Hard choices...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Ah, Maurice!

Clement. Comment ca va?

What a week! It makes you wonder why you bother...
Yes, a glass would be nice....Albert's white turned out well last year...
That's better...

Well, make the most of it.
He's discovered esca in his vines....going to have to grub up a lot of them.

What!  Him  too?
Mark my words, this is going to be worse than phylloxera!
And now they won't let you buy the stuff to treat it it will run wild!

Old Benoit reckons it's all down to using Roundup. He reckons you never saw it before.

Well, he's still using his old horse to plough between the rows.....these young guys won't have that...they want it easy, sitting in their tractors spraying stuff...
The only place...apart from Benoit...you'll see a vineyard plough these days is in a museum!

I remember the Dad.....out in the autumn ploughing to cover the vine roots for the winter....out in the spring, uncovering them again....Benoit might have a point, the soil certainly got more aeration when you worked it rather than poisoning it.

Well, if you can't depend on getting a decent drop of wine in the future you wonder what the country has come to....you don't fancy drinking town water with all that chlorine in it and before we know it they'll be recycling the sewage plants for drinking water.

Have to build them first, and by the way things are going there won't be much money about to do anything.
Look at Benitierville....the council took out one of these toxic loans and are up to their ears in debt.

Ho! Up go the local taxes again!

Oh, hello,Victor! Join us?

That' Albert's? Better make the most of it...

Yes, Maurice told me.
Miserable situation all round...and what have you got on the box to cheer you up?
Dominique Strauss Kahn having sex with a chambermaid!

Oh, did they film it then? I didn't know that!


No, Victor, they didn't film it...he was just talking about it.

Typical socialist....all mouth.....

That's enough about mouths, Victor. Anyway, he's innocent.

No he isn't, Maurice...they just didn't have enough proof to go for him...

Then he's innocent, isn't he? You're the expert, Clement, you work for the notaire...you tell us.

Well, from what Maitre Plouc says, Strauss Kahn is innocent in France but not in America.

Well, he's in France so he's innocent. That's what I said.

It's a pity they didn't film it though...they film everything else!
Look at those speed traps they've set up all over the place...just another money machine, nothing to do with safety at all.
Just like the drink driving...and now they want you to buy a breathalyser to carry in your car to test yourself!  And who's got the contract for that, I'd like to know.
Pure magouille, all of it!
As if I need a breathalyser to know when I'm drunk!

It might have been helpful to you when you decided to race the gendarmerie in your tractor....

That was sheer bad luck! I was nearly home when the bastards crept up on me...

Everything comes down to money!
Even Maitre Plouc is feeling the pinch.

What, him? With all his property dealings? You have to be joking.

Oh, yes.
First it was when they forced notaires to use a central account for their client accounts.
No more nipping round to see Jean Paul at Credit Agricole when he wanted a bit of extra to do a deal.
But at least he got the interest.
Now, with all these English selling, he's got another problem.

Well, he gets his money, doesn't he? What's the problem?

Oh , he gets his fees all right, but they're buying and selling in sterling, between themselves, so he doesn't get his hands on any of the money....nothing in the client account...no interest.

I bet that speeds up transactions....he kept my neice's money for four months...

But how do they get away with it? This is France! And aren't they worried the seller will run off with the money?

Not so worried as they are about Maitre Plouc sitting on it for months...
And you should hear them crowing about the euro!

They've got a nerve! I remember when England fell out of the Money Snake....that sent a pile of them home with their tails between their legs.....
And look at what happened when their pound dropped against the euro...another lot running for home....

Yes, well now they reckon they won't do any transactions in the euro and they don't trust French banks!

I suppose they've got a point, there. Who but an imbecile would buy up Greek debt? You can't trust a Greek.

Too right. Antoine's dad used to sell cattle there, back before Europe, if you see what I mean. Selling was one thing...getting paid was another.

Well, they've put us all in a right mess, and it leaves me with a big problem.

What's that, Clement?

Well, you know my mother in law....
She wasn't happy about going into the euro, didn't trust it....so she kept her stash of francs and refused to change them.

In the mattress?

Where else? If it was good enough in the War...you know the sort of thing...

And?

Well, the Banque de France has just announced that the last date for changing them into euros is at the end of next month....
And she says that the way things are going the euro will be down the tubes by then.....
So she's hanging on to her francs.

Unlicensed gambling

Image by Adam Tinworth via Flickr

So, Sarkozy has saved the day.
According to the Spanish prime minister, Germany was only won over to the Greek rescue package by Sarkozy threatening to withdraw France from the eurozone.
I bet a few mattresses round here can lie easy, then. No chance of being ripped up for the bounty in pre General de Gaulle old francs just yet.

Considering the financial chicanery which allowed Greece into the eurozone in the first place, I can't say I'm altogether surprised that it got into trouble, even though its' downfall seems to have more to do with Goldman Sachs than just the usual financial incompetence we expect from European governments.
Somehow I doubt that the European Commission's call for the right to review EU member states' budgets would have had any beneficial effect if it had been in place at the time - just look at how many times France has put up two fingers after being called to order about its' budget deficits.

So, we've had sub prime and sovereign debt so far....and our governments have been raiding the till to make sure that those responsible for the disaster can survive to go on and do it again.
This is not what I call a sound policy.
Unless you are bank, of course, in which case you just rub your hands and look for another mug to shaft, secure in the knowledge that you are too big to be taken out by any mere national government.

Political parties claim to worry about the democratic deficit, in the sense that they need the legitimacy that comes from votes cast at elections.
Perhaps it might occur to them that people would have more confidence in them if they were not seen as being hand in glove with confidence tricksters who, whatever the mess, walk away unscathed.

In France, you can't hold your own share certificates for fear that you might do a runner with them to somewhere outside French jurisdiction, so regulated are we, but, having had dealings with the local branch of Credit Agricole it comes as no surprise to learn that they are under investigation in the U.S.A. for overstating their assets. They probably had my shares in that little bundle somewhere.
Americans living abroad are having trouble maintaining their home bank accounts thanks to the operation of the Patriot Act, but the banks roll on unhindered, transferring funds from country to country at will.

Transferring money for mere mortals has become a pain in the neck. Ten thousand euros or dollars or pounds is not a lot of money these days - and getting less before our eyes - and I cannot see why I have to justify its' source while the big banks are busy knowingly operating scams in the interests of their major customers with no requirement to justify anything at all.
After all, even if they're threatened with a civil suit, they can always bribe their way out of it, as Goldman Sachs with the SEC in the States, and there's no risk at all of a criminal suit being filed.
The law is a well trained watchdog and never bites its' masters.

What has brought about this access of bile?

The triumphalism surrounding the Greek rescue package, where all of us will be paying to rescue - not Greece or the Greeks, but the banks who were caught with Greek government bonds when the solids hit the fan.

If you want to run a casino, you need a licence.

If you want to set up a bank, you need a licence.

But if you want to run your bank like a casino with a crooked roulette wheel, far from having the gendarmerie on the doorstep, you'll have democratically elected governments showering you with money that should be spent on the decencies of life...health, education and pensions.

The answer to where power lies in the modern state was discovered years ago by the IRA.
Attempts on Heathrow, pub bombings, an attack on a Cabinet meeting at Downing Street - all were unavailing in bringing about serious talks.
One hit on the City of London and they'd won.