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