Crisis Conditions Grip Eurozone - by Stephen Lendman
Eurozone faces dissolution and collapse.
From inception, the euro system was doomed to fail. In the 1990s, Progressive Radio News Hour regular Bob Chapman predicted it.
So didn't British economist/euro expert Bernard Connolly before its January 1999 introduction. His 1995 book titled, "The Rotten Heart of Europe: The Dirty War for Europe's Money" explained the risks in detail enough to understand.
More recently, he said troubled Eurozone countries can't cut their way to recovery. Austerity is a hairbrained disastrous policy. So is the "malignant lunacy of monetary union," combining 17 dissimilar countries under one monetary/fiscal system.
It's as nonsensical as mixing fire and ice or believing more debt reduces out-of-control levels.
In 1998, Connolly predicted that one or more weak European countries would face rising budget deficits, economic trouble, and a "downward spiral from which there is no escape unaided. When that happens, the country concerned will be faced with a risk of sovereign default."
It's now perilously close to happening. Greece already is bankrupt. Only its obituary hasn't been written. Its moment of truth heads closer, and with it a bang spread round the world.
Euro straightjacket rules destroyed it. Other troubled Eurozone countries face similar problems made worse by austerity and more debt. The system doomed to fail is cratering. From inception it was sure to happen, but fraudulent reengineering made it look workable.
In contrast, mainstream economists are paid to see blue skies and say so even when so often they're wrong. In addition, they consistently miss key turning points. Their Eurozone analysis is wrongheaded, and so aren't major media opinions. At least so far.
On December 9, a New York Times editorial headlined, "Europe's Latest Try," saying:
How many times have "historic" agreements "fall(en) apart as markets judged they were inadequate or irrelevant to the problem of making good on old debts and generating enough growth to pay off future obligations."
"We are not optimistic that" the latest one "will now break that cycle." Europe prefers learning the hard way. Winston Churchill explained US problem solving that way, saying, "The Americans will always do the right thing after exhausting all other options." In other words, when there's nothing left to try.
On January 1, New York Times writer Nelson Schwartz headlined, "Austerity Reigns Over Euro Zone as Crisis Deepens," saying:
In fact, cut and borrow assures greater crisis conditions ahead than now. According to Graduate Institute of Geneva Professor Charles Wyplosz, "We're going straight into a wall with this kind of policy. It's sheer madness," but Eurozone leaders are pursuing it like lemmings blindly near the abyss.
