Lawrence Lessig ~ The People Can Save the Republic by Taking Back Power from "The Lesters"

Lawrence Lessig, the founder of Creative Commons, gave a fantastic lecture in which he explained how our crazy system allows a miniscule minority - 0.05% of citizens - the "Lesters" - to fund elections, and how that corruption "at the root" of the Republic is blocking reform. The "Lesters" pick and choose candidates and issues through money influence, and only after they make a choice do the "People" get to vote in general elections. This is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Nor did they envision a country in which the public good is secondary to the future of politicians and their staffers to work as well-paid lobbyists for the Lesters. "This is a problem of incentives," says Lessig.




And while it seems impossible to overcome the corruption, we have to try because, as Lessig wryly notes, "Even we Liberals love this country." What is the answer? According to Lessig, it's the Obama-model of fundraising used successfully in two elections - take small contributions from many citizens instead of large lump sums from the one-percenters like the Koch Brothers or Sheldon Adelson (after all, Mitt failed in spite of his money).

TED is a Non-Profit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

"Lesterland" is available as an ebook download in various formats


Lessig on CNN:

. . . in my TED talk, I created Lesterland: Imagine a country like the United States, with just as many "Lesters" as the United States (about 150,000 out of a population of more than 300 million, or about 0.05%). And imagine those Lesters have a very special power: Each election cycle has two elections. In one, the general election, all citizens get to vote. In the other, the "Lester election," only "Lesters" get to vote.

But here's the catch: To be allowed to run in the general election, you must do extremely well in the Lester election. You don't necessarily need to win, but you must do extremely well.

We all get what Lesterland would be like. Sure, as the Supreme Court said in Citizens United, "the People" of Lesterland would have the "ultimate influence" over elected officials. Ultimate, because in the final election, the people get to vote. But "the People" only get to vote for the candidates who have made "the Lesters" happy. And no doubt, that fact will produce a subtle, understated, somewhat camouflaged bending to keep those Lesters happy.

Once you see Lesterland, and the corruption it creates you understand USA-land, and the corruption we suffer. For the United States is Lesterland.

Like Lesterland, the United States also has two elections. One a voting election, where citizens get to select the candidates who will ultimately govern. But the other is a money election, where the candidates who wish to run in the voting election raise the money they need to compete. As in Lesterland, the candidates don't necessarily need to win the money election. But they must do extremely well.

. . . Members of Congress will always be dependent upon their funders. But if we adopted a system to fund campaigns like the one proposed by Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Maryland, The Grassroots Democracy Act, then "the funders" would be "the People." If members raised the funds they needed from small contributions only, then many more of us would be the "relevant funders." And thus when members were responsive to their "funders," they would thus be responsive to that many more of us.

That, after all, was the Framers' original design. James Madison promised us a Congress "dependent upon the people alone." "Alone." We've got instead a Congress dependent upon the people and dependent upon the Lesters.

GOP in Galilee ~ Drunken Skinny-Dipping or Naked Baptism?

Why did 20 Republican members of Congress and their staff members go skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee while on a supposed "educational" trip to the Holy Land?

Was it some strange form of group Baptism? Or merely a drunken revel?

Either way, the FBI wants to know:

During a fact-finding congressional trip to the Holy Land last summer, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) took off his clothes and jumped into the sea, joining a number of members, their families and GOP staff during a night out in Israel, the sources told POLITICO. Other participants, including the daughter of another congressman, swam fully clothed while some lawmakers partially disrobed. More than 20 people took part in the late-night dip in the sea, according to sources who were participants in the trip.

. . . The Sea of Galilee, a Christian holy site, is where Jesus is said in the Bible to have walked on water.

The FBI looked into whether any inappropriate behavior occurred, but the interviews do not appear to have resulted in any formal allegations of wrongdoing.

But Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was the senior most GOP lawmaker in Israel on the trip, was so upset about the antics that he rebuked the 30 lawmakers the morning after the Aug. 18, 2011, incident, saying they were distracting from the mission of the trip.

Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was also on the privately funded excursion, which means two of the three top Republicans were a part of this trip. Neither Cantor nor McCarthy went swimming that night, the sources said. Some of their staff did.

