My Life on this planet.

UK Here a must-read article about how quickly a few years of austerity in one of the richest countries on our planet can disintegrate a society whereby people start to fight with each other for almost expired food and other cheap goods. Indeed, people who are poor and hardly can afford anything, including food, become hungry and, as long as they still have fat reserves and some savings, they can continue to buy some food and forget the hunger for a short period (and this period can be extended by avoiding to meet friends and family and thus spending money). But after a few months, when savings are starting to melt away (and the less money someone has, the quicker it goes down) while the numbers of people who become desperate and need to buy cheap food grow, the more likely it becomes that people start to fight with each other in order to be able to get the cheap products. Certainly when people have children who are hungry, people will start fighting for the cheapest things avai...

Finally, the specialists at the European Central Bank (ECB) had the guts to do what they always wanted to do : QE or Quantitative Easing . Not democratically-elected politicians decided this; no, unelected economists and bankers decided to introduce QE as they know everything about bringing a world economy to its knees so they can profit. Because lowering the interest rates to almost zero over the past years didn't seem to stimulate the economy, QE means 'printing money' by buying the government bonds of Member States in the hope it will stimulate the economy and to prevent inflation turns into deflation. Maybe there are moments QE can be used but only when really necessary and not now when the economy is relatively OK (although doesn't grow as strong as it did in the past as can be expected ) because even economists admit QE (and thus its consequences) is little understood. I even claim politicians and economists should have been preparing the people for decreasing...

The elections in Greece are over and the expected party won, i.e. Syriza , and thus congratulations to them although their choice of coalition partner puzzled me and others. In fact, this choice let me almost forget Syriza's victory, a victory that also reduced the parties that were in power for decades and that were to a large extend responsible for Greece situation while many of the old powers throughout Europe still think the loosing parties are the solution for a reborn Greece. Indeed, Syriza's PM Alexis Tsipras chose Anel (or Independent Greeks ) as coalition partner, a right-wing party that is like Syriza opposed to austerity but also seems to be nationalistic and supportive of the Greek-Orthodox Church and also xenophobic, anti-Semitic (and thus probably also anti-Muslim) and homophobic although only gained 5% of the vote and thus Syriza's leader Alexis Tsipras may think that such a small anti-Europe and anti-austerity party may scare the EU into more goodwill w...

The European Union (EU) deserves the Nobel Peace Price, ... and maybe certainly at this moment (or maybe not). Why? To reflect on its past achievements and its will to help member states who need help. Although the people from countries in need will disagree as so many suffer and therefore maybe it was better to wait until after the crisis to judge Europe's solution on how she solved it. Past achievements. EU on the Euro, together with Norway. The EU arose after WWII to improve trade between European countries in the hope it would increase the chances of peace between them. Countries could join voluntarily but only after certain criteria were met, such as good records on the environment , human rights and equal opportunities . Because people in other countries experienced the EU brought peace and prosperity, those countries wanted to join and thus were forced to increase democracy in their own countries before being allowed in the EU. To improve trade, EU countries open...

I'm having again Internet after almost a three months break. Finally, back to the world. Many European politicians (and certainly economists) want to introduce Eurobonds and as I understand it, the EU may take some (most, all?) of the debts of poorer European countries and spread it over Europe so that both strong and weak shoulders will carry the problems. Of course, it is only understandable that Europe wants to help countries that are in need (as it should do because they are members). But, as the German PM Angela Merkel (a woman who thinks differently than most men and wants other solutions then the usual ones), I am against spreading debts because it will weaken every country that take some of the debts (it is similar to banks using savings of people to pay off their debts so that when people want their money the banks can't give it anymore (I wonder whether rating agencies threat some countries well so those countries are prepared to take responsibilities to save count...