There are no governments (possible exception Spain on the periphery) who will do this until the next elections, Jerome knows this, therefore a pragmatic outcome of Jerome's principled opposition to "Anglo-Disease" is that we do nothing.
The likely result of this will be a severe, prolonged recession, if not the "d" word, in the Eurozone, with unemployment approaching 20% in many countries (and beyond in some, again thinking of Spain).
In my view and most moderately progressive economists (Krugman is often cited, as he was on this thread) this outcome, which as a logical result of Jerome's expressed policy preferences, this outcome, which will hurt workers now every bit as much as it did inthe 1930's, is potentially avoidable.
So actually, it's not esoteric, its a matter of one in five of your neighbors having a job at the end of 2010. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
Since it looks that your preferences will be implemented, we'll be able to tell if I'm right or not, at least. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
What are we fighting about, exactly? I've criticized the stimulus plans for various reasons (too much use of debt, too many tax cuts, too much focus on the financial sector, too much precipitation and too little oversight/thinking over) and especially one (the debt bit), and you seem to disagree with my criticism of the stimuli, but you are now telling me that your ideas are in fact NOT implemented.
so let's be precise: given that, is it fair to say that your position is that on balance the Sarkozy/Merkel plans are better than doing nothing?
My position on that is that I'm not convinced this is the case, because of the debt angle, and because of too much focus on consumption and the financial sector.
My position on what a stimulus plan should look like is not that different from yours, I think: tax increases on the rich and on oil, emergency spending on the poorest, investment in smart energy and transport infrastructure, more spending on social needs, education and healthcare (and adding, less police harassment of immigrants and subversives and less fearmongering). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
So actually, it's not esoteric, its a matter of one in five of your neighbors having a job at the end of 2010.
That's rhetoric. What is esoteric is the complexity of the global economic condition. The fixes to prevent neighbors out of work demand strategic "out of the box" thinking. That means i will even have to use critical thinking of Krugman strategies, since he spends most of his time circulating in the world of the privileged Princeton elite.
You might as well attack me for spending more on travel, hotels and restaurants than most workers make in a year. There are no simple solutions to this crisis, other than views which haven't yet ever been tried. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
