The Economy

The European stock markets fell heavily on Labor Day in the US, with nothing but bad news coming out of both the US and Europe it looks like a really bad day on Tuesday for the US stock market. So far it is down 200+ points, which is somewhat less than the Asian and European markets.

The market looks at zero jobs created in August and the very good possibility of the US entering a double-dip recession, along with the Italian situation. The EU, and it’s banks gave the Italian government instructions to get their economic house in order, including lowering its debt, reducing its government salaries and establishing a Balanced Budget Amendment.  (Sound familiar?)

The Italian government has done even less to get it’s house in order, than has the Greek government…or the US government, for that matter.

Meanwhile the Italian government said yesterday that it would meet the requirements…Ahhhh…sometime…Ahhhh…in some way…but that their previous plan was flawed, and….

(And tiny Iceland, which has already been through the EU wringer to get its economic house in order or get no bailout money, claims that it was pressured into a deal! Ahhhh…like Iceland, Greece and Italy would have done it without pressure…don’t think so…)

The United States needs a strong Europe to buy its goods.  Europe needs a strong US to buy its goods, and to accept a greater role in protecting Europe. It is in neither of our interests to have the other economies weak — and now both are weak for the same reason — overspending.

It’s not brain surgery.