How the Euro Crisis was resolved | 257 comments (257 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: all I can say (4.00 / 6)

If instead of excess German capital going to Greek bonds, Irish real-estate banking, US mortgage backed bonds and so on, the money had been paid out to German workers for vacations in the South, the world economy would have been on a more solid footing and German workers would have been happier.

by rootless2 on Tue May 31st, 2011 at 06:37:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: all I can say (4.00 / 4)

Yes but if everyone was happy with their lot, why would we need banks? People wouldn't have to borrow. We need pain and suffering to make the system work. How else can we extract "value" from the have nots to make sure the have mores have more. Isn't that the point of economics?

Index of Frank's Diaries

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot dotty communists) on Tue May 31st, 2011 at 07:30:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

exactly (4.00 / 5)

the problem is not so much the euro as the robber baron policies of all of our elites, including the Germans.

But the Germans have been especially effective at pushing the blame away from them and towards Southern Europeans and making the average Germans feel self-righteous about their efforts instead of furious at having being ripped off by their bosses and banks.

Wind power

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Jun 2nd, 2011 at 08:06:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: exactly (4.00 / 6)

The design of the Euro, like the gold standard before it, encourages mercantilist inflation policies by allowing the mercantilists to externalise the unemployment caused by their irresponsible policy.

You can't design a system that favours irresponsible policy and then claim that the only problem is the stupidity of the people who implement that policy.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Jun 2nd, 2011 at 10:59:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: exactly (none / 1)

"You can't design a system that favours irresponsible policy and then claim that the only problem is the stupidity of the people who implement that policy."

Your point, which I grant and agree with, is that one ought not do that.

But, unfortunately, "you can do that." And that is, to greatly over-simplify things, much of the trouble today. You can do that and do it over and over and over again. We are perhaps going to discover whether or not this state of affairs can last much longer.

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

by proximity1 on Thu Jun 2nd, 2011 at 11:28:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

How the Euro Crisis was resolved | 257 comments (257 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Top Diaries

Pentecost steam

A Nomad's Life (A Farewell)

Newspeak to English pocket dictionary

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants - Europe and the Mongol...

Quantifying Utopia: A UBI Calculator for the USA

Simple Solar Principles

Rail News Blogging #24

Ferguson hates on Keynes

Recent Diaries

Pentecost steam

Simple Solar Principles

Quantifying Utopia: A UBI Calculator for the USA

Newspeak to English pocket dictionary

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants - Europe and the Mongol...

Rail News Blogging #24

A Nomad's Life (A Farewell)

The Brussels Consensus: economic disaster in EU candidate...

Origins of German Neo-Austerianism

Ferguson hates on Keynes

Dionysian revels: Nice, May Day 2013:

Anglo Or Not, It's A Disease

The UK and the Euro

Free Energy: Solar and Dynamo LED Keychain Lights

Kruganomics 101

Gold

Corporate Profits and Aggregate Demand

VC Investment: Then and Now

An Ambush of Wishful thinking and Cargo Cult law.

The Intellectual Foundations of Austerity destroyed

Occasional Series