You Do The Math

Fundamentals: We are told by the press that austerity doesn't work in the Euro-periphery, it only makes things worse. Latvia and Ireland are the only two Euro-periphery countries to actually implement austerity and serious free market reform. In 2009 GDP in Latvia contracted a startling 18%. This put the fear of God in the Latvians and they embraced the free market with both hands. Last year growth in Latvia was a robust 5%, among the strongest in the world. Ireland has one of the stronger economies in Europe. It is growing right now, it isn't growing very fast but it is growing while most of Europe is in recession. Ireland and Latvia did not have any riots or huge general strikes. Italy has had only a few riots, less than the other Euro-zone basket cases, and it has the next strongest economy among these so-called PIIGS countries. Italy has also had more free market reform than any PIIGS except Latvia and Ireland. There is a direct one to one relationship between free market reform in indebted Euro-zone countries and economic growth.

Editor's Note: Latvia is in the Euro-zone. It doesn't use the euro but it does peg its currency to the euro, which amounts to the same thing. So Greece has no excuse.

Long War: Netanyahu was eager to call for an early election. His only possible opponent is a woman named Shelly, who has no experience in the military and is weaker on defense than any other Israeli politician in history. Polls show most Israelis do not want an air strike on Iran. But they fear Shelly will make such a weak PM they would vote for Netanyahu even if it meant an unpopular war. Calling the early election seemed like a brilliant idea on Netanyahu's part.

Out of the blue, Netanyahu cancelled the early election and announced that he is instead forging an new coalition of political parties that will allow him to attack Iran. Except he is the only one talking about attacking Iran. His new coalition partners aren't saying anything like that.

So somebody just bitch slapped Netanyahu, the strongest and most hawkish Israeli PM ever. Who do you think is it was? The media would say Shelly was the one doing the bitch slapping. Shelly, the weakest politician in Israel's history. Give me a break.