The European fiscal pact
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/pers-m05.shtml
The fact that the European Union formally adopted the fiscal pact on Friday even as the European economy is once again contracting underscores the pact’s deeply reactionary, anti-working class character.
Historical experience demonstrates that slashing public spending deepens an incipient recession. From a purely budgetary perspective the fiscal pact appears nonsensical. As the example of Greece shows, the loss in state revenues caused by a major recession exceeds any savings made by cuts in expenditures, ultimately increasing the budget deficit and national debt, rather than shrinking them.