Europe's Dispute on Crisis Intensifies - WSJ.com

GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD: Europe's Dispute on Crisis Intensifies - WSJ.com

Isn't this all a reminder of the expression - "Don't throw good money after bad?"

In other words (and this has to be faced by the US as well as many European countries and lots of average citizens), are the countries spending too much? Is government too big and being relied on too much? Do unions have too much power - are they holding back growth and rationalization of the cost of labor?

Etc., etc.

To some extent, it's a question of where the country and its citizens are on the global regression line in terms of consuming global resources. In other words, if a country like the US (with 3% of the worlds population and consuming 25% of the world's resources) wants to stay as far above the regression line as it is now, can it afford not to focus on productivity and investment? (i.e. can it really afford to take capital and spend it on social consumption?)

The new talk of a double dip in the US with all of the tax stimulus being thrown at the economy would suggest something is wrong in the Obama policies (let's not touch the Fed and the half-hearted Republicans) - or the citizens who so happily believe they can keep big government if only the rich would pay more!

Which gets us right back to the Greeks, etc. Here the people want to believe the 'rich' Germans are just being selfish. A bit more help and the Greeks can basically hope that doing what they have been doing (which got themselves in this debt pickle in the first place) will somehow turn out differently - next time!

(As an old saying goes in talking about what defines someone as insidiously stupid, it is something about continuing to do the same thing over and over again, but somehow expecting a different result!

Thus, the Greeks don't really want to change - my gosh not having government jobs and early retirement and no competition in services, etc. - well, why not? The Greeks can't even conceive of what a competitive economy looks like. Until they do - i.e. they have to - it would seem as though the debt problem is only growing bigger and the resources that could have been used productively are being further squandered in support of a status quo.

Too bad the young people are not more aware of what is really happening and/or they cared enough to try and really shake things up! (I sure recall how the golden 1960's in the US was squandered with a half-hearted war and too much social consciousness - effectively a politically bought decade of stagnation and inflation. It didn't have to happen; but, it did. Europe and the US don't have to stagnate their economies for the sake of the non-producers and the under productive but, that's politics. Lie to people and they won't know that they are hurting themselves).