Loading ...Rick Ackerman writes=
News of Europe’s economic problems has seemed to ebb and flow with interest rate fluctuations in sovereign debt. However, even the unschooled observer can see not only that nothing has changed fundamentally, but that economic conditions have steadily worsened. This is notwithstanding the rally in bond prices, particularly Spain’s, on the flimsy pretext that Europe’s supposed recovery was gaining traction.
Only in a financial world ruled by desperation, and by yield-seekers delusionally oblivious to risk, could an economic basket case like Spain have returned to the debt market with a straight face.
France’s money problems are of course orders of magnitude larger than Spain’s, and hubris alone will not pay the mounting social costs of a nation that has promised far more benefits and job security than it can afford. The statist dream that has galvanized Europe’s elites will die hardest in France, whose claim to great-power status in Europe has grown increasingly hollow over the last 40 years. A showdown between Germany and France looms, and the economic implosion it will set in motion promises to be worse than the ravages of the Second World War. Unfortunately, there is no other way to wrest Europe’s fortunes from the asphyxiating grip of folly, hubris and false promises.