Democracy Fights Austerity

[marmar]

from Consortium News:



Democracy Fights Austerity
May 8, 2012

Much of Europe has swallowed the bitter medicine of austerity on orders from conservative economic theorists, only to find that the supposed cure has made matters worse. Now, elections in France and Greece indicate that Europeans want a new approach that stimulates growth, ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar notes.

By Paul R. Pillar


The commonly accepted story line about the French and Greek elections on Sunday is that the outcome is a rejection by voters of the austerity that Merkozy-dominated European decision-makers have been imposing on the eurozone. The result, as some critics might put it more bluntly and negatively, is a defeat of disciplined economic policy by short-sighted populist sentiment.

In general, displacement of disciplined decision-making by raw popular anger is not good. But from the standpoint of Europe’s economic health and its effect on the health of the global economy, backing away from austerity is the main thing needed right now. To understand why, read any of Paul Krugman‘s frequent forays into the subject.

The idea that austerity breeds confidence which in turn breeds private sector initiative and prosperity simply hasn’t proven valid where it has been tried. Stimulation of demand is needed to keep Europe from dropping into a deep double-dip recession.

The election results do give reason for concern. Parts of François Hollande’s platform look ill-conceived. The beneficiaries of Greek voters’ rejection of the mainstream parties that had signed on to austerity are the far-left and far-right fringes; in this respect the Greek result is a disturbing move toward extremism. On the basic dimension of austerity vs. stimulation, however, voters have moved the European economic debate in the correct direction, even if most of them did so for the wrong reasons. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/05/08/democracy-fights-austerity/

[Harmony Blue]

1. Austerity is a mechanism

to mitigate loss for big money investors and never in the interest of the greater public good. Only benefits the handful oligarchs.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. Europeans do not think that way.

They are hardwired for socialism and the greater public good. Merkel wants to be too much like Americans and that just will not work in Europe. Period. And they spoke and now her predecessors will get to prosper where she could not and would not.

[Lawlbringer]

3. Austerity would be fine

if it was EVERYONE who had to deal without.

The fact that the super-rich would be untouched, while the rest of the population would have to go without for the greater good is sickening.

It's like budgeting in my house. We gave up cable for a few months until my wife got a new job, and I made sure to bring my own coffee from home rather than buying one on the way to the train and ate ramen for lunch every day. Giving those things up had been fine, because we all made a sacrifice. If I made my wife eat Ramen and sit in the dark to conserve the electric bill while I ate pizza and bought a diamond pinky ring, that'd be disgusting, no?

That's the same thing that they wanted to do over there, and what they're hoping we can do here. Take your ramen and stick it up your ass, rich people. I'm not eating it any more. (Symbolically. I happen to love ramen.)