It’s getting worse: 12% unemployment in the Eurozone
by digby
The good news is that this will probably sort itself out — in the long run:
The 17-nation Eurozone set another dubious record in the opening months of 2013, as its unemployment rate continued to climb from its already record-high rate. The jobless rate also rose for the European Union as a whole as austerity efforts continue to plague the continent’s recovery from the Great Recession:
The jobless rate reached 12 percent in both January and February, the highest since the creation of the euro in 1999, Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, reported from Luxembourg.
The January jobless rate for the 17-nation currency union was revised upward from the previously reported 11.9 percent.
For the overall European Union, the February jobless rate rose to 10.9 percent from 10.8 percent in January, Eurostat said, with more than 26 million people without work across the 27-nation bloc.
Despite clear warnings that austerity isn’t boosting growth, some of the continent’s largest economies remain committed to deficit reduction. The United Kingdom, now on the precipice of its third recession in four years, has indicated that it will continue efforts to reduce the deficit, even as it has fallen far short of its past goals. The UK, in fact, has largely failed to put a dent in its deficit because austere policies have inhibited economic growth. Even Germany, the continent’s stalwart economy through the initial recovery, is lagging, and France announced last month that it would not seek to hit its deficit targets in 2013.
Ok, so a generation or two will have to be sacrificed, but it’s worth it to protect their makers and punish their takers. How else can the economy ever properly “recover?” As Andrew Mellon sagely advised when the Great Depression hit:
“liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.
I’m sure the elites actually believe that having to be the strict disciplinarian hurts them more than it hurts the people.
.