Spain Pressured by Letter from Trichet; More on Agricultural Trade Wars; Which Comes First, Harmony or Workable Currency Unions?

Not only was Italy pressured by ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, so was Spain. Courtesy of Google Translate, El Pais reports Trichet Pressures Spain in Letter.

The ECB makes recommendations to Spain in a less hard than Italy, in return for the purchase of debt.

The announcement of the budget measures made on Sunday by Finance Minister, Elena Salgado, was preceded by increased pressure on Spain by the European Central Bank (ECB). Its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, last week sent a letter to the Spanish government to ask him not to stop the reforms and measures to contain the deficit. The letter, whose contents are discussed in the meeting of the ECB governing council meeting on Thursday, August 4, left Frankfurt at the same time as the letter that led to the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to step on the accelerator of its fiscal reforms.

Does anyone think these were "recommendations" and not demands?

For a discussion on the letter to Italy, please see my previous post Trichet's Secret "Dragon Transfer" Letter to Italy PM; Watch France CDS Rates as France is "New Italy"; Trichet Illegally Usurps Judge-and-Jury Power

Agricultural Trade Wars Part Two

As a followup to Border Attacks: Spanish Farmers Threaten to Block Border with France; Global Trade Wars Yet Another Sign of Deflation here are more articles and images of the escalating agricultural trade wars between France and Spain.

Angry French Farmers Dump Spanish Peaches, Burn Tires

Via French to English translation, please consider The anger of farmers

Big day mobilization fruit and vegetable department. Objective of the mobilization: to maintain pressure on the government Tuesday after an action in the Gard region, where several trucks carrying merchandise Spanish saw their cargo spilled on the road.

Angry farmers are then directed to the St. Charles market, where they dumped tons of peaches and then burned tires at the roundabout at the entrance of the platform.



"This is a Spanish enclave on French soil. They betrayed us under the pretext of winning even more. After the intervention of firefighters to put out different fires, farmers are directed to the toll of Perpignan Sud to control several trucks coming out of St. Charles. One of them took the road to Germany was emptied on the floor by young farmers, especially put together. "We're not bandits and we have nothing against Spanish producers, but the merchandise that was found in the truck does not respect the rules especially for fisheries that are surcalibrées. Since the state does not respect the rules, they did their job."

Should we nationalize supermarkets?

You know trade wars are intense when you see questions like this in French headline news: Should we nationalize supermarkets?

Yesterday, at the toll Lancon, motorists could not believe their eyes. Fifty people brutally emptied the cargo trucks to foreign registrations. These people, it is the farmers of Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône and Gard that have exploded in anger.

Low price for sale result of distortion of competition in their view by large retailers, more and more taxes to pay, and especially a flood of imported fruits and vegetables too important. These are the arguments of those farmers to explain the "unprecedented crisis" that they live this year.

"All agricultural sectors are affected, including fruits and vegetables. The retail products brought in from Spain and Italy among others. The labor is cheaper in these countries with low prices.

French farmers have to lower their prices by at least 20, 30 and even 40% to sell. Currently, the loss of gross turnover rises 25 to 50 according to the operation, "said Andre Bernard, president of the Departmental Federation of Farmers' Unions of the Vaucluse.

Thus, to fight against the importation, the farmers of Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône and Gard, framed by the police, conducted a blitz by immobilizing all foreign trucks trying to cross the toll of Lancon, creating a cap of more than 5 km.

Manuel, a Spanish driver, despite his resistance, has seen its 24 tons of crushed nectarines on the tar. "It's incomprehensible, Manuel gets mad, I understand that the French production has problems, but why attack me? I do my job."



Within 45 minutes, farmers have drained three-truck trailers full of peaches, oranges, figs and pears. "The loading of these trucks is one year of work for one local farmer. And it's not for us we buy the products, carried away the chair 84 of the FNSEA. Now, that's enough. We ask to meet with government to develop a structure plan to save the profession. "

Which Comes First, Harmony or Workable Currency Unions?

While pondering the meaning of escalating trade wars between France and Spain, please consider this excerpt from When money brought us together

The dream that a common currency can foster harmony has a long history. But if the past is any guide, proponents of the euro may have it backward: Where money is concerned, harmony has to come first. You can’t create a currency to unite people; you must unite people in order to have a currency. Given the growing tensions between the members of the eurozone, that unity, like de Parieu’s dream of “pacific federations of the future,” seems more distant by the day.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List