Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Marshall Auerback — Spain collapsing


Economics has political consequences. Greece and now Spain heading for the drain. Who's next in line?

New Economic Perspectives
Mario vs. Mariano Could Mean the End of Spain
Marshall Auerback

12 comments:

Andy Blatchford said...

Getting very nasty there tonight, cant get hold of a ladyfreind at the moment to get the full details.

paul meli said...

Like to hear from Leverage on this…Seems like I remember he was in Spain.

paul meli said...

A live blog link to the protests:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/25/eurozone-crisis-merkel-draghi-lagarde-greece

Ignacio said...

LOL! An other clueless post by Marshal Auerback.

This guys knows nothing about Catalonia political situation, and this sort of posts don't help a single bit. Referendums have been done (illegally) in the past, the turnover was ridiculously low and the winner was the NO. Most people are sick of idiotic politicians there and elsewhere in the nation, but one outstanding characteristic of Spaniards historically have been the ability to swallow their leaders bullshit (while being very combatant of external influences), I'll tell you an old Spanish phrase that tells more than any of that post: "Vivan las caenas!" (Google it), and Catalonia is not different.

Anyway, Catalonia has been losing their economic edge ("competitiveness") for decades, it's not what it used to be, this only keeps being like that for Basque region, and still the bigger contributor to central state is Madrid anyway, maybe Madrid should secede from the rest of Spain!? That would be funny.

Please stick to economics Auerback, because clearly politics is not your topic.

What is a joke is to imply that Catalonia leaders would do otherwise, they are also obsessed with cuts and benefits for the rich, in fact they are the leading autonomy in that regard. Are you a moron Mr.Auerback!? They would straight for 'balanced budgets' and other idiotic policies, they have been most aggressive about that (while not cutting spending in their politics grand plans and campaigns, pretty much like the US cutting social spending and rising military spending).

And yes, Spain has been sinking for 5 years, nothing new here. Will we bottom ever? We had enough deficits to avoid full-steam depression, but if cuts keep going a depression is unavoidable, given than credit has peaked 4 years ago and it's not going up any time soon.

OFC it all works well to suppress wages and for class warfare from burocrats in Europe, as well to fight the so 'feared' inflation, good for northern countries elites.

P.S: I'm Lev.

Ryan Harris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignacio said...

BTW, want politicians in Catalonia want is to quit Spain AND stay in the euro.How that's working for you Marshall!?

They are captured by an old ideal: a united Europe formed by the the 'Europe of the People' based on regionalism within Europe with its own national idealistic zeitgeist. Centralizing power at Europe while retaining regional nationalistic identity.

Matt Franko said...
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Matt Franko said...

Lev,

#1 Good to hear from you on the situation on the ground in Spain.

This from Marshall sounds like most of my friends on the right here in the US. They think if Romney wins, things will get better but then I have to tell them that Romney/Ryans words on economic policy are the same if not worse than what Obama admin has been pursuing for the last 4 years... they dont wont to hear it and most probably cannot even understand what I am trying to tell them (inadequate mathematical cognition).

Folks in paradigm look to me are faced with a choice in trying to understand what is going on: Conspiracy or stupidity.

They have to either think this is some sort of big neo-liberal conspiracy and that people like Draghi actually know what is going on but by their own freewill choose to lie and pursue class warfare, oppression, austerity, etc. you name it ie evil policies; or... we in paradigm have to think these people are stupid, etc. (morons, etc.. enough said).

I believe Marshall holds out hope that this is some sort of neo-liberal conspiracy, and if we could just expose this conspiracy, people would be so outraged that they would reject these people and elect a more just government or something along this line. Or perhaps here if the Catalonia govt would split off and then issue it's own state currency and run high deficits, people could look at that as an edifying example, etc.

I believe this is wishful thinking.

That said, Marshall's heart is in the right place imo.

Even if we could literally 'euthanize the rentier', or at least exile them, if the regime that replaced them would directly proceed to 'live within our means' ie seek to 'balance the budget', we are still in "hell on earth" under a state currency system.

The real enemy in this is the false. We owe ourselves the truth.

My view is that the truth is these people are somehow blind and stupid to simply how logically, a state currency system is designed to operate. These people for some reason are too stupid to understand REAL concepts as simple as "to do a reserve drain you first have to have done a reserve add", they do not understand this.

Call it a "cognition problem" if you will, this to me is the real problem in all of this that we should be operating against rather than trying to point out a what I view as a non-existent 'neo-liberal conspiracy' of sorts.

Angela Merkel doesnt even know what a "neo-liberal" is imo, she's clueless and zealous for "balanced budgets" because she is a moron, I'm sorry. This needs to be exposed.

"Vivan las caenas!": I googled it but am still not clear does it mean "the phantom of liberty"?

If so that is VERY interesting to me anyway...

rsp,

Matt Franko said...

"Centralizing power at Europe while retaining regional nationalistic identity."

doesnt look mathematically possible to me under current Euro arrangements....

rsp,

Ignacio said...

Matt, check this link: ¡Vivan_las_cadenas!

Try google translate, don't know how good it will be though.


Your post, I agree completely. My opinion on the political situation and economic policies is this: catalonian leaders are as morons and spanish leaders (and european leaders). They are stuck in the same mindset, so there is basically no solution.

In fact they have been the most aggressive at cuts in all Spain, this should tell you something. they believe in the impossibility of balanced budgets. Also, as I said later, they want to stay in the euro not get out! How that does work!?

So basically what we have is like if a US State wants to secede, but after that it will keep using dollars AND will keep balancign the budget. Good recipe for disaster.

Conspiracy vs. no conspiracy. I've talked about this before, IMO (and evidence points that way) people will reinforce their ideas through cognitive bias even if they are wrong until evidence is so strogn (usually when they are affected personally) that they can't deny reality (so until wealthy, technocrats, politicians and other people in power does not suffer really from their own policies we are doomed if the main discourse does not change, this also applies to the average Joe). So if you believe "free market is above everything else", "people has to live in a social-darwinist world", "governments can't do nothing right", "money must be scarce, governments must not print money" etc. etc. etc. you will reinforce wrong macroeconomic ideas (not to say if you are a propertarian like Roddis). So it's a mix of both things, some people will pursue these policies because they believe they are the right thing to do because that how their world view is composed, I don't call that a conspiracy, it's more like they are 'true believers' in their own vision and are self-deluded.

OFC some psychos love their own vision of reality becoming real (10 dogs chasing the bone they have and submerging into chaos).

Roger Erickson said...

Vivan las caenas! = long live the suppression?

or "long live the chains"

Tom Hickey said...

@ Ignacio

Yikes.

Looks like the way is being paved for a man on a white horse when things really fall apart . A contemporary Franco?