The Austerity games begin...coming soon to America...

[billc]

This should be fun when it gets to the U.S....

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/general_strikes_over_austerity_cripple_europe.html

Billed as a "European Day of Action and Solidarity," millions of workers across the continent went on strike to protest austerity measures forced on governments as the result of years of overspending.

Reuters:

Hundreds of flights were cancelled, car factories and ports were at a standstill and trains barely ran in Spain and Portugal where unions held their first ever coordinated general strike.
Riot police arrested at least two protesters in Madrid and hit others with batons, witnesses said, and in Rome students pelted police with rocks in a protest over money-saving plans for the school system.
International rail services were disrupted by strikes in Belgium and workers in Greece, Italy and France planned work stoppages or demonstrations as part of a "European Day of Action and Solidarity".
"We're on strike to stop these suicidal policies," said Candido Mendez, head of Spain's second-biggest labor federation, the General Workers' Union, or UGT.
More than 60 people were arrested in Spain and 34 injured, 18 of them security officials after scuffles at picket lines and damage to storefronts.
Protesters jammed cash machines with glue and coins and plastered anti-government stickers on shop windows. Power consumption dropped 16 percent with factories idled.
International lenders and some economists say the programs of tax hikes and spending cuts are necessary for putting public finances back on a healthy track after years of overspending.
While several southern European countries have seen bursts of violence, a coordinated and effective regional protest to the austerity has yet to gain traction and governments have so far largely stuck to their policies.
Spain, where the crisis has pushed millions into poverty, has seen some of the biggest protests. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is trying to put off asking for European aid that could require even more budget cuts.
​

Some warm ups for our own Austerity games...

http://pjmedia.com/blog/3-windows-into-obamas-dangerous-second-term/

Dependency. Blogger Matt Trivisonno first noticed a delay in the release of the USDA’s monthly food stamp enrollment report, which usually occurs near the end of each month, in early October. When it was data-dumped late in the afternoon on Friday, October 5, two days after the first presidential debate (imagine that), it showed that July enrollment had edged up to a then-all-time record.

What should have come out in late October didn’t arrive until November 9, yet another Friday afternoon, three convenient days after the election. It’s now clear that Team Obama deliberately sat on it, as its contents would certainly have become a final-days election issue had they been known. August enrollment exploded by over 400,000 to a record-shattering 47.1 million.
Revised data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that the economy added 192,000 jobs during that same month. Though that level of monthly job growth, symptomatic of the worst economic recovery since World War II, is still unacceptable, the food stamp rolls should be declining, and they’re not.

Energy. In news naturally ignored by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and virtually everyone else in the establishment media, The Hill reported late last week that the Interior Department “issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West (i.e., 2,500 square miles) originally slated for oil shale development.”

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Environmental Protection Agency plan to spend the next four years using largely phony environmental concerns to prevent the country from seeing affordable energy costs and from achieving long-term net energy independence.

T

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/13/1-6-Trillion-Obama-Doesnt-Want-a-Deal

$1.6 trillion in new tax revenues, reached by raising tax rates on the wealthy in addition to other "tax revenues." The offer is twice as high as a deal Obama scuttled last year, suggesting he may be prepared to let talks fail again.

But knowing that Boehner cannot accept tax hikes and remain in charge of the House, $1.6 trillion seems less like a serious opening gambit and more like the highest possible demand that would be guaranteed to prevent a deal without seeming entirely unreasonable. Obama may prefer to go over the fiscal cliff, which would raise taxes by default and cut defense spending and entitlements with both parties sharing the blame. That's what $1.6 trillion buys today.

Let the games begin...

 

[cdunn]

... Your point is?

People that experience austerity despise it, especially when they know that the basic problem is that individuals do not have cash on hand to produce demand, as what's left is all sitting in corporate coffers, waiting for demand to supply. Austerity inceases the people's misery and reduces their ability to produce demand, producing a viscious cycle: Unemployment leads to revenue loss leads to benefit cuts lead to lost demand leads to unemployment. Austerity politics prolonged the depression in Europe, and is a serious drag on the world, exactly as predicted.

Republican politicans are insisting on... austerity. So, call Little Johny Boehner and your Representative, tell him he's a moran if he cuts the safety net any further. After all... elections have consequences.

 

[WC_lun]

Too add to Chris's comments and as you yourself have pointed out upon more than one occassion, we aren't Europe.

 

[James Kovacich]

Its also a stretch comparing us to them. Spain has an unemployment rate of like 25%. Who is predicting that for us?

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Big Don]

Too add to Chris's comments and as you yourself have pointed out upon more than one occassion, we aren't Europe.

We aren't, yet, but, we sure spend money like them. To say Congress spends like a drunken sailor is an insult to drunks and sailors.

 

[WC_lun]

We also have a stronger economy, control our own banks to some extent, and can take direct measures to effect our economy without gaining approval by the EU. What is going on in Europe and here in the States are connected, but not equal. That we are the same is just nonsense thrown out there by pundatry to scare people into listening to thier programs.

 

[arnisador]

I'm with Paul Krugman--now is not the time for austerity.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I would just like to point out (again) something that no one seems to want to take notice of:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...disease-doesnt-kill-it-golden-dawns-cure-may/

Wayne K. Spear: If Greece’s disease doesn’t kill it, Golden Dawn’s cure may
As the political and economic fortunes of Greece grow more precarious, it becomes harder to separate symptoms of a disease from the side effects of cures. The country’s Finance Minister, Yannis Stournaras, has projected a twenty-five percent contraction of the Greek economy for the years 2008-2014 and a 1930s-styled Depression, both the presumed outcomes of EU-imposed austerity measures.

