The European economic numbers flow across my computer screen, not quite as quickly as the ticker tape crawl at CNBC or Bloomberg, but there are a lot of them and virtually every one is bad. And in or out of the euro zone, they all point to the same thing: austerity isn't working.

In Greece: the economy contracted by 7 percent in the last quarter. Since austerity budgets began to be implemented two years ago Greece's debt had jumped from 115 percent of GDP to 166 percent of GDP, the Guardian reports.

In Britain: Unemployment is at 8.4 percent according to the Office of National Statistics, a 16 year high (I have reported on other sources of unemployment statistics here).

It's New Year's Eve at the zoo, your neighbors are going crazy with fireworks, and the giraffes are spooked. What do you do?

At Amersfoort Animal Park in the Netherlands, staff tune into Radio 2, a public radio station that plays pop music, and crank up the volume.