The big news in Europe is the dissolution of the French government as various left-wing government factions try to blame each other for the abysmal condition of their economy. 'French economy going nowhere: now on track for nine straight months of zero growth', writes the Telegraph. The problem, says Hollande's critics, is that he isn't socialist enough. "Two senior left-wing French cabinet ministers have broken ranks with the President, François Hollande, and demanded that Paris abandon the 'forced march' of public-spending cuts in Europe." They warned that unless France did something drastic, like spend more government money, things would fall apart. "The French government recognised on Thursday that its economy had 'broken down' after new data showed there had been zero growth so far this year. In more bad news for the eurozone new figures also revealed the German economy has contracted." And it wasn't just France. EU Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi said that compared to America, Europe was a disaster zone.
There were warnings of Green Suicide by a few lonely voices. "The U.S. shale-gas boom is placing 30 million jobs at risk in Europe as companies with greater reliance on energy contend with higher fuel prices than their American counterparts, the International Energy Agency said."
Two birds with one stone? |