{"id":12847,"date":"2014-05-24T02:55:39","date_gmt":"2014-05-24T09:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12847"},"modified":"2014-05-24T02:55:39","modified_gmt":"2014-05-24T09:55:39","slug":"europe-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/24\/europe-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe in Crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Krugman is a wonderful asset for Americans, but he\u2019s given us a special treat by applying his economic talents to Europe.  In so doing he has found some fascinating parallels from history that should certainly give cause for concern.  Here is his introduction.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"0524EuroRight\"<\/p>\n

A century ago, Europe tore itself apart in what was, for a time, known as the Great War \u2014 four years of death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Later, of course, the conflict was renamed World War I \u2014 because a quarter-century later Europe did it all over again.<\/p>\n

But that was a long time ago. It\u2019s hard to imagine war in today\u2019s Europe, which has coalesced around democratic values and even taken its first steps toward political union. Indeed, as I write this, elections are being held all across Europe, not to choose national governments, but to select members of the European Parliament. To be sure, the Parliament has very limited powers, but its mere existence is a triumph for the European idea.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: An alarmingly high fraction of the vote is expected to go to right-wing extremists hostile to the very values that made the election possible<\/strong>. Put it this way: Some of the biggest winners in Europe\u2019s election will probably be people taking Vladimir Putin\u2019s side<\/a> in the Ukraine crisis.<\/p>\n

The truth is that the European project \u2014 peace guaranteed by democracy and prosperity \u2014 is in deep trouble; the Continent still has peace, but it\u2019s falling short on prosperity and, in a subtler way, democracy<\/strong>. And, if Europe stumbles, it will be a very bad thing not just for Europe itself but for the world as a whole.<\/p>\n

Why is Europe in trouble?\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Photo credit: Aljazeera<\/a> (Click through for an excellent interactive breakdown of the parties by nation.)<\/font><\/p>\n

Krugman goes on to explain how the 1% in Europe have hoodwinked Europeans into believing that austerity is the answer, much as Republicans did here, and that danger that extremist nationalism could emerge as it did in Germany after World War I.  Click through.  This is a must read<\/em>.<\/font><\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t claim any expertise at all in European politics, beyond a fairly good understanding of the history.  Keeping track of InsaniTEA here in the US is a full time job.  However, seen in the light of history, Krugman\u2019s analysis seems quite chilling to me.  I look forward to seeing the views of our European friends.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Krugman is a wonderful asset for Americans, but he\u2019s given us a special treat by applying his economic talents to Europe.  In so doing he has found some fascinating parallels from history that should certainly give cause for concern.  Here is his introduction. A century ago, Europe tore itself apart in what was, for […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}