Europe is headed to a blood in the streets outcome

By Warren Mosler

My takeaway from two days in DC is that Europe is headed to a blood in the streets outcome.

While ECB funding remains ongoing even as it’s uncertain, in any case, the underlying theme remains austerity. There is no plan B. Just keep raising taxes and cutting spending even as those actions work to cause deficits to go higher rather than lower. So while the solvency and funding issue is likely to be resolved, the relief rally won’t last long as the funding will continue to be conditional to ongoing austerity and negative growth. And the austerity looks likely to not only continue but also to intensify, even as the euro zone has already slipped into recession.

So from what I can see, there’s no chance that the ECB would fund and at the same time mandate the higher deficits needed for a recovery, In which case the only thing that will end the austerity is blood on the streets in sufficient quantity to trigger chaos and a change in governance.

austerityEuropefiscalliquidityPoliticspopulismprotestsovereign debt crisis