Скачать или смотреть EIR question to 8 nordic and baltic prime ministers, Nov. 1, 2011

Executive Intelligence Reviews question about Glass Steagall and the danger of hightened conflict with Russia after the killing of Qaddafi and the targetting of Syria.

Contact in Denmark: +45 35 43 60 40, [email protected]
www.larouchepub.com, www.larouchepub.com/eiw

The question is very audible, but the answers, less so, follow in part:
Finland's Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen:
When it comes to the political cooperation, especially in questions like Syria and the Middle East in general speaking, we need Russia there. And there is no other way than to try to find political compromises and common political will when talking big political issues, for instance the issues we are witnessing in Northern Africa at the moment.
When it comes to the economic growth, Russia is still an economy which is growing and it gives, especially for the Northern Europe, economic potential, in economic terms. Everybody knows that Russia, in order get a sustainable economy and economic growth, they need to diversity their economy -- their economic base. Russia is very natural resource [dependent] economy at the moment, and it has been said by themselves that they have to diversify their economic basis. They need direct investments and cooperation, especially from the European countries.
Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis:
Thank you. I just want to briefly concentrate on those questions as regards a Glass Steagall law and financial markets. I will say that not much debate in Europe because, also currently, the problems we face in our banking sector are not so much related to this kind of merging investment banks with retail banks. It's other - interestingly its problems related to certain bank's exposure to sovereign debt, like some Greek bonds, and so on, which was behind the problem why the EU took the decision to recapitalize its banks, and raise capital [investment??] ratio to nine percent by July 2012. So it's a little different set of issues we are dealing with as regards the banking sector.
Then as regards the sovereign debt, with this, basically which was controlled default of Greece, also the debt brought down to 120% of GDP which is just around a manageable level of debt. And then, it really depends on whether EU and the Eurozone countries can be serious about their fiscal adjustment and actually bring their current budget deficits under control. And if their current budget deficits are under control, then those levels of debt which are also experienced in other Eurozone countries are just about manageable.