TempleDeficitOwl

"My conjecture is that human societies are malleable but only up to a point. Eventually, if a population is pushed too far, then rebellion results. There was a reason that trade unions formed and discussions about welfare states accelerated in the late C19th. The years of abuse by industrialists of their workers and their families went too far and citizens demanded changes. The current social instability should, I think, be seen in that context. The UK Guardian article cited above correctly notes that the years of austerity has left France in a non-viable state. Business investment is weak and many businesses have indicated they will “become vulnerable or even go bankrupt if economic policy remained deadlocked for the next five years.” The outlook for France within the common currency is very bleak. The government does not have the fiscal capacity under the EU rules to do what they should be doing – restoring confidence, redressing the years of infrastructure neglect, helping low income families get better housing, supporting the next generation with a best-practice and well-equipped education system and more. The bond markets simply won’t let them run the fiscal deficits necessary to achieve those necessary outcomes. And when the bond markets finally turn on France, the ECB will certainly step in and buy up the debt again but only at a price – of even more damaging and unsustainable austerity requirements. France is trapped because it uses a foreign currency and the issuer of that currency (the ECB) is part of the problem. The only viable path is for France to exit the common currency and restore the franc and the powers of the Banque de France. Then it would have the flexibility to ease the tensions among its population. Is that likely to happen? Unlikely unless the current social instability becomes so threatening to the state that the mainstream populace seeks an alternative political solution. [....] The problems facing France and its Euro Member State partners is that they are boxed in fiscally and the longer-term consequences of being boxed in for a few decades are now manifesting. There is no way out while they persist with membership of the common currency. Turning to the Far Right is not the answer given that Marine Le Pen is now proposing harsh austerity as the answer while claiming to want to improve the health and education system. It seems that only Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise offers a solution yet how far the European elites will go to stop his (unlikely) election in next April’s Presidential runoff is anyone’s guess. And, mean while the place is burning." billmitchell.org/blog/?p=634…

For the unbearable DSA chodes who suck the air out of the room... your belligerent rejection of understanding MMT (looking at you Emma) is damn near worse than Trump's buffoonish statements. Because of these recalcitrant fucks, nothing ever really changes.

"Fan boys" vs economic dullard

Raising rates has nothing to do with lowering inflation. Only a fuckwit that parrots neoliberal bullsgit thinks that. Higher interest rates is just an increase in a basic income for wealthy people who already have money. It doesn't bring down prices. It raises them. Its exactly the opposite unless you go Volcker and destroy the economy even more.