[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

[Blade]

Actually both Corea and Korea were in use in the 19th century. Some Korean says that it was Japan who insisted on getting it written as Korea so that it appeared after Japan in the alphabetical order.

That's why some Koreans are now supporting the use of Corea.

[Lago PARANOIA]

So. What's the dealyo going on with the EU ever since the ECB promised to act as a lender of last resort? Shit getting worse? Holding pattern? Slowly digging its way out? All signs point to 'shit getting worse', but I'd like an opinion from someone who lives there.

[Username17]

So. What's the dealyo going on with the EU ever since the ECB promised to act as a lender of last resort? Shit getting worse? Holding pattern? Slowly digging its way out? All signs point to 'shit getting worse', but I'd like an opinion from someone who lives there.

In the last year, the Eurozone almost killed itself with their ill-advised bank account confiscation in Cyprus. When people grabbed that Dutch asshole Dijsselbloem by the neck and forced him to shut the fuck up, that particular problem went away. Borrowing costs in Europe are essentially negative for most countries:



However, despite the fact that people will apparently pay the nation states of Europe to take their money and fucking invest it in something, they aren't doing that. Last week, Olli Rehn announced that the ECB expected unemployment to remain over twelve percent until some time in 2015. If only there were some sort of mechanism by which sovereign nations could transform a high regional savings rate into economic growth! Even in 2015, the ECB is predicting that the unemployment rate will only fall to 11.8% as growth skyrockets to 1.7% because the confidence fairy will step in. This time for sure.



The problem here is that the ECB has downgraded their growth predictions every year, several times a year, for six fucking years They just downgraded their prediction for 2014 growth to 1.1 percent, a few years ago we were supposed to be in recovery by then and Euro-area growth was supposed to be above four percent. Basically any rational assessment of current policy is that it will keep plugging away with near zero growth and disastrously high unemployment indefinitely. Unless and until a radical policy shift comes into place, there is essentially no mechanism for economic recovery.

Now normally when you have a long period of economic depression and a political elite that is completely impotent, you get the rise of extremism. Because if the centrists don't have any ideas and times are desperate, well the extremists always have ideas. And I would have thought that you'd have extremist parties taking over countries already. But the Europeans, in part due to having a much better memory for the Cold War and World War 2 than they do for the Great Depression, have so far mostly held off (Hungary being a notable exception). But I think it's important to remember that the Nazi party didn't happen in one election cycle or two:





Now Fascists are moving forward in many nations. España 2000 in Spain, Golden Dawn in Greece, National Front in France, Sweden Democrats in Sweden, and of course Fidesz in Hungary. But outside of Hungary they are still minority parties with little real power (except, obviously, in Hungary).

But considering that fascists and communists actually do have answers to Europe's financial problems, one could easily imagine a cascade where many countries follow the example of countries that bootstrap themselves to full employment following extremist policies. Fidesz isn't going to lead that charge, because they are incompetent buffoons who think Reaganomics is the be-all and end-all of economic theory. But Golden Dawn could probably cut Greek unemployment in half in nine months, and then why wouldn't Spain vote in mass for España 2000 in the next cycle?

Europe could be divided into Axis and Ally countries in as little as three years if the Germans don't get their head on straight. And considering that German economists were just out condemning the ECB for dropping the lending rate when unemployment is 12.2% and inflation is 0.7%, I am not going to hold my breath for that to happen.

-Username17

[Lago PARANOIA]

Do you ever think a law that randomly assigned lawmaker income to the median of one of the bottom four quintiles, chosen randomly each paycheck, might settle their hash?

[Kaelik]

Do you ever think a law that randomly assigned lawmaker income to the median of one of the bottom four quintiles, chosen randomly each paycheck, might settle their hash?

No you idiot. First off, most people don't actually care about their lawmaker income. Two, many of them, if not most, are actually so fucking retarded that they think they are doing the best thing.

[Lago PARANOIA]

Do you ever think a law that randomly assigned lawmaker income to the median of one of the bottom four quintiles, chosen randomly each paycheck, might settle their hash?

No you idiot. First off, most people don't actually care about their lawmaker income. Two, many of them, if not most, are actually so fucking retarded that they think they are doing the best thing.

Kaelik's hunger for attention and petty social domination has dulled his ability to detect impotent snark. Despite his interminable slinging of it.

[Username17]

It's been clear for years that the technocratic elite of Europe do not consider lowering unemployment or increasing economic growth to be priorities. One is entitled to ask what the fuck their priorities actually are.

-Username17

[Josh_Kablack]

Local Columnist notices the issue's Frank's bringing up here.

[sabs]

The Technocratic Elite of Europe care for what they've always cared about since the days of So Crates.

"Whores and Cognac*"

Cognac, Schnapps, Grapa, Vodka, Sherry, Brandy, Armagnac.

[ishy]

Local Columnist[/url]]They understand well the advantages of the euro and some of the beneficence of EU aid, but they also recall well when their money and their stamps had their own national heroes and heroines on them.

Uhmmm, Euros still have national 'heroes and heroines' on them.

[Username17]

Local Columnist[/url]]They understand well the advantages of the euro and some of the beneficence of EU aid, but they also recall well when their money and their stamps had their own national heroes and heroines on them.

Uhmmm, Euros still have national 'heroes and heroines' on them.

Only if your national heroines happen to be named Europa.

The rhetorical overreach was stamps. Countries still issue their own fucking stamps. When you send a letter in France, you still get a stamp with a French person on it, it just costs 58 Euro cents instead of some number of francs.

-Username17

[Aharon]

Well, the same is true for the coins, the spanish and belgian ones have their respective kings, the german ones the German Eagle,...

[ishy]

No?
Countries still choose whose face they want to put on the 'heads' side of coins?

