Before we plunge into the Autumn Statement, we really ought to mention the poison cloud
hanging over Brussels today. European finance ministers, including George Osborne, are meeting there later — and it’s certainly not going to be good for their collective health. Klaus
Regling, the head of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), is expected to tell them that there’s basically no chance of them boosting the bailout fund to €1 trillion in the near future, as was
promised at the end of last month. Back then, David Cameron urged eurozone leaders to bring a ‘big
bazooka’ to the fight. They have barely managed a cap gun.
This is far from surprising. Even when the expansion of the fund to €1 trillion was first announced, it had a whiff of fantasy about it. It wasn’t a solid achievement, you see, but a target — and meeting that target depended heavily upon the goodwill of the Chinese, and other eastern countries, in buying up European debt.
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