The Zloty Rules

No joke.  The zloty is the currency of Poland. Back in 2004, when the Poles joined the Eurozone, they agreed to eventually give it up in favor of the euro.  They have not yet gotten around to committing that mistake, and "eventually" may never eventuate.

I say that not because I still believe there is a better than even chance the euro itself may ultimately go away, but because Poland today is growing faster than every one of the other 27 members of the zone. In fact, it may be the only one growing at all.  And that is owing to its continuing use of an independent currency, which shields it from the wrong-headed dictates of the austerity fools running the continent into the ground.  You know, the brethren and kindred spirits of the right wing Republican zealots who are out to destroy our middle class.

All of this is bound-up in the arguments made here before about the question of government debt and deficits.  Once again, the liberals are being proven right by reality.  And as Paul Krugman says, it's not deficits that matter, but economic performance.

Moreover, as Krugman also demonstrates, the public itself doesn't even know whether deficits are going up or down at any particular period of time.  They just tend to believe whatever the mainstream propaganda machine keeps shoveling out on their heads to scare them into killing off safety net programs and giving tax breaks to billionaires.  After all, recent research shows that a plurality of all voters, and an absolute majority of Republicans, believe that debt and deficits were increasing during the Clinton administration, a time when in fact the surplus George Bush burned up in Iraq and gave away to his oil drenched billionaire buddies was being built up. 

It's the stupidity, stupid.  Put that one under the zloty rules.