Lions Led By Donkeys

Another day, another conference in the interminable death mach towards the demise of the Euro.

Today, at 15:30 CET, European finance ministers will hold a conference call to discuss increasing the funding of the IMF by 200 billion euros.

Apparently this was agreed at the summit on 9th December.

However, the Bundesbank has already put the kibosh on anything tangible being achieved today; by stating that is sees "no urgent need" to reach a decision.

Just in case the markets don't get the message, that nothing tangible will be agreed, the German Finance Minister has done his best to undermine any residual confidence remaining.

Last night Wolfgang Schauble said:

"It is clear that the sooner and the more paid-in capital the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) has, the more it gains trust on the financial markets. My priority is to create trust."

"Trust" is not a word that is used very often when describing the feelings that the markets have for the "leaders" of the Eurozone.

However, this morning his colleagues from the Finance Ministry were quick to ensure that "trust" was killed ASAP, stating:

"It is not very likely we will pay the full contribution (in 2012)".

Thus ends the year, not with a bang but with a whimper.

The people of Europe are lions led by donkeys!