So why, wary yet possibly interested reader may be asking, today's focus on Europe?
Firstly, because what is going on is important in its own right.
Secondly, because we are already seeing effects bleeding over into politics and finance on the other side of the Atlantic:
a) Here Comes The Open Revolt: A Reeling Europe Lashes Out At The Fed For "Bringing Us To A World Recession"—ZeroHedge
b) U.K. Crisis Spills Into U.S. Junk Debt—Wall Street Journal
And the headline story from naked capitalism, October 11:
The long-anticipated “hot autumn” begins in earnest as the European economy teeters on the edge of a largely self-inflicted stagflationary depression.
Last Friday (October 7), the 82-year old French writer Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize in Literature, for what the panel described as an “uncompromising” 50-year body of work exploring “a life marked by great disparities regarding gender, language and class”. A feminist and politically committed writer, Ernaux is the first French woman to win the award.
The news of her triumph was cause for celebrations, albeit brief, at the Élysée Palace, whose current resident, President Emmanuel Macron, tweeted:
“For 50 years, Annie Ernaux has written the novel of the collective and intimate memory of our country. Her voice is the voice of the freedom of women and forgotten figures of the century”.Turning the “Knife” on Macron
Ernaux herself responded to the news by describing writing as a political act, a means of opening our eyes to social inequality. To that end, she uses language like “a knife”, to tear apart the veils of imagination. The next day (October 8), she turned that knife on Macron.
Ernaux’s name headed a list of 69 signatories to an open letter in the Journal du Dimanche calling for public support of an upcoming demonstration against Macron’s government, on October 16. Organisers of the demonstration accuse Macron of failing to tackle soaring prices of energy and other essentials while exploiting the ensuing crisis to obliterate what remains of the welfare state and social rights:
For many French people, fear of the end of the month is increasing. The bills are getting heavier. Receipts are skyrocketing. But salaries, pensions and welfare benefits are not rising, while the profits of some of the largest French firms are reaching new heights
This is the shock strategy: Emmanuel Macron seizes on inflation to widen the wealth gap and boost capital income, to the detriment of the rest. To let the prices of essential products and energy soar, and with them the profits of multinationals. To prevent any additional tax on those profits. While taking advantage of inflation so that real wages collapse. By refusing to compensate local authorities, the inevitable demolition of the public services they provide is guaranteed…
Neoliberals have been banging on for 40 years that there is no alternative. Do not let the heirs of Mr. Thatcher destroy hope, and liquidate our social rights. Another world is possible. Based on the satisfaction of human needs, within the limits of ecosystems. Freezing the prices of basic products and rents, increasing wages and social benefits across the board, setting the retirement age at 60, taxing superprofits, pouring massive investments into ecological bifurcation, transport and public services… Everything is only a matter of political will, and depends on our determination.
When it comes to mobilizing large numbers of people for political protests, the French can be pretty determined. Yet there was one word that was conspicuously missing from the open letter: sanctions. Which goes to show, once again, that well-meaning, left-leaning intellectuals are incapable or unwilling to confront the elephant in the room, Europe’s self-harming sanctions against Russia, even as they threaten to plunge the European economy into a deep depression.
Calls for Macron’s Resignation, NATO Withdrawal
Despite no longer having a majority in parliament, Macron is determined to push ahead with an ambitious program of reform, including highly controversial changes to both the benefits and pensions systems. This is one of the reasons for the recent upsurge in political protests, which have been steadfastly ignored in the mainstream press, both in France and abroad. Hardly a surprise given:....
....MUCH MORE
Earlier:
UK headed for stagnation; Goldman Buys British Assets; Wine Futures Outperform
Rabobank: "The UN Demands All Central Banks Stop Rate Hikes And Switch To Price Controls Instead"
