Even though it is obvious that the major banks wield tremendous influence over bureaucratic political systems worldwide, it is not often that you find the phrase "bankster puppet" illustrated so clearly in the mainstream media. Usually, there is some pretense or alternative justification for doling out billions of euros, dollars, etc. to the banks, such as - "if we don't do this, the entire global economy will implode" (remember TARP?). Back then, people didn't have a clue what was going on and were scared enough to go along with any vague reason presented to them.

So it's interesting to see now that these pretenses for direct wealth transfers from the people to the banks have been dropped like bad habits. In Europe, the financial atmosphere has become so dire and desperate that the PUPPET politicians and bureaucrats can no longer pretend that they care about anything other than saving the banks at the expense of everyone else. Exhibit A are the excerpts from an article in Bloomberg today that are quoted below, written by James G. Neuger:

EU Weighs Direct Aid to Banks, Euro Bonds as Crisis Antidote

 

The European Commission called for direct euro-area aid for troubled banks, and touted a Europe- wide deposit-guarantee system and common bond issuance as antidotes to the debt crisis now threatening to overwhelm Spain.

 

The commission, the European Union's central regulator, sided with Spain in proposing that the euro's permanent bailout fund inject cash to banks instead of channeling the money via national governments. It also offered Spain extra time to squeeze the budget deficit.

 

...

 

The use of the rescue fund to recapitalize banks "might be envisaged" and would "sever the link between banks and the sovereigns," the commission said today in Brussels. Jose Barroso, the commission's president, said "it is important to use all possibilities offered in terms of flexibility."

What these proposals by the European Commission (Jose Manuel Barroso) translate into is - "Forget austerity! And forget any pretenses of national considerations on how to properly use money from the bailout funds. We need the Spanish banks to take most of that money, as well as an unspecified amount of future money, and use it directly in the form of capital buffers and deposit guarantees... NOW!" With Greece, there was still time to pretend that some of the money would protect government services for the people and would come with conditions attached, designed to promote domestic growth. Not so with Spain.

Signs of stress multiplied in financial markets today. Italy missed its target in a bond auction, driving its 10-year yields as high as 6.01 percent, the highest since Jan. 31. The yield was at 5.95 percent at 2:10 p.m. in Brussels. Doubts over the health of Spain's banks pushed up Spanish 10-year yields as high as 6.70 percent, the highest since Nov. 28. That yield was last at 6.62 percent.

 

...

 

After more than two crisis-filled years and 386 billion euros ($480 billion) in loan pledges to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, "markets remain exceptionally tense and vigilant and confidence is still weak," the commission said.

The money and blood offerings of the Greek, Irish and Portuguese were not enough to satisfy the all-encompassing hunger of the financial puppeteers. There is no doubt in my mind that at least a portion of this market "tension" is engineered by them to put the screws to those who reject the European Commission's cold, hard cash-for-banks proposal. Remember, they ARE the system that they are trying to save, and that's exactly why they are trying so damn hard to save it. So who could possibly have the temerity to resist?

Current EU plans call for the 500 billion-euro European Stability Mechanism, set to start up in July, to funnel bank-aid money through national governments and, ultimately, require those governments to pay it back [yeah...right].

 

Germany is spearheading resistance to direct European financing for banks because that would let governments bypass the conditions set for full aid programs, such as deeper budget cuts and more European intrusion into economic management.

 

"Direct help for banks is out of the question, that won't fly," Norbert Barthle, the budget spokesman in parliament for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, said in an interview yesterday. Finland is in Germany's camp, Martti Salmi, a Finance Ministry official, said in a telephone interview today.

Ah, yes - the resistance comes from a small, yet critical portion of the German, Finnish and Dutch politicians/officials, and, more importantly, from the people of those countries. These countries are scared to death of financial contagion wreaking havoc in their banking systems, but they are also faced with the reality that this contagion will occur no matter what. The only question is whether they would prefer to kick the can a few months/years down the road, and allow the European Transfer Union to unwind all of the economic gains they had made over the last two decades while they wait. Also, whether they would like to go into elections with a population on the verge of mass protests and riots.

In an assessment by staff economists, the commission said there is little room for deficit-plagued countries to push back planned savings to a later date. Such an easing-up would be punished by markets, it said.

 

"Member states which face high and potentially rising risk premia do not have much room for maneuver to deviate from their nominal fiscal targets, even if macroeconomic conditions turn out worse than expected," according to the document.

 

Still, Economic and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn said Spain might be granted an extra year, until 2014, to bring its deficit down to the limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.

 

Debate over euro bonds flared at last week's summit of European leaders, the first for French President Francois Hollande after he took office vowing to challenge the German- dominated budget-cutting creed that has marked the crisis response.

The new French President, Francois Hollande, is now exposing himself to be the biggest bankster puppet of them all. He is opposing the imminent austerity paradigm because he knows that the bankers need more time (and less conditions) to extract the wealth required to satisfy their greed. Austerity served to justify the bailouts over the past two years, but now it is also destroying the underlying economies of the peripheral countries and, therefore, the banking sectors. Hollande also knows that the French banks are not really in much better shape than the Spanish banks, and may need to draw on those direct ESM funds soon.

What he wants is what the rest of the European Puppets want - enough time to re-capitalize the Euro area banks with the money of German, Finnish and Dutch taxpayers. The problem for them is that the German, Finnish and Dutch populations (and those politicians who are not yet corrupted) are not altogether ignorant of what happened in 2008 and what has been happening ever since. They know that none of the money used to bail out peripheral banks will a) make it into the general Eurozone economy, b) repaid by the banks and c) conditioned on any credible austerity. There is absolutely no reason for them to play ball; at least, not until the market pressures bearing down get much, much worse.

But, by then, it may be too late for the Banksters and their Eurocratic Puppets.