Erstellt am: 13. 7. 2011 - 13:51 Uhr

The Euro: "designed for bankers, not democracies"

Economist Ann Pettifor says the Euro was doomed from the start, and IT expert Erich Moechel looks at the relationship between the media and the authorities in Austria

Today's Reality Check

It's another day and another Eurozone worry is making the headlines. Our problem is that we've already discussed every issue going with the euro debt crisis. We could go to Italy or Ireland or any "problem country" and get some feelings from there - but it's the same old same old. The story hasn't really changed that much in months. And no-one has any answers.

That said, one of our favourite interview partners is economist Ann Pettifor - basically because out of all financial experts she talks a lot of sense. In fact she was one of the first to predict the credit crunch back in 2003.
So as we hear the news that Moodys, the ratings agency has downgraded Ireland we decided that an interesting angle would be to look at the power of these ratings agencies. After all it can't be in anyones interest to have all of these warnings sounding about certain Eurozone countries' credit worthiness.

Could it really be that after the effort of say Greece to pass austerity measures through their parliament, after getting France & Germany to provide the extra billions - all it could take is one of the credit ratings agencies to wag its finger and the party is over. Forget Rupert Murdoch - that sounds like real power!

The fate of the Euro

Ireland's credit rating has been reduced to "junk", and now Italy is coming under the spotlight as another potential financial disaster, joining Greece, Portugal and Spain. Just where will it all end? Economist, Ann Pettifor, says the ratings agencies are part of the problem, as are all the other financial institutions, and she believes the end result will be a return to national currencies for at least some of the Eurozone countries.

More pressure on Murdoch

Pressure on Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation empire is increasing on both sides of the Atlantic. The British government now seems united in opposing his bid to take full control of BSkyB and in the USA, serious consequences are being promised if it turns out that any of Murdochs US publications have hacked private information on US citizens. But are these practices that ususual? IT expert Erich Moechel looks are the relationship between the media and the authorities in Austria.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to friday from 12 to 14. And after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.