Ongoing European Debt Crisis

So what's this I'm hearing about Greece getting better?

Where did you heard that? I don't recall much progress being made.

Twas Al-Jazeera.

It confirms what we had started to see a year ago: a recovery based on tourism and tourism-related business. Problem is, if the industry and the main services don't recover and don't get reinvested in, tourism will not be able to sustain the economy in the long run.

Fair enough.

A Series of Articles from Reuters:

• Euro zone economy grinds to halt even before Russia sanctions bite
• German economy shrinks, hitting European recovery hopes
• Stagnating France to miss deficit target, urges EU leniency

Some articles from the BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28785700

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28924279

Draghi is showing he doesn't believe in an obsession with balanced budgets that much of the EU is worried about, and France has realized that much of their country's issue is a demand side problems. However, the Eurozone is still likely to suffer from Stagnation.

Jack, try to pothole those links under some context, please?

The Parti Socialiste, ladies and gentlemen.

Ah, Hollande, we had such hopes for you...

Hollande is already the most unpopular French President of modern times — according to The Other Wiki, his approval rating in April 2014 was 18%. 18%.

Despite the name, the Parti socialiste have followed the same path as a lot of left-wing European Parties and are now not very left-wing, just centre-left social democrats.

edited 25th Aug '14 6:10:16 AM by Greenmantle

Don't Explain the Joke.

Incidentally, any tropers with information on France: Which way is the Hollande-hatred skewing? Is the PS as hated as Hollande, and is that hatred translating into support for the UMP, or is the French public to the left of the PS and looking for an alternative to Hollande?

EDIT: Just found out for myself and wished I hadn't. I now throw my full hopes behind Hollande and the PS holding together, because if elections were held right now, the Front National look like they would make bank.

edited 25th Aug '14 7:30:16 AM by Ramidel

I never really had any hope. He's got no charisma, and was elected simply because he was 'Not-Sarkozy'.

If they don't decide by Tuesday, things will get worse for all EU members.

edited 25th Aug '14 6:36:29 AM by Quag15

Brad DeLong seems to think Mario Draghi is very very aware if he can't get Europe to start boosting Demand and get people Spending, the continent is about to triple dip, and likely slide the world economy into an outright Depression.

Krugman goes over the French economy: Prime age workers are well off in terms of participation due to generous retirement programs and generous school age aid, also that France while in deficit, only hit -2.5% GDP, and the country has low inflation and low interests. In theory France's problems are honestly just lack of Demand-side spending, and Krguman speculates the French VSP and politicians are basically suffering PTSD from the Mitterand era which was plagued by a failed financial expansion and what is dubbed Eurosclerosis, a period in the 1970s and 1980s where Europe suffered high unemployment and slow job creation despite economic growth.

Basically, that Hollande (and in theory much of the other European leaders) are basically remembering their version of Stagflation and insisting anything that resembles it is it, despite the difference in causes. Much like the US has issues of.

edited 28th Aug '14 3:17:37 AM by PotatoesRock

It's weird how long political memory of doing the wrong thing lasts.

Centuries, if the effect is big enough...

Bad memories last longer than good ones. Persumably the length of time is some orders of magnitude bigger the "higher" the level of perspective you're looking at things; politics would be the equivalent of "grand strategic-level planning", I think.

edited 28th Aug '14 7:03:17 AM by MarqFJA

Brad DeLong argues that the sheer economic injury caused by the 2007 crash should be labelled as an outright economic Depression, that he's calling the "Greater Depression", now that Europe shows every sign of entering a triple-dip recession.

It should be called the "We Fucked Our Continent Up For No Reason Other Than Our Pride And Fear Depression".

I guess you're including Ukraine and Russia in that as well then?

edited 28th Aug '14 8:31:05 AM by Greenmantle

Yes, but for different reasons.

But on that:

• Germany ready to dilute austerity medicine for reform-minded France
• New French economy minister takes aim at 35-hour week

edited 28th Aug '14 8:53:37 AM by Greenmantle

Germany should really start taking care of it's own house.