Much as I am sick of bailout nation, and bailout global nation, the European rescue of Greece was probably necessary to stop a total euro currency meltdown that might have triggered a worldwide debt-deflation downward spiral. I’m sure that’s the inner logic we will be hearing from Euro-land leaders in the days ahead.
One thing I do like: The new Greek budget will slash union wages across-the-board. And it does have some modest pro-growth tax cuts in the package. It also looks like Germany and France will put loan guarantees behind the Greek debt.
Now look, I’m not jumping for joy over this, because in the modern world it seems like nobody ever fails. And that of course is inimical to free-market capitalism. But U.S. and world stocks cheered the bailout news — the Dow finished up big yesterday — and I do believe in the wisdom of the investor marketplace vote.
So what happens now to Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Italy? And oh, by the way, what happens to California, New York, New Jersey, and many other American states? I don’t know. Somebody, someplace, has to force some discipline onto this out-of-control government-spending-and-borrowing system. Somebody has to put their foot down, someplace.
On another note, I would like to take a moment to highlight a big recent victory for free-market capitalism. The Senate rejected left-wing public union lawyer Craig Becker’s nomination to the National Labor Relations Board. This is huge. This guy would have tipped the balance of the NLRB in order to end the secret ballot in unionization efforts.
So card check is dead, back door or front door. Good riddance.
Now, if only we could only cut business tax rates across-the-board, large and small, and extend the Bush tax cuts to promote private investment, rather than massive government spending, as the engine of growth.