Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Top Headline Comments 7-11-11 | Main | BREAKING: Government Backed Protesters Storm US Embassy Grounds In Damascus . UPDATE: US Says Embassy Grounds Cleared Of Attackers »
July 11, 2011

Is that DOOM I See Coming Over the Hill?

DOOOOM

Greece, Ireland, Portugal, (maybe) Spain...and now Italy? Contagion. The hope on the part of the EU and ECB was to contain the contagion by throwing money at it, but every time they fill one sink-hole with Euros another one opens up. It's been obvious for a long time that the Eurozone was simply a bad idea, and this crisis has exposed the rotten underpinnings for all to see. Europe wanted to have a currency union just like the United States, but they are finding out the hard way that a monetary union without a fiscal-policy union just won't work. European countries are not like US states -- they have different langauges, different work rules, different governing philosophies...different cultures. The big question in everyone's mind is...now what? Some countries must default, and a default will probably require leaving the Euro and going back to the sovereign currency. But no one knows exactly how this will work, or what the consequences will be.

Some people are floating the idea of a Euro-Bond, but I find that a little nonsensical absent any fiscal-policy union backing it. But of course this may be the point to the enterprise: to "force" Europeans into a closer union without having to go through the messy (and time-consuming) processes of holding a vote. The EU project has never really been a democratic enterprise from the very first -- the Eurozone was implemented without the say-so (even over the protests of) its citizens. If I Eurobond is floated, I expect it to be another example of droit de Seigneur on the part of the Eurozone elite. (And it probably won't work, and will piss away a lot more good money after bad, but none of that has stopped them so far.)

President Obama runs a bluff, and House Speaker Boehner calls the bluff. What you're seeing here is a fundamental and bedrock difference between the two parties: the Democrats want higher taxes, less Defense spending, and a status quo maintenance of the welfare-state apparatus; the Republicans want cuts to the welfare-state, status quo on Defense spending, and fewer (and lower) taxes. No one's going to get everything they want -- we'll know a compromise has been reached when everybody comes out of it pissed off and thinking they got fleeced.

"Why We Don't Recover", by Nicole Gelinas at the City Journal. The losses exist and must be recognized sooner or later. We can't keep them off the books forever.

Minnesota moves into week two of the state government shutdown. I haven't noticed much difference, but then again I'm not a heavy user of state services. Note the numbers involved: Minnesota will in any event spend more this year than last; it's just that Governor Dayton wants to spend $1.4B more than the GOP does. This isn't a "small government vs. big government" fight. This is an argument over how much bigger to make the government.

The first sentence in this story tells you all you need to know about why we're doomed: "An extraordinary amount of personal income is coming directly from the government." What flabbergasts me is that more people don't understand what a huge problem this is, and why it is unsustainable even over the short-term.

Via Insty: Economic rebound "not happening" in 2011. Yeah, I think we all understand that by now.

UPDATE 1: Signs of the times. Pawnshops and payday lenders are hot.

UPDATE 2: The disappearing black middle class. The near-unanimous penchant for black Americans to vote Democrat has always mystified me, given the destruction Democrat policies have wreaked on black families over the decades. But hopefully the rise of conservative black politicians like Rep. Allen West (and Latinos like Marco Rubio) portend a conservative shift in traditionally-Democrat constituencies.

UPDATE 3: The scariest jobs chart ever.

UPDATE 4: "Turbo Tax" Timmah: "[I]t's going to feel very hard, harder than anything they've experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come." Ah-heh-heh-heh-heh. "Hard".


The were-cat would be a dangerous foe were it not for the beast's innate laziness and disdain for humans.


digg this
posted by Monty at 09:03 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Moron Robbie - If this is how Georgia hires attorneys, imagine how they manage elections: "I think it was grump928 who made an outstanding po ..."

Don Black: "is everyone over on the main page, slapping f5 lik ..."

JackStraw: ">>The long-shredded pretense to impartiality is su ..."

Moron Robbie - If this is how Georgia hires attorneys, imagine how they manage elections: "Wakandyass it is! ..."

Don Black: "NYR 0 COL 0 end 1st p 🏒 ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "If the Wakandians hadn't been isolationists then t ..."

Puddleglum at work: "[i]173 167 I’ve often speculated that the re ..."

Moron Robbie - If this is how Georgia hires attorneys, imagine how they manage elections: "If the Wakandians hadn't been isolationists then t ..."

Ciampino - Bloody 'experts' again ...: "158 For being the alleged "birthplace of civilizat ..."

sock_rat_eez - these lying bastardi e stronzi have been lying to us for decades [/b][/u][/i][/s]: "got to have a spread of alternatives, amirite? ..."

Bulgaroctonus : "167 I’ve often speculated that the reason th ..."

Hairyback Guy: "Anita Bryant > All Other Female Crooners ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64