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French Finance Minister Says Economy in Dire Straits, Predicts Two Atrocious Years Ahead (TS//SI//NF) (TS//SI//NF) The French economic situation is worse than anyone can imagine and drastic measures will have to be taken in the next 2 years, according to Finance, Economy, and Trade Minister Pierre Moscovici. On 19 July, Moscovici, under pressure to reestablish a preretirement unemployment supplement known as the AER, warned that the situation is dire. Upon learning that there are no funds available for the AER, French Senator Martial Bourquin warned Moscovici that without the AER program the ruling Socialist Party will have a rough time...

In the terrible economic crisis of 1922 Benito Mussolini got 25% of the vote in Italy. Two years later he had more than a majority. You know the rest. In the economic crisis of 2013, Beppe Grillo received 24% of the vote (see last week's analysis of Grillo's political beliefs). This week he blocked a government from forming. Grillo now controls the Senate, but he is going for a majority in both houses in the upcoming vote in June. That's in Italy, but in Greece the Golden Dawn party is following the same path. So is the new Hungarian fascist...

I don't often put stories in "breaking." I post vanities even less often. Hardly anything surprises me any longer, but I find this absolutely astounding. If you follow the financial threads or the situation in Europe, you really need to read this. Actually anyone with a bank account needs to read this. I'm going to ask the mods to leave this here, unless they really feel I'm all wet here. I don't, however, believe I am. Follow me here. BNI (Bank Network Investments) is Italy's oldest and forth largest bank. In other words, it's a biggie. Anyway, the bank went...

When the political and economic systems of entire nations collapse the consequences are devastating. Earlier this year pharmacies and hospitals in Greece were unable to provide life saving medicines due to a shortages caused by a freeze in the flow of credit from manufacturers to distributors to patients. A collapse in the country’s economy has forced many Greeks to turn to black market barter economies and has left millions financially devastated, with no hope of finding an income stream for the foreseeable future. The credit system of the entire country is in shambles. So much so that reports are emerging...

Europe is scratching its head over possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down President Obama's signature legislative achievement. As the judiciary and the Obama administration trade legal barbs over the high court's authority, the idea that health care coverage, largely considered a universal right in Europe, could be deemed an affront to liberty is baffling. "The Supreme Court can legitimately return Obamacare?" asks a headline on the French news site 9 POK . The article slowly walks through the legal rationale behind the court's right to wipe away Congress's legislation. "Sans précédent, extraordinaires" reads the article. In the...

Time to let the whole thing slither down the sewer of history. First of all it is more and more clear that Europe should have let Greece default and instead of pumping bank money via Greece, they should simply have shored up those banks that would take losses. The banks would still take a haircut, but come out on the other side w/o Greece. Naturally this would remove Greece from the Eurozone and it would have to use the Euro or the US $ (without policy control over them) or renew its own currency. Secondly, setting up an emergency fund...

Ahead of a planned summit of European Union leaders, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has put all 17 Euro nations on review for a credit downgrade, which means France and Germany could lose the pristine AAA ratings they presently enjoy, Bloomberg News is reporting. The euro area’s six AAA rated countries are among the nations to be placed on a negative outlook pending the result of a summit of European Union leaders on Dec. 9, the people said today on condition of anonymity because the decision has yet to be announced. The euro reversed its gains and U.S. Treasuries rose...

Argentina has launched a naval campaign to isolate the Falkland Islands that has seen it detain Spanish fishing vessels on suspicion of breaking the country’s “blockade” of the seas around the British territories. Argentine patrol vessels have boarded 12 Spanish boats, operating under fishing licences issued by the Falkland Islands, for operating “illegally” in disputed waters in recent weeks. Argentine patrol commanders carrying out interceptions near the South American coast told Spanish captains they were in violation of Argentina’s “legal” blockade of sea channels to the Falklands. The warning has been backed up in a letter to Aetinape, the Spanish...

The truly fundamental question that is at the heart of the disaster toward which we are racing is being debated only in America: is it possible for a free market economy to support a democratic socialist society? On this side of the Atlantic, the model of a national welfare system with comprehensive entitlements, which is paid for by the wealth created through capitalist endeavour, has been accepted...as the essence of post-war political enlightenment. Cut But the US has a very different historical experience from European countries, with their accretions of national remorse and class guilt: it has a far stronger...

Inspired by Cord's thought-provoking post on the per gallon prices of various liquids, and by Sarah Palin's ill-informed Facebook rant on the "$4-Per-Gallon President," I decided to take a closer look at gasoline prices around the world. Mrs. Palin might be interested to learn, that the world already has quite a few $4-Per-Gallon Presidents. In fact, the world already has $6-Per-Gallon Parliaments, $7-Per-Gallon Prime Ministers, and $8-Per-Gallon Presidents! We've collected a broad sample of gas prices from throughout the industrialized Western world in the chart below. Important to note: this chart includes only official data from throughout the European Union...

