Meanwhile In European Financial Crisis News..

Protests continue in Croatia   From World Socialist Web Site.  Excerpts: 

Since late February, continual protests involving thousands of people have been waged in many cities and towns throughout Croatia. Young people, in particular, are demanding the resignation of the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. Workers and farmers are protesting against low wages, horrific working conditions and the precarious situation in the former Yugoslav autonomous republic.

Underlying the protests is the deteriorating social situation. Croatia was hit hard by the financial crisis, which the Kosor government met with a brutal austerity programme involving a drastic reduction in wages and benefits. The economy shrank by 1.4 percent in 2010, and the unemployment rate reached 19.6 percent. The unions say the wages of 70,000 employees are not being paid.

Demonstrations were held in several Croatian cities on Saturday, March 5. About 1,500 participants assembled in the northern Croatian town of Varazdin, according to the Hina news agency. The co-organiser of the protest, Denis Mladenovic, said, “We do not want a state in which the workers work without getting paid, in which they end up on the street after working for their firm for 20 years, and in which young people are left with no perspective.”

Lisbon bail-out talk agitates eurozone debt  From Financial Times.  Excerpts:

A vote on the Portuguese minority government’s austerity package is expected on Wednesday. The main opposition says it won’t back the measures and this could lead to prime minister José Sócrates’s resignation.


Euro zone finance ministers have agreed the terms of a permanent EU rescue fund.

Euro zone finance ministers have agreed the terms of a permanent EU rescue fund which increases the effective lending capacity of the current arrangements.

In the wake of the Greek debt crisis, Europe produced a huge rescue mechanism designed to shore up the single currency and to convince the markets that the euro would be defended.

But almost one year on, the markets have not been reassured and the €750 billion fund has already been tapped by Ireland, with Portugal looking increasingly vulnerable.

Portugal faces deadlock over debt crisis  From Boston.com.  Excerpts:

Just as Portugal appeared to have dodged a bailout like those taken by Greece and Ireland, a domestic political spat yesterday was set to worsen its financial troubles and possibly spoil Europe’s efforts to put the sovereign debt crisis behind it.

Portugal’s main opposition parties told the beleaguered minority government they will not budge from their refusal to endorse a new set of austerity measures designed to ease a huge debt burden that is crippling the economy.

The new steps are likely to be rejected in a parliamentary vote expected tomorrow and the timing could not be worse. A defeat in the vote, Prime Minister José Sócrates warned, would trigger his government’s resignation, plunging Portugal into at least two months of political limbo just as officials were hoping to boost investor confidence in the country’s future.

Opposition Claims Government Understated Debt And Deficit Figures By About 25%

This time; It's Portugal. And Payback. And Twice The VanDamage..(Thanks, Janeane Garafalo)

Portugal, it seems, has a different set of problems than Ireland. Here's how: (from the Payback link..)

Ireland’s government has money, but its banks are drowning in debt, and the government has vowed to guarantee debts, making the state itself vulnerable. Portugal’s problem is different. Its banks are not especially troubled, but the state itself has high debts and low growth, and the mound of both public and private debt is considerable. The total debt is larger than the annual gross domestic product, some $275 billion of debt in an economy of $232 billion a year, one of the highest ratios in the developed world.
And:
So the interest rates Portugal would have to pay on the markets, should it have to borrow money now, would be much too high, forcing it to seek money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The government here, as in Dublin, hopes the markets will calm down. But other European Union governments are concerned that unless the markets are appeased now, by protecting Ireland and Portugal, the contagion will spread to huge Spain, the fourth largest economy among the countries that use the euro.

The more I learn about this crisis, the more I tend to believe the worst possible outcomes will actually occur. There aren't any general answers applicable to more than one country, as economic circumstances will be country wide, but not regional. Solutions that appeal to both France and Germany would financially cripple or kill other EU countries. The solutions will be complex and incredibly painful for the weakest countries, and protests and riots are almost sure to follow. And still, the system will most likely collapse.

To drive the point home.. So, if the EU fractures, what sort of effect will it have here in America? Our financial structures And our government are both perilously close to collapse, and locked in tight with all of Europe. How could we possibly absorb the implosion of so many economically interwoven allies? How?