The European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, indicated in a recent speech that Europe may be reaching the political limits of austerity programs. The combination of the Italian elections and the Cypriot crisis have suggested that the Troika may have to agree to move toward more stimulus and less belt-tightening. Indeed as the graph below suggests, the austerity programs have not succeeded in reducing the debt to GDP ratios in any countries with the single exception of Germany in the most recent year.
Israel is claiming that Syria used chemical weapons against rebel forces. If true, that action crosses a “red line” announced by President Obama, possibly signaling American intervention in the civil war. We need to be very careful about the claim and we should wait for multiple verification of the charge. I am personally very suspicious of every claim of “weapons of mass destruction” since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. I am not at all certain, moreover, that it should be considered a cause for intervention since I am not clear as to how an intervention might affect the future use of those weapons and do not believe that there is any useful basis for armed intervention in a civil war.
A long quiescent border dispute has flared up again between India and China as Chinese troops have entered the Depsang valley in the Ladakh region of eastern Kashmir. India and China has frosty relations as they both compete for great power status, and the border disputes between the two countries remain a persistent irritant. We will have to see if the Chinese respond effectively to the Indian protest.
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