Unemployment soars in the Eurozone

A bunch of widely-held beliefs are about how the economy works are about to get a major beating this spring.  Is a well-educated population necessary for prosperity?  Well, yes, but that doesn't mean countries won't spend a ton of money, crank out superbly trained scholars, and still find a whole generation of their young without meaningful employment.  Does voting change anything and don't countries with parliamentary democracies have more responsive governments?  Well, no, unless you consider the Greek Socialists a radical party (which it obviously isn't.)  Can't the Europeans organize better "direct actions" like general strikes and doesn't that mean governments respect and fear their citizens?  Well, no, because even prolonged riots changed nothing as shown in England and Greece.

No matter what else happens, a political movement runs on ideas and that is what is so pathetic about today's "left" and movements like #OWS.  They are lucky if they are even able to put their fingers on the real problems, and whatever solutions they propose are at least 98% process and only 2% substance (check out the video at this link).  In the meantime, the crazy ideas that created the mess in which we find ourselves lumber on like some truly ugly zombie.  We are even seeing people trying to resurrect those utterly discredited ideas of Marx.  No folks, the opposite of finance capitalism is NOT Marx.  And until one confronts the major calamity of the banksters, nothing will be fixed.

ARE YOU SITTING DOWN? Check Out The Latest Youth Unemployment Number In Spain

Joe Weisenthal | Apr. 2, 2012

The latest European and Eurozone unemployment numbers are out.

They're up again. Eurozone unemployment is up to 10.8% in February vs. 10.7% from the month earlier.

Here's a table breaking all the data down.

But check out the youth unemployment column for February, and see the cell we've highlighted for Spain.

50.5 percent! more

Unfortunately, it's not just the kids—although that would bad enough.

Eurozone unemployment rate hits all-time high

02/04/2012

The rate of people seeking work in the eurozone hit 10.8 percent in February, the highest since the euro currency appeared in 1999. The European Union’s statistics office showed unemployment most severe among young people and in southern nations.

AFP - Eurozone unemployment jumped to an all-time high in February, hitting southern nations the hardest as the social toll from the debt crisis grips the 17-nation bloc, official figures showed Monday.

The jobless rate rose for the 10th consecutive month, hitting 10.8 percent to set a 15-year record for the 17 nations sharing the single currency, according to the Eurostat agency.

Eurozone leaders have vowed to pursue growth and jobs strategies to fend off a looming recession but they insist that unpopular budget cuts and structural reforms must continue in order to restore market confidence after two years of crisis.

In another sign that recession is gripping the region, a key survey showed that manufacturing activity dropped to a three-month low in March, with the "malaise" spreading to top economies Germany and France.

"It looks odds-on that Eurozone GDP contracted again in the first quarter of 2012 after a drop of 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2011, thereby moving into recession," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight.

"The prospects for the second quarter of 2012 currently hardly look rosy," he said, adding that unemployment also appears "odds-on" to top 11 percent in 2012.

The Eurostat data agency estimated that more than 17.1 million men and women were out of work in February, 162,000 more than a month earlier and 1.48 million more than a year ago. more

If you ever need a perfect prototype for a man utterly wed to his zombie ideas, Trichet is your guy.  Listen to him glorify the ridiculous ideas that have caused a disaster and call them "sound."  I have even included the video so you judge this ridiculous turd for yourself.

World must go back to ‘sound policies’ - Jean-Claude Trichet

Published: 02 April, 2012, 13:46

Developed countries must stick to sound policies of not spending more than they earn, which has little to do with austerity measures, former head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet said in an exclusive interview to RT.

“What is called austerity very often is only that instead of spending much more than you earn, you spend a little more than you earn – but it is still spending more than you earn,” laughs Trichet. “How can you call that austerity?”

For all advanced economies, austerity measures are part of correcting the economic trajectory, particularly with fiscal policy, Trichet, who headed the ECB between 2003 and 2011, points out.

“When you have had a tendency to spend more than you earn over a long period of time, whatever you do, in whatever continent you are, in whatever category of country you are – you have to correct. You cannot continue eternally to spend more than you earn,” Jean-Claude Trichet stated. “This is true for a country, as well as individuals or firms.”

Trichet noted that once given – sometimes in excess – money is hard to get back, because it is in people’s nature to keep the obtained, so austerity is always painful.

All the advanced economies of the world must undergo a transformation, believes the former head of the ECB.

“We have to do the job. There is no time for complacency. Nobody should be complacent. It is true for all of us, without any exception,” Jean-Claude Trichet said. more