Motley Moose – Archive

Sorry this diary is so brief. But sometimes the truth is simple.

A rec listed diary on DKos asks Did U.S. just implement more severe austerity measures than Great Britain, Spain?. There’s a simple answer to this…

No.

If you want a taste of what real neoliberal austerity feels like, come to Britain. Today the Guardian reported

A shock fall in activity in Britain’s services sector at the end of last year has put the economy on the road to a triple-dip recession, as economists predict the UK will be stripped of its triple-A credit rating.

The services sector – which accounts for three-quarters of Britain’s economic output – shrank for the first time in two years in December, suggesting the UK economy contracted in the fourth quarter. If output drops again over the next three months, the UK will fall into its third recession in five years – an unprecedented triple dip.

This is partially inspired by a conversation on Labour List, the premier British Left of Centre blog, where a version of the Political Compass Test was taken by several diverse commenters.

Now most people who visit the political blogosphere know the parameters of that test: authoritarian/libertarian, socially interventionist/economically interventionist. Like Myers-Briggs, these are static and almost self fulfilling quadrants which test how much you believe in individual freedom versus social responsibility, whether in crime, foreign affairs, the economy, gun ownership or reproductive rights. We all know the tests, and probably where we come out in them.

I think that the events of the last three years make that compass profoundly irrelevant, an old paradigm which can only provide a direction in an outdated map. Follow me below the fold while I suggest that the old metrics no longer apply and we are in a new world looking for new bearings.  

Hope everyone the other side of the pond is slowly recovering from Turkey Torpor. Meanwhile, in Ireland, 100,000 took to the cold Dublin streets to protest against the ECB/IMF cuts being imposed to bailout the Irish Banks.

Don’t know about the US, but the dangers of another round of defaults and property price collapse is imminent in the Emerald Isle; check out Morgan Kelly’s worrying analysis

Money quote below the fold…

This diary is guaranteed to cheer you up… How?

Firstly, as Americans, you ought to know that there are many European countries who have responded in an even worse fashion to even more parlous economic woes. Secondly, there’s always the immense intellectual satisfaction of “I told you so” when exploring the further disastrous ramifications of our global financial system.

Even if you’re facing unemployment, surveying  your recently repossessed house, is there at least some residual bleak satisfaction in saying “I was right”?

Follow me below the fold for an international schadenfreudefest (™ Strummerson)

   

So stock markets around the world are bouncing back this morning, mainly because Europe and the US are combining in a united effort to solve the liquidity crisis by buying equity in the banking system.

Unlike the US Treasury’s original bailout plan (which merely involved purchasing the toxic debt) this is a part emergency nationalisation of the banks. There are upsides and downsides. The main upside so far? The markets seem to believe it will work...

 

Have you ever sat down to do your finances, and come up with a negative number?

It’s not a fun experience. And certainly not one I’m used to.

It’s been a very hectic and exciting year for me. Two days before the close of 2007, I was blessed with the presence of a beautiful baby girl. I had never imagined being a single parent before- hell, I’d never even held a baby before I picked my daughter up, writhing and screaming and covered in gunk- but here I was.

And I never gave it a second thought. Here’s why:

Another day of WTF as everyone tries to figure out what this complete financial and political debacle means for their homes, their jobs, and their pensions.

A bit of historical insight from Howard Fineman which some of you might have missed in yesterday’s welter of bad economic news: Bailout Ushers in the Era of Obama