Trichet Advocates 'Strong Economic Governance'

John M. Mason submits: The European sovereign debt unpleasantness continues. Muddle, muddle, muddle … The European finance ministers want automatic sanctions against EU countries that violate the debt levels assigned to the countries … That is, unless a country has enough allies to be able to avoid the sanctions if they break the rules.

European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet doesn't fully endorse new EU fiscal rules that, despite initial demands for automatic sanctions against countries that violate EU, deficit rules—still foresee a large degree of political control.

European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet doesn't fully endorse new EU fiscal rules that, despite initial demands for automatic sanctions against countries that violate EU, deficit rules—still foresee a large degree of political control.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet has made clear his "objections" to a European Union deal on reforming the eurozone, a bank spokesman told AFP on Thursday."I can just confirm Trichet made objections against the agreement. He made a note describing his objections to the agreement," the spokesman said, confirming an earlier story in the Financial Times.On Monday, European Union finance ministers thrashed out a controversial compromise deal that would put in place tougher penalties for countries that fail to comply with the bloc's fiscal rules.

Eurozone member states who do not respect the bloc's rules on debt and economic policy should face tougher penalties which should operate automatically, the European Central Bank head said Monday.ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said the eurozone's penalty system should be "much more automatic," an indispensable attribute to make oversight of member states' economic policies more effective.

The hypocrisy of former ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet is in the spotlight today. Who put the spotlight on Trichet? Ironically, he did himself. Please consider Trichet warns of "behavioral contagion"