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Somone Really Needs To Explain To Europe What "Austerity" Means

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Remember Europe's "austerity", or rather as we dubbed it, fauxterity?

Of course, how could you forget: after all everything that is wrong with Europe is blamed not on government corruption and the complete lack of reform, enabled so gloriously by Goldman's custodian of Europe's money printer who would do "whatever it takes" to mask Europe's sad reality that without reform the continent is doomed, but on the intolerable, insufferable imposition of hated, loathed austerity on Europe's insolvent nations. After all, how on earth are they all supposed to get out of their debt-induced depressions if they have to, gasp, cut their debt!

So yeah, we get the propaganda. What we don't get is whether everyone in Europe is completely incapable of reading simple numbers, is atrocious at math, or simply doesn't understand the definition of austerity.

According to the just released government debt data for Q2 2014 where we find that, in a very peculiar definition of what austerity supposedly means in Europe, total debt to GDP for the Euro Area rose once again, from 91.9%, to a new all time high of 92.7%, or in absolute terms from €9.15 trillion in government debt to €9.26 trillion.

 

Here is what Europe's debt breakdown looks like on a chart:

It wasn't all European states that were confused about the definition of austerity, however: only most of them.

"Compared with the first quarter of 2014, twelve Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2014, six a decrease and Estonia no change. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Italy (+3.1 percentage points – pp), Malta (+2.7 pp) and Latvia (+2.4 pp)."

Congartulations are due to Ireland (-5.2%) and Portugal (-2.2%), which do have a permission to bash evil austerity. All the others better shut up.

But wait, it gets better. Because juuuuuust when you think Europe's worst debt offender, i.e., Italy, is about to get it... it loses it again.

Here is what the Bank of Italy released moments ago:

The ratio of debt to GDP is expected to rise to 133.4 per cent in 2015; it is projected to start decreasing in 2016, one year later than forecast in April, and to reach 124.6 per cent in 2018.

Next year, it will be projected to start decreasing in 2017, and the year after that, in 2018: always the year just after.

And now, let's all blame "austerity" for Europe's triple-dip recession aka ongoing depression.

Source: Eurostat

 

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Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:10 | 5367205 ekm1
ekm1's picture

Supplies already started to reduce supply.

Game is over. Credit no longer to be extended.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:44 | 5367336 Everybodys All ...
Everybodys All American's picture

Tell that to Janet Yellen and Co.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:50 | 5367353 Vampyroteuthis ...
Vampyroteuthis infernalis's picture

If they stop giving the free crap to their citizens, they know it will be pitchforks out. Reduced gubbimint spending will never happen in Europe.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:01 | 5367411 whotookmyalias
whotookmyalias's picture

I always thought austerity meant sitting in a sidewalk cafe eating croissants and sipping cafe au lait.  Now I'm going to have to reconsider my position on the whole bloody thing, right after lunch.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:53 | 5367611 Arthor Bearing
Arthor Bearing's picture

More central bank-enabled debt concentrates wealth in the hands of a few well-connected financial people, and austerity concentrates wealth in the hands of a few well-connected financial people. It's a card trick. We need creditor write-downs along with austerity in order to fix the world economy.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:31 | 5367537 ekm1
ekm1's picture

Can you tell me who will provide the goods for Europe to consume?

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 12:19 | 5367732 WillyGroper
WillyGroper's picture

May I pick your brain in chat?

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 12:22 | 5367745 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Imagine what they could do if they started printing currency?  

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 12:38 | 5367824 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

If they can print their own the wonderful Venezualan lifestyle won't be far behind, not that it won't arrive eventually if they keep following their present path.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:11 | 5367207 ZippyBananaPants
ZippyBananaPants's picture

We have had some big triple digit swings in the market.  But we have not had the up 200 in the morning down 300 by the end of the day?

Maybe today?

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:18 | 5367233 gatorengineer
gatorengineer's picture

I like how you think but it isnt going to happen....

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:21 | 5367249 ZippyBananaPants
ZippyBananaPants's picture

Hey I am a gator engineer too!

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:14 | 5367215 LULZBank
LULZBank's picture

Austerity means squeezing more out of workers and debt slaves and issuing more credit on their behalf till people start telling them to Fuck Off.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:13 | 5367216 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

Austerity for the poor and middle class.  Fabulous riches for the wealthy.

