Story of 2011: Repeated sovereign debt crises

The story of 2011 that will live through the generations is repeated crises with sovereign debt, especially in Europe and America. 

Starting with Greece, extending to Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and finally to vaunted France, the accepted notion for the past 25 years that unlimited debt in each nation is without consequence was methodically demolished.

Interestingly, even in the face of irrefutable evidence of the disastrous end of such national policies, nation after nation in Europe and the USA have proved incapable of curing the problem retrospectively or even stopping the spending prospectively.

It is almost humorous watching essentially socialist governments from Washington DC to Rome and Athens, to cut spending in the face of the dire certainty of continuation of their irresponsible ways.  We say almost, because the pain that will be caused by their irresponsibility could be profound.

The reality of 2012, and certainly of the coming decade, is that time has run out for making the important fiscal and economic decisions. We all must either adopt totalitarian socialism, or once again free up the economic markets that made American and European economies the engines powering the world.   

COAST prefers the latter.