Here we go again:

[underlankers]

Evidently people in the United States have learned nothing from the last time a bunch of butthurt reactionaries tried to ragequit the United States after losing an election they made a lousy job of contesting:

Comments

[luzribeiro]

Clearly, the end of the world is nigh.

[underlankers]

Again? But I thought it was last week. The world ends too many times lately. ;)

[telemann]

And last but not least, Europe is now seeing more riots on the Greek model

I tell you what, the EU is rock solid currency wise. The conversion rate is killing me when I have to send payments overseas :/

[underlankers]

That says a lot that it is, doesn't it?

[telemann]

The British currency, even stronger.

[anfalicious]

Living in Australia right now is pretty sweet if you're not in the tourist trade. The AUD bought 43 US cents 6 years ago, now it's a buck 'o five (freedom costs a buck o ffiiiiivvveee).

[oportet]

This may be my inner-conspiracy-theorist talking, but I think signing one of those petitions would guarantee you a lifelong spot on some kind of list that you're better off not being on.

[sophia_sadek]

That is not conspiracy theory. That is law enforcement 101.

[anfalicious]

The European protest, to me, are saying "hey, destroying civil society because the bankers said that's how to save the economy isn't working". Perhaps bailing out the banks was the wrong idea, the credit markets froze anyway and if the banks had failed there would be a lot less homeless people around.

[mikeyxw]

Even with the planned austerity measures, they'll be running deficits of 4% - 6% of GDP. If you need to borrow that much, you can't exactly tell the bankers to go pound sand. If they did, they'd be cut off from more credit and have to live within their means starting now. Austerity might be tough and it certainly is causing a tough time for many, but Spain and Greece are way better off with their current austerity programs than if they had to trim another 4% - 6% of GDP from their budgets.

[anfalicious]

Is it worth trimming 4% of your budget if it cuts 8% from your revenue? Because that's what's happening.

[mikeyxw]

If there's no other choice, then yes.

I know classical Keynesian economics isn't exactly in vogue here, but it would indicate that if you run a 4% deficit, your economy will grow by more than 4%. It depends on the savings rate, but somewhere in the 8% range wouldn't be out of the ordinary. So, if that 8% relies on deficit spending, it will of course need to go. If your economy relies on running deficits to produce growth, you're headed for a blowup. The sooner it happens, the less severe the blowup. Greece wouldn't have been in such a bad spot if they did this a decade ago... and continuing down this course is not going to help the younger folks in Greece in the long term, it's making their situation worse.

[a_new_machine]

Note that SCOTUS ruled that unilateral secession would be unconstitutional. Dicta suggests that maybe, the Union could be broken by the consensus of the states, or by revolution. So, there is a possibility (maybe) for a peaceful secession.

[underlankers]

I would have a different feeling on it if it was likely to be that, but given the people seceding are the "Obama = Antichrist" variety the odds of them peaceably asking to secede if it came to that would be somewhere around the odds of a frog singing "Hello my honey" while waving a top hat and a cane.