2014-11-26telegraph.co.uk

The European Commission has launched a €315bn "New Deal" to pull Europe out of its economic slump over the next three years, but will provide almost no new money of its own and is relying on subprime forms of financial engineering.

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"The money is chicken feed and it won't do anything to kick-start growth," said Professor Charles Wyplosz, from Geneva University. "It is unbelievable they are doing this rather than real fiscal expansion. The private sector will just take governments to the cleaners. "This is really an excuse to pretend they are they doing something while the austerity is still going on. It will take too long to work and there will be a big fight over the projects as every country tries to get a share of the cake."

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The EU bodies will suffer the "first loss" if any project defaults, a device all too like the structured finance used in the heyday of the pre-Lehman boom, when Dublin became a hub for "special investment vehicles" (SIVs) that disguised the concentration of risk. The plans entail a de facto subsidy, but of a contentious kind. Critics call it "socialised loss, private gain".

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Mr Juncker's hands have been tied from the start. Germany, Britain and other northern states have capped EU spending near €140bn a year until 2020, forcing Brussels to resort to shadow finance.



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