Friday 30 September 2011

“Bail me out again, Sam.”

“Most sovereign states are bust and so are the banks, which are
today a protectorate of the state and have repaid the generosity
of their protectors by lending excessively to them.”

        - Detlev Schlicter, “Faster Pussycat! Print, Print!

German politicians have just voted to have German taxpayers wallets held guarantor for the bad debts of every  irresponsible European government. Which is to say, all of them.

You didn’t think German politicians were that stupid? Turns out they are.  You didn’t think they’d vote to have the whole continent keep spending money they haven’t got? Turns out they have.

If you’re wondering why the continents’ “best” economic minds think it’s a good idea to set up a “super bailout fund” to continue bailing out governments with holes all the way down their waterlines—and why German politicians would agree to have their taxpayers should fund it--then you need to think “printing presses,” and you need to read this piece by Detlev Schlicter.

If you want to know the way the “establishment” economists think, and why they think rewarding fiscal  irresponsibility will achieve anything but more of it, then this is your place to start. Especially if you want some idea of what happens when it all fails.

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