Daily Archive

You see this sequence of events happen repeatedly.  Government tries to help people, investor class loses favoured status, takes toys and goes home, economy retracts and ideologues decry high taxes.  Government lowers taxes on business, cuts social spending and the people are unhappy and elect someone to enhance their disenfranchisement.

It is happening in Hungary right now.

“A far-right party in Hungary is on the verge of winning second place in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, appealing to those hard hit by the economic crisis and angry about the presence of Gypsies in the country.”

Black shirts? How original.

Huh, hard economic times and the scapegoating of a section of the population coupled with the rise of a far-right political party?  Nothing could go wrong there.

Must be those hard economic times and you know those damn Socialists simply cannot manage money.

“The Socialist government led by technocrat Gordon Bajnai had to make painful budget cuts to rein in the deficit under a financing deal led by the International Monetary Fund, which rescued Hungary from financial collapse in 2008.”

Ohhh, hello IMF. (Where was the mention of the meddling by the IMP in the CBC article?  The quote in green is from Al Jazeera.)   The IMF would certainly not impose conditions that make it hard on the government to actually run the country would they?

“In Hungary, under IMF tutelage, liberalized trade, tightened money supply and rapid and ill-considered privatization have led to greatly increased unemployment and a redirection of resources away from education and social services and to wealthy bond holders.

Carol Welch, International Policy Analyst at Friends of the Earth, said “The IMF has a consistent record of environmental and economic destruction and poverty exacerbation. We have to expose this and stop the Fund’s attempt to establish a permanent austerity program for the poor countries.”

Ah yes, the old “We get Free Trade, you get Financial Austerity” ploy in action, it is nice to see the naked pillage of an economy and abuse of a sovereign nation all in the name of capitalism.

Shorter version: Hungary has hard times, IMF fraks things up even worse, people coerced into electing a proto-fascist capitalist dictatorship.  Good Times!