Europe in crisis
Europe is in deep, deep crisis, even if most Europeans don't seem to realize it.
In fact, the situation is almost as grave as in the early 1930s. Then the Great Depression gave us Adolf Hitler in Germany and, soon enough, the greatest war in the history of mankind.
Will we be as unhappy this time?
The answer to that question is almost certainly no. Maybe, in fact, I could leave out the almost. There are no madmen or madwomen among our leaders—Angela Merkel of Germany might be a difficult women, but a Hitler she is not. In fact, Germany luckily is one of the best-run countries on the continent, which is very important not the least because it also happens to be the largest. So, a war there will not be and millions of young men will not be killed.
That doesn't mean the crisis is not serious. In short, the politicians have more or less ruined countries like Greece (worst of all!), Portugal, Italy, Spain and (to a lesser degree) France. Sweden is in better shape than most, thanks to relatively sound policies and a very competent minister of finance, Anders Borg.
The several states have spent money they didn't have. Unemployed men and women have been paid quite well as have other people in need. The welfare states have tried—and I say this to their credit—to abolish poverty and help everybody to a decent life. The trouble is that
1) the costs are very high and
2) all too many of the clients find it convenient to rely on the handouts rather than look for jobs.
It should be added that politicians in various countries have rather encouraged this traffic: buying votes with taxpayers money is quite okay as long as you don't confess to it.
In other words, the system we call the welfare state has come to a critical point. More people have to work and pay their own expenses, which is easy to say, harder to achieve. It is harder to achieve in part because the crisis has been with us for more than a year. Which means that people—even those with jobs—consume less. Which also means the producers of this or that sell less of what they produce, make less money and create fewer jobs. Many companies have gone under and more will. It might be too early to speak of a depression, but we're certainly close.
And then there is the question of the euro, Europe's "dollar". It now seems very likely the Greece and maybe several other countries will have to beg out of the system, which will, if worst comes to worst, collapse. This would mean a depression of monumental size, bankruptcies and all kinds of mayhem. Sweden, which is not among the euro countries, will nevertheless be badly hurt—the little country is highly export dependent and will have a very hard time to adjust to chaos on the continent.
And so, friends, fasten your seatbelts. There are stormy days ahead.…
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World Reporter
Ulf Nilson, World reporter since his first assignments to Hungary in 1956. Correspondent and Sweden’s man in America for 20 years, Ulf Nilson is still a regular columnist in Sweden’s daily Expressen, and regular contributor in Nordstjernan. He has authored or co-authored over fifty books. He lives in southern France or at his beloved Värmdö, just 30 minutes north of Stockholm. He
• covered the US, including Vietnam during the war years
• marched in the civil rights marches
• interviewed Martin Luther King
• met presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• and, as one of Sweden’s most well-known journalists, also met with every politician, industry leader or cultural personality—all the movers and shakers of Sweden through five decades of a proliferate professional life.
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