Taibbi discusses Europe.

[trumad]

Markets all over the world freaked out over the prospect of having ignorant European voters meddling in the recovery process the geniuses of the high finance world had already painstakingly laid out for them. The model for economic progress in the financial bubble era, after all, is supposed to go something like this:

1. Let banks inflate massive asset bubbles with the aid of cheap or even free government cash, and tons of leverage;
2. Before it all explodes, carve out gigantic sums for bonuses and compensation for the companies that inflated those bubbles;
3. After it explodes, get the various governments to bail those companies out;
4. Pay for it all by slashing services to what’s left of the middle class.

This is the model we used in America. We had a monster asset bubble based on phony mortgages, which Wall Street was allowed to inflate to spectacular dimensions with minimal reserve capital, huge amounts of leverage, and tons of fraud for good measure. When that bubble exploded, we first rescued the banks who inflated the thing in the first place, and then our plan for paying for it mostly revolved around folks like Paul Ryan and Chris Christie, who made great political hay by trying to take an ax to "entitlements" like health care and retirement benefits.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/austerity-cant-be-a-one-way-street-20120508#ixzz1uOdZ0h2d

[librechik]

1. exactly--one way to solve the Europe problem--throw the pirates/bankers in jail

nullify the "debt" (i.e.) loot. Make it illegal/impossible for them to buy countries again.

[abelenkpe]

3. +1000 nt

[jwirr]

5. And confiscate their wealth. That is not a new idea since kings used to get the property of owners

who betrayed them. It just substitutes the government of "we the people" for the kings. Oops, that seems to be an idea that is working for Chevez and maybe now for the French and Greeks. I hope so.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. Yep. Confiscate the wealth, ESPECIALLY the hard assets........

They might be able to stash money off shore, but they can't take houses, cars, yachts, factories, stores, etc. Either sell them or run them as co-ops where appropriate.

If you taxed the Koch brothers WEALTH at 99%, they would still have $20 million apiece.

[gratuitous]

2. Gee, what's the problem?

The Big Finance Boyz threw themselves one hell of a party. It cost us billions to pay for it all. Thousands of people lost their homes, either because they were suckered into believing this was their last, best chance to be a homeowner, or as ancillary damage to the big party. The economy damn near collapsed. And after pouring all that money into a fix, we left the exact same people in charge of it all without any penalty or additional regulation, just a stern admonition to "be more careful in the future."

And can you imagine it? Some of the folks who are watching their hard-earned go to bail out irresponsible Big Finance Boyz are thinking that maybe it's time of a little belt-tightening at the top. But who will create the jobs then? And who will make irresponsible loans if countries default on their debt (or, maybe not default - The Worst Thing In The World - but negotiate a reduction, which is Even Worse Than The Worst Thing In The World).

We should have someone along shortly to explain it all to us in three words or less.

[trumad]

4. Always a countdown to our resident Wall Streeter and Taibbi basher....

Unless he was banned.

[annabanana]

6. When he's right he's right!

Damn inconvenient citizens. Why can't there be just consumers? This "citizen" business is just damn annoying.

[cthulu2016]

7. Hard to argue with that! rec.