The Tweets about this have been hilarious, as you might expect:

Show me in the Constitution where it says I shouldn't soak my taint in the Sea of Galilee on an official delegation! politico.com/news/stories/0…

— David Waldman (@KagroX) August 20, 2012

Jeeze. I thought what happened in the Sea of Galilee stayed in the Sea of Galilee. #GOP

— Christina Gomez (@stayupearly) August 20, 2012

BREAKING: Kansas GOP congressman claims "legitimate shrinkage" after late night skinny-dip in Sea of Galilee

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) August 20, 2012

And yet who among us has not skinny-dipped in the Sea of Galilee? politi.co/TOockL

— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) August 20, 2012

Joe Walsh Goes Too Far Again

As I wrote earlier, loud-mouth lout Joe Walsh of Illinois insulted his opponent, Tammy Duckworth, a paraplegic veteran, by saying she was "not a hero."

And he still thinks he can deflect this back on her by being defensive and rude on TV, as he was with Ashleigh Banfield in the video below. I really, really hope this guy loses big. Please, Illinois voters - vote the bum out!

Romney and Rove at Camp Cozy Pac in Utah

Please Pac(k) Money

Karl Rove runs a giant Super Pac called "Crossroads" that spends millions making negative campaign ads aimed at democratic candidates, mainly at President Obama but also people running for Congress. Comedian Stephen Colbert calls these types of groups "Spooky Pacs" because they don't have to reveal just who the donors are.

Mitt Romney as a candidate is supposed to stay far away - from the Pac, but apparently things are getting murky. This weekend Rove and Romney are cozying up at a "Victory Retreat" of huge donors at an exclusive ski resort in Deer Valley, Utah.

Martin Bashir on MSNBC aptly called this type of fundraising "The Hot Tub Cash Machine" (scroll down for video).
The New York times is more blunt: Democracy for Sale

Sunlight Reporting Group - Possible List of Attendees and Donors

Today someone snapped a picture of Rove and Tag Romney, son of the candidate, riding around in a golf cart at this retreat. Isn't this illegal?


Via Buzzfeed

Picture of Karl Rove in a golf cart at Mitt Romney's private donor retreat in Park City, Utah this weekend. twitpic.com/9zqmtj
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) June 23, 2012

Washington Post - Romney Hosting Super Pac Fundraiser in Utah:

Romney is allowed to talk to groups working on his behalf and even raise money for them, something he’s done several times. The only thing he’s not allowed to do is talk about the strategy for spending money boosting his candidacy or attacking President Obama.

At the retreat, Rove simply has to avoid listening to any of the talk about campaign strategy to stay in the clear.

“Karl Rove is on a panel with other media personalities,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. “We are fully aware of what the law requires and we follow both its letter and its spirit.”

Rove is an unpaid strategic adviser and “key fundraiser” to Crossroads, said Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for the group.

The other day the Obama camp threw down the gauntlet and filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Rove and Crossroads:

Salon: Obama Goes to War with GOP Secret Pac:

. . . the Obama campaign is arguing that the group is essentially violating the tax laws governing its nonprofit status and therefore must reveal its funders. Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign’s top lawyer, argues that Crossroads GPS should no longer be protected as a charity, because it is clearly a political organization. “Crossroads seems to believe that it can run out the clock and spend massive sums of money in this election without accounting for a trace of its funding,” Bauer wrote in the complaint, which was filed today and obtained by the New York Times.

Groups like Crossroads are technically charity organizations and therefore don’t have to disclose their donors. But in order to qualify, their “primary purpose” must be social welfare and not politics. However, where that line actually gets drawn has never really been determined, thanks to an ineffectual FEC and opposition from Republican leaders.

Complete Complaint from Obama's Lawyer, Robert Bauer

Quote Via CNN

There has never been any doubt about its true purpose: to elect candidates of its choice to the Presidency and the Congress. Under the pretense of charitable activities, Crossroads has tried to shield its donors–wealthy individuals, and corporations who may be pursuing special interest agendas that are not in the national interest...
Crossroads seems to believe that it can run out the clock and spend massive sums of money in this election without accounting for a trace of its funding....

David Corn: "Victory Retreat sounds like an oxymoron to me." LOL

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Greeks Go Conservative, May Stay in Eurozone

The Greek Elections are over now and the right-leaning New Democracy government won led by Antonis Samaras, who spoke of "a new national unity in a European direction." They still have to form a government and prove stability to the rest of Europe, but this is an encouraging outcome if Greece wants to remain in the Eurozone.




