Endless Recession—IMF Chief Warns Against Spending Cuts

In a fit of coherence, one of the world’s leading capitalists has warned that spending cuts will hurt global economic recovery. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in the Financial Times on Tuesday that spending cuts were not the appropriate means to forestall another recession, Democracy Now reported yesterday.

But will the ruling elite listen and do they care?

Austerity on the masses means the wealthy can continue to enjoy their low tax rates, subsidies for their businesses and continued prosperity. Their businesses, for the most part, seem to be doing just fine, even without hiring back all the unemployed workers. In fact they've doing better than ever, with record profits and record productivity by the down-sized, sped-up and overworked employees who still have their jobs.

Of course this will perpetuate or worsen the recession. But if they can keep it up long enough, at least in the U.S., it will likely make Obama unelectable.

Greek Teachers Join General Strike

Greek workers have launched a general strike against the austerity measures imposed by the government, the Teacher Solidarity website reported this week. Teachers have joined the strike by both public and private sector workers against the cuts in public services, pay and benefits cuts, and increasing taxes. Schools have been shut down, transportation has been disrupted and health services are operating with emergency crews.

The austerity measures and general strike come in the wake of a bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which occurred a year ago, but which has done nothing to relieve the country of its financial crisis. There is clearly no justification for Greek workers to continue to accept the cuts to their living standards and working conditions as it has done nothing to solve the country’s financial problems. However, their resistance has sent shockwaves through the European Union’s financial sector, as banks and finance capitalists freak out over the possibility that Greece might default on its loans, and inspire Ireland and Portugal to do the same.