Fascinating development in France

Sure, they're the French and sure, Americans think totally differently and we have the Tea Party--and Republicans and deeply Right Wing fringe--but just now, it's been confirmed that those crazy French have elected their first Socialist candidate to their presidency since 1995:

Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency

It is, truly, a fascinating development.

Remember when Britain and the US both elected deeply Right Wing, Conservative leaders in the 80's with our Ronald Reagan to their Margaret Thatcher?

Sure we do.

At the time, it seemed there was a bit of a Right Wing, international zeitgeist afoot.

Now, with this surprising development, maybe, just maybe there is, possibly, an equal, international zeitgeist arising for the workers--and "Left"--in the world.

As an example, here's a quote from this new President-elect of France: “My true adversary…has no name, no face; he belongs to no party; he will never declare his candidacy. He will not be elected, yet he governs. My enemy is the world of finance.”

I only say what I do here because it was deregulation and Right Wing, corporate mandates and direction that got us to the national and international financial collapse of 2008 to now.

It seems a bit of a Left turn, so to speak, seems at least warranted, if not long, long overdue.

We'd like our middle-class back, thank you very much.

(For anyone concerned about Socialism run amuck, see the last link).

Links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17975660; http://www.classwarfareexists.com/france-elects-socialist-president/; http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/francois-hollande-wins-french-presidential-vote-over-sarkozy-exit-polls-show/2012/05/06/gIQAfUU75T_story.html?hpid=z; http://robertreich.org/post/22542609387

France and French is so bad?

The EU/Greek/German situation now

Still fascinating, for sure. This, last evening: G20 inches toward $2 trillion in rescue funds. With the G20 countries meeting right now in Mexico, they've come up with a plan for all the members to pony up two trillion dollars, as a safety buffer for the EU countries, to help them get over this rough debt patch. All well and good, I suppose. The EU, the US and China and the rest of the world, really, can't afford to let the EU go down, that's been clear all along. What's fascinating, though, is that the Greek people aren't for the austerity measures that are being forced on them now while the Germans aren't crazy about having to be the ones who pony up so much of that money to bail them out of their mess. Crazy situation. Final note here today on this: Greece's goal has to be to get their debt down to only 120% of GDP (Gross Domestic Productivity) by the year 2020. That shows you how bad things are for them and just how much they've overspent. It just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/euro-zone-deal-firewall-awaits-germany-001447722.html

Quote of the day

“Europe has never been at greater risk of explosion than today.” --French President Nikolas Sarkozy, quoted this week in Brussels at the European Conference to save the Euro and so, by extension, the European economies and possibly, Europe and the international economy. Link: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/is-europe-exploding.html#ixzz1g4om2inj

I can hardly believe this

From the PBS "NewsHour" web page, check out their article "5 Things to Know About the G20 Summit": "The Europeans, particularly the Germans and French, like the idea of a financial transaction tax in order to have banks pay for their own bailouts rather than the taxpayers. But Britain and the United States are not keen on it. They feel their financial institutions, which are larger, would suffer more, and that the taxes themselves would be easy to evade." Get that. The Americans don't want to "have banks pay for their own bailouts..." if you can believe that. Astounding. Wouldn't you think that would be self-evident AND fair? Americans just aren't very bright. Or, in actuality, the American corporations can just buy our representatives easier. Link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/11/g20-primer.html

Will the US cooperate with France's desire for "global nuclear reform"?

First, what seems to be great news for the Japanese--this is the first day I can remember that there isn't some new, huge revelation concerning their nuclear power plants and radiation additionally going who-knows-where.

Let's hope it holds, for their and everyone's sake.

So here's the subject for today:  France has proposed

France -- the most nuclear-dependent country in the world -- called for new global nuclear rules and proposed a global conference in France for May as President Nicolas Sarkozy made a quick visit to Tokyo Thursday to show support.

France is a global leader in the nuclear industry, and Paris has flown in experts from state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva to work with Japanese engineers.

As stubborn as we Americans are and have increasingly become, it seems, especially since our cowboy Texas president, George W. Bush, and since the Libertarians and Tea Party have formed and increased in number, do you think there will be any American will to go along with the rest of the world and both set and follow nuclear rules and standards for safety?

We did not/would not go along with the rest of the world's Kyoto Protocol on climate change.  Remember that?

Have we become so entrenched with the thought and assumption that we have to prevail over all that we're no longer capable of "cooperating with others"?

It will be interesting to see.

Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110401/ts_nm/us_japan_quake_338

Quote of the day--on today's Capitalism

From and by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his opening speech given at the 40th World Economic Forum January 27, 2010 in Davos, Switzerland, in which he spanks America and Capitalism as we now practice it:

"To my mind, one of the most striking characteristics of this capitalism which we have allowed to emerge, is that the present was all that mattered and the future no longer counted for anything. Everything for the present immediately, no longer anything for the future. Indeed we saw depreciation of the future in the absolutely exorbitant demand for high yields. Those yields, boosted by speculation and leverage, were the discount rate applied to future revenues: the higher they rose, the lower the importance attached to the future fell. Everything, right away."