From MSNBC:

Sunday's vote was seen as crucial for Europe and the world, since it could determine whether Greece was forced to leave the joint euro currency, a move that could have potentially catastrophic consequences for other ailing European nations and the global economy. As central banks stood ready to intervene in case of financial turmoil, Greece held its second national election in six weeks after an inconclusive ballot on May 6.

The Eurozone's finance ministers said the outcome should allow for the formation of a government that will carry the support of the electorate to bring Greece back on a path of sustainable growth.

"The Eurogroup acknowledges the considerable efforts already made by the Greek citizens and is convinced that continued fiscal and structural reforms are Greece's best guarantee to overcome the current economic and social challenges and for a more prosperous future of Greece in the euro area," the group said in a statement.

"We congratulate the Greek people on conducting their election in this difficult time," the White House said in a statement. "We hope this election will lead quickly to the formation of a new government that can make timely progress on the economic challenges facing the Greek people."

Breaking Tonight ~ Dept. of Justice Sues State of Florida

Unbelievable. Today I wrote a post about Governor Scott of Florida refusing to comply with the Department of Justice request to stop purging and instead trying to sue Homeland Security for more voter records to purge.
And tonight, Think Progress is reporting that the Department of Justice is striking back with a lawsuit of their own. The letter is fascinating and lectures Governor Scott once again about the purpose of the National Voter Registration Act that protects the rights of individual voters over the rights of the states.
Letter Here on Scribd
Also from Talking Points Memo

Last Friday, June 8th, the ACLU also filed a lawsuit against the State of Florida on behalf of some voters mistakenly placed on the purge list. From the Palm Beach Post:

The ACLU, the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges asked a three-judge panel in Tampa to stop Secretary of State Ken Detzner from continuing the scrub until the Justice Department decides whether it is permissible.
. . . Murat Limage, a Haitian-American U.S. Citizen, and Pamela Gomez, who is a Dominican-American Hispanic U.S. Citizen, brought the suit along with Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to working with the Latino/Hispanic community to increase civic participation. Both Gomez and Limage are registered to vote in Hillsborough County.
Haitian-born Murat Limage, one of the plaintiffs in the case, registered to vote after becoming a naturalized citizen two years ago. Limage was one of the more than 2,000 voters who received written notice from local elections officials notifying him that he “may not be a U.S. citizen,” the lawsuit reads.

According to the lawsuit, Limage provided his U.S. passport and other citizenship documents to the Hillsborough County elections office but has not yet received confirmation that he will be allowed to vote.
“When I received the letter saying that they had information that I may not be a citizen, I was concerned that someone was taking away my citizenship,” Limage said in a press release announcing the lawsuit today. “I’m an American which means I can vote and that’s all I want to do.”

DOJ Letter to Florida 6:11:2012

Governor Scott says Florida Will Sue Homeland Security for List of Voters to Purge

This guy is all kinds of crazy. Even with his popularity dropping and all his Election Officials in mutiny, he can't stop the purge. He's the Captain Queeg of Florida looking for his strawberries illegal voters.

From Talking Points Memo

“The Florida’s Secretary of State office wil be filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database,” Scott said. “We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and so we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.” The move comes after Scott disregarded a request from the Department of Justice on Wednesday to abandon efforts to purge eligible voters.

Neil Cavuto, who conducted the interview, pressed Scott on why many of those who objected to the purge were Republican election supervisors. Cavuto also noted that other prominent Florida Republicans, notably Sen. Marco Rubio, were notably silent on the purge.

Florida Voter Registration Starting Again

The Wisconsin Recall election is over and Scott Walker won, Unions lost, but Democrats did gain control of the Wisconsin Senate.

 Billionaires buy Wisconsin recall election for Scott Walker

It's heartbreaking, but we need to suck it up and move forward. We have larger fish to fry with the fall Presidential election, so here's some good news: Groups are beginning to register voters in Florida again after the intervention of the Department of Justice and a Federal Judge struck down Rick Scott's draconian rules that were trying to disenfranchise voters. Rachel Maddow had one of the County Election Supervisors on her show. What a brave lady! Rachel called the Supervisors the "firewall" in Florida because Governor Scott cannot force them to purge voter rolls

Miami Herald: League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote to Restart Registration

“We’re going to dust off our clip boards and pick up the forms and get into the business of registering people to vote,” declared St. Petersburg League of Women Voters President Darden Rice. “Registering citizens to vote is part of our core mission, and we’re excited to get back to work.”
At a similar news conference in Orlando, organizers were joined by officials from the nonpartisan group Rock the Vote, which also is resuming Florida voter registration efforts in the wake of last week’s court ruling.

