Tag: austerity

Which is more impressive, the austerity or the book collection?

Government officials have proposed austerity measures, weatherman calling for food riots with a chance of mayhem.

Austerity policies, which consist mainly of extra taxes, not only keep the European governments from finding long-term solutions to their overspending, while worsening the economic situation; they also make these government increasingly unpopular. Almost 40 years after Arthur Laffer drew his famous curve on a napkin, one wonders why European politicians keep closing their eyes to an evident truth instead of putting in place incentives for growth.

People don’t want to be told to sacrifice, especially because they suspect that the elite isn’t doing so and that this same elite is responsible for the mess. So they can be—easily?—manipulated into voting for those who tell them to eat, drink and be merry, with a minimal tax on billionaires and millionaires paying off the caterer.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose strongly in trading Sunday.