Finally, the president endorses higher taxes on the rich, a higher minimum wage, and hiring more teachers!

Of course, I'm talking about the new president-elect of France, Francois Hollande -- those things could never happen here, not even in Obama's dictatorial second term.* Regarding the economic crisis in Europe, only one thing is clear -- austerity in the face of a slowdown has failed, just like the so-called experts should have learned in Economics 101.

Will a leftist approach work? I honestly don't know. So far we've learned that austerity (the UK, Spain, Ireland) is a dud, and a mixed approach (the United States) gets mixed results. Now, with France and possibly other European nations looking -- thanks to democracy -- toward solutions on the left, we'll have the ultimate economics lab across the Atlantic. It's only the future of western civilization that hangs in the balance. Good luck, guys.

And one footnote on the election in Greece: Nazis -- I hate those guys!

* Sarcasm, one hopes.