Rock the Vote president Heather Smith said her group registered 100,000 young voters in Florida in 2008 and still should be able to surpass that total this year. Deirdre Macnab, president of the Florida League of Women Voters, estimated her organization, which also emphasizes educating voters about issues and candidates, registers tens of thousands of people each cycle.The voter registration groups still will face more restrictions than they’ve been accustomed to, including registering with elections offices and submitting the names of every volunteer collecting voter registration forms.

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Voter Turnout Heavy in Wisconsin

I've been collecting Tweets all day on Snark Amendment and will be updating this until the polls close.
Badgers Vote and the World is Watching

This election is a huge deal and symbolic of the entire political system. I hope Wisconsin feels the weight of history and votes to throw Walker out. That is the only message that will be loud and clear. If he wins again, the Republicans will take it as a mandate even if he immediately gets indicted. He needs to be out, period. But at least this recall and his legal woes will keep him from being Romney's running mate. He's pretty much tainted himself forever. I don't know why Republicans would ever want this bozo for a governor except that they basically hate themselves.

The Solidarity Sing-Along on the Capitol Square in Madison this morning:


Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal: Who Benefits from High Turnout?

Who benefits from higher turnout? There’s no pat answer to that question. There were 2,171,331 votes cast in the 2010 election. If turnout is, say, 200,000 votes higher than that, that could reflect a Republican turnout surge, a Democratic turnout surge, or both. Turnout is extremely unlikely Tuesday to match the 2008 presidential race, when almost 3 million votes were cast in Wisconsin.
But if turnout is in the very bullish range predicted by state election officials – 2.6 to 2.8 million – that could be good news for Democrats. That’s because the Democratic coalition includes voting groups – minorities, lower-income voters, young voters – that typically turn out at lower rates. If turnout really does top 2.5 million, that probably indicates a robust turnout by more casual Democratic voters.

Wisconsin State Journal: Turnout Heavy

Voters and public officials reported long lines at many Wisconsin polling places Tuesday — with Dane County Clerk Karen Peters calling the local turnout "just wild."
"It ranges from 28 to 42 percent already; it is a huge turnout. We could hit 80 to 88 percent," Peters said midday of Dane County's turnout. She collected status reports from local clerks....

..."Everything leading up to this election, it completely felt like a presidential (election)," said Maribeth Witzel-Behl, the city clerk in Madison, where turnout was strong. She was speaking of the workload, number of officials needed for the polls and the number of absentee ballots her office received prior to the election.
There were lines outside of many polling places this morning — full of voters who anticipated longer waits as the day progressed.

Barrett took that as a good sign for him. "Obviously the lines are very, very long, which we take as a very encouraging sign. People are engaged in this," he said. "We've noted over the last 96 hours is around the state the energy has just been building and building and building."

Walker, who cast his ballot Tuesday at an elementary school in Wauwatosa, said Election Day almost came as a relief.
"I think most people are just happy to have the election over," he said. "I think most voters of the state want to have all the attack ads off. They want to have their TVs back. They want to have their lives back."

Think Progress: Robocalls Telling People Not to Vote

Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee and the Democratic nominee to unseat Governor Scott Walker, told MSNBC host Ed Schultz last night that his campaign began receiving complaints yesterday that voters had been contacted with the misinformation. This morning, Salon reported on the robocalls too, and included comments from Carol Gibbons, a Wisconsin resident who got the call herself. And a local CBS affiliate is even reporting that the caller sounds eerily similar to Tom Barrett, suggesting the group behind the call may have hired a Barrett impersonator.

Obama Backs Barrett on Twitter

President Obama tonight tweeted support for Tom Barrett in the Wisconsin Recall Election:

It's Election Day in Wisconsin tomorrow, and I'm standing by Tom Barrett. He'd make an outstanding governor. -bo

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 4, 2012

Barrett told voters tonight that the race is close.WIFR.com reporting:

PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) -- Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says he thinks the recall race against Republican Gov. Scott Walker is now a dead heat heading into Tuesday's election. An exuberant Barrett spoke to about 100 of his volunteers in Portage in one of several stops he made on the final day of campaigning before the recall vote.

