London Bridge is Falling

London is calling and falling, the bridge loan is falling down. The US Dollar has so many swap deals with the Euro that we in the USA are falling too. Get this: With the European banking situation beyond desperate, and disintegrating rapidly, the British have been urgently pushing to establish the ESM by July, as a platform for the kind of hyperinflationary bailout required — i.e., in the order of magnitude of $9 trillion, not the silly (and non-existent) $430 billion the IMF announced last Friday. But the likely victory of Francois Hollande in France's May 6 second-round election, and the collapse of the Holland government of Prime Minister Rutte on Monday, because of opposition to the EMS and the europact in general, have really messed up the timing of London's game-plan. They are left stomping their feet, stuttering: "Hollande, Holland." ...German state secretary Thomas Steffen (Federal Finance Ministry) spoke in Aachen, where LaRouche movement organizers confronted him on the need for Glass-Steagall, and the best he could muster was to protest over what he called a "nationalist populist right-wing shift" underway in Europe, as exemplified by Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in Holland, and... Gerry Adams in Ireland! With the Financial Times warning editorially today that the Dutch government collapse "shows another core country going soft on the eurozone's chosen strategy of universal austerity, with the hardcore fiscal disciplinarians looking increasingly under siege," London's policy agents across continental Europe were trotted out to insist that everyone had to keep their feet to the fire and endure the pain. Leading the way was ECB head Mario Draghi, who told a meeting of Euro Parliamentarians that the eurozone is at "probably the most difficult phase of our process." ... German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also pushing back publicly against French Presidential candidate Hollande's demand to renegotatiate the europact. Peter Altmaier, parliamentary whip of Merkel's CDU, said in an interview: "If Mr. Hollande were to say that he wants to increase government spending and save less, he'll lose the confidence of the financial markets. We will stick to our fundamental principles because there's really no alternative."