On the growth side of this ledger we encounter the extraordinary electoral gains this year of street justice authoritarians, most notable Nik Michaloliakos and his Chrysi Avgi, or Golden Dawn party. The blame for both trends — economic malaise and the growth industry of political extremism — may reasonably be assigned to Greece’s corrupt and inept politicians within the prevailing ND/PASOK coalition. Yet if it happens that short-term (and short-sighted) prescriptions are only further sickening the patient, as appears to be the case, then there may be a surplus of incriminations for the evident quackery.

For anyone who is curious, the Golden Dawn in Greece are neo-Nazis. Even down to their symbol (check out the link). They are rioting in the streets, performing acts of street thuggery against foreigners, whom they are blaming for Greece's economic woes, and in all ways behaving as if it is 1930 again.

I'm more scared of THAT spreading than anything else at the moment. You guys have no idea what we're in for if Greece goes full-blown nazi on us. Another world war. Just wait.

 

[arnisador]

Nazis too? Greece is in sad shape.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Nazis too? Greece is in sad shape.

Read the article. The Golden Dawn has established a chapter in Montreal.

 

[Empty Hands]

This should be fun when it gets to the U.S....

You argue consistently that the US spends too much, and should drastically reduce spending on entitlements to balance the budget, and without raising taxes. Do you know what that is called?

Austerity.

 

[Master Dan]

... Your point is?

People that experience austerity despise it, especially when they know that the basic problem is that individuals do not have cash on hand to produce demand, as what's left is all sitting in corporate coffers, waiting for demand to supply. Austerity inceases the people's misery and reduces their ability to produce demand, producing a viscious cycle: Unemployment leads to revenue loss leads to benefit cuts lead to lost demand leads to unemployment. Austerity politics prolonged the depression in Europe, and is a serious drag on the world, exactly as predicted.

Republican politicans are insisting on... austerity. So, call Little Johny Boehner and your Representative, tell him he's a moran if he cuts the safety net any further. After all... elections have consequences.

Through out the last 2 years and longer the Banks and Corporations have been sitting on 6 trillion in cash alone they have been holding back out of pure greed waiting to get a government they believed would give them free rane from taxes and excessive profits. In the 30's the depression was cuased by restriciton of credit and spending to manipulate the market while many suffered a very few made huge profits.

To say we cannot have this happen here is niave. However the people have spoken in the election and it is not a simple black and white issue on how to solve our current economy but in the last depression it was the government that stepped in with spending and jobs.

 

[Big Don]

You argue consistently that the US spends too much, and should drastically reduce spending on entitlements to balance the budget, and without raising taxes. Do you know what that is called?

Common sense fiscal policy

Fixed that for you.
When you are short on cash around the house, do you continue to buy expensive crap you want, but, do not need?
Are you so invaluable to your employer that you can demand a raise when you want to buy more stuff?

 

[granfire]

I would just like to point out (again) something that no one seems to want to take notice of:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...disease-doesnt-kill-it-golden-dawns-cure-may/



For anyone who is curious, the Golden Dawn in Greece are neo-Nazis. Even down to their symbol (check out the link). They are rioting in the streets, performing acts of street thuggery against foreigners, whom they are blaming for Greece's economic woes, and in all ways behaving as if it is 1930 again.

I'm more scared of THAT spreading than anything else at the moment. You guys have no idea what we're in for if Greece goes full-blown nazi on us. Another world war. Just wait.

plase don't say thuggery... it makes me think I am reading the wrong Bill...

 

[Empty Hands]

Fixed that for you.
When you are short on cash around the house, do you continue to buy expensive crap you want, but, do not need?
Are you so invaluable to your employer that you can demand a raise when you want to buy more stuff?

What did that change? It's still called austerity. Which Bill now apparently hates and fears after promoting it for years. That was the point, in case you missed it.

 

[James Kovacich]

I'm not denying that we need to get a grip on spending, just want to put some facts out there because our sitting presidents takes a lot of blame that isn't truly 100% justified.

I've been researching how we began borrowing money from China. What seems to come up:

1. We "technically" don't borrow money from China. We borrow money from the financial markets and China buys our bonds.

2. Nixon was the 1st president to start this process of "borrowing money from China."

3.Our fiscal cliff is looming because of the money that Bush borrowed and the interest that Obama must repay.

Granted, spending is a part of this equation but it dosen't matter who is president. Today we would still be f####d as a nation.

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[arnisador]

We "technically" don't borrow money from China. We borrow money from the financial markets and China buys our bonds.

More people need to get this message.

 

[Makalakumu]

More people need to get this message.

China owns our money.

 

[WC_lun]

No they don't. China has bought bonds equal to 9% of our debt. China cannot demand payment until maturity date on those. Many of those bonds also have interest rates lower than the rate of inflation, meaning in essense the Chinese are paying us to purchase those bonds. Factes matter.

 

[arnisador]

China has bought bonds equal to 9% of our debt. China cannot demand payment until maturity date on those.

Yup. So it doesn't much matter who buys them. Now, Chinese manipulation of their own currency...that's another matter.