Why Is Europe So Messed Up? An Illuminating History : The New Yorker

The New Yorker

The New Yorker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Subregions of Europe (UN geoscheme)

Subregions of Europe (UN geoscheme) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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This is a MUST READ article from the New Yorker. Check it out!

Why Is Europe So Messed Up? An Illuminating History : The New Yorker.

This article, written by John Cassidy, summarizes why the US is recovering from the financial crisis and Europe continues in recession. Cassidy sums up the situation in Europe as follow:

At this stage, austerity is the biggest threat to the euro. If the recession lasts for very much longer, political unrest is sure to mount, and the currency zone could well break up.

Cassidy analyzes the history by reference to a new book by Mark Blyth, a professor of political economy at Brown University: “Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.” Let me try to summarize.

Simply, best practice monetary policy and fiscal policy options are not available in Europe because of the narrow-mindedness of German policy-makers who are continuing to “tilt the game” in favor of German industry. Of course, German policy-makers see the problem very differently, with their own  extremist “austerian” economic views (called ordoliberalism). The article concludes focusing on the human calamity of austerity.

What do you think?

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How the Case for Austerity Has Crumbled by Paul Krugman | The New York Review of Books

Paul Krugman, Laureate of the Sveriges Riksban...

Paul Krugman, Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008 at a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is an amazing article by Paul Krugman, liberal, Nobel Prize winning economist, written as a book review in the NYT. I would recommend it as a MUST-READ article. Check it out!

via How the Case for Austerity Has Crumbled by Paul Krugman | The New York Review of Books.

Clearly, Krugman feels very passionately about excessive austerity and I personally very much endorse his views. The article is basically a book review of:

Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

by Mark Blyth

Oxford University Press, 288 pp., $24.95

The article criticizes the ECB and the EU for blindly sticking to excessive austerity, very much a proxy for Germany. However, the article recognizes that the other troika partner, the IMF, is now having second thoughts.

This week we have seen the German media increasingly challenge excessive austerity, and stark comparisons of Japanese growth compared to excessive austerity in Europe. Also there has been hard evidence linking excessive austerity and an increased rate of suicides.

Surely, enough is enough, with millions and millions of people unnecessarily out of work in Southern Europe, the UK and the US because of excessive austerity?

Perhaps, we shall need to see the results of the German elections in September but I predict a softening of German policy on austerity; certainly, it would be relatively easy for Germany to reflate providing stimulus to recession torn Southern Europe.

Any thoughts?

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