339. A Lot to Digest re EU Summit

"Europe pushes ahead fiscal union, UK isolated" tries to make sense of the EU summit results from attending 9 major countries. My mind can no longer bind the various threads spun in this article. What is the resolve? Or is the only output from it more spin to hid the dismal situation in the short run? You decide. I think the points below might capture what I learned:

A Summary on EU Summit:

- 27 Countries involved in Euro Treaty will be affected by plans (10 at the Summit)

- Britain did not agree with the other 9 re new treaty that will subject them also to new rules within 3 months

- 26 total countries backed it

- Smaller countries are at the mercy of the 85% who do support it and they don't like that

- Goal was to defend the Euro as single currency while defining actions to stabilize current financial crises

- They didn't support Germany's proposal to keep rescue funds in individual country reserves

- Instead, The EU and ECBs will be the managers of global rescue funds

- Banks will continue to buy bonds in an orderly and regularly (Euro $20B per week) instead of a massive buy

- Funds will be available for 3 years providing liquidity as needed

- Individual budgets are to be scrutinized by a central EU group

- Budget overrun actions are to be effective more automatically

- Intergovernmental commitment of 17 countries will agree to a new treaty open to others

Don't take my word on the points above. As I said, it's difficult to comprehend it all. However, I feel they agreed to continue to maintain their status quo -- present goals and actions -- but with more desires to automate budget violations. The ball (snow?) continues to roll. They did establish that Britain isn't happy with the other 9 and that some of the smaller countries will have to roll with the punch (other 85% who only need to agree to get something passed). I like the up front plan to make bonds available regularly rather than our "hidden and secret" Federal Reserve surprises that disturb the markets all at once. I'll be reading more about progress in the future. Our markets will be affected by anything Europe does. We and Asia depends on them to buy our products.

Oh, don't forget that the IMF also has emergency funds that countries like Europe and Spain might tap, outside the EU's domain. What a mess. To read more re IMF, see this article.