Posted on 05/11/2012 6:16:08 AM PDT by cap10mike
Last Sunday, Greece and France held national elections. Both would determine the countries’ future fiscal course of action. In Greece, voters rejected the two ruling parties that had voiced support for the European Union austerity program. That program was instituted in an effort to keep the EU solvent after Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, known as the PIGS, incurred massive debt as the result of their “cradle to grave” social programs. Since Greece was one of the EU’s original “problem children,” this could probably have been expected.
In France, socialist Francois Hollande was ushered in, while right-of-center Nikolas Sarkozy was given the bum’s rush. Sarkozy’s sin was that, while president, he raised the French retirement age from 60 to 62. Hollande not only promised to lower it back to 60, but to tax those making 1 million euros or more at 75 percent to help pay for it. When delivering his victory speech, the incoming president declared, “Austerity can no longer be inevitable.” Austerity? Retiring at 62 is an act of austerity?
(Excerpt) Read more at bizpacreview.com ...
LOL! I’m sure Margaret Thatcher is chuckling over this one.
Good point! And assuming we can get him out of office, we’re gonna be spending decades trying to get things back the way they should.
Bwahaha! I couldn’t say; it’s all Greek to me!
Even John Maynard Keynes said “government stimulus spending” had very limited application.
I have to agree with you here. Witness how Paul Ryan is so criticized for his plans to save Social Security and Medicare.
I submit that it results in both the banks’ and the country’s suicide. When we don’t pay our debts, the dollar suddenly loses its worth, just as if we had paid the debts off with newly-printed money.
Good point.
No word for “warrior?” Sacre bleu!
Its very curious, but its quite usual for “disciples to go further than their master”. I mean that economists that call themselves “keynesian” are far greater devotees of keynesian economics than John Maynard Keynes was himself! This happens in other spheres of life. Many Calvinists are far more extreme than Calvin ever was.
I don’t understand that article at all. It sounds like total double-speak. Even if you accept that deficit spending in itself was not the cause of the current crisis, it can hardly be a good thing to have in the long term.
Why?
The author gets the PIGS thing wrong. First it was Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greese, Spain yielding PIIGS. Now to quote Ichabod1 quoting uh, Ichabod1, it is Portugal, FRANCE, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain, for PFIIGS. PFIIGS. That’s what it is.
He also said In the long run we’re all dead.
Why - Demographics. I have 2 kids as well.
As you rightly point out, Europe is in a demographic death-spiral because they aren’t having kids. You need to have at least 3 kids for your population to grow. I was just curious how many you had. For you and I with 2 kids each, the population is holding steady, but not growing.
In the generations before our grandparents, it was commonplace for people to have 5 or 10 or more children.
I suspect that the decadent Western Leftists' Islamophilia may be a subconscious desire for the absolutes that Islam promises.
I also agree, I think the only thing we can do is just default and bankruptcy and rebuild from there, that’s how far out of control we are. I know some brought up dire consequences in doing this but IMHO, we are past the point of no return, the red fuel light in the cockpit came on and we just have to fly on to our destination.
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