The EU politicians who have staked their careers on the Euro, will lay Europe to waste, before they give up on their ideals. Millions of live, careers and business are being ruined like in the UK in 1991 when we were in the ERM with that fool failed banker Major and his sidekick Lamont telling us it was all worth it. As soon as we left we recovered.
Except it is 100 times worse in Southern Europe and there is NO escape as that does not fit in with the EUSSR project. Southern Europe has austerity which causes, recession, the bankruptcy of businesses and increased unemployment, this increases government spending through unemployment benefit costs and reduces their tax receipts. So Germany says to reach your deficit target you will have to increase your austerity measures which causes further recession..... Greece and Portugal are caught in this Economic death spiral, Spain looks like joining them over the next few months, Italy probably will and the jury is out on Ireland. There is only one solution, leave the Euro straight jacket, default, devalue and recover, there is no other way. The deeper this hole is dug, the longer it will take to get the economy back to pre-2008 levels.
This reminds me of WWI trench warfare, one more push and we will break the Jerry lines, 10,000 causalities later and 10 yards of territory gained, one more push and we will break the Jerry lines....... The French mutinied, the Germans broke through and would have won without the Americans helped to hold the line and then the German economic exhaustion and allied improved tactics and equipment won the day. Unfortunately, the Euro will not have this ending.
The EU politicians mindset is like Hitler's who knew the war was lost in 1943, but his attitude was that the German people either pull a rabbit out of the hat and win or with his scorched earth policy there will be nothing of Germany left. Unfortunately there are many EU politicians who are quite happy to sacrifice Southern Europe in an attempt to save the Euro.
Meanwhile the people of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland suffer. While the lions many are picking food out of bins, the ruling donkeys few will continue having their summits, massive salaries, expense accounts, gold plated pensions, and 20 course gourmet banquets, and will keep their jobs, pensions etc., once the dam finally bursts, as it will, as economics will always triumph over political idealism and fantasy.
A similar situation was the 1930's gold standard a few big countries did well at the expense of the weaker countries and this eventually collapsed. The UK was one of the early leavers, which was why our recession was not a depression.
By all accounts things are very bad in Greece with 1 in 5 unemployed and the economy collapsing. About 40% of Greek SMEs can no longer pay their workforce, so they aren't being paid. The Greek bailout is their to save the banks, the Greek people will not see €1 of it. The lucky Greeks kept their village houses and land when they went to the cities for better paid work, these unemployed are now back to subsistence living in their villages, very poor but they won't starve. Those without land and no job it is a different matter and charities out there are working on allotment schemes on the outskirts of towns and cities, so they don't starve.
There has been a surge of homeless people leaving their child at church orphanages, so they have at least got a roof over their heads. Pensions have been cut and even Greek MPs have made a token sacrifice, instead of getting 16 monthly salary payments per year, they have agreed to cut this to 14.
Still don't worry, ask any EU politician, just one more push for victory.....
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Topic: The price of austerity (Read 1579 times)