The British government is planning huge budgets cuts, axing 500,000 public-sector jobs. Bloomberg business news reports today that Howard Davies, chairman of the London School of Economics said, “The cuts are the right thing to do.” The chief economist for Citigroup, Willem Buiter said, “This is very savage, but no more savage than what the U.S. will have to endure when it gets going.”
Nobody’s fault they say. It’s just that “the markets” won’t put up with huge budget deficits forever.
For the moment the British working class is quiet. They put their faith in the New Labor Party which was rounding turned out this year in the election.
The French are another matter. They’ve been in the streets with massive strikes protesting the government’s plan to raise the age for their version of social security to 67 (No, it’s not the 62 that our media talks about. That’s just the reduced payment retirement, just like here.) The Greeks have been doing massive protests even earlier. These early efforts may not succeed, but our brother and sisters are learning valuable methods for battling the Market Mongers.
What’s going to happen in the U.S.? Republicans will win big, but Democrats will probably win state houses in California and Connecticut. These are Democrats who fiercely attack Tea Party hated of government. But once they get in…..SURPRISE…. they’re going to (sadly) embrace the “savage austerity” demanded by “the market” and cut, cut , cut.
Learn from France.