That was right before he upheld Iceland as a model for economic development. Some people never back the right horse.

On your mark, ‘t set, go!

00:00 – The ECB issues a press statement saying: ‘We will maintain a 0% reference rate at least until 2016, in order to save (what remains of) Spanish and Greek civilisation. This decision is irreversible.”

00:01 to 00:59 – Weakening of the euro, and immediate lowering of PIGS’s long term interest rates. A simple move which costs nothing but which reverses the stupid “never pre-commit” doctrine of the ECB, and puts it in line with modern economic thought.

01:00 – The ECB issues a press statement hinting at the possibility of negative interest rates on deposits or adjustment of interest rates to further weaken the euro.

01:01 to 01:59 – All markets takes stock of this, knowing that the ECB has its finger on the PRINT button, which they don’t.

02:00 – The ECB issues a press statement saying: “We will buy 2000 billion euros’ worth of public and private debt securities in the next 12 months, and we will start again if necessary every six months until spreads reach normal levels and until monetary aggregates get back to normal.

02:01 to 02:59 – Banks react, the financial equations for the PIGS and their consorts start looking normal again, and investors start to buy eurozone assets. The monetary part of the crisis is solved. We are left with the structural part.

03:00 – Mario Draghi calls a press conference in which he announces the nominal GDP as a new target for the ECB’s M3 reference rate.

03:01 – 04:00 – Everyone gets the message and the deflationary cycle is halted.

04:01 – Our finances are now in order, and we can start tackling all the stuff that’s been forgotten these four years: demographics, ecology, the human environment, science and health and all the rest of it.

Then it must be a cunning plan. Please, do tell.

Kev, I guess the chickens have come home to roost.

He does have a knack at following the wrong reference points!

Actually I have a plan to resolve the crisis in four minutes flat.

U minfuq, tal-lejber permezz ta’ Anglu ta’ l-Iljunfant, biex jaghtu stampa qarrieqa tas-sitwazzjoni, qed jghoddu l-postijiet godda ta’ xoghol mahluqa mil-PN u minnhom inaqqsu n-numru ta’ impiegi li ntilfu.

Bhalli kieku l-impieg gdid ta’ dawk li tilfu l-impieg li kellhom waqa’ mis-smewwiet! U mbaghad nitkazaw li ma Joseph ma jafx x’inhu hedge fund meta lanqas biss jafu jaghmlu somom semplici fl-artimetika?

The Euro is doomed, Jack, an ‘experiment’ that has gone badly wrong. Fiscal union? Impossible.

No sovereign state will relinquish its taxation policy and independence to Brussels.

Of course, the Germans are in an advantageous position and will milk it. Who wouldn’t?

However, they know that the inevitable return to the Deutschmark will greatly appreciate their new (old) currency and are preparing for it as I type.

Greece will be the first to exit. (Grexit) Then the fun begins.

And the fools want a change and risk (not a probability but an assurance) losing everything by electing Hamburger Joe with his Tinfoil Consort.