Europe in Disarray - by Stephen Lendman
Destructive policies are weakening deeply troubled Eurozone economies.
Europe's underpinnings can only hold so long. Years of entrapment under euro straightjacket rules means eventual dissolution and collapse.
Throwing more money at out-of-control debt problems buys delay only. Instead of swallowing painful solutions, EU leaders keep repeating the same mistakes, heading dire conditions to catastrophic ones.
In fact, reactions to last week's summit were decidedly negative. On December 14, the Financial Times (FT) headlined, "Doubts about eurozone fiscal deal grow," saying:
The euro selloff against the dollar "showed the strain of efforts to force through austerity policies and impose tough new spending rules."
Moreover, concerns emerged among at least four non-euro countries over whether legal considerations would force them to join Britain and opt out.
Czech Republic Prime Minister called the Brussels deal little "more than a blank sheet of paper....I think that it would be politically short-sighted to come out with strong statements that we should sign that piece of paper."Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said a referendum at this stage would fail. An unnamed Brussels diplomat wants "some clarity on what this treaty might include. There are so many unanswered questions," he added.
In fact, there's lots more troubling than he explained. Moreover, nothing from Brussels augurs well for working households across Europe. More on that below.
Nonetheless, other countries also expressed concerns, including Hungary and Sweden, saying they won't relinquish control of their corporate tax policy. What about their people policy? Only harder than ever hard times are planned.
Italy's opposition Northern League expressed strong disapproval of a deal they called a "holdup," not a budget.
Munich's Ifo think tank cut its 2012 German GDP forecast, saying:
"The dependency of economic developments on the decisions made by Europe's politicians complicates the forecast considerably by making radically different plausible scenarios possible."
In other words, bad decisions assure bad results. At issue only is how bad at a time weak Eurozone countries are heading south, and nothing's being done to stop it.
