of the reality-less, history-less right wing drivel. Come back and provide an example, just one, in history where an economy like Greece has benefited from austerity WHILE they were in a depression. You won't because it doesn't exist. Greece has many problems that have nothing to do with social programs or unions. They have had, for decades, no systematic tax collection. They are part of the EU, where a strong Euro can destroy a country like Greece's industry (far less so than the much stronger German industry). The previous right wing government, with the help of Western banks, hid their true financial state from the heads at the ECB. There there are things like this, from 2004 (does this failed economic philosophy sound familiar?):
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsar...
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso cut the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 30 percent. Greece plans to reduce the tax rate on retained earnings by 10 percentage points to 25 percent. The EU's average corporate tax rate declined to 31.7 percent last year from 32.5 percent in 2002 and 39 percent from 1996, as accession talks gained pace, according to KPMG LLP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Greece
Beginning in 2007, the rate of corporate tax is 25%. Starting in 2010 the corporate tax rate will fall 1% annually until it reaches 20% in 2015.
Social programs CAN be maintained, but they can't be maintained at current levels if the government is taking a part in the race to the bottom, like other neo-liberal disasters, with tax cuts and lax tax enforcement.
Regarding the ECB, the ECB cannot create money itself nor lend to the governments or buy their debt directly, that is up to the financial markets and the private banks. They are completely under the boot of the private financial interests. So when a country is going through a recession there aren't many options, like counter cyclical measures, that the countries in the EU can implement. The right wing ECB has been talking about setting up a council that will override what people chose democratically if it essentially doesn't benefit the creditors. They don't actually say that directly, they but that is what it would do.
Regardless, the policies that the pro-austerity crowd wants will make a bad situation worse. They will cause a downturn in the real economy, which will make it harder for the countries to pay back their debt. The debt will then grow, the debt to GDP ratio will grow and their credit rating will get worse and worse. The only way for a country to get out of a situation like Greece's is either for the debts to reduced down to the level of the ability to pay or by instituting policies that will help the real economy grow so it can pay back the debt it owes. That would entail the exact opposite of austerity.
By the way, if it is the big bad unions and the big bad government to blame, how do you explain Ireland? Was Ireland not being lauded by the IMF as the "free market" model to follow? Wasn't it the "Celtic Tiger"? Please explain:
http://enoughcampaign.org/2011/04/14/why-does...
Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years was the poster-child of globalised, deregulated, neoliberal capitalism as multinational corporations flocked to take advantage of its low corporation tax rates. A policy of light-touch financial regulation saw the banking sector finance a monstrous housing bubble. Then the bubble burst. The collapse of the construction industry sent the economy into a tailspin, while plunging home prices left many people owing more than their houses were worth. Now Ireland is, per capita, the most indebted country in the EU, with a deficit of 32 percent.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46634
Tax rates on companies had been reduced to 12.5% and the rate actually paid by the transnational corporations that had set up business there was between 3 and 4% — a CEO’s dream! By comparison, the company tax rate is 39.5% in Japan, 39.2% in Britain, 34.4% in France and 28% in the US.
...Colmant said Belgium needed to change the legal and institutional framework so as to become a platform for international capital, just like Ireland. A few short weeks later, the Celtic Tiger was crying mercy. In Ireland, financial deregulation triggered a boom in loans to households, especially in real estate. On the eve of the crisis, household indebtedness had reached 190% of gross domestic product (GDP).
...On the social level, the austerity plan is nothing short of disastrous. It includes:
• cutting 24,750 positions in the civil service (8% of the workforce);
• newly recruited public employees earning 10% less;
• lower family and unemployment allowances, a significant reduction in the health budget, a freeze on retirement pensions;
• a rise in taxes, to be borne mostly by the majority of the population, already a victim of the crisis: notably a value added tax (similar to GST) increase from 21% to 23% in 2014; creation of a real estate tax (affecting half of the households that were formerly tax-exempt);
• a 1 euro reduction in the minimum hourly wage (from 8.65 to 7.65, or 11% less).
Forex Pros – European stock markets were broadly lower on Wednesday, as lingering fears over Greece's finances and the euro zone’s spreading debt crisis weighed, while U.S. futures pointed to lower open on Wall Street.<br /><br />During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 slumped 0.35%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.38%, while Germany's DAX 30 dropped 0.4%. <br /><br />Greek newspapers reported on Wednesday that the government was considering organizing a referendum on additional austerity measures after it failed to reach consensus with the opposition.<br /><br />Rumors that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou could resign, leading to a snap election also weighed on sentiment.<br /><br />Meanwhile, shares in the technology sector performed poorly after Applied Materials, the world’s largest producer of chip-making equipment forecast full-year earnings that missed market expectations.<br /><br />Infineon Technologies, Europe’s second largest chipmaker declined 2.15%, shares of STMicroelectronics shed 1%, while U.K.-based ARM Holdings slumped 1.7% in London. <br /><br />In London, the FTSE 100 edged 0.25% lower as shares of telecom company Cable & Wireless Communications plunged 7.3% after reporting annual profits. <br /><br />The telecom firm reported a jump in fiscal-year net profit, but it also said business in the Caribbean “has been more difficult than we anticipated at the time of the demerger” and that the company continues to face “weak or declining economies across the region.”<br /><br />Shares in rival Vodafone declined 1% after Nomura Holdings downgraded the stock to ‘neutral’. “Vodafone has the highest exposure to European mobile coverage, and thus, we recommend that investors reduce overweight positions,” the broker said. <br /><br />On the upside, copper miner Antofagasta climbed 1.5% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to ‘equal-weight’ from ‘underweight’, saying it now trades in line with the sector. <br /><br />Earlier in the day, official data showed that U.K. gross domestic product grew by 0.5% in the first quarter, in line with preliminary estimates.<br /><br />The outlook for U.S. equity markets, meanwhile, was downbeat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a decline of 0.24%, S&P 500 futures indicated a drop of 0.2%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.25%. <br /><br />Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish official data on durable goods orders as well as a government report on crude oil stockpiles.<br /><br />
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