The Irish patch-up has failed, and the bond vigilantes are skipping past Spain and Portugal and attacking Italy (below) and Eastern Europe. The euro cannot stand the pressure. There must be reorganization. The GBP is holding up, a credit to the London bankers, but it too will sag soon enough. Spoke Charles Penty, Bloomberg, at Madrid, and he says that Santander is okay so far. Watch Santander, when it buckles and needs €50 billion for bail-out, the lights are dimming. Euro RIP. From the rosy scenario of the WSJ:
"Economists generally agree Europe's current bailout fund is sufficient to rescue Spain, should that be necessary. But if Italy, Europe's third-largest economy, teetered, a rescue would test both Europe's economic resources and the will of healthier countries such as Germany to shoulder the costs."
It’s not about the Euro. It’s about revolution. The Left has seized the day. It will not allow cuts to the welfare state. It does not care about the Euro. It does not care about capitalism. All the Left cares about is bringing down the system which is now teetering on the edge.
As in the U.S., it was the Left that had been pushing for freebies that were essentially unaffordable. There was some semblance of affordability as long as economies kept growing. Now, that the slump cycle has set in, what had seemed affordable, is suddenly unaffordable. To the Left, this is a distinction without a difference. It is not that the ‘educated’ Left could not foresee this. They saw it alright. It was a set-up. It was planned. All they had to do was wait.
The waiting is now over. For the Left it is now time to act; to take to the streets; shout slogans; raise the red flag; do some damage; open some heads. For the Left the worst thing that could happen now is for the economies to recover; for people to go on as before. “Barack will not allow…”
Even recovery is now booby-trapped. All that pent-up demand. All that consumer spending would just show up the Euro (dollar) for what it’s really worth - nothing; or, at the very least, considerably less than what people expect.
Any way you look at it, the Euro is finished. The dollar is over; even though it may appear marginally better off than the Euro. People will not allow themselves to be taxed out of existence - in North Korea, maybe; but not in the West.
Still - taxation or inflation - it all comes out to the same: civil unrest, which will lead to political chaos. Left or Right, it won’t matter. The solutions are the same for both. There will be blood. The revolution is here. The Left has won.
In America, we think the revolution has already happened; that it happened at the ballot box - nice and neat - with the Republicans taking charge of the House. The verdict is already in: NO COMPROMISE; no solution. The old ‘evils’ are beginning to crumble one by one: the Bush tax cuts; the Bush wars; American exceptionalism; global alliances. Revolution is the end. It is here. After that, …who knows?
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/
A more optimistic observer might see the events in Europe as the beginning of the death throes of Socialism, Peter.
The decline in the euro halted today as the US stepped in to help the Europeans with bailout money.
ttp://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/12/01/business-dollar_8174490.html?boxes=marketschannelwires
I accept Peter's premise that this is the moment that the Left has planned for. What is unknown is who will win the Revolution. I can still have faith that the Right will prevail.
Of course we will prevail - we have the money.
But that's not fair!
"I accept Peter's premise that this is the moment that the Left has planned for."
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. Specifically, the left is not that smart or foresighted.
Peter's instinct that the left doesn't care about people is certainly spot on. One only has to look at who is the emotional engine behind AGW and what their real druthers portend for humans wherever the left has influence over governments and public policy. They are nothing more than opportunistic, like secondary infections that kill people with AIDS. It would help if the conservatives weren't so sheepish, tentative, moderate, and tolerant of "the other" as they are of the left. Like one of the left's troubadors has it, "There are lives in the balance." Leftism/Progressivism/Utopianism is not just another view point. It is a dangerous drug that needs to be exposed as such and exterminated with history and facts.