George Osborne to block IMF cash for eurozone bail-out

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ASusilovic

The Chancellor made the promise in the Commons as he faced growing pressure from his own party to repatriate powers from Europe.

Mr Osborne said he would not allow the International Monetary Fund, which is partly bankrolled by British taxpayers, to provide money for the new euro bail-out fund.

The announcement was a fillip to Conservative backbenchers who have demanded that the Government acts to claw back powers from Brussels.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that Tory MPs will meet next month to begin drawing up a detailed plan calling for the return of employment and social laws following the back-bench rebellion over a European referendum.

Mr Osborne told MPs: “Britain will not be putting money into the bail-out fund either directly or through the IMF.”

He ruled out IMF involvement amid indications that the international organisation may be asked to help bankroll the €1 trillion (£880 million) fund to lend money to beleaguered countries in the single currency.

“The IMF exists to support countries, it does not exist to support currencies,” Mr Osborne said. “The IMF contributing money to the eurozone bail-out fund, no; Britain contributing money to the eurozone bail-out fund, no. That is Britain’s clear position.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...-to-block-IMF-cash-for-eurozone-bail-out.html

Britain´s clear position, hum? Financial trasnaction tax - here it comes, Mr. Osborne. A nice thank you from "Mutti" Merkel and Monsieur Sarkozy.
 
Quote from ASusilovic:


Britain´s clear position, hum? Financial trasnaction tax - here it comes, Mr. Osborne. A nice thank you from "Mutti" Merkel and Monsieur Sarkozy.
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Why do you say this? Osborne is also quite clear that there will be no UK financial transaction tax either.

More like two fingers at Merkel and Sarkozy.

Osborne might look like a schoolboy geek but he's actually a rottweiler, much stronger than most politicians.
 
Quote from benwm:

Why do you say this? Osborne is also quite clear that there will be no UK financial transaction tax either.

More like two fingers at Merkel and Sarkozy.

Osborne might look like a schoolboy geek but he's actually a rottweiler, much stronger than most politicians.
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From daily mail website:

The Chancellor said he could not promise that the idea of an EU ‘financial transactions tax’, which would hit Britain harder than other countries because of the size of the banking sector, was ‘dead in the water’.
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Lets hope the mail has misquoted him and he meant to say Eurozone and not EU.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rs-Europe-heads-tier-state.html#ixzz1c5bYKjEv
 
I would guess he's talking generally about the Sarkozy and Merkel perspective...it's not dead as far as they are concerned...

Politically he will always say one thing, "keep our options open, consider every option on the table. etc", but reality is much different.
 
what politicians say they mean the opposite. british taxpayers can't even pay off their own national debts, most brits are up to their eyeballs in credit card debts now they have to pay for italians, spanish, portuguese, greeks, irish and who else
 
What economists don't take into account when they consider the debt/GDP calculations for Britain especially is the massive pool of capital available from the connected British tax havens.

I think there are around 15-20 British overseas territories such as Jersey, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands etc and this enormous pool of money from billionaire Arabs to Russian oligarchs works it way into the British economy, often through these overseas territories. In many respects the UK is a tax haven for foreigners.

Britain is able to fund itself at something like 2.50% for 10 year gilts so relatively speaking is still in quite a strong position. Whilst London is a bit of a shithole in parts, and I would like to move out, I think the sheer diversity of the City is also a point of strength, IT infrastructure is quite good, corporation tax is low-ish (compared to other major economies). Also the banking sector was recapitalized in 2008 and the UK banks such as HSBC and Barclays don't seem to be as exposed to problems in Greece as the French and German banks.

The debt/GDP numbers are quite simplistic as a measure of stress anyway. Take Japan with around 200% debt/GDP - they can still finance themselves at 1% over 10yrs because of the enormous savings of Japanese that go straight into JGBs.
 
Quote from dtan1e:

what politicians say they mean the opposite. british taxpayers can't even pay off their own national debts, most brits are up to their eyeballs in credit card debts now they have to pay for italians, spanish, portuguese, greeks, irish and who else
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Britain is not on the hook for the PIIGS debt because Britain is part of the EU, but not the Eurozone. The only contribution Britain would have to make would be through the IMF, just like the US would have to or indeed any other IMF member.

Relatively speaking then, any contribution from the British taxpayer would be small, even if Britain stayed in the EU.

Germany and France are in a worse position because they are on the hook for Greek debts. That is why Merkel and Sarkozy are so tetchy. I think they are quite envious of the power of the City of London, hence their thirst for an EU-wide financial transaction tax...
:)

I agree that private sector debt (credit cards, mortgages) is high and you may well get a property crash at some point.
 
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