2010 will remain, in the West, as the year of the ostrich.
In France, on any subject of importance, no politician has taken a
courageous decision:
Those who govern have not started to reduce seriously the public debt, and
it continues to grow. They have done nothing to tackle the country’s four
main problems, the worsening of injustices, the decline of primary school,
the difficulties of reintegration of the unemployed and the weakness of
SMEs.
Those who, on the left, aspire to govern do not have a better record: they
have not yet dared to choose their candidate or set the program they will
propose to the French people in less than 18 months. They veil their faces
before the difficulties they would face if they prevailed.
In the rest of the West, it is hardly better:
In Europe, governments have imposed austerity plans, refusing to see that
they are solving nothing and are bumping into a wall: rigor reduces growth
and increases the debt burden. They left the EU budget without the means to
compensate for regional inequalities or to finance the growth sectors. They
left the European Central Bank create money by swearing that it will not be
used. Because they do not have the courage to explain to the people, much
more mature than they think, that we must come together, to pool resources
and build a real project, giving meaning to action.
In the United States, the ruling class has not done better in 2010:
abandoning all power to banks, lowering taxes on the rich, squandering
deficits and creating money ad infinitum.
All this has in reality no other objective than to gain a few months,
perhaps years, at the cost of increased difficulties, making them less and
less manageable. In particular, obviously, for the weakest.
Everyone hopes for a hypothetical miracle; everyone expects a miraculous
savior. He may come. In the form of a technological change or a war. Or
both. After what sufferings!
Meanwhile, the emerging countries are using their tremendous economic growth
to solve their own contradictions.
What follows is written in advance: in the West, the avalanche will grow; it
will soon become uncontrollable and cause a general stampede, every man for
himself. Pushing the countries of the South, which have become suppliers of
the North, in the same downward spiral. In Europe, in particular, this will
lead to a chain of crises, beginning with Spain, until the break of the
Euro, and the return of all economic and political mistakes of the past.
It was thus the year of the ostrich. Logically, if nothing is done soon, it
will be followed, as always, by the year of the rat, that of all violence.
To avoid this, it would take a lot of courage and vision: In France,
especially, we should immediately confront the difficult issues, even if it
means being temporarily unpopular. In Europe, it would be necessary, before
it is too late, to make a jump toward fiscal federalism. In the United
States, it would be necessary to strengthen considerably the means and
powers of the federal State. Everywhere, the long-term should prevail over
the short term; it would be necessary to open our eyes and look far, in the
darkness: It would be necessary that 2011 be the year of the lynx.