You may remember when the European Union and the International Monetary Fund bailed out Greece last spring, after years of wild spending by the Greeks had brought their country to the edge of collapse.
Well, it didn’t end there. Ireland has now been granted a $115 billion EU bailout. The country is imposing radically higher taxes on the Irish people and sharply reducing government spending in a desperate though belated bid to save its economy from ruin.
The government may take control of major banks in Ireland, essentially wiping out many investors. And the highest-level politicians in Ireland candidly admit that the standard of living of the entire nation is about to drop.
Yet even this latest “rescue” won’t solve Europe’s financial crisis. Spain and Portugal are feared to be next on the “in-need-of-a-bailout” list.
As you may imagine, all this “bailing out” has infuriated citizens of European nations that have spent (relatively) frugally. Yet because they have surrendered so much of their sovereignty to unaccountable leaders in the EU, they are practically helpless to say, “Enough is enough” — and the bailouts continue.
Reckless borrowing and spending bear much of the responsibility for the United States’ economic crisis, too. We are delaying our own day of reckoning, though, by not getting a grip on our irresponsible spending.
Shouldn’t it be obvious by now, to nations on both sides of the Atlantic, that spending money one does not have is irresponsible, and invites serious trouble?