Greece and Ireland have now been bailed out by the Eurozone and IMF, with heavy consequences for the taxpayers of both countries. We are also getting mixed messages from the government of Portugal.
Seeing as we’re getting near the end of the year, I thought I’d start with a retrospective. I found this article on Gavin Hewitt’s blog on the BBC website today. The whole thing is worth a read, but here’s an extract:
The future of the European Union is shaky. It seems certain that another country, sooner or later, will need a bailout. Who will it be? And for how long will the rest of the Eurozone (notably, Germany, rapidly rising to the status of de facto leader) be willing to pick up the tab?It is early morning in Madrid. A pre-school hour. The street is narrow and dark, where the sun rarely reaches. There is already a line of people - perhaps 250 - hunched together against the morning chill. They are waiting to collect their unemployment benefit. What catches my eye is how many of them are reading. These are mainly young, intelligent people. A young woman turns her back to the camera. She is a part-time actress and doesn't want to be seen on the line. Beyond her the queue snakes around the corner and in that moment I glimpse a lost generation.
On another day I am in Dublin, at a technical college on the outskirts of the city. I am in a room with engineering students. They are bright, alive with ambition. I ask how many are considering emigrating in search of work. Every hand bar one goes up. That's the image. There is no hesitation or reluctance, only certainty. For Ireland once again the best and the brightest are heading out - a generation lost to the still new worlds of Canada and Australia.
Then in Italy, in the late year's sun. A vast crowd is walking from the Colosseum towards Piazza Venezia. They are mainly students. Many have linked arms. At their sides hang motorcycle helmets which they will wear when they confront the police. In their shoulder bags they have thunder-flashes, flares - even rocks. Some are here to fight. Many don't want to be breakers, but they will get drawn in anyway because their frustration runs deep. This is a tinder-dry generation - with youth unemployment running at over 20%. As we neared the river they chanted "if you block us we'll bring down the city!" Let Rome in Tiber fall. And later the image - the numbers, helmets firmly on, fighting the police.
Three snapshots that for me go to the heart of Europe in 2010. A story that cannot be understood through the procession of largely sterile summits. It had to be felt on the streets. A new generation is angry and resentful. In Spain unemployment remains at over 40% for those aged between 16 and 24. The stats are shocking. Hundreds of thousands of young people across Europe are not in work or in education. Many cannot afford to leave home. Most doubt they will be able to match the way of life lived by their parents.
They live in the new age of austerity - Europe's recently-acquired religion. After Greece was revealed as having faked its accounts the markets cast a critical eye on the country's deficit and forced up its borrowing costs. Greece stood on the verge of bankruptcy and had to be bailed out. Europe took fright and austerity package after austerity package was unveiled. They were deemed necessary to appease the markets but, in truth, Europe had been living beyond its means, cheered on by an indulgent political class careless of future generations.
And, of course, we can’t ignore the looming deficits over Japan and the United States. 2011 may be a critical year for the western world.
) impose strict austerity measures while the US has barely begun to discuss the deficit beyond vague generalities. I don't agree with most Republican politics, but they have a much higher likelihood of passing a deficit reduction plan than the Democrats simply as a result of the party's cohesiveness--and, frankly, stubbornness. But we'll see. I hope they can take a lesson from their European conservative counterparts.
People who used their houses as cash machines? Got what they had coming, unfortunately.
