Funny how we look at the 90s as a golden age. Clinton was deregulating the banks in the states with the overturn of Glass-Steagal, and Blair and Schroder were setting up the EU for this.
We didn't just walk into this mess, we charged headlong.
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.edited 27th Nov '11 9:47:22 AM by Octo
Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 FanficYes, but for all of its excesses, and the fact that it's too low especially for children, it did streamline the whole process.
Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic@Lock: Aw, yes, I should have expalined.
The Chretien Liberal government in Canada did several very important things that were instrumental in Canad avoiding the crisis:
- Balanced the budget for a surplus
- Paid off massive portions of the debt
- Banned politcal doantions form unions and corporations outright
- Left a strong budget for the future governments to take over
- Did not get invovled in Iraq, saving billions
1-4 are key things A Merica should do.
@Radical: The 90s were a golden age -Communism fell and terrorism isn't a major enemy yet, the economy of the US is strong, and wages hadn't stagnated quite so much yet.
If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.Well, Canada was pretty much on of the few countries that didn't act in such a fashion (in terms of bank deregulation and/or aggressive anti-inflation measures) to lead itself to be creamed over the last few years or so. And yes, that's mostly good on Cretien.
Of course, things are not perfect north of the border, as a lowering tide drops all boats, (Something the EU probably needs to learn and fast) but still, they're better than in most places.
Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserveIt's been my observation that the EU's good points (casual border crossings) are pretty pitiful when compared with the downsides, such as increased wealth disparities (everyone predicted more jobs for poorer countries, but the rich nations got richer and the poor even poorer).
Maybe this whole mess was inevitable, and the whole thing should be scrapped. If anything, nation states ought to be shrinking, not growing.
I'm a skeptical squirrelSo apparently there are speculations about "elite" Euro bonds - i.e. common bonds by Germany, France, Finland, Netherlands, Austria and Luxemburg, excluding the weaker Euro members. However, all reports about such plans have been strongly denied. Still, this seems to me like the first step to divide the Eurozone. After all it are those strong countries who don't need common bonds. So to me that sounds like establishing common bonds to keep those six stable no matter what, while the rest, well...
Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 FanficOECD warns of European recession
— Exactly What It Says on the Tin, I'm afraid:
- Eurozone: Down 1% in the forth quarter, and 0.4% in the first quarter next year
- UK: 0.03% contraction this quarter, and a further 0.15% in the first quarter next year.
- Global: Growth revised down to 3.8% this year and 3.4% next year.
And here's the actual OECD article
.
And more economic data
from The BBC, complete with .xls files of data...
Robert Peston writes about how the markets are acting like Italy will be bailed out by the IMF
to which they are going to have to because its going to cost Italy too much to go through normal credit markets.
Krugman has something rather pointed
to say about the OECD's little about-face... namely that they recommended the very things they are now warning everyone about.
In the run-up to the next European summit on Dec. 9, a raft of new ideas circulated on how Europe could once and for all cap the financial contagion that began in Greece two years ago and has now spread to bigger economies, notably Italy.
Among the ideas floated was a plan for the eurozone's six triple A rated nations to pool their resources via a joint bond to provide assistance to some of the single currency bloc's most indebted members and a fast-track move to a fiscal union between the 17 countries that Germany wants in return for its money.
Whatever materializes and however many denials, the euro project is in grave danger.
Evolution Securities economist Gary Jenkins said the series of government bond auctions this week "may determine the future of the EU."
Financial Times columnist Wolfgang Munchau wrote Monday that the common currency "has 10 days at most" to avoid collapse.
The latest bout of turmoil to afflict the eurozone came last week after Germany failed to raise all the money it wanted in a bond auction and Italy had to pay through the roof to get investors to part with their cash.
If a busy bond schedule this week meets with an equally-poor reception, then the euro's countries will be in real danger of being locked out of international markets and facing the devastating prospect of defaulting on their debts.
As governments nervously tap bond markets, Germany looks like it's getting ready to ask its eurozone partners to back measures for a deeper fiscal union.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said late Sunday that Germany is pushing the EU parliament to allow the 17 eurozone members to draw up treaties that would grant outside powers the right to reject national budgets in eurozone nations that breach EU regulations. Such a move would allow for stiffer new regulations to be enacted more swiftly.
"At the moment, we have a very low level of trust in the eurozone, that is our problem," Schaeuble said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD. "We must now achieve what we failed to 10 years ago through a stability union."
The prospect of a deeper fiscal union, where in effect Berlin will have a greater say on developments in Athens, Rome and Lisbon, has been greeted positively in the markets. But it's likely to take a long time to come to fruition.
"We do seem to be moving slowly towards more of a fiscal union but at a pace that may result in all the components being put in place after a complete meltdown of the financial system," Evolution Securities' Jenkins said.
Many think the ECB is the only institution capable of calming frayed market nerves and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's continued dismissal of a greater ECB role has frayed market nerves.
Potentially, the ECB has unlimited financial firepower through its ability to print money. However, Germany finds the idea of monetizing debts unappealing, warning that it lets the more profligate countries off the hook for their bad practices. In addition, it conjures up bad memories of hyperinflation in Germany in the 1920s.
Oh buggering hell. >.>
Dutch LesbianThey continue to learn all the wrong lessons.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
And I thought the US was just a place where Hell on Earth always broke out when it came to the Middle/Working/Lower classes ...
If I want to leave the US, where should I go to live in Europe at the moment? Or should I stick to Canada?
I'd like to know - I don't want to be living in a place where "Austerity is the only way to go at the moment..."
This is where I, the Vampire Mistress, proudly reside: http://liberal.nationstates.net/nation=nova_nacio
So Scandinavia or Canada, then.
I'll keep that in mind before the 2nd Great Depression breaks out. And it will!
This is where I, the Vampire Mistress, proudly reside: http://liberal.nationstates.net/nation=nova_nacio![]()
and
Hence why I'm being careful.
But America is secretly on its way to civil war and I'm afraid I'll end up on the wrong side.
Overall, hence why I'm considering vacating the nation for something that will actually look out for me(when I pay my taxes for it, and I do) and appreciate my existence when I fight against it doing something wrong (for the greater good).
edited 28th Nov '11 9:38:37 AM by LostAnarchist
This is where I, the Vampire Mistress, proudly reside: http://liberal.nationstates.net/nation=nova_nacio

Enlighten me/us.
Programming and surgery have a lot of things in common: Don't start removing colons until you know what you're doing.