Some News That Point Towards A Future Economic Degringolade.

I am doing a short post on two videos I found interesting about QE 2 and the European economic situation and an interesting poll about Americans' views on the viability of marriage. (The first two videos are worth a watch while the other links aren't as interesting but they are informative.) I came across this interesting animated video from the Ludwig Von Mises Institute's website that is about the recent Federal Reserve decision to purchase 600 billion more dollars of assets which is known as QE 2. It is a short and humorous overview of QE 2.

It looks like there is still a lot of economic and social troubles going on in the EU. This is a good video that is a warning for America to not go down the same socialist economic path that Europe has. Sadly America is headed towards this situation. One question I have with all of these strikes going on over in the EU is when election time comes around for these various nations will these people vote the officials in office who will continue to make the necessary spending cuts and the other hard changes?

And on the subject of the EU, Ireland will possibly be needing a bailout from the EU and the IMF. Ireland is reluctant to receive a bailout as it will threaten their sovereignty and will possibly force them to give up their low corporate tax rate because the other EU nations will not want to be giving Ireland bailout money which will allow Ireland to maintain its low corporate tax rate. Ireland's low tax rate attracts capital and businesses away from other EU nations. I have read that Ireland does not have a lot of natural resources and its low cooperate tax rate is very important to its economy as it is its main way to attract capital which makes up for the nation's lack of natural resources. And according to Financial Times, as a result of Ireland's banking crisis,"'four of the five domestic lenders are set to be state owned, with only Bank of Ireland in the short term likely to remain outside the grasp of state ownership'". From looking at this fact, and what resulted from the similar situation in America, it appears that these various economic problems coalesce economic functions that were once performed by the private sector in to the hands of the government. If being bailed out is something that has to happen and is a good thing, why would Ireland be quick to deny the need for a bailout and reluctant to receive one? It appears as if there are strings that are attached to this bailout money which results in a loss of sovereignty as evident in the concerns being voiced by Ireland. Of course the PIIGS nations probably should lose some of their sovereignty since they are threatening the stability of the greater EU. The only question is if the broader EU governing body will be able to bring about more prudent economic policy to these PIIGS nations and the greater EU. Bailing out these nations don't force the necessary and painful structural changes to occur as they allow for halfway measures to be implemented in the place of the necessary ones which means they have the effect of kicking the can down the road. These troubled nations, PIIGS, are making changes but it is yet to be seen if they are the necessary structural changes or just half way measures, from what I have read and seen from various commentary on business shows the latter scenario appears to be the case especially in the case of Greece. It is evident from the various protest occurring in Greece and even France that the measures so far taken to address these economic problems are very unpopular. If necessary changes were to have happened then these bailouts would not have been needed, but then there would have been a collapse of these economies that would have spread to the greater EU and that would have probably brought about social instability. Hopefully, the EU will be better able to handle such a situation when and if such a situation happens at a later date. Note that America could soon be facing a situation similar to the EU's as many of its states will probably require a bail out in the coming year[s], California being one example. It still appears as if the EU and the world is headed towards a future economic degringolade.

And here is an interesting article for those who think that the stock market is back to where it was in 2008, "Adjusted for inflation (as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics), the Dow would have to reach 13,570 to equal the 'purchasing power' value of Dow 11,000 in 2001. ($1 in 2001 equals $1.23 in 2010.)"

And there was an interesting poll that found that there is an increase in the number of people who thing that marriage is becoming obsolete.

Nearly four in 10 Americans think marriage is becoming obsolete, according to a new survey that reveals changing attitudes on gay marriage, unwed couples and the definition of what a family is.[...]Among the biggest changes in Americans' attitude toward marriage was the number of those who now believe the institution is becoming obsolete. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they believe that's the case, compared with 28 percent who said that when Time magazine asked the same question in 1978. [...]Some 86 percent of respondents said they consider a single parent and child to be a family, and 80 percent said unmarried couples living together with children are families. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) said they think a gay or lesbian couple raising a child constitutes a family. But even though a majority (88 percent) think a childless married couple is a family, a similar majority thinks a childless unmarried couple is not.

I found this interesting because the traditional family is the foundation of our society and this one of the reason that those who wish to change our society, mostly the Left, promote anything that will help destroy it: gay marriage, cultural themes that run throughout popular culture like music and that promote single motherhood and that having a kid outside of marriage is acceptable, a government that helps replace the need for a father and the traditional family with welfare, and etc. I was also reading the "Communist Manifesto" where it states that the destruction of the traditional family will be necessary to bring about the Revolution of the Proletariat,

Abolition [Aufhebung] of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists. On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution. The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.

This is a couple of little news bits that I found interesting and relevant. They don't necessarily mean that some future decline in the situation of the world will occur, but they do point one to look in that direction.