Dude, I Found Your Recession
If America falls into recession, Democrats will blame Bush, no doubt. But does Dubya’s influence on the economy cover the entire continent of Europe? Retroactively?
A mood of fear and pessimism is starting to descend on Europe. It now seems the region could head into recession even before the United States.
Many EU nations are in real trouble. In Spain, economy minister Pedro Solbes declared that the country was facing its "most complex crisis ever" following a collapse of the property market.
A leading Spanish property group, Martinsa-Fadesa, filed for bankruptcy earlier this week.
Like Spain, Ireland has suffered a housing market collapse and many people have run up huge personal debts. The Irish economy shrank earlier in the year and economists say that if it continues to contract, the nation will fall into recession by the end of 2008.
Despite this, the Irish Prime Minister or Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has insisted his country is still doing remarkably well, despite the global economic downturn, and has rejected claims that he is personally responsible for the downturn.
Denmark is already in recession and shows no sign of emerging from it in the near future. The government there stepped in to rescue a failing bank, Roskilde, in early July.
Unlike the US economy, which still grew (albeit very weakly) in the first quarter, European countries are already in different degrees of economic retreat. And the emphasis above (mine) notes that this is a global economic problem which we are weathering better than the countries Democrats keep holding up as examples we should follow.
Is Bush that all-powerful? (Hint: No.) But it’s just too good a glop of mud to sling at him for Democrats. They just can’t pass up the chance, and they hope their followers aren’t paying attention.
[tags]economics,recession,Spain,Ireland,Denmark[/tags]
Filed under: Democrats • Doug • Economics & Taxes • Politics
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