Oct 22, 2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-s-goodman/crisis-europe-global-economy_b_1024392.html

At this point, anyone not officially frightened by the bleak situation in Europe simply hasn't been paying attention....

Across the continent, as in the United States, political leaders who are intent on pandering to know-nothings or who are under the influence of deficient economic beliefs have embraced austerity as the cure for the advancing diseases, much like prescribing a starvation diet for a patient wasting away from malnutrition.

As if all of this were not enough, another disaster is now unfolding, one that only amplifies the others: Markets are justifiably losing confidence that Europe has the structure or the political will to address the storm threatening to tear it apart....

Speaking in 2007, Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, famously put it this way: "We all know what to do but we don't know how to get reelected once we have done it."

Why don't they try Iceland's solution? They just refused to pay the debt, effectively declaring a Jubilee. I have noticed that news articles now tend to ignore Iceland altogether. They used to talk about the PIIGS, not it's just the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain).