Those Who Ignore The Lessons of the Past.....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-19/wright-a-fallen-superpower-distracts-itself-with-the-past/4639658

"We were the dominant superpower in the world pretty much without the use of electricity or the petrol engine. We are the grown-up always harking back to high school. Wouldn't it be great if we could go back to 1895?! We could send a gunboat into the IMF and shell it with impunity! That's a way to deal with economic ruin at home!

But we can't do that anymore. The most offensive thing we can send in is George Osborne or if it's really hopeless Tony Blair. (As Middle East Peace Envoy, it's a bit like sending a pyromaniac to put a fire out.)
And so this week there was another explosion of pomp, uniforms, old buildings, and drunken protesters playing Falstaff all adding up to a nice advert for tourists to come see "all that history" as a divisive prime minister "who made Britain great again" was laid to rest."

This is a beautiful piece. It says a lot about England and the EU.

In a democracy the final decision of the majority has to be accepted. Right or wrong, far-seeing or shortsighted, positive or negative, when the electorate speaks either accept the consequences or move overseas. The fall of England and Europe from economic dominance is now a fact of history.Only Germany, the loser of two world wars, has been able to rise above the pack, but fortunately is shackled by the bureaucracy and obligations associated with it's leadership of the EU.

England is a basket-case precisely because it chose to become one by embracing Thatcherism with open arms. A brief interlude with 'New Labour' did not help matters and now, in the wake of the GFC, and in meek obeisance to its EU partners, it continues to elect week conservative governments who maintain the main elements of Thatcherism to this day.

There exists a baffling belief in the efficacy and truth exhibited by a thoroughly discredited macroeconomic philosophy. I speak of the Austrian school of macroeconomics personified by the teachings of a man called Von Hayek. The austerity policies imposed by the ruling elites of the EU have now doomed Europe to economic  malaise and decrepitude for generations. Even if more enlightened economic policies were adopted tomorrow, three years of this economic Hayekian madness has created an underclass of unemployed people which over the space of those three years will have been rendered unemployable, or designated Long Term Unemployed (LTU). Once this is allowed to happen the economy can not recover without expensive and time-consuming retraining programs, spanning a generation, importation of foreign labour, or some combination of these elements. There is no other way. 

Europe is exhibiting the effects of going down the road of macroeconomic policies which focus on markets rather than people. The verbiage is all about interest rates, profits, yields and invisible hands. These policies ignore the fact that economies consist of entities exchanging goods and services such that they are economically entwined in such a way that the prosperity of each entity is dependent on the prosperity of those it is entwined with. These policies are stupid and the demise of Europe as a source of economic prosperity is in the process of proving this stupidity

It's sad to watch and the plight of the LTU underclass is heartrending. 

In the meantime, on the other side of the Atlantic, the conservative forces who promote and employ these discredited policies only controls the tools of legislation, creating an environment where, any progressive attempt at legislation has to be snuck finessed and finaggled through, because if you calmly explain to these people the benefits of what you propose, they vote it down. In other word they are incapable of seeing reason, no matter what you say. The forces of progress are in control at the top and the country is moving forward at a pace which, while being far below what could be achieved if the tools were in their hands, is inevitably slow given the circumstances.

I've been sensing a hint of revolution in the air since the private debt of the banks was unfairly rendered public through massive bailouts and the lower reaches of the socio-economic pyramid forced to pay it of through austerity and taxes. 

God gets what God wants. God help us.