May 7, 2012 10:59 PM AP
PARIS - The day after Francois Hollande rode to power in France on a slogan of "change now," the conversation
in Europe was already different Monday: Austerity had become a dirty word. What replaces it, though, was anything
but clear.
The newly powerful in France and Greece want to roll back the spending cuts and tax increases that have defined Europe's
response to its 3-year-old debt crisis. But campaign rhetoric is likely to prove more extreme than any real-world reversal
of the budget tightening.
World financial markets took Europe's latest round of political upheaval in stride, convulsing early and then
recovering. The continent's uncertain future - including the possibility of Greece leaving the euro - was causing anxiety but
not panic about the threat to the global economy. But there is hardly unity in Europe.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=1-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/1-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
PARIS - The day after Francois Hollande rode to power in France on a slogan of "change now," the conversation
in Europe was already different Monday: Austerity had become a dirty word. What replaces it, though, was anything
but clear.
The newly powerful in France and Greece want to roll back the spending cuts and tax increases that have defined Europe's
response to its 3-year-old debt crisis. But campaign rhetoric is likely to prove more extreme than any real-world reversal
of the budget tightening.
World financial markets took Europe's latest round of political upheaval in stride, convulsing early and then
recovering. The continent's uncertain future - including the possibility of Greece leaving the euro - was causing anxiety but
not panic about the threat to the global economy. But there is hardly unity in Europe.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=1-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/1-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
