Mar 25, 2009

European Union President: U.S. Economic Plans Are "A Road to Hell”

By Joel C. Rosenberg

The global economic crisis is bad and getting worse, and calls for sweeping changes are growing.

China is now so concerned about instability within the international economic system its leaders are heading into the April 2nd G20 summit in London calling for the creation of a new global “super currency,” a stable, simple, single, common form of foreign exchange. “The surprise proposal by Beijing’s central bank governor reflects unease about its vast holdings of U.S. government bonds and adds to Chinese pressure to overhaul a global financial system dominated by the dollar and Western governments,” reports the AP. “Both the United States and the European Union brushed off the idea.” China joins leaders in Russia, Iran, Libya and Kazakhstan who have called for a new single currency in some shape or form in recent weeks.

The Bank of England, meanwhile, is telling British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the U.K. simply cannot afford a new stimulus (read: government spending) plan.

Now a senior European leader is calling the U.S. spend-your-way-out-of-the-crisis plan (involving $9.3 trillion in new debt over the next decade) an absolute disastrous approach. “The president of the European Union on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as ’ road to hell,’” reports the AP. “Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama’s massive stimulus package and banking bailout ‘will undermine the liquidity of the global financial market.’ A day after his government collapsed because of a parliamentary vote of no-confidence, Topolanek took the EU presidency on a collision course with Washington over how to deal with the global economic recession.”

Related Links

No Need For Global Currency, Obama Says - FOX News
Geithner: 'Quite Open' to Idea of Global Currency - U.S.News & World Report
Meltdown 101: Will China global currency idea fly? - AP