Europe is falling apart---close to bringing the whole world down.

lol, northside is being trolled voraciously and keeps taking the bait

 

I don't know if Europe is falling apart but there is something wrong with a global system supporting billions of people can be put at risk when a country of 11 million grossly mismanaged its own finances.

I also think there is a flaw in capitalism in that generating all this wealth which gets sucked out of a local economy and put into a broader global economy can be devastating. This is what has happened in the u.s. despite the enormous generation of wealth in the last 30 years, the middle class is no better off than they were in the 1970s. Taxes are the equalizing measure of keeping a society strong. It's not capitalism vs socialism...it's the right balance that takes the best of bth worlds.

In order to send your kid to a good school, own a car, and a house....you have to have a choice job, work twice as hard, or have two breadwinners.

To me, that speaks volumes more. We have gone backwards not forwards.

 

So has the world ended yet?

 

The main issue hasn't just been global integration. I am actually in favor of globalization and favor the free flow of information, goods, and labor ultimately. I believe the day will come when nation-states are looked upon as relics and more so for defining culture. The EU is still the future.

The question is how that will happen. Will their be a management by world gov'ts or will it be a free for all by major corps. The right balance will mean globalization provides immense benefits - let it run amok and it will wreck havoc on a local level.

The problem with the premise of Republicans that giving the rich more money helps the world since they invest it is only partially true. Right now there's plenty of investment money that isn't getting investment - and that's the issue.

They are sitting on the cash. Well you may say that even cash in a bank is good because it allows banks to make loans. Well, there's no bank looking to loan right now because they just got burned badly during the crisis. Big corps have trillions of cash they are sitting on, credit is still tight - and that alone is what is keeping the housing market a mess. So if banks aren't loaning money, and corps aren't spending - guess what, you have a net drain of capital out of the economy. And that's why it is so anemic of a recovery.

The idea that cutting taxes will do anything is ludicrous. Cutting taxes on the rich only cause more cash to sit in banks doing nothing. Bush tax cuts helped because they mainly were on the middle class and thus injected more cash into the economy - but at a steep price of inducing massive deficits.

A dollar in the hands of a middle class person gets spent a lot faster than it does in a rich persons hands who sits on it more - and that something that isn't taken into account. So until credit markets loosen, it makes sense to tax the rich and corporations at a higher rate. If anything it will cause them to invest more money to avoid paying the increased tax. Plus that will leave the gov't cash to inject into the economy - which essentially just goes right back to the rich / corps anyway.

Once the credit markets are restored, then gov't should in fact cut spending and pay down the deficit since you don't want the gov't competing with other borrowers.

But right now, the gov't is borrowing at such cheap rates because it's the only entity the banks have faith in. That's why Treasury bills are so expensive.

We aren't greece. We aren't anywhere close to that. Our credit rating wasn't lowered because of the amount of debt we have is alarming, it was because they didn't think our gov't would cut it once we got out of this recession. If Republicans and Dems were to say, ok, let's inject more cash into the system to get the economy rolling, with the agreement that once unemployment drops below 7% we'll raise taxes and cut spending towards balancing the budget - I guarantee you our rating would not have dropped.

 

Agree with everything ^^ except I believe the ratings should be lower if compared to other countries' ratings. You're the first person I've ever heard make the argument that the ratings are too low frankly. In that sense, the US has been "fortunate" IMO.

 

Read this article from the BBC, thought of this thread.

 

Anyway, just wondering if the whole world has been brought down yet, Northside Breeze? I think it has been 7 months since you announced that we were "close" to the whole world being brought down.

 

they looked pretty down in Munich last weekend????

(sorry ATM, I know...that was uncalled for ).

 

Haha, yes, it felt like the end of the world to ME . I felt like beating some people up at the banquet.

(also, I am not an ATM, although one of my ex-girlfriends seemed to mistakenly think I am... )

 

Greece should just default and use Drachmas again.

DD

 

Yeah, I think they will have to leave the Euro zone, eventually. Portugal, Italy and Spain are not in much better shape, but Greece is the worst (most corrupt, no strong industry to speak of, etc.).

 

The euro was doomed to fail from the Beginning, no common goals equals no common direction.

DD

 

I hope it all goes down. Our region is barely invested in Eurozone, so while all economies would suffer, we would suffer least which puts us in better position given our liquidity. Plus, we make profit on oil at around $40 a barrell, we're pretty set. I'm just being patriotic and pursuing national self-interest though, so don't be bothered. This is how the world works, we don't live in some Utopian magic planet where people watch out for each other.

 

Germany and Ben Bernanke are determined to stop the French experiment, but the French are persistent.

 

If you look at the causes for creating the Euro, and its manufactured ascent in the last 15 years, then I wouldn't consider the snark one-sided.

Maybe self-righteous sarcasm isn't the best card to play all the time, every time, just to get a point across.