So Greeks head off to the polls this weekend to (theoretically) choose whether to muddle along with a “right” (for Greece) government that will actually attempt to carry out something vaguely resembling austerity, or for Alexis Tsipras’ far-left Syriza party, who intends to re-enact Clevon Little’s scene from Blazing Saddles: “Drop the austerity demands, or I’ll drop out of the Euro and refuse to let Germany bail us out anymore!” “Do what he says, do what he says, that Greek’s crazy!” It’s anybody’s guess whether Greece will opt to keep the farce going for another few months, or finally set the whole house of cards tumbling down.
My guess is that there are still enough insiders who can benefits from dumping PIIGS bonds onto various sets of European taxpayers, so I expect that, one way or another, the Eurocrats will find a way to keep the charade up for another two or three months.
In light of that, here’s a roundup of Euro debt news:
Forget grexit. The new hotness is Spexit and Spanic.
Which is why the EU just gave Spain a €100 billion life preserver. That should be good for, what, three months?
Which is why Fitch and Moody’s downgraded Spanish banks and debt.
Which is why Spanish borrowing costs have soared.
And Spain’s deal? Ireland wants some of that. And given the way Irish taxpayers were made to eat Anglo Irish Bank’s debts, I can’t say that I blame them.
And did I mention that Italy’s debt market might collapse?
Which explains why Italy is making noises about actual budget cuts and selling off state owned assets. Naturally, Italian unions are threaten to strike.
“By any objective criteria the Euro has failed, and in fact there is a looming, impending disaster.”
Tsipras has all but flipped Merkel off.
And Merkel fliped him off back.
Europe prepares for an influx of Greek refugees. And by “prepares,” I mean “prepares to keep them out.”
France and Spain want to dig faster.
Obama is boned because Europe is boned.
How the Euro will end: “Greece will simply run out of cash. Then Spain’s real-estate bubble will ruin an economy that really matters.”
Still not completely depressed about Europe’s prospects for escaping the trap created by their bankrupt cradle-to-grave welfare states? Well then, here’s some Mark Steyn to cruelly stomp on those last flickering embers of hope.
Have a happy weekend!
Tags: Alexis Tsipras, Angela Merkel, Budget, Euro, Europe, European Debt Crisis, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Mark Steyn, PIIGS, Spain, Syriza, Welfare State
This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2012 at 10:00 PM and is filed under Budget, Economics, Foreign Policy, Welfare State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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good EU PLAN B:
I)Let South be obrero / migrant workers for Euro’s again.
This is how Eu once started.
II) Form the EU of willing high moral of the North.
North is 80% anyway.
Stop the debt AND flow free labour laws and south can pay.
A good economy needs dual labour laws. US/mexican. Chineese rual workers ect. People just forgot how social economies / labor laws really works
[…] Blazing Saddles act is wearing thin. (I seem to remember having made this exact comparison […]