A New Left in Europe: Austerity Gves Rise to New Political Parties

[sabrina 1]

Populist Left Policies are regaining support Globally, after the horrific Neo-Liberal Policies imposed on once First World countries throughout Europe. The damage caused may never be totally repairable, the IMF/Word Bank having indebted countries there as they have elsewhere, a practice which ends up stealing their sovereignty.

They were a total failure for the Working Class. However their main goals were achieved, which did not include the working class. Wall St investors and other Financial predators, profited wildly from the distress imposed on many of these nations. Forced in many cases to sell of their national assets.

Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine' tells about the same neo liberal policies once reserved for Third World nations, which have now been in full swing with the same disastrous results in Europe.

It was inevitable that the people would eventually reject them.

A New Left in Europe: Austerity Gves Rise to New Political Parties

A new Left is rising in Europe as the new year begins. And despite the fears it engenders in polite society, this New Left is less Marxian than it is — oh, the horror — Keynesian.

Keynesianism is a complex economic theory, but its central insight is simple enough: If every institution stops spending, economic activity will decline. Self-evident though this may be, this insight has eluded such global economic institutions as the International Monetary Fund, as well as Europe’s economic hegemon, Germany, when dealing with the depression that has devastated southern Europe, and Greece in particular.

Naturally cuts to Social Programs was a key feature of these Draconian 'Austerity' policies. They really hate to see the 'little people' using up any money their own greedy hands could be grabbing.

The policies that the European Union — that is, Germany — has imposed on southern Europe run counter to every lesson history teaches us about how to counter a prolonged economic crisis. In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt devised the New Deal not merely to counter the Depression’s effects but specifically to bolster what was then the underdeveloped economy of the American South and Southwest. His remedies extended beyond such successful stimulus programs as the Works Progress Administration , which gave millions of Americans jobs building needed public infrastructure. His policies also were crafted to bring the Southern economy into the 20th century through such programs as the Tennessee Valley Authority and rural electrification. The Jeffersonian anti-statism of today’s South notwithstanding,

it was the New Deal and postwar military spending, as well as minimum wage and civil rights legislation, that enabled the Southern economy to catch up with the rest of the nation

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I could see why the Third Way and the Republicans have worked hard to get rid of the New Deal programs here since Austerity European Style neo liberal policies are policies THEY support also.

A similar understanding of the economics of depression and under-development could have yielded more successful economic outcomes in the European south over the past few years. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also could have learned a lesson closer to home: It was the austerity policies enacted by Chancellor Heinrich Brüning in the early 1930s that plunged Germany deeper into depression and paved the way for the Nazi takeover. Say this for the German misunderstanding of macroeconomics: It’s consistent.

Is it possible that the world has had enough of these neo-liberal, Wall St, Third Way policies?

It does seem to be spreading, the movement toward a more populist agenda and the failure, for ordinary people, of the policies supported by the Right and neo-liberals, does seem to be what is driving this movement towards the Left.

So maybe the time is right now for Populist Reform of the Democratic Party?