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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAusterity Killing You? How About a Trade Deal?
from HuffPost:
Robert Kuttner
Co-founder and co-editor, 'The American Prospect'
Austerity Killing You? How About a Trade Deal?
Posted: 01/04/2015 10:36 pm EST Updated: 01/04/2015 10:59 pm EST
Europe is right on the edge of another downward lurch into prolonged deflation. GDP growth is hovering right around zero. Germany, as an export powerhouse, continues to thrive, but at the expense of the rest of the continent -- victims of German-imposed budget austerity demands. The euro, which keeps sinking against the U.S. dollar, is now trading at just $1.20, its lowest level in four and a half years.
Unemployment outside prosperous Germany remains stuck at over 12 percent. All of this weakens the political center that supports the EU, and increases the appeal of far-right parties. (You wonder if Europe's leaders bother to read their own history. When there is protracted depression and desperate people, nasty things have been known to happen in this part of the world.)
The one institution that intermittently challenges Angela Merkel's government in Berlin, the European Central Bank, is mostly a paper tiger. ECB chief Mario Draghi talks a good game about doing whatever it takes to levitate Europe's moribund economy. But when push comes to shove, Draghi stops far short of the aggressive bond-buying program used by the American Federal Reserve, for fear of antagonizing the Germans who continue to think Europe can deflate its way to recovery.
So what does Europe have left? It is a mark of the delusion of Europe's leaders that the EU is putting its chips on a trade deal with the U.S. -- the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. TTIP is not really a trade deal at all but a series of measures intended to promote further deregulation of economic, financial, health, labor, safety, privacy, and environmental protections on both sides of the Atlantic. TTIP was designed by corporations to weaken labor and government -- and would do just about nothing to get Europe out of its austerity trap.
.....(snip).....
The fact that neo-liberalism has dismally failed seems not to have fazed Europe's leaders. This struggle is about power, not about evidence or practical success. The corporations and bankers on both sides of the Atlantic make more money when they are subject to fewer social constraints, even when the economy is flat and tens of millions of people are jobless. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/austerity-killing-you-how_b_6414534.html
djean111
(14,255 posts)And we will be expected to kiss its corporate, neo-liberal, scaly ass.
We will be commanded to kiss its ass.
We will be told we are not True Democrats if we do not kiss its ass.
These "trade" agreements, I think, will actually, eventually, bring about revolt. Of one kind or another.
polly7
(20,582 posts)Transnational corporate power has corrupted too many gov'ts ... I just pray that the people of Europe are as aware of what will happen to their social programs, environmental protections, etc. as we are and are willing to fight for them. It's going to be a huge battle. Although, with austerity now being shoved down their throats through the IMF, as with the Greece 'test project' and now Ukraine, I wonder if they will believe there is anything left to fight for.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)The problem with the Arab Spring is that it happened in countries with long histories of tyrannical rule, so they lacked a certain depth of strategy and had no cultural memories of residual democratic traditions to revive. This is not the case with, for example, France, which has a long history of populist action (beginning with the Jacqueries long before their revolution), with or without guillotines. The history of protests in France stands as a testimonial to the fact that they are not as docile as Americans when it comes to endlessly putting up with shit from their alleged leaders. The Greeks, Spaniards, and Portuguese also have some strong socialistic and democratic traditions that might be invoked.
polly7
(20,582 posts)will be the impetus behind a truly global struggle, even though laws are being worked on as we speak to gag them. Thanks to technology, billions of people on this planet now have the ability to educate themselves and decide what they want to be, slaves to the 1% or human beings entitled to those rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Back before social networks and the latest technological gadgets were widespread, the media oligopoly guaranteed that protests deemed undesirable could be controlled to a certain point: those supporting them could be framed as radicals, violent rioters or nihilist thugs. Isolated incidents could be presented as the norm, or as the true intention of the protesters. But newer technologies have made this more difficult, and it is now common to see people recording the police to monitor their actions. Videos of unlawful actions often go viral a few days after the protest.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016110570
polly7
(20,582 posts)because what they're living under now is horrible.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)They seem much less divided on the whole than Americans. They know how to shut it down when they want to. I'm moving there soon, so I'll have a front row seat.
The secret trade deal that no one is allowed to see the WHOLE thing.
A select few have been begrudgingly allowed to read 28 pages.
Chatter has it there much more than trade in it but who knows.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)Last edited Mon Jan 5, 2015, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)
That have the nerve to question "the Plan".TBF
(31,921 posts)these are the portions they don't want folks to know about.
https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp
Faryn Balyncd
(5,125 posts)K and R
turbinetree
(24,632 posts)This fast track legislation is an occurrence of Politian's not telling people on the campaign trail that this is happening or explaining the issue, or outright not caring about it at all, and then when asked they pooh pooh it off by saying they have not read the legislation because of fast track, pass a law against it then so it can be transparent---simple answer.
And when young and old stayed home and did not vote---your problem and everyone else's problem should be laid at your feet, you have no right to complain and if you do, you are a hypocrite for your lack of civic responsibility called voting , or not voting, against you self interest
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)TheKentuckian
(24,943 posts)Often it is impossible to vote your interest, particularly economically. Sure one option maybe less terrible in some measurable way but it doesn't automatically follow that any possible policy outcome is actually favorable.
whereisjustice
(2,941 posts)to the rest of the world.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)and recommended a whole bunch!
The powers behind this know full well the people of the world do not want this. The governments should not go against the will of the people. But going against the will of the people now seems to be standard operating procedure. WTF?
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)Marine Le Pen to meet other far-right leaders in move to create anti-EU bloc
France's Front National leader Marine Le Pen will meet other far-right and eurosceptic leaders on Wednesday in an attempt to create a powerful bloc in the European parliament.
Le Pen insisted the party's score was an unqualified victory despite an abstention rate of 57%. She demanded that France call a halt to talks between the European Union and the United States to create a vast free market, known as the Transatlantic Trade Treaty.
"I clearly call on the president of the Republic, firstly the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale, because you know it is no longer at all representative of the French people," Le Pen said.
"I also demand that he does three things to take Sunday's vote into account: firstly, France halts the transatlantic treaty, secondly, France states its veto of Turkey's entry into the European Union and, thirdly, he nationalises Alstom, contrary to the rules of the European Union, to save this strategic company."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/27/marine-le-pen-met-far-right-leaders-eu-bloc
metalbot
(1,058 posts)There's actually on odd collection of topics on which the far (and I use that word loosely and not pejoratively) left and far right agree, with centrists in the middle on the other side.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)Ramses
(721 posts)thanks