The Financial Crisis Pushes Europe to the Brink of Disaster

[FourScore]

The Financial Crisis Pushes Europe to the Brink of Disaster
By Danny Schechter, AlterNet. Posted March 12, 2009.

Obsessed as we are about our own crumbling economy, it's hard for most Americans to see and appreciate the global nature of the crisis and how it is impacting, and will impact, others throughout the world. We don't recognize how many in other countries blame the fall of their own economies on a kind of "financial AIDS" born in the USA.

Protests are spreading through the European continent. Britain has put its own army on alert for fear of disruptions this summer by anarchists bent on class war with slogans like "burn a banker." Mass demonstrations show no sign of abating in France, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and other EU countries.

People here have politicized economic issues, perhaps because of a more thorough and diverse media environment, as well as an expectation that their governments have a duty to protect their people.

When I arrived in Vienna, Austria, for a film forum and festival at the Danube University, I was surprised to see merchandise and remainders marked down to flea-market prices in the usually pricey booths at an airport known for peddling luxury brands.

Some think the European Union and the euro zone may not survive the tremors. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday: "The European Union is facing an unprecedented situation due to the economic crisis and needs to work at different levels to restore credit flows." He said the bloc's economy is expected to contract by 2 percent this year.

General Motors, with 32,000 jobs at risk, wants a bailout from European governments, too.

Eastern Europe is feeling the crunch the worst, with its currencies reeling. One such example is Hungary, which was once a model for how the free market can replace Soviet-bloc economics. Western Europe has so far declined to meet their requests for more bailouts.

There are also waves of protests under way in the east. Left publications report:

... thousands of demonstrators in Lithuania, Latvia and Bulgaria have attacked government buildings and called on their governments to resign as unemployment soars in Eastern Europe.

Experts predict a regional increase of 15 million to 18 million unemployed in the coming months, with no relief as jobs for immigrants disappear in Western Europe and the United States...

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/130957/the_financial_crisis_pushes_europe_to_the_brink_of_disaster/

[Deja Q]

1. Not in the USA if it's a "global economy",

:confused: :shrug:

[RB TexLa]

2. The EU needs more power to deal with the crisis. The ECB needs more control over the flow of money

and interests rates.