Posted on 10/01/2012 4:29:50 AM PDT by blam
We're Getting Close To A Real Freakout About France...
Joe Weisenthal
Oct. 1, 2012, 4:19 AM
In the last several days, the chatter about the dismal situation in France has grown much louder.
Today's PMI reading doesn't help. In case you missed it, it was a cliff dive. See the blue line.
Then of course there was Hollande's new soak-the-rich austerity budget that has people wondering whether all the rich will flee, undermining the whole thing. In fairness to Hollande, the "cut benefits to the poor" austerity budgets of other countries haven't exactly worked wonders either.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard declares: Another domino falls as Hollande pushes France into depression.
Meanwhile, even Roubini declared that the situation in France was getting more and more grim, and that even social unrest was starting to be a worry.
Deteriorating data, a President whose popularity is on the decline, a tax slap at the elites... here we go.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
France, Spain, Greece....this is what happens when there’s nowhere left to kick the can.
Elect a far-left Socialist who has nary a clue as to how economics work and don’t act shocked when the predictable disaster occurs.
Pretty soon there will not be a can to kick.
Actually, the can will be kicking them down the road. This is exactly how the National Socialists ( that is NAZI for those who are historically challenged) began their campaign. But with the French it will be just bigger white flags and darker brown stained pants.
The "can" is the day of reconing - the day paying the piper cannot be put off any longer. And unfortunately it's not going anywhere, just getting closer and closer.
The West is out of Other Peoples Money (OPM) to spend. The only alternative is to print $$ (e.g., make it up out of thin air) and hope people don’t notice. Of course, the farce might go on for quite some time. The East (China in particular) will likely go along, as its Economy collapses if exports collapse. Likewise, true with the Oil Producers.
The real problem is excess production capacity. After WWII, the US got rich because it had a near monopoly on technology and factories. That lead has long since disappeared and the rise of China was the last nail in the coffin. We have a situation now wehere every country needs jobs, so everyone needs to run a trade surplus with everyone else. Of course, that’s not possible, and the US has been on the short end of the stick for quite some time. So Government has stepped in to pick up the slack. But who pays for the Government? So far the answer is: our children—never Us.
Of course when bread hits $100 a loaf some might beging to suspect something is not quite right.
So, if income is limited, and if we're still waist deep in "stuff", how do we manage an economy like that?
Even if we declare a jubilee and throw all the debt out the window, what really changes? We'd sill have lots of production capacity and we'd still have limited income. We'd still be trying to figure out how to manage a post-scarcity economy.
i think you are right
Are you saying We Are Doomed (WAD) and there's no way back from here?
I wonder if the average Chinese peasant thinks this is a post scarcity economy.
I think most of the world today is governed on the basis that Big Government will work with Big Business and thereby control all of the peasants. I see that in China. I see that here. And I think the system of control may be breaking down, because business and government went too far down the path of debt. For them, there may be no way back. But perhaps for individuals with political rights and property rights, perhaps there may be a path toward self-sufficiency, if we stop asking others to take care of us (or start refusing to take care of others -- the Galt option).
The world is changing. I don't know what the future holds, but I think there is an opportunity here to do things differently. But if we all become afraid of change, then it will just be more serfdom for us all. For many, that is the comfortable option.
We’d still be trying to figure out how to manage a post-scarcity economy.
It costs an awful lot of $$ to finance their lifestyles. Who pays for it all? The answer is: it goes on the big credit card.
Its really not clear how all this will end. Probably not well. The only real, long term solution is to colonize other planets. Or convince a whole bunch of people not to reproduce. I think our Government has chosen the latter option.
Big Government + Big Business = Fascism = Word War
Word War = World War.
Hint: You’re describing a world where they won’t run out of other people’s money.
This time around they’ll INVITE the Germans in...
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