Friday, December 16, 2011

Eyes on Europe Part 501: It's Getting Worse

Mish notes a few headline items.

France and Italy are in (or soon will be in) recession.

Credit Agricole has dumped its commodities division.

Cargill will be dumping employees in anticipation of a sucky year 2012.

Other than that, things are just fine. /sarcasm

5 comments:

J. Strupp said...

A couple of hours ago, you posted a, "crowding out" study by the ECB.

Meanwhile, the southern EU nations (and now France) are experiencing real wage deflation, crippling unemployment and negative GDP.

The sad thing about this crisis is that the ECB (and Eurozone in general) is incapable of seeing the irony of it all.

Dad29 said...

Next you'll be telling me that prosperity is OWED to them, right?

J. Strupp said...

Nope. Economics isn't a morality play.

Europeans aren't OWED prosperity. Likewise, they don't DESERVE years of 20+% unemployment, falling wages and negative growth.

And I think the economists on your side are more in tune to injecting morality into economic policy rather than actually data. You remember a little something about the bond market supposedly disciplining our expansionary fiscal policy with high inflation and SOARING interest rates?

Oh, it HAD to happen. It MUST happen.

But it didn't.

Dad29 said...

Yet.

But PRC's beginning to liquidate T-instruments; fortunately, European money is moving in to replace them.

For the time being.

Billiam said...

Strupp, I'm no economist, and I don't have the background or smarts in this area as you and dad have, but I would ask this. You say they don't deserve years of 20%+ unemployment. Don't they? Is this not a result of reckless spending on the part of their governments? Do they bear no responsibility for the results? Won't we, when the same happens here? After all, the collective 'we' refuses to see what awaits us at the end of the path we've been following. The collective 'we' refuse to even acknowledge what we're heading for. Does that not make us complicit in the end result, thus, deserving?