjamin .… was also the destruction of l’esprit europeen, the idea of Europe. With the loss of this idea, nothing remained of Europe but a cultureless, soulless, purely geographic and economic entity,” The future is not the concern of this commentator, he seeks redemption for an idea of Europe, he is a product of some past, short in the grasp of the changing landscape that perhaps elsewhere like some old Irish Country, landscapes betray, etc., and history is upon a time. He is searching for some epiphany perhaps, no more than character as with idea Europe ‘setting forth’ is epiphany not from rear view and images.