New Economic Perspectives Fri 2010-07-02 17:26 EDT

Europe's Fiscal Dystopia: The ``New Austerity'' Road to Neoserfdom

Michael Hudson

Europe is committing fiscal suicide -- and will have little trouble finding allies at this weekend's G-20 meetings in Toronto. Despite the deepening Great Recession threatening to bring on outright depression, European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet and Prime Ministers from Britain's David Cameron to Greece's George Papandreou (president of the Socialist International) and Canada's host, Conservative Premier Stephen Harper, are calling for cutbacks in public spending...It is a self-destructive logic. Exacerbating the economic downturn will reduce tax revenues, making budget deficits even worse in a declining spiral. Latvia's experience shows that the response to economic shrinkage is emigration of skilled labor and capital flight...A half-century of failed IMF austerity plans imposed on hapless Third World debtors should have dispelled forever the idea that the way to prosperity is via austerity. The ground has been paved for this attitude by a generation of purging the academic curriculum of knowledge that there ever was an alternative economic philosophy to that sponsored by the rentier Counter-Enlightenment...

Europe's Fiscal Dystopia; Neoserfdom; new austerity; New Economic Perspectives; Road.

zero hedge Wed 2009-11-25 11:52 EST

Albert Edwards Calls For The Next Black Swan: Expect Yuan Devaluation Following Deep 2010 Downturn

With everyone and their grandmother screeching that it is about time for China to inflate the renminbi, despite that such an action would be economic and social suicide for the world's most populous country, SocGen's Albert Edwards once again stalks out the Black Swan in left field and posits the contrarian view de jour: China will aggressively devalue the yuan following a deep 2010 downturn coupled with escalating trade wars. As Edwards says: "I think the next 18 months will see major ructions in the financial markets. The consequences of a double-dip back into recession next year require some lateral thinking. If the carry trade unwind results in a turbo-charged dollar, any collapse in the China economic bubble will be doubly destructive to commodity prices.

Albert Edwards Calls; Black Swan; Deep 2010 downturn; Expect Yuan Devaluation; Zero Hedge.

Credit Writedowns Mon 2009-09-14 14:43 EDT

Murder-Suicide in Chimerica

Edward Harrison

threading the events of 2008 and 2009 together makes a compelling case that the Chinese -- U.S. marriage is coming apart...GSE collapse, Geithner's charges of Chinese currency manipulation, Chairman Wen slamming the U.S. as a profligate nation, stimulus bill buy-American provision, a steady drumbeat of ditch-the-dollar talk coming out of China, Chinese central bank head Zhou's call for a new international reserve currency, Obama's chinese tire tariff was ``proverbial serving of divorce papers''. Expect prices to rise, look for Chinese retaliation on U.S. poultry and auto products...This marriage is over. The question is whether it will end gradually and peacefully in divorce or violently in murder-suicide.

Chimerica; credit writedowns; murder suicide.

Wed 2009-04-01 00:00 EDT

AlterNet: The Case That Wars Fuel U.S. Economic Booms

by Mark Ames; ``What if our wealth is a consequence of our ability to plunder the world's wealth, often by default thanks to our competitors' suicidal behavior?''

AlterNet; Case; Wars Fuel U.S. Economic Booms.

Tue 2008-06-17 00:00 EDT

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Hotline Suicide Calls Jump

Hotline Suicide Calls Jump; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.