Europe has been sliding down the tubes since Great Depression 2.0 hit them in 2007. They are doing worse than we are, we have at least leveled out the downturn, Europe is still in a power dive toward the ground. The Economist is all sorts of concerned, they run long articles about it, but they dance around the real issue[s]. This week they are blaming "austerity", but they never get around to defining the word. "Austerity" hits bankrupt countries like Greece. The Greek government is spending more money than it takes in. Nobody will lend money to Greece. They cannot print their own money. The Germans won't give them more bailout money. So Greece has to raise taxes and kick people out of government jobs and off welfare. No Greek likes any part of this. They are rioting in the streets. It's all Angela Merkel's fault 'cause she won't give us more bailout money.
In the old days, the Greek government could simply print more money to pay the bills. When the extra Drachma's became cheaper, Greece merely devalued the currency. But when Greece gave up it's own currency and joined the Euro, they gave up the right to print their own money. Joining the Euro was a dumb move for the Greeks.
Staunch European Union supporters like the Economist simply cannot bring themselves to admit this in print. So they ramble on, for several pages, talking about the evils of "austerity" without saying a single word about how to fix things. No talk about placing new products into production, exploiting shale oil and gas, placing new land into agriculture, in short, expanding the pie. Europeans don't think that way. They just rail against "austerity".
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