Europe Is Rejecting Austerity

As an Irish taxpayer, I'm not that fond of bailing out German banks. My taxes have increased several fold in the last few years to make sure the poor Dears aren't subjected to market forces.

And I'm pretty sure the Germans prefer the current status quo anyway, rather than going back to before the financial crisis when the German economy was in the doldrums, from which it arose because of that same crisis. The current situation might not be to their liking but, if the euro collapsed tomorrow morning, German products would almost instantly price themselves out of the export markets.

I know the mere mention of Europe conjures up the "Socialism bogeyman" in the minds of many Americans (even though the US is far more into socialism than the majority of Europe anyway), and the whole situation on this side of the pond is explained away as "that's what you for being Commies"... however, as with most things, reality is quite different.

Speaking from experience in this particular part of Europe (Ireland), what Tim alluded to is correct. In fact, Irish national debt was being paid down (rapidly) right up until the crisis:


The still-to-be-explained decision to "save" the banks (who didn't get the money they invested out of thin air - most of it came from German, French, and British banks) to make sure Irish banks and, by extension German, French, and British banks, don't have to face the reality of a commercial decision that didn't pan out is the #1 economic problem for this country... it turns out that, at least in this particular part of Europe, socialists wanting to spend other people's money is much less of a problem than capitalists wanting to simply steal it outright under threat of economic armageddon

(Incidentally, I say "still be be explained" decision to save the banks because that decision is, in fact, subject to an ongoing investigated by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation (the part of the police force here that investigates financial crimes); sooner or later, people will go to prison because of it. Sooner the better, methinks.)

On a related note, have a look at this:

I don't know about the Pacific Rim but it is possible to go so far to the left that you fall for almost anything.

Joe Mobley

answer of the day:

Sooner the better

Oh, I noticed.

I (and I am not the only one) think that the New Deal, and especially FDR, damaged the country almost irreparably.

New Deal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia