Austerity is losing momentum in Europe
By louisehartmann
Yes, the Conservative New Democracy Party finished first in the Greek elections Sunday, but it was not a democratic endorsement of the current austerity regime wrecking Europe. Looking at the polls, anti-austerity parties actually nabbed 52% of the vote in Sunday’s elections – and the far-left SYRIZA Party has doubled its share of the vote since May, garnering enough enthusiastic support that it can continue to push the new Greek coalition government – whatever it might look like –away from austerity and toward pro-growth policies.
As SYRIZA Party leader Alexis Tsipras said a speech on Monday, “Some believe that they won the elections. But, the people have won the elections because now they cannot proceed with bailout agreements and they recognize this, both in Greece and in Brussels.” Already – leaders within the New Democracy Party are calling for a renegotiation of the austerity and bailout terms with the EU and IMF – despite warnings from Germany that Greece must stick to its commitments. In particular, New Democracy officials are asking to spread the length of time over which Greece is supposed to 11.7 billion euros from two years to four years.
A senior EU official speaking with Reuters admitted the terms of the deal are “changeable.” Austerity is losing its momentum in Europe – so how much longer until Mitt Romney and his Republican buddies get the message here?
Comments
#2
Mitt Romney is Poster Boy for the Fleet Enema on State Street. It is impossible to distinguish between the entities Bank America Indiana and BA IN (or BA IN and BA BA WA WA for that matter). A Fleet of Ghost Banks haunts us now, mateys, and back to the ocean bottom they must go.
#3
I think it depends on large part how aggressive the people's movements are in pushing for more jobs and growth and less austerity. As far as the US is concerned, it will really depend on how quickly the American people wake up to the reality of what the new Republican party's agenda is and vote accordingly. Our future is all about the choices we make today, and right now all we have is in the now.
#4
BLOOMBERG.COM: Deficit-cutting policies have fueled Occupy protest movements, contributed to the election defeats of governments in Greece and France and eroded support for German Chancellor Merkel. Newly elected French Pres. Hollande in May pressed E/U leaders to abandon austerity and fuel growth.
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The austerity policies prized by the [debt] rating companies have the global economy on the brink of renewed recession, according to Paul Krugman, the Nobel laureate economics professor at Princeton University As government funding shortfalls from the U.S. to France to Spain widened during the recession, S&P and Moody’s stepped up warnings and downgrades of sovereign debt. “Their austerity is leading to depressed economies, which is worsening fiscal prospects,” Krugman said. “You’re kind of in an endless downward loop here, where you cut and the fiscal prospect looks worse, so to keep the rating agencies happy, you cut more.”
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S&P’s AAA rating on British gilts is a reminder that Britain is weathering the international debt storms because of the policies we have adopted and stuck to in tough times.
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Staffing at the National Health Service hospital ward works was reduced by about half in the U.K.’s deepest drive since World War II to shrink its deficit. The goal was to avoid losing the top credit score, which might risk higher interest expenses, according to the government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.
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The U.K. scaled back public spending over the next four years by 81 billion pounds ($127 billion) while raising taxes, including what critics called a “granny tax” on the elderly. The austerity moves eliminating thousands of government jobs helped push the British economy back into recession in the fourth quarter, according to David Blanchflower, a former Bank of England policy maker. France and Spain took similar steps to shrink deficits even as the global economy stagnated.
The U.K. economy may grow 0.8 percent this year, according to the IMF, while euro-area output contracts 0.3 percent and the U.S. expands at a 2.1 percent rate. The IMF has lowered its forecast for every EU country since last year.
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France’s Sarkozy in June 2010 made protecting the country’s top credit rating a priority. His government raised the national retirement age to 62 from 60. That September, he announced the deepest budget cuts in two decades, citing the need to defend the credit ranking.
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Now, after governments widened their deficits to stem the crisis, their credit grades are under pressure from the same rating companies whose actions helped cause the financial turmoil.
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The U.S., even with little likelihood of a default, fought the prospect of a downgrade. Treasury officials exchanged at least 158 e-mails with S&P from April 2011 until the rating change last August, according to materials obtained by Bloomberg under the Freedom of Information Act.
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#5
Romney and his Republican buddies already get it. They get that austerity gives them power and control by keeping wages low, jobs scarce, unions weakened and broken, and worst of all, austerity makes for a frightened population easily manipulated by their god-damn corp. media.
I'm convinced guys like Romney could never have pulled themselves up with a real job, the kind that demands honest hard work for a fair days pay. Until "We The People," truly decide to revolt, parasites like Romney will continue to suck the life out of all of us honest hard working citizens.
