Saturday, October 22, 2011

George Osborne wants comprehensive, not "sticky plaster", solution in Europe

According to a Telegraph article, UK Chancellor George Osborne is going to push the European Union for a comprehensive solution to its sovereign debt and bank solvency problems.

He wants to rule out short term measures that are only "sticky plaster" solutions.  Included in this list of short term measures would be bank recapitalizations (also known as bailouts).

We know that bank recapitalizations are not a long term solution as they were tried in Europe in 2009 and managed to expand a bank solvency problem into a sovereign debt problem.  Examples of this include Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and, over the last few weeks, France.

Regular readers know that there is only one proven comprehensive solution to Europe's sovereign debt and bank solvency problem.  This solution was outlined on this blog as the blueprint for saving the financial system.  This blueprint is based on disclosure of each bank's detailed asset and liabilities.

Under the FDR Framework, market participants will use this data to determine who is solvent and the path back to solvency for those banks that are currently insolvent.  It is this activity by the market participants that a) restores confidence in the financial system and b) comprehensively solves the sovereign debt and bank solvency problem.
"The crisis of the eurozone is a real danger to all of Europe's economies, including Britain," said the Chancellor, arriving for a meeting of all 27 EU finance ministers in Brussels this morning. 
"What we're going to be arguing for at this meeting is a comprehensive solution to this crisis. We've had enough of short-term measures, sticking plaster that just gets us through the next few weeks."

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