Saturday, July 09, 2011

Is it 1937 Yet?

Ah, the immune-biology of those wizened “global citizen” types:

The ritual might have made the global citizen crisis resistant. Numbed by incessant blows, it is understandable if the reaction begins with “I do not care” and ends with “I am no Greek”. In this case, not paying attention while assuming that the distance confers protection, does not amount to immunity even if the matter is shut out. To get typhus you do not need to be aware of infectious diseases.
Indeed. Which is why Europe has to stop pretending Greece is far away, and socialize enough of their public debts in order to move on. In terms of monetism, economy, and trade, Europe is functionally integrated and acts as a sovereign state would. The idea that it can ignore some part of itself, say, a foot, as though it was someone else’s foot, is delusional.

The idea of “booting poor Europe out” of the Euro is equally silly, as it would still leave those debts held by the part of Europe deemed sane to go unpaid, and with no way to pay the amounts expected. This would be true if they were lending money to Paraguay or Zimbabwe, or anyone else.

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