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Obama thinks the American people will object to the SS retirement age being raised to 70 if the French still can retire at 50.
As we should object. If they even think about trying to raise it to 70, people should openly revolt! That will be time for a third party for sure. It is already too high at 67. It should be lowered back to 65, at least for blue collar workers most of whom will not live long enough to collect a dime of it now.
For France to continue austerity measures in face of a declining economy would be a disaster for Europe. Given that they are a major competitor of ours in the world markets I suspect this supposed “suggestion" is not meant to help either France or Europe.
In any case the French, Germans and the rest of Europe are not stupid and will do whatever is best for them before they will acquiesce to absurd suggestions from this side of the Atlantic.
Hollande's election is what the French people needed. The problem France has is the problem that Europe has: it supposedly has a central economy but it doesn't have a robust set of economic systems. The need strong, decisive, and coordinated action among the EU nations, but they're not likely to get it. Instead they're going to get each and every individual nation hashing out its own response to the crisis, and it's going to end up in a domino effect of protest vote after protest vote.
My hope is that Germany will throw out Merkel and replace her with a progressive. Then the two major powers can work with other EU nations. Europe doesn't want and doesn't need austerity; that's what banks and corporations want, but that's not what people want.
It is a STUPID economic theory anyway. You don't CUT government spending in a recession. You RAISE spending and CUT taxes. Then, when the economy is good, you do the opposite.
It is a STUPID economic theory anyway. You don't CUT government spending in a recession. You RAISE spending and CUT taxes. Then, when the economy is good, you do the opposite.
I don't know if I would agree with cutting taxes, but I would at least agree that taxes shouldn't be raised significantly, even among the rich. As the economy improves, policy can generally tilt toward gradual increases on taxes for the wealthy and gradual paring of spending. As you say, though, austerity doesn't work. People who blather on about deficits don't understand economics. They just like the idea because they form a ridiculously simple analogy between balancing their own checking account and the economy as a whole.
For France to continue austerity measures in face of a declining economy would be a disaster for Europe. Given that they are a major competitor of ours in the world markets I suspect this supposed “suggestion" is not meant to help either France or Europe.
In any case the French, Germans and the rest of Europe are not stupid and will do whatever is best for them before they will acquiesce to absurd suggestions from this side of the Atlantic.
Fortunately, yes, the Europeans actually do have a sense of education and understanding about how economics works. They're not going to put up with politicians selling them out to incompetent and unethical bankers the way that Americans seemingly are all too willing to do these days.
France is not a socialist nation; it's a social capitalist nation. The United States is as well; it's just a matter of degree.
The problems caused in Europe were caused mostly in the private banking sector, just as they were in the U.S. The systemic causes are a bit different, with the Euro being expanded to Greece and allowing them access to credit they shouldn't have had. But again, the banks were all to willing to play along. It's as if the banks expected to be able to make whatever bets they wanted and to have their own losses socialized. I agree, let's stop socialism -- the socialism of corporate failure.
What right does he have to tell him to do anything?
Does Obama think he is the president of France as well?
Obama has the right to an opinion.. especially considering how accommodative the Fed has been to the Europeans.
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