[Username17]

No?
Countries still choose whose face they want to put on the 'heads' side of coins?

And countries don't get to choose which country those coins are spent in. If you're in Belgium, people will give you Dutch minted coins, and vice versa. The text is still technically correct even if you restrict the discussion of money to the coins.

-Username17

[Koumei]

Is that specific to the case of Belgium being a weird mixture of Dutch Belgium and Belgium Belgium, where one pub can actually be split down the middle and half of it has to close an hour early? Or can you walk into Germany and spend your pounds without a problem?

[sabs]

No, it's the case that Euros can be spent in any country. If you have euros you got from a German bank, and oyu take them to Italy. They're still euros and you can spend them no questions asked.

It's a lot more like the american quarters, that have a state emblem for every state on the 'head' side. It's still just a quarter.

Also, to the Dutch Speaking Belgiums.. they are the Belgium Belgium, and it's the French Belgium that are interlopers, and of course.. vice versa.

And no, the UK is not in the Eurozone, and there for you cannot spend Pounds anywhere outside of the UK.

[Maj]

Also, to the Flemings (Dutch Speaking Belgiums).. they are the Belgium Belgium, and it's the Walloons (French Belgium) that are interlopers, and of course.. vice versa.

I'm gonna get specific here because the Belgians have the best names ever.

[ishy]

And nobody remembers the German speaking Belgians.

[Ancient History]

Somewhere back in the mists of time, my family were Walloons. I tried to explain the concept of Wallonia to somebody, and he started calling me "Belgian."

[Blade]

It's been clear for years that the technocratic elite of Europe do not consider lowering unemployment or increasing economic growth to be priorities. One is entitled to ask what the fuck their priorities actually are.
-Username17

The technocratic elite isn't in power in Europe since the 80s (more or less). They're still accused of running and ruining everything, and there are still many of them in the European institutions, but they don't get to do anything.

Who gets to do things then? That's something I'm wondering. Maybe some US banks, or Indian CEOs.

[Username17]

It's been clear for years that the technocratic elite of Europe do not consider lowering unemployment or increasing economic growth to be priorities. One is entitled to ask what the fuck their priorities actually are.
-Username17

The technocratic elite isn't in power in Europe since the 80s (more or less). They're still accused of running and ruining everything, and there are still many of them in the European institutions, but they don't get to do anything.

Who gets to do things then? That's something I'm wondering. Maybe some US banks, or Indian CEOs.

That's a load of bullshit. If the technocratic elite weren't running the show in Europe, why does the Troika get to wander from country to country making them follow the whims of the German finance ministry? The entire Austerity movement is too similar to what German elites have claimed to believe the entire time for that to have been imposed from outside.

The United States has political gridlock to blame for their austerity. The technocrats of the United States have a decidedly Keynesian (if market monetarist) bias, and dutifully and accurately predict the effects of policy based on assumptions of fiscal multipliers that are somewhat too conservative, but still obviously have the correct sign in front of them. We have a nihilist political party that attempts to shut down the government from time to time, but our Central Bank does not say that it believes this is a good idea, nor does it fail to issue prognostications that such harmful activity is harmful.

The Eurozone meanwhile, was put together by a series of treaties based on the idea that fiscal multipliers are not only less than one, but less than zero. The Orwellianly named "Stability and Growth Pact" literally requires member states to provide negative fiscal stimulus in response to negative economic shocks. The claim was that by keeping deficit spending low, inflation would be low, and low inflation would always magically translate to steady growth. This is in keeping with German economic theory, and no one else. All other schools of economic thought regard this doctrine as batshit insane as a matter of arithmetic. Certainly, Germany's own experience during the Great Depression is totally the opposite - Bruning kept deficits and inflation low, unemployment got very high, and then Hitler took over.

The Stability and Growth Pact was initially proposed by German finance minister Theo Waigel. When it was determined by Germany to be insufficiently draconian on those countries which dared to follow conventional Anglo-American counter-cyclic fiscal policy, Angela Merkel rammed through a "toughening" of the rules in the form of the European Fiscal Compact in 2011.

These brutal and insane economic decisions are from Germany. They are not from other places. They are demanded by German political leaders and supported by German academics and media outlets. The only question is whether German economics is sincere and insane, or whether it is in fact deliberately crashing the rest of Europe into an iceberg to devalue their own currency and maintain an export boom in Germany that makes the heads of German companies very rich. Those two positions seem equally likely to me at this point.

-Username17

[Kaelik]

It's a lot more like the american quarters, that have a state emblem for every state on the 'head' side. It's still just a quarter.

The State Emblem is on the tails side.

[Sashi]

These brutal and insane economic decisions are from Germany. They are not from other places. They are demanded by German political leaders and supported by German academics and media outlets. The only question is whether German economics is sincere and insane, or whether it is in fact deliberately crashing the rest of Europe into an iceberg to devalue their own currency and maintain an export boom in Germany that makes the heads of German companies very rich. Those two positions seem equally likely to me at this point.

Why not both? I'm sure that a certain amount of corporate overlords are completely in favor of the current plan because it lines their pockets, but Germans also suffer under a collective insanity that inflation=Hitler. An axious obsession that the only thing preventing another fascist rise to power is the low inflation rate, and any rise in inflation is a crack in the wall protecting us from world war three.

So when asked "austerity of Hitler?" they always choose austerity, especially when they're choosing it for someone else.

[Lago PARANOIA]

But it's more like austerity => Hitler. Not austerity || Hitler.

Then again, the confusion that it was the short-lived hyperinflation that swept the Nazis into power about a decade before the onset of the Great Depression is one that persists pretty much everywhere anyway.

[Prak]

Canadian cartoon character Mayor Rob Ford tells reporters "I've got plenty to eat at home" and isn't talking about his fully stocked fridge.