Also this breaking News tonight from Wisconsin Dems:

June 04, 2012 BREAKING: Scott Walker's Closest Aide Revealed in Court as Source of Damaging Leak; Flips on Embattled Governor
Scott Walker's closest political aide has just been named in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Monday as the source of damaging revelations that undermine Walker's claim that he has cooperated with the John Doe criminal corruption probe into his current and former administrations.
Tim Russell, who was hired or promoted by Scott Walker even after he was fired for stealing from a state agency, was said in court Monday to have given Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice information that showed that, contrary to Walker's claims, Walker was stonewalling investigators all along.
The shocking revelation that Scott Walker's closest aide sought to damage Walker on the eve of Tuesday's historic recall election indicated that Russell was cooperating with a prosecution against Walker himself.

Florida ~ Purging Towards Oblivion

More on the Florida Voter List Purge situation:

Sign the ThinkProgress Petition to Stop Rick Scott's Voter Purge

Palm Beach Post: All 67 Florida County Election Supervisors Stop Purging

The Justice Department letter and mistakes that the 67 county elections supervisors have found in the state list make the scrub undoable, said Martin County Elections Supervisor Vicki Davis, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.
"There are just too many variables with this entire process at this time for supervisors to continue," Davis said.
Ron Labasky, the association's general counsel, sent a memo to the 67 supervisors Friday telling them to stop processing the list.
"I recommend that Supervisors of Elections cease any further action until the issues raised by the Department of Justice are resolved between the parties or by a Court," Labasky wrote.
Davis said the effect on supervisors will be "if they've started the process and they do find out that someone is ineligible to vote and they have credible and reliable information to back it up, then they will remove that person from the database. But if they have not had contact with someone on the list, they're stopping at that point."

Old Northeast Patch: Pinellas Halts Voter Verification

Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark announced Friday that she halted processing the list of potential non-citizen voters distributed to all Florida Supervisors of Elections by the Division of Elections.
..."We’ve been told not to proceed with the verification process, and we don’t want to take anyone off the list who could be an eligible voter," Whitlock told Patch. "At this point we are just stopping the process. Not doing anything else with it further."

CBS: Florida Dems Push Back

...a handful of Democratic Florida lawmakers are pushing back, arguing in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott that the process "fails to meet the basic standards of accountability" and that proceeding with it would be "irresponsible."
...In Tuesday's letter, Florida Democratic lawmakers Ted Deutch, Alcee Hastings, Corinne Brown, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Frederica Wilson and Kathy Castor contend that "providing a list of names with questionable validity - created with absolutely no oversight - to county supervisors and asking that they purge their rolls will create chaotic results and further undermine Floridians' confidence in the integrity of our elections."
"Given that this process fails to meet basic standards of accountability, and that the legal authority for automatic removal of registered voters is currently being challenged in both state and federal court, it is irresponsible to proceed so quickly and with so little room for oversight," the letter reads.

Miami Herald: Minorities and Democrats Targets of Purge

The election-year effort, led by a Republican-appointed secretary of state, has increasingly become a focus of concern among Democrats, liberals and civil-liberties groups. They worry that the state could wind up removing lawful voters from the rolls.
...When they register to vote, Hispanics are flocking to the Democratic Party or to the no-party-affiliation label — nicknamed “NPA” — a sign the Republican Party’s hard-line immigration stances are turning off Latinos.
Those potential noncitizens who register as NPAs have been disproportionately flagged in the state’s computer sweep. ... Democrats are the most-likely to be flagged, in large part because their party has the biggest ranks in Florida. They make up 40 percent of the voter rolls and 40 percent of the potential noncitizens.

Florida Purge Halted by Feds

Some good news out of Florida for a change, at least for now. A Federal Judge ruled yesterday that the "24-hour limit" for helping to register someone to vote was unecessarily strict. Then last night, the Department of Justice announced that they are getting more involved with the fight to stop the purging of the voter rolls in Florida by Governor Rick Scott. About time!  The League of Women Voters and even schoolteachers were being threatened with large legal fines, and people who are citizens of this country are being scrubbed from the voter rolls. Something had to be done.

