Like a bad case of flue in winter the Davos shindig comes back every year. A lower key event than usual, they say, because… well damn! The pauperisation of such a large swathe of Europe has not lead to the ballooning of profits it was supposed to. In fact, sotto voce, it has led to the opposite. Not only that but car plants, for one, are closing down one after the other.
Mme Christine Lagarde (aka Marie Antoinette) gives an interview on a Greek TV channel. Of course she retains her exquisite poise, but what does she say? That well, er, um, even though the IMF itself maintains that the austerity prescription did not work we…. just have to keep at it. Under the simpleton’s belief that we might just get different results this time.
Will there be more cuts in pensions and salaries and more taxation? Well, there shouldn’t be if the rest of the programme is carried out properly. Omitting to say that the rest of the plan is impossible to carry out, properly or otherwise. Hey ho. But what about recovery? When will that come? Well, we have already achieved a tremendous amount in that direction by slashing income… I mean reducing labour costs of course. And that is what will bring about investments and growth!
Hmmm. Why has the opposite of that happened then? No investments and galloping unemployment? Well, you know you have to get the structural reforms going and… Same old, same old beat of the drum with platitudes, and reiterations of a theory that does not apply and… well yes I did say I care less about Greek children going hungry than those of the Niger! But in the Niger they are going hungrier…
And then Portugal. The star performer of the bailouts. It actually sold long term bonds on the market at a reasonable interest rate. Hurray! Ok. But then why has it been decided that it needs a new bailout because this, well, does not really mean anything? Same old same old. No matter what you do, you’re f…ked.
And what about Britain and the dynamic duo Cameron and Osborne? Their policy has proved disastrous. The economy is shrinking. They’re in for a triple dip and all that. Do they realise that perhaps they need a drastic change of direction? Not a bit of it. We shall carry on with more of the same for several more years and then it will be all right. They say.
And damn you, if it isn’t we shall call for a referendum on whether to stay in the EU! You’d like that wouldn’t you?
In Greece a promising strike fizzles out. Not to worry, no one will get paid anything any more. They will only continue to be taxed. Because, the government says, regardless of whether it is true or not, that is what the troika wants. And what the troika wants the troika gets.
And the beat goes on. And on. And on. The same tedious beat leading no one anywhere. Or rather leading us all down into the black hole of their making.
The trouble with living in historically exciting times is that… well it doesn’t really feel like it. Just a heavy droning. A dead beat. Incessant inanities being spewed out by narcissistic nonentities who fancy themselves and think they know because they stick to the manual even though it is completely obsolete. Besides they remain totally out of touch with what their inanities have provoked. A bit like Marie Antoinette. Though she poor dear, was not responsible for the destructive policy, as our current little lot obviously are.