Instead of "Recovery" in the Euro-Zone, Shouldn't We Be Talking About This?
The latest from the Wall Street Journal:
Euro-Zone Recovery Picks Up
But maybe the time has come to face two simple, glaring facts that continue to stare us in the face:
1) European governments promise welfare benefits to their citizens that they can't sustain. These include both current benefits like mandatory extended vacations (six weeks for the average worker, as I understand it) and universal health care, to cite two examples as well as future promises of pensions that in some instances begin when one turns 50 years old - or younger in some cases.
2) The populations of most European countries are declining. So even if there were some attempt to demonstrate how promised benefits could be sustained by taxing workers, the attempt would hit a brick wall: not enough workers. It's no secret that Europeans have given up replacing themselves, and now we see some of these same countries trying to restrict immigration, the only thing that sustains their economies at the moment, from what I can see.
Has the time come when we can no longer ignore the facts, no longer turn our backs on the elephant in the room? Could it be that an unraveling of the house of cards constructed by politicians who made promises in order to keep themselves in office has commenced. If so, can it be stopped by the quick fixes that have marked the years since our crisis commenced in 2007-2008?
It could well be that this is the more appropriate discussion now.
Euro-Zone Recovery Picks Up
Gross domestic product increased 1.1% at an annualized rate during the fourth quarter, the European Union's statistics office said, the third-straight quarter of growth. GDP was up 0.3% from the third quarter on a nonannualized basis...
...Still, the recovery has lagged behind those in other key industrialized economies including the U.S., U.K. and Japan. Growth in the euro zone remains far below the rates that typically occur after recessions, raising doubts whether the region will be able to make a dent in high joblessness and generate enough output to ease debt burdens in southern Europe.It's yet another good example of the catchy positive headline, followed by some numbers, masking the underlying reality. But there's more to this we might want to talk about. I'm thinking here about the possible unraveling of decades of socialism. If someone could show me how the social welfare programs that exist now in Europe can be sustained into the future, perhaps we don't need to talk about this now. We can just table the discussion for some time in the distant future, just as has been done over and over again throughout this biggest economic and financial crisis of our times. We could, in other words, continue to kick the can down the road.
But maybe the time has come to face two simple, glaring facts that continue to stare us in the face:
1) European governments promise welfare benefits to their citizens that they can't sustain. These include both current benefits like mandatory extended vacations (six weeks for the average worker, as I understand it) and universal health care, to cite two examples as well as future promises of pensions that in some instances begin when one turns 50 years old - or younger in some cases.
2) The populations of most European countries are declining. So even if there were some attempt to demonstrate how promised benefits could be sustained by taxing workers, the attempt would hit a brick wall: not enough workers. It's no secret that Europeans have given up replacing themselves, and now we see some of these same countries trying to restrict immigration, the only thing that sustains their economies at the moment, from what I can see.
Has the time come when we can no longer ignore the facts, no longer turn our backs on the elephant in the room? Could it be that an unraveling of the house of cards constructed by politicians who made promises in order to keep themselves in office has commenced. If so, can it be stopped by the quick fixes that have marked the years since our crisis commenced in 2007-2008?
It could well be that this is the more appropriate discussion now.
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