From the Tampa Bay Times

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle told the state it cannot require groups to submit voter registration forms within 48 hours or face $1,000 fines. Nor can the state force those groups to disclose names of volunteers who don't collect the forms, Hinkle ruled.
"The short deadline, coupled with substantial penalties for non-compliance, make voter registration drives a risky business," Hinkle wrote. "If the goal is to discourage voter registration drives and thus make it harder for new voters to register, the 48-hour deadline may succeed."
... Hinkle said voter registration activity is protected speech under the First Amendment. His injunction means that groups will have 10 days to submit voter forms, as they did before the law was changed.
. . . It's a victory for three grass roots groups that brought the lawsuit: Rock the Vote, the Florida Public Interest Group Education Fund and the League of Women Voters of Florida, which suspended all voter registration efforts after the law took effect.
"We are really delighted," said Deirdre MacNab, president of the League of Women Voters. "It knocks out the poor parts of an unreasonable and unconstitutional law. Our volunteers are eager to get back to work."

And the Department of Justice sent Florida a letter serving notice that they are watching the voter purge to see if it is justified (of course it isn't!).

From Naples News:

T. Christian Herren, chief of the department's voting section, sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner that said the state's actions appear to violate two federal voting laws. Florida has used a search of a driver's license database to try to identify non-citizens who are ineligible to vote. Herren's letter said the actions do not comply with part of the federal Voting Rights Act that requires Florida to get a sign-off from the Department of Justice or a federal court for actions that affect five counties with a history of discrimination.
. . . The letter also said Florida could be violating another law known as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which includes standards for how voter lists are maintained. Part of the law requires states to finish the systematic removal of ineligible voters 90 days before a primary or general election --- a deadline that passed May 16 for Florida, which has a primary on Aug. 14. The Department of Justice gave Detzner less than a week to say how the state will deal with the possible legal violations.
. . . "Specifically, please advise whether the state intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary."

Of course, Florida is protesting that it never meant to suppress the vote. They are just saving the country from voter fraud.

From CNN

In a statement, Chris Cate said the decision to remove names from the list was essential to preventing non-citizens from casting ballots illegally.
"The Department of State has a duty under both state and federal laws to ensure that Florida's voter registration rolls are current and accurate. Therefore, identifying ineligible voters is something we are always doing," Cate wrote.
He added that the action was not meant to prevent minority voters from voting.
"The political party and race of the potential non-citizens is not a factor at all in our process," Cate wrote. "We are only concerned about identifying ineligible voters and making sure they can't cast a ballot."

Yeah, right. *eyeroll*

Economics Round-Up

CNBC Slideshow: Europe's Real Estate Ghost Towns

Euro Tumbles Due to Wild Weekend Elections 

Anti-Austerity Ballot Backlash 

France, Greece, and the End of the Euro 

 Continued German support for the single currency relies on acceptance of the austerity imposed by the fiscal compact. Both France and Greece have now resoundingly rejected the old political consensus, making the future of the single currency more uncertain than ever.

 Greeks Reject "Barbarism" of Economic Austerity

Alexis Tsipras became the surprise package of the Greek election by telling Angela Merkel to get lost.
“The people of Europe can no longer be reconciled with the bailouts of barbarism,” Tsipras, 37, said on state-run NET TV late yesterday after his Syriza party unexpectedly came second in the country’s election. “European leaders, and especially Ms. Merkel, should realize that her policies have undergone a crushing defeat.”

Germany's Merkel Defends the Euro and Austerity

Ms Merkel has called for giving Athens time to "analyse the election result" and determine "which groupings are possible for a new government".
She acknowledged that the budget cutting imposed on the debt-mired country in exchange for two separate rescue packages was "difficult" but said it "nevertheless must continue".

Socialist Hollande Defeats Sarkozy in France

“After 35 years of politics, after 10 years at the highest levels of government, after five years as head of state, I will become a Frenchman among the French,” Sarkozy said last night, conceding defeat.
With joblessness at a 12-year high and public debt at a record, the electorate proved unwilling to forgive the 57-year- old lawyer for foibles such as celebrating his 2007 victory at a chic Paris restaurant and a holiday on a billionaire’s yacht, making the election an anti-Sarkozy vote.
“If the French had jobs and more money in their pockets, they’d be confident and ready to forgive,” said Laurent Dubois, a professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.

 Austerity Could Be Over for Europe

“Immediate austerity, in recessionary economies, simply doesn’t work – a point apparently better understood by many European voters than those they have elected,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan.
In less than two years, voters in seven European countries have thrown out leaders or ruling parties.
What Europe needs now is some “enlightened macro-economic approach,” according to Mr. Kelly. And that means less pressure on the austerity pedal, he argued.