Talk About Chutzpah

Over the past week the Eurozone has started to officially melt down.  I thought this was going to happen 12 months ago, but they kept dragging the bailouts over time, but it appears it is finally time to pay the piper.  One would think that all of these governments going broke would be a lesson to everyone that big governments with out of control spending are a ticking time bomb.  Alas, that's what reasonable people would think, but this article in the Wall Street Journal, titled "Europe Can Spend Its Way to Growth", proves that Europe is toast.  Let point out a few comments from the article.

Continuing the harsh austerity policies that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative colleagues have pushed until now would lead one European country after the other into recession. Dramatic economic news from Spain, the United Kingdom and of course Greece provides gloomy examples. 

The Merkel dogma "Yes to growth, but no to debt" can only be understood as a polemic, an ideological statement. Because it makes no sense for the economy or for society. 

and

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has already called for policies that favor targeted public investments in growth and employment, at least during this current weak growth period. In principle, this golden rule should apply at all times, but its application today is imperative if we are to grow past the crisis. We therefore need more Monti and less Merkel.

We actually need to go a step even further. The EU member states should not only be forced to limit their debt in accordance with European treaties. The European institutions should enact legislation that requires all members to make public investments in growth and employment.

Okay, let me start with the first statement, which is an absolute lie no matter how you slice it.  Merkel's austerity (which is not very austere, or conservative, to begin with) is not what is causing these countries like Greece to collapse.  This guy clearly is neglecting the fact that these countries have had out of control socialist spending blowouts for decades that have led to this mess.  If a person decided to eat 10,000 calories a day of Big Mac's, Whoppers, etc for several years, what happens?  He'll explode in size and most likely be moments away from dying of a heart attack.  When he has chest pains he goes and sees a doctor who says, "Hey, you are killing yourself, stop eating all that junk and start eating healthy foods."  If the fat man takes his advice, but then keels over dead of a heart attack a week later, who's at fault?  The doctor?  Of course not, but by Hannes Swoboda's asinine logic the only cure for the fat man's heart pain is more Big Mac's.

In the second set of quotes from the article he mentions "targeted public investments" and "public investments in growth and employment".  Can someone please tell me what that is?  What I mean is show me one example where any amount of public spending spurred growth and/or employment.  Spending money on renewable energy as he talks about later is absolutely unsustainable.  Does it employ people?  Sure.  But at an absolutely ridiculous cost that leads countries into bankruptcy.

And its not like you need another reason to believe that Mssr Swobota is an idiot, but  humor me.  He continually rails on Germany and Merkel, saying they have no idea how to fix the mess.  Well that's rich, considering Germany is the only Eurozone country that had a GDP figure above 0%!!!!

• Eurozone Economy Escapes Recession - WSJ
• German GDP Beat Saves the Day - ZeroHedge

Note that in the ZeroHedge article, you can see very clearly from the chart that Germany is the only country in Europe since 2008 that has a postive GDP number.  Every other economy is shrinking, but by all means Hannes, continue trash talking the hand that feeds you.