http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066862/Britain-draws-emergency-plans-collapse-Euro-warnings-Italy-needs-500bn-bailout.htmlUK is making plans just in case the Euro destabilizes.
‘We’re just ready for whatever the world, whatever the Eurozone throws at us. A disorderly collapse of the Eurozone would have a massive impact on the UK. I mean, for example, one in seven pounds we export goes to Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece - just those countries.
‘So in other words, it’s a very important part of our economic strategy that we get the Eurozone moving as well.’
If 1/7 of the UK economy is reliant upon sales to these weak neighbors, that's bad... but, there's a silver lining: Exports will rise to France, Germany, Austria, Poland, etc. Those economies won't be shackled by the stupidity of whatever it is about the Mediterranean that breeds such socialist sloth. They'll be capable of consuming more, and bringing their own economic engines to higher production (which would be good for the raw materials industries in the UK... coal, crude, steel, etc).
I liked this little tidbit:
Italy’s vast £1.6 trillion national debt and its low growth rate have caused deepening alarm on the international markets in recent weeks, and even a Brussels-inspired ‘coup’ which saw Silvio Berlusconi removed and a government without a single elected politician in it installed failed to stop the rot.
Very telling that the UK daily mail considers it a good thing to oust a politician in favor of a chamber of closeted bureaucrats. The language... "a government without a single elected politician [snip] failed to stop the rot." As if a bureaucrat could succeed at stopping institutionalized graft and entitlement spending.
The core gist of the article though, stabs at member-State sovereignty in the EU. Evidently Merkel and Sarkozy want all member-States to send their national budgets to an oversight committee in the EU government for approval. Failure to achieve balanced goals will result in some sort of lawsuit... though the good of that remains to be figured out. What's the point of suing Italy or Greece? They couldn't pay anyways, and if they did, it would be with inflated Euros that effectively put a tax on all member-States of the EU once they are printed up.
Also, one final thought:
It emerged yesterday that the International Monetary Fund, in which Britain is a major shareholder, could be forced to offer Italy a €600 billion (£514bn) rescue package to give its unelected new prime minister Mario Monti 12 to 18 months’ breathing room to implement big tax rises and spending cuts.
600 billion Euros is about $850 billion USD, spitballed.
Where does the IMF get its money? We are a member of the IMF, but we're in debt to our eyeballs right now already, borrowing from China and anyone else who will bother to help out. I hope we're not borrowing from China in order to bail out Italy with the other hand, but somehow I think I suspect the answer to that question already.