Everything Must Go! The Great European Fire Sale

[xchrom]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/everything-must-go-the-great-european-fire-sale-7079815.html

What do Rome's 2020 Olympic bid, Portugal's Shrove Tuesday carnival, Greece's sunlight, Ireland's National Stud, Spain's national lottery and Britain's national air traffic control service have in common? Answer: they are all being either sold or cancelled by European governments desperate to whip their public finances back into shape after a decade of living beyond their means.

Such measures would once have suggested incomprehensible panic. Now everyone's at it. It would have been more surprising if Mario Monti hadn't called off an Olympic bid that could have swallowed up €9.5bn (£8bn) that his near-bankrupt nation didn't have.

But it's not just radical belt-tightening that we're seeing. A remarkable number of nations are also doing the equivalent of selling the family silver, in a Europe-wide fire sale of state assets with no obvious precedent.

Greece is probably the Continent's biggest auctioneer, with an estimated €50bn of assets up for sale (see far right). But others have had the same idea. Ireland, for example, is considering the sale of billions of euros of assets, from Dublin's historic port to the Irish National Stud horsebreeding operation.

[CAPHAVOC]

1. All that to save a bunch of crook banks.

[Blue_Tires]

4. +1

[Newest Reality]

2. I like to parse

information for various attributes.

For instance: "living beyond their means". That appears to be nondescript and biased. What is meant by that phrase?

Any economy that relies on credit/debt can be said to be geared towards obtaining funds that are not available otherwise and without it, the means are not thought to be available.

Aside from that, who was "living beyond their means" and why? What did distribution of the money have to do with it and what incentives were involved for the various parties involved?

I know that the situation is complex, but this is the stuff that "shock and awe" economics is made of. The brunt of the current situation creates opportunities for some, as per the "fire sale" view.

[Mojorabbit]

3. After all this is privatized by companies

looking to squeeze every last penny of profit we will be left with a bleak world.

[yurbud]

5. a theory on Europe's social democracy and why it's being attacked:

While the Soviet Union was around and communism was ascendant, the wealthy realized they couldn't afford to provide fertile ground for it to take hold on their home turf.

So they allowed social programs that smoothed some of the rough corners off capitalism.

Europe was allowed more generous social democracy because they were physically closer to the threat than the US. It took less to placate us because we were farther away. The middle and working class were enlisted as eager allies against Soviet (and later Maoist) communism.

But just like in World War II, when they turned the long knives on the Soviets after the defeat of Hitler, so the dust of the collapse of communism hadn't even settled before the knives were sharpened and a luau pit was fired up at the country club--and we are for dinner.

[Citizen Worker]

6. Yurbud, you're on to something here. I have long thought that if the old Soviet empire were still

around the world would be a very different place, especially here. The Red Scares, McCarthyism and later Nixon all served to thwart any political movement outside of the accepted doctrine. Social institutions, like ACORN, Planned Parenthood, Labor Unions and public education, founded by working people to advocate for the interests of working people are all under relentless attack. This wouldn't be possible if the dreaded Red Menace had not been eliminated.

[Citizen Worker]

7. This is "disaster capitalism" as described by Naomi Klein. With public water supplies being

privatized how much longer before the air that we breathe is commodified and metered? Not long.

[WCGreen]

8. This is like throwing the book at the addict and letting the pusher go scot-free… NT

[sabrina 1]

9. What a devious plot it was to invade and raid sovereign countries without even an army.

It was Economic Warfare and they won. How truly sad. Those countries will be sold to the highest bidder. A repeat of what was done to Argentina. And still, no one held accountable.