 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:14 | 5367217 madcows
madcows's picture

Maybe they should just write off their debt?  Sorry bankers, you made loans that couldn't be repaid.  You lose.  Maybe you should run your businesses in a moral fashion, instead of doing all you can to put them in debt as far as possible so you could reap astronomical "perpetual" profits.

Suck it bankers, you're greed killed you, you parasites.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:16 | 5367414 toady
toady's picture

A lot of people have been saying that since '08, but it ain't happening. The TBTF are not going down without taking the rest of us with them.


The TBTF were caught long in '08, just like the rest of us. Not anymore. Now they've leveraged down their personal risk while ratcheting up everyone else's risk.

 

 

 

You think financial inequality is a problem now? You think austerity is hard on the poor while the rich get richer now? After the next big blowout we'll go back to the feudal system of lords and serfs.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:15 | 5367220 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Austerity means steak and lobster for the connected and pink slime for the masses. It's all good as long as the iSheeple have their iCrap to keep them distracted. 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:38 | 5367318 fxpmtrader
fxpmtrader's picture

And that (works) since ???

Stone age.

Humans are a miserably failed experiment.

 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:01 | 5367407 Postal
Postal's picture

iSquirrel!!!

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:15 | 5367223 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

There is no debt as long as you can kick the can down enough generations.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:16 | 5367224 yogibear
yogibear's picture

With all these accounting games some people are going to be hurting real bad in the coming months.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:15 | 5367225 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Give me control of a Nation's money supply and ....

 

Take the power back, use real money.

nothing changes otherwise.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:17 | 5367230 SickDollar
SickDollar's picture

Grab the popcorn and enjoy the show : Winter is around the corner bitchez 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:04 | 5367425 toady
toady's picture

Winter is coming.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:17 | 5367234 Spastica Rex
Spastica Rex's picture

Let them eat sawdust.

It's more austere than cake.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:20 | 5367251 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

The Taco Bell dining masses are already eating sawdust.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:17 | 5367236 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:39 | 5367322 fxpmtrader
fxpmtrader's picture

racist

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 12:23 | 5367758 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Bullish on tires

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:19 | 5367240 TheFreeLance
TheFreeLance's picture

It is OK. It is not like the Russians are pissed off and winter is coming. Let's go to Ibiza!

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:21 | 5367246 Mercury
Mercury's picture

 

 

Living Large is a human right.

Make it happen.

Pass the chips.

 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:23 | 5367254 Jason T
Jason T's picture

they can't afford the gas

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:28 | 5367275 boodles
boodles's picture

Half the income in Italy is in the black market anyway.  Only "legitimate" corps are included, here. 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:30 | 5367280 THE DORK OF CORK
THE DORK OF CORK's picture

This is zero hedge horseshit.

Looking at euros as if they can define true inputs and outputs.

Absurd.

Austerity is defined as the subtraction of basic human scale consumption so as to feed the corporate conduit consumer war economy.

Its screaming off the irish national accounts at least.

 

We are living within a fascistic system of putting machines before peoples basic demand needs.

Austerity is the rationing needed to feed the consumer war economy.

Pure and simple.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:33 | 5367293 Spastica Rex
Spastica Rex's picture

THANK YOU!

+1

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:52 | 5367361 griffey247
griffey247's picture

Yes and No... I live here in Dublin and the gov is creating consumer shortage of housing to maintain super artifically high asset prices... 

 

But STILL... European countries need to lower their government expenditure because they dont have the revenue coming in... its that simple...... Take someone like UK, Cut government by 40%, cut taxes on people (labor) by 20% and put the other 20% against the deficit and UK would be out of the recession in 10 or maybe 15 min.... but we all know thats not gonna happen dont we_?

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:18 | 5367480 THE DORK OF CORK
THE DORK OF CORK's picture

Its not that simple.

Governments merely tax bank credit production / poison.

Revenue therefore depends on bank malinvestment schemes.

its a top down mewthod of distributing purchasing power and not a bottom up social credit system.

