Saturday, November 26, 2011
Europe's Entitlement Reckoning - WSJ.com
And the beat goes on.
All over the world, populations continue to ignore the root cause of our financial problems.
Governments just cannot afford the entitlement programs they have committed to.
And keep in mind those "mortgage the future" commitments are likely related to buying votes...
All over the world, populations continue to ignore the root cause of our financial problems.
Governments just cannot afford the entitlement programs they have committed to.
And keep in mind those "mortgage the future" commitments are likely related to buying votes...
This Wall Street Journal article pinpoints the issue:
"If the first step in curing an addiction is to acknowledge it, there is little sign of that in Europe. The solutions on offer are to spend still more money, to have the Germans bail out everybody else, or to ditch the euro so bankrupt countries can again devalue their own currencies. France's latest debt solution includes raising corporate, capitals gains and sales taxes.
Yet Europe's problem isn't the euro. If it were, Hungary, Iceland and Latvia—none of which use the euro—would have been spared their painful days of reckoning. The same applies for Britain. Europe is in a debt spiral brought about by spendthrift, overweening and inefficient governments."
