Paul Krugman once again warns about the very real possibility that Europe’s democracies may crumble due to the economic woes being visited upon them by the banker class:
The important point here is that it’s not just the Greeks who are mad as Hellas (their own name for their country) and aren’t going to take it anymore. Look at France, where Marine Le Pen, the leader of the anti-immigrant National Front, outpolls mainstream candidates of both right and left. Look at Italy, where about half of voters support radical parties like the Northern League and the Five-Star Movement. Look at Britain, where both anti-immigrant politicians and Scottish separatists are threatening the political order.
It would be a terrible thing if any of these groups — with the exception, surprisingly, of Syriza, which seems relatively benign — were to come to power. But there’s a reason they’re on the rise. This is what happens when an elite claims the right to rule based on its supposed expertise, its understanding of what must be done — then demonstrates both that it does not, in fact, know what it is doing, and that it is too ideologically rigid to learn from its mistakes.
via The New York Times
Most likely there are other voices (besides mine) that have raised these concerns, but if there are others, they must be speaking to audiences even smaller than mine. If there are those within the councils of government, either here or in the European capitals, who are not totally oblivious of the danger, they have managed to hide their concerns magnificently. We have convinced ourselves that democratic institutions can withstand any shock, but if history teaches us anything, it’s that all things must pass, and when they do, they often pass quickly, accompanied by much destruction. I still believe this country will preserve at least the facade of a representative democratic form of government, and while the facade exists, there is always the possibility that we can recover the reality. That is not necessarily the case in Europe. We could easily see one or more of those countries turn to dictatorships.Time for another chapter in The March of Folly.
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