Slow Motion Collapse in Europe Continues
Yesterday was quite a news day for the festering debt crisis in Europe.
Taxpayers everywhere learned that the IMF's new chief, Christine Lagarde, wants an extra $500 billion to help fight Europe's slow-motion collapse. Trouble is, where does the money come from? From nations already up to their eyeballs in... debt, evidently. Count Great Britain and the United States in that category.
Otherwise, the New York Times reported that - catch your breath - Greece's marathon debt talks seem to be "verging" on a deal. But dig into the story and you learn that:
The talks with private creditors have broken down twice before, largely because the International Monetary Fund and European leaders have pushed for a larger debt reduction in light of Greece's worsening economic outlook, so there is the possibility that these negotiations will founder, too.
No kidding? Greece's economic outlook is worsening? You don't say? So why not force private creditors to flush more money down the Greek drain and into the Mediterranean's crystal blue waters? After all, Europe's elites have a lot at stake. Why not strip creditors in a desperate effort to stave off a gargantuan failure made by those very same elites?
But wait, that's not all.
Greece's Aryan benefactors (albeit, reluctantly) have floated the idea that the EU assume control of the Greek budget. EU bigwigs have shot down the notion of wresting the Greek budget from the Greeks. But those bullheaded Germans insist that the backroom discussions favoring an EU takeover of the Greek budget continue. One of the crack wire services reported rather drolly that Germany's proposed putsch will "likely spark controversy" in Greece. You think?
The European dept crisis is like an enormous redwood falling slowly. But the debt crisis will soon reach a point, as with the falling redwood, where gravity really kicks in and accelerates all that mass (basic physics, huh?).
Cover your ears and steady your feet. Europe's in for one dozy of a crash.