An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Friday, December 21, 2018
Martin Armstrong — The New French Revolution?
Martin Armstrong mentions the increasing tax burden on workers in Europe. He doesn't mention that the increasing tax burden results from the institutional structure of the EZ, where the member countries have ceded currency sovereignty to the ECB. As a result, these countries are no longer sovereign currency issuers and cannot self-fund. Like US states, they have to tax or borrow to spend and there are institutional limits on borrowing (deficit spending) imposed by treaty.
The key point in the post is the use of chemical weapons domestically against the civilian population. Ironically, such use is prohibited in war but permitted for domestic security. Just like the use of pepper spray against US domestic protestors, in addition to tear gas. I recall the use of tear gas in the protests against the Vietnam War war during the Nixon Administration in Washington, DC. At that time, there was only the alternative press, no social media, and the corporate press largely suppressed the news on the protests. Armstrong reports the same occurring in France now.
Armstrong Economics
The New French Revolution?
Andrew Spannaus | Milan-based journalist and strategic analyst, elected chairman of the Milan Foreign Press Association in March 2018
CONSORTIUM NEWS
ReplyDelete“With an assist from financial markets that are penalizing Italian government bonds, the European Commission has been threatening an ‘excessive deficit procedure’ if Italy doesn’t reduce spending and resume measures to balance its budget.”
Italy has had a trade surplus for five years, while France has a trade deficit that gets worse all the time. This means that Italy has euros flowing in from abroad, while France has euros bleeding out abroad. For the past 12 months, Italy has had an average of 3.1 billion more euros per month flowing in than flowing out, while France has gone deeper than ever into debt.
This means that Italy, unlike France, does not have a huge foreign debt load. Therefore Italy, unlike France, does not have to grovel to Brussels or Frankfurt.
“In theory this austerity policy will make the country more stable and efficient. But the last 10 years have demonstrated that cutting the budget and raising taxes have depressed economic activity, with the effect of making people poorer.”
That’s the whole point of austerity: to widen the gap between the rich and the rest. The Eurozone makes austerity unavoidable if, like France and Greece, a member nation has a trade deficit.
Italy, however, has a trade surplus, and therefore has a choice regarding austerity. The current government is not imposing it. That’s why there are no yellow vest protests in Italy.
“The French Yellow Vest protests came just in time to alleviate some of the pressure on the Italians, allowing the M5S and League leaders to point out the hypocrisy of letting France run a budget deficit of over 3 percent while pushing Italy to go below 1.5 percent.”
Yes, this is absurd. France is in severe debt, but the EU says France can run a 3% deficit, which will put France further than ever in debt.
Meanwhile Brussels and Frankfurt want to depress Italy’s economy so that Italy comes crawling back to EU tyranny. It won’t work.