Where is the US economy headed?

That part is true. In the run-up to 2004, when Greece joined the Union, ...

Thomas wrote:

That part is true. In the run-up to 2004, when Greece joined the Union, ...

I'm not sure, what you mean by the "run-up to 2004", Thomas.

[Greece joined the EU in 1981. In 2001, Greece became a member of the EU's economic and monetary union (aka "Euro area").
The 2004 Summer Olympics were in Greece (Athens). ]

Cycloptichorn wrote:

[Well, half the reason people are rioting is that they feel like some plutocrats got them all into this mess; making decisions that most of the country didn't support and using money they got from EU banks to basically buy elections.

They weren't plutocrats: they were the leaders of the Socialist government.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

I wouldn't be so quick to put Ireland on that list. If the elections hadn't gone the way they did, I think you would have seen a great deal of unrest there.

I think many Irish have come to regret the government guarantee of their banks, and even more the collusion of Fianna Fail with some bankers and their own excessive enthusiasm for a bubble that now looks all too illusory. However, most are determined to retain the low tax rates and growth enhancing policies that fuelled their economic transformation. They are struggling through a very difficult period, but without the histrionics and denial that so characterize the Greek "response".

Double - are you honestly insisting that it was 'low tax rates and growth-enhancing policies' which pushed Ireland up? The truth is that it was mostly speculative investment in a real-estate bubble - there was little to no ACTUAL growth in their economy over the period of time we are discussing. Certainly not lasting and sustainable growth.

F'ing amazing that you can ignore that and just keep parroting the right-wing line on low taxes, over and over again. It's like there's no consequence for ever being wrong with you guys.

Cycloptichorn

They had a severe housing bubble that touched all elements of the country and saw the attendant collapse of overleveraged banks.

They'll be back soon.

Sure?

georgeob1 wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:

[Well, half the reason people are rioting is that they feel like some plutocrats got them all into this mess; making decisions that most of the country didn't support and using money they got from EU banks to basically buy elections.

They weren't plutocrats: they were the leaders of the Socialist government.

wow! You're the last person I would have expected to make such a statement; as if the two weren't perfectly compatible with one another.

- what the hell is the FED doing about unemployment????

Quote:

- what the hell is the FED doing about unemployment????

How do you know that getting it down is a good thing economically?

You failed to answer my question Cyclo about whether you work on the supply or demand side. So I assume it's the latter. The "Eaters of the Budget" Stendhal called that.

There's no "instability" in the EU. You are failing to take account of Media's need to dramatise everything. Watch the Tour de France. See the towns and villages roll by and the crops.

For all its current troubles, Ireland today is far better off than it was 22 years ago, and it is significant that, even in the midst of the current difficuties, the Irish people and government resisted attempts by the EU nations to impose EU norms for taxation and social welfare on them - they prefer freedom and initiative.

The unemployment graphic you pasted points out that unemployment and economic stagnation are highly concentrated in the construction sector, which was the overheated core of the collapsed bubble. They will be back soon.