Their "revenue2 at the moment depends on either domestic free bank credit production or some Yank flying 1000s of miles and burning a biblical amount of Kerosene to buy a Ice cream in Sneem.

The waste inherent in  Irish Mercantalism is MASSIVE.

Most of the energy burned in the irish conduit is not used for consumption - it is used to chase scarce money.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:24 | 5367501 Spastica Rex
Spastica Rex's picture

I'm your number-one fan today.

 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:32 | 5367290 Wraithlord
Wraithlord's picture

Austerity is the lack of freedom to spend even more than they have... That austerity

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:41 | 5367312 THE DORK OF CORK
THE DORK OF CORK's picture

This is how "scarce" reources are used within the Irish consumer war economy.

New car sales.

The Irish (really German) “growth” success of 2014
New Private car sales Y2013 vs Y2014 Jan – Sep % increase

Volkswagen :24 % increase (top seller in Ireland at 12 % market share)
Skoda : 30 % increase (6.5% market share)
Audi : 14.5 % increase ( 4.5% market share)
BMW :13% increase ( 4.2 % market share)
Merc :42% increase ( 2.2% market share)

10,000 Mercs BMWs and Audis were bought so far this year.

This is much like as if the irish started  equpping a german second world war Armour division !!!

What is the purpose of this ??

To simply beat the depreciation of capital as seen on the Irish books which is 23 billion +  a year now. (this is all of the euro junk built since the 70s houses ,roads , cars etc etc.)

It cannnot be done -   you cannot consider these capital goods as "assets "

If you accept these capital good as assets then you must subtract from basic (food ,heat , light etc) consumption.

That is where genocide starts .

 

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:41 | 5367329 Spungo
Spungo's picture

Have they tried printing money? I hear it strengthens empires.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:10 | 5367450 fiftybagger
fiftybagger's picture

Marxists don't do maths

Silver For The People

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:20 | 5367487 lagrossebertha
lagrossebertha's picture

Explaining what 'deficit' means might be urgent as well. There are scary "thought-leaders" out there like Bob Hancké (London School of Ekonomikz) that have the following to say :

"EMU as a whole today has, and yesterday had, an aggregate fiscal position that is pretty much in balance, and can therefore spend on expansive policies without running into unsustainable fiscal positions." http://bit.ly/ZD9sgd

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:29 | 5367527 MuleRider
MuleRider's picture

Paul Krugman can explain what "austerity" means....he claims to know.

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:58 | 5367634 forwardho
forwardho's picture

Glad We have the EU to point the finger of shame at. How about the mighty USA?  Since 2008 .gov has spent over 9 TRILLION of funds it does not have. During the same time period The FED has created 4.1 TRILLION out of thin air(or thin electricity) with no backing whatsoever. This is a mind numbing amount of fantasy debt.  That this course of action was embarked upon in order to keep the illusion that all is just wonderful is madness.

Debt spending by ALL governments has replaced the production of GOODS OF VALUE .

P.S. The charts presented above don't show the true horror that is Belgium, Spain, Greece and Cypress.

"Wowsy Wowsy Woe Woe.... We're never gonna make it."

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 12:28 | 5367784 THE DORK OF CORK
THE DORK OF CORK's picture

This is one of the primary reasons why Irish GDP is growing.......

 

Local domestic purchasing power continues to contract.

North American , mainland Euro and other vists to the country has risen past 2008 levels but domestic residents trips abroad are static to falling.

http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=TMQ10

The real  resources required to obtain currency in a country with continued negative credit growth  is of a biblical scale......

 

 

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 02:44 | 5371214 Bad Santa
Bad Santa's picture

Yeah, good luck in explaining the brainless consumer society what austerity means. That's like explaining to an ape the Earth is a sphere.

Fri, 10/24/2014 - 04:53 | 5371332 burocracy
burocracy's picture

to be fair to Italy, what happened is this: Europe did not count "commercial" debt, i.e. money owed to suppliers by the governments , so Italy played on that by delaying payments to suppliers, to the tune of 90 bn EUR.It's not that it does now, but they have established a rule whereby payment should not be delayed more than 30 days, or 60 under exceptional circumnstances. now they're practically issuing "normal " debt in exchange for commercial debt. total debt does not change, but its classification does.

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