It used to be the Gnomes of Zurich - now it is the Aliens of the City

There are times when I forget quite what level of fruitbattery exists in that small Brabantine city of Brussels, then for a moment I take a look at what they get up to on a day to day basis, and there they are again. Barking as ever.

Out of the crisis: a "real" economy and world governance system

As opposed to a "fake" economy, like taking up the Euro when you have cooked the books.

So what is this real economy about, can it be about buying and selling, harnassing the profit motive to everybodies improvement? Nah don't be daft,

The EU is the world's largest economy, with enough international clout to return to "real capitalism" rather than resign itself to an alien "financial capitalism", concluded MEPs and experts at a public hearing held on Thursday by Parliament's special committee on the crisis.

So what about the Euro then?

EU model and crisis-tested Euro

The EU approach, founded on the real economy and opposed to financial capitalism, could constitute an effective response to the crisis, but unfortunately the crisis struck at a time when the EU is in "an incomplete stage of its construction", according to Mr Padoa-Schioppa.

Yes that'll be the chap who is described correctly as the founding father of the Euro.

But hark what is this?

The EU, as the world's leading real economy, is also able to tax financial transactions unilaterally, failing an agreement with its partners, said Stephane Schulmeister in a reply to Charles Goerens, Pervenche Berès (S&D, FR) and Pascal Canfin (Greens/EFA, FR). It is Europe's financial centres, London and Frankfurt, which would be most affected by these measures, as the volume of transactions they handle could be reduced by 30% to 80%, according to a WIFO study, but "the production volume of the EU as a whole is sufficient for tax revenue to remain large enough" to cope with the new market situation.

Yes these nutters are prepared to see the City of London crash and burn, and yet think that it won't matter because the schlerotic European industrial base will save us all. By some bizzare reasoning they think that the EU floats on a bubble of its own beliefs, untouched by the financial realities beyond its own porous borders.

If you filmed it and watched it, it would feel like you were filming in an asylum, where every now and then somebody would declare themselves,
"I'm John Milton Keynes"
and be wrestled to the floor whilst protesting that all they wanted to do as to found the Arts Council.