A Leaderless Europe

Little noticed in the general mediocrity and ineptitude of recent Western national leadership is the trend in Western Europe to the irresponsible Left. Certainly, the victory of the eco-socialist Greek Syriza party (a catchment for all the discarded loopy Left) has been noticed, because of the anticipated implications if it leads Greece out of the eurozone and back to the drachma, which has never been a hard currency in its very long history. Though it has backtracked a little, it still promises to pay unaffordably generous social benefits by steadily inflating and devaluing the local currency, promoting Greece’s only generators of foreign currency: tourism, cement, and vegetables. A chicken game is in progress, between Syriza and a Europe now much better prepared than during the Greek-generated financial crisis of several years ago to deal with a Greek falling-out.