BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
It is well known that there are a number of countries in Europe that are in dire financial straits. So dire that they make our $16.7 trillion national debt look manageable.
We know about Greece and Italy, Portugal and Spain. Not only are they drowning in debt, but they have high unemployment (Spain’s is nearly 25 percent) and negative GDP growth.
But the scariest news over the weekend came from the tiny country of Cyprus. Continue reading
BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com
Republicans went all crazy yesterday and countered the White House with a fiscal cliff proposal that was first dreamed up by that crazy right-winger Erskine Bowles.
Bowles, who used to toil in the trenches as Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff and who once ran for office in North Carolina as a Democrat, has obviously been seduced by that other right-wing kook, Alan Simpson. How dare Bowles, the closing days of the Super Committee, offer something so radical as to include $800 billion in revenues and about double that in spending cuts. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
Let’s start with Europe and work our way back.
The Greeks held elections last week and they have not been able to form a government since.
The leader of the “Leftist” party (read, Communist), Alexis Tsipras, has told the rest of the European Union that he believes Greece should ignore the promises it made to be bailed out and, in essence, go off on its own.
According to the New York Times, “European leaders have warned that if Greece does not keep its promises, Europe will stop financing it, which would quickly lead to Greece defaulting on its debts and leaving the euro zone, as the countries who share the common euro currency are known.”
I’m not exactly sure what the Greek version of “nanny-nanny-boo-boo” is, but Tsipras appears to be chanting it. If a coalition government cannot be formed, new elections will be called and polls indicate the anti-bailout candidates will gain strength. Continue reading