German tabloid Bild asks “Will Italy’s political clowns destroy the euro?”, while in an op-ed, Ernst Elitz argues that “After these elections it is clear that the future of our continent will not be decided in Brussels or Berlin but in individual member states that have almost been declared dead already. If the voters there do not vote with understanding but rather on a whim then no bailout fund can help”. Writing in FAZ, Anton Börner, President of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), argues that “Monetary stability cannot be negotiated and we need to send a clear message to the South: For us there is life after the euro.”
Young people without a job will be guaranteed the offer of employment, training or further education under a new decision agreed yesterday (28 February) by EU national ministers.
The new scheme, to be introduced by each EU country according to its individual need, will apply to young people who are out of work for more than four months. It aims to give them a real chance to further their education, or get a job, apprenticeship or traineeship.
One in five young Europeans is jobless. In countries such as Greece and Spain, half are unemployed.
Commission takes UK to ECJ over reduced VAT rate for energy efficient goods
The UK Government is being taken to the ECJ by the European Commission for offering reduced VAT rates to encourage homeowners to make their houses more energy-efficient. The European Commission claimed yesterday that, under EU rules, such VAT reductions must be linked to “social policy.”
Military procurement is the most holy, and therefore the most corrupt government procurement.
The Pentagon’s pursuit of the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet has been a heartbreaking one. If you’re a tax payer, the program’s estimated $1 trillion price tag probably breaks your heart a little bit. If you’re an aviation enthusiast, the constant whittling away of the do-it-all aircraft’s features, which in many cases actually amounts to adding weight and taking away maneuverability, must hurt a little bit, too.
. . . .
To put it bluntly, the Pentagon’s new trillion-dollar fighter jet doesn’t go a fast as it should, doesn’t turn as sharp as it should and doesn’t handle as nimbly as it should. This is bad news, explains Wired’s David Axe. For the pilots who will eventually take the F-35 into combat, the JSF’s reduced performance means they might not be able to outfly and outfight the latest Russian- and Chinese-made fighters,” writes Axe. “Even before the downgrades, some analysts questioned the F-35′s ability to defeat newer Sukhoi and Shenyang jets.” That all sounds like bad news, doesn’t it? If our expensive new jets can’t beat the Russians or the Chinese, who can we fight? I’m pretty sure al Qaeda doesn’t have an air force. (Read more)
Bild reports that Germany’s European Commissioner Günther Oettinger yesterday acknowledged that Brussels interferes in too many policy areas, adding that “except for the number of speeches nothing grows [in the EU].”
Patrick Barron: Contrary to the euro-federalists’ claims, the euro does not help the sick countries of Southern Europe get healthier. It is more instructive to think of the euro as the carrier of the debt disease of the southern tier countries in Europe to the healthier northern tier countries. A fiscal union would enshrine this process as a classic socialist policy with classic socialist results; i.e., capital will be plundered in all eurozone countries until it is exhausted.
I make the argument against Sweden as a socialist paradise quite often. It usually goes like this:
4 Arguments against Sweden as an example of socialist success
1) Sweden’s wealth can be attributed to the fact that it has been peaceful longer than any other country in Europe, including Switzerland. It used to have a radically free economy. Completely free trade. It even had competing currencies until 1903.
2) Sweden’s welfare state ballooned in the 50s and 60s. Since then, Sweden’s economy has slowed considerably. In one albeit controversial study published in the Swedish Economics Association’s journal Ekonomisk Debatt in 2009, Ratio Institute economists Bjuggren and Johansson found that there has been NO JOB CREATION AT ALL in the private sector from 1950 to 2005.
3) Sweden is still has some economic freedom. Their corporate tax rate is considerably lower than the US’s. They rate extremely well on Heritage’s scale (18th).
4) Even if you think these argument are BS (which they aren’t), you have to ask yourself why the Swedish people elect politicians who call themselves conservative and cut taxes. In 2010, they re-elected politicians who cut taxes on everybody, including the super rich.
***
Side note: My libertarian friends in Sweden are outraged that the reforms in Sweden which pass for free-market reforms are thinly veiled corporatism and other corruption.
Imagine a time when the government knew nothing about the money in your bank. It cared nothing about how much you made, where you made it, and what you did with it. You could take your earnings in gold, silver, paper, or anything else, and never filed a sheet with the government. How you earned a living was none of the business of the political class. For that matter, your bank account could be under a false name and absolutely no one cared. This was the world of a mere 100 years ago in the United States. That’s why it was called the “land for the free.”
In Middle Island, Walmart remained unofficially open long past midnight as it welcomed people who couldn’t get home.
“We’re here to mind the store, but we can’t let people freeze out there,” said manager Jerry Greek, who had closed the store at 6 p.m., four hours earlier than normal.
As the major roadways were shut down, motorists were stranded for hours on secondary roads (Read more)
One nice thing about most foreign governments, even horribly corrupt ones, is that they don’t subject their people to as much propaganda as the US government does:
For example, as highlighted in “Good Will Spending: Closed for Business”, Jim Puplava cites some very troubling and eye-opening statistics collected by Professors Boskin and Cogan of Stanford University.
Between 1985 and 2005 the population in California grew by 10 million people. And it is, and still remains, the most populous state in the union. But here’s the significant point: out of the 10 million new residents that moved into the state of California, we only got 150,000 new taxpayers. So, in other words, 98.5% of that 10 million population influx are non-taxpayers. So you have a tax base of 1.5% that is supporting the other 98.5%; and the statistics get even better…California has 12% of the nation’s population but it has one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients. 1 out of 5 residents of Los Angeles are on welfare.
Krugman invents a straw man to accuse Hoppe of inventing a straw man.
Funny: Angry Bear finds some of the usual suspects explaining How to Debate Paul Krugman, and the answer appears to be this: invent a straw man who bears no resemblance at all to the economist/columnist of the same name, and ridicule that imaginary person.
I have to say, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I could play the role of History’s Greatest Monster to so many people. Thank you for the honor!
Aside from the silliness of the exercise, this little exchange is another illustration of a point I’ve noticed before: the way hard-right commentators assume that the other side must be their mirror image. They insist that no government intervention is ever justified; so liberals must support any and all government interventions. They want smaller government, as a principle; liberals must want bigger government, never mind what for. They believe that deficits and printing money are always evil; liberals must be for deficits and money-printing under all circumstances.
An hour spent browsing this blog would quickly refute all of this, together with the bizarre charge that I never look at evidence; you may not agree with my conclusions, but I sure do post a lot of numbers. But obviously looking at what I actually write would just be too painful. (Read more)
***
How to Debate Paul Krugman: “Ask Questions Like a Child”
Colleges are good at getting people enrolled. They get kids lined up with education loans. The money goes to pay exorbitant prices on textbooks. It pays for meal cards. Tuition is crazy high. Parents go along and shell out until their bank accounts are barren.
What colleges are not good at is getting the kids degrees. And those without those degrees have a hard time getting a good job to pay back a student loan. Instead, they fall into delinquency, starting off life saddled with an unpayable debt.
According to Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), delinquencies on student loans made in the last two years have reached 15%. The pool of loans made between 2005-2007 is almost as bad, with 12.4% past due. Bloomberg reports that “almost 60% of bank managers surveyed in December expect delinquencies to worsen in six months, FICO said.” (Read more)
(