2013 May 17 « Dr Alf's Blog

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?