Shoppers will be bombarded with messages at supermarket check-outs about eating fruit and vegetables, under plans being considered by Ministers. Trolleys could even come with a painted line marking where customers should put their healthy produce as part of the proposals which critics will see as an expansion of the nanny state. Unhealthy options – such as crisps and pies – may be placed on higher shelves than low-calorie and high-fibre foods to dissuade shoppers from buying them. The proposals are part of the Coalition’s attempt to ‘nudge’ Britons towards healthy choices and are the brainchild of the Behavioural Insight...

The Foreign Secretary said he "hoped" the euro would survive, but added: "Who knows?" Foreign Secretary, William Hague His comments added weight to already frenzied speculation about the future of the eurozone as the European Union prepared to bail out debt-ridden Ireland. As the crisis intensified yesterday, the head of the International Monetary Fund provoked outrage among eurosceptic MPs by saying that a Federal Europe with more sovereign power was the best defence against future problems. Tory MPs described the suggestion as "absolutely perverse". Ireland is expected to agree a rescue loan to shore up its banks of up to...

The drive towards a European superstate has had its flaws exposed at last, says Christopher Booker. The collapse of the euro: The most obvious place for disintegration to begin was the single currency Twelve years ago, I stood on the plinth of Nelson’s Column in the pouring rain, addressing a crowd of 10,000 people. We had marched through central London in the biggest ever demonstration against Britain joining the euro, a course then being daily urged on us by the BBC, with the aid of such Euro-zealots as Michael Heseltine, Chris Patten, Kenneth Clarke and Sir Leon Brittan. At the...

The end of democratic socialism is at hand. The welfare states of the U.S. and Europe are financially out of control, spent and unsustainable. They have reached the point that Margaret Thatcher defined as the end of socialism: They have run out of other people's money. These areas of the world are about to change dramatically. Victor Davis Hanson has a piece in National Review Online focused on Europe. His comments, while directed at Europe, are also applicable to the United States. Hanson states: Five years ago, the European Union's account of itself resonated with end-of history triumphalism. In organic fashion,...

ROME, MAY 27, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The president of Italy's episcopal conference says the two most important problems facing the nation are the "demographic winter" and unemployment. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, said this Tuesday when he opened the conference's plenary assembly. He warned about a "slow demographic suicide to which Italy is headed." More than 50% of Italian families today do not have children and among those that do, almost half have only one child, the rest have two. Only 5.1% of families have three or more children. "Because of this, an urgent policy is needed that is oriented to...

.. .. The here-to-fore Communist Party of Italy newspaper run by that outfit in the past, "La Unita", [now the domain of a Socialist party in Italy] has run a positive banner story under its "Mundo (World)" section, along with a photo of Barack Obama greeting prop-guests who were at the White House during the signing of the Socialist Health Care bill.The article is here, in original Italian: HERE The Italian title is: "Sanità, un bimbo e una colf: le armi segrete di Obama" or my translation: "The Secret Weapons (i.e.,to pass the bill) of Obama: A Boy and...

Almost every sector of American society greeted yesterday's signing of a historic health care law as a major step toward guaranteeing affordable health insurance for all. Labor unions, health care professionals, small business owners, retirees, students, and ordinary people from throughout the country applauded President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for having the tenacity to push through what's being called the most sweeping health care legislation since the establishment of Medicare in the 1960s. We join with those who hail this legislation both as a measure that will save lives now and begin curbing the insurance...

You don't break a young bronco just by beating it. You break it by making it feel helpless -- confining it in a small corral, isolating it from the herd, running it around and around on a short rope, feeding it only when it follows commands, making friends with it, whipping it as needed, and making sure that it knows who's boss every second of the day. In the end the colt knows there's just no way out. That's the real motivation behind "Universal Healthcare"  Obama is trying to sell us Euro-socialism, which means bribing and intimidating people with their...

The question posed by social scientist Charles Murray at the American Enterprise Institute's annual dinner this month could hardly have been simpler — Do Americans want the United States to be like Europe? He asked as someone who admires Europe and Europeans. He asked also because it is becoming increasingly apparent that restructuring the United States along the lines of the European social-democratic model is the change many in the new administration - perhaps including President Obama himself - believe in. Mr. Murray is convinced that Europeanizing America is a bad idea, and not only because the European model creates...

The Death Of An Americam Idea An electorate living high off the entitlement hog. By Mark Steyn ‘Give me liberty or give me death!” “Live free or die!” What's that? Oh, don't mind me. I'm just trying out slogans for the 2012 campaign and seeing which one would get the biggest laughs. My Republican friends are now saying, oh, not to worry, look at the exit polls, this is still a “center-right” country. Americans didn't vote to go left, they voted to go cool. It was a Dancing With The Stars election: Obama's a star and everyone wants to dance...