The world will soon enter the sixth year of the Great Recession, and there is no end in sight. In the United States, where stagnation continues to reign, some 23 million Americans remain out of work, are underemployed, or have simply dropped out of the labor force owing to frustration—a condition that now threatens to precipitate Barack Obama’s replacement by a Republican candidate whose program would only worsen the crisis.
Even though Deutsche Bank helped cause its financial crisis, Spain is bailing it out.
A few months ago, when Occupy movements bloomed across Europe, the absence of any similar uprising in France appeared to be an anomaly in a country infamous for its people’s propensity to take the streets. One explanation was that the presidential election was just around the corner, and that after 10 years out of government, the Left was capable of channeling the French people’s indignation into electoral gains.
Saints will not preserve Ireland from an invasion of the austerity snakes: the Irish people will have to do that.
Disarming to prevent nuclear proliferation strikes some as counterintuitive as spending during an economic crisis instead of cutting spending.
Renowned economics columnist Robert Samuelson tried to make the case that austerity measures in Latvia saved its economy.
As the sun rose on August 2, Spanish authorities destroyed the tent-village that had come to symbolize what some participants have called the Spanish Revolution. The ruling Socialist Party, via the Ministry of the Interior and in conjunction with the right-wing Popular Party that controls the local government, ordered Madrid’s Puerta del Sol cleared of all remnants of the 15-M (May 15) movement as its participants, the indignados (the outraged) watched helplessly.
While the headlines go to Greece, Portugal and Spain, Italy has the second highest rate of debt in Europe and one of the lowest growth rates.
On June 29, the Greek parliament ignored the huge protests in Syntagma Square and approved the austerity program. But the Greek movement that has emerged to challenge this unpopular loan package is not going away.
If Spain and Italy apply for bailouts, the EU will be split between northern haves and southern have-nots. Can a house so divided long endure?