#6
On today's The Big Picture, Thom compared the Republican Party with the Democrat Party..saying there was a lot of difference between them. If the Democrats were as true to all those points that Thom said then we wouldn't have all the problems we have today.
If they fought as hard and as earnestly in support of all those points favoring the 99% as the Republicans do for their 1%, we would have at least some of those ideals, that Thom said, turned into reality. The problem is that the Democrats say they are for those things but act against them...they are sneaky..and just as "owned" as are the Republicans...although the Republicans don't have to hide it like the Democrats do.
The ruling elite puppet masters control both parties and use them to feed false hope to the masses so that they don't rise up against them. This is the smoke and mirrors ploy to defuse all-out warfare back at those who have been waging war on us for decades. We are kept from effectively fighting back and defending ourselves because we falsely believe that all we have to do is vote the Democrats in and everything will be all right.
There is a difference between the hoity toity upper echelon Democrats who wield the real power inside the Democrat Party and the masses of Democrats who are beguiled by lofty-sounding (but hollow) ideals and slogans.
Obama sounded really great in his campaign messages before he was elected the first time, which is why I voted for him in the first place. Thought he was going to make a difference. But his "audacity" turned into a "whimper" once elected. FDR, he was not! Not even close! And FDR had a lot of really formidable opposition at the time as well. Even as a "cripple" (please excuse my "politically incorrect" term) he stood up to the right wing powers that wanted to crush him. And every time I see Obama, now, walking (or should I say skipping) to the podium to tell us more lies I think of how full of crap this guy is.
"Don't worry, they are just sending us to the work camps...and after the war we will survive and recover." "Oh, really? Is that Zyklon B coming out of those shower heads? Maybe we should have fought back when we had the chance?"
And Thom mentioned Nancy Palosi...yeah, right, Nancy Palosi...the one who looked like she was caught eating the canary, feathers and all, when 60 minutes asked her about her getting rich(er) by using her inside information and voting power when placing her money on the stock market.
Nope, the Demonocrats have not acted like Democrats are supposed to act...the way they pretend that they will act. I know I sound like a Republican but I am not. I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for. But some of us Democrats have finally come to realize when we've been played for suckers.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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According to the two financial experts Alyona had on her show this morning (tuesday--although she kept calling it monday--rebroadcast?) they said that it is inevitable that Greece will default and that the recent election is merely a temporary slow down of that process. So, as the markets responded positively toward the outcome of that election, they will eventually see the reality...maybe in just a few months. They said that Greece should just dump the Euro right now and revert back to the Drachma because it will happen very soon anyway.
She also had on her show MSNBC's Christopher Hayes who has authored a book called "Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy". One thing he said that I find most disturbing...he said that despite the current distrust of government, politicians, and other positions of authority and power, the military is ranking high on the list of trust. He also talked about the trouble he got in when he made a statement recently refuting the idea that all the military..the soldiers...are heroes.
It is a sad day in America when intelligent and insightful people...some reporters or other media people can't tell things like they are instead of coddling to the idiocy of dummies. Bill Maher, Bill Moyers, and many others have paid the price for speaking their minds that didn't fit in with the idiot, right-wing, propagandized masses. In this case, the masses have been propagandized to see their military, especially their soldiers, as being "heroes" even though some of those "heroes" only operate joysticks and push buttons from the cushy cubicles from Arlington (or where ever) resulting in murdering innocent civilians in the Middle East. Some soldiers actually do risk their lives if they are at the location of conflict...others may risk their lives choking on office donuts between pushing buttons.
Christopher was right that not all the military (soldiers) are heroes...although I think he is trying to digress from that initial statement due to pressure from the sponsors? Some soldiers are naturally born killers who love the "sport". Others have been propagandized and brain-washed to do evil things while believing they are doing good.
Eventually, many come to see through the bullsh!t and come to realize what they have done...and for whom they have really done it. Many commit suicide because they cannot hack it anymore.
So we have a military made up of...not heroes...but some psychopath rapists and murderers..and some who unknowingly stepped into the pile of sh!t but cannot find a way out except through suicide.
And the institutional psychopaths (the generals, politicians, MIC, and the people who believe that all soldiers are heroes) are responsible for the war crimes that have been committed in their names. You are lying to everyone and to yourselves when you continue to live the lies, enshrouded in misnomers, rhetoric, and propaganda that the war machine creates.
And now back to the faux news...like a man who rides his motorcycle w/sidecar with his dog...and the man who phones in to 911 because he didn't like a sandwich that was made for him at a deli.