€Mark? Petty.

And that is an illusion. You are basically arguing that because the Bundesbanks sometimes talks as if the still matter, they still matter. But they don't. Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

"s, that's what I wrote: The German government and the BuBa pitched a hissy fit, and the rest of the EPP-PES shut up and fell back in line. You seem to be claiming that they would have done so even if Merkel and the BuBa had not pitched a hissy fit"

So the right-wing government of say the Netherlands are closeted Keynesians or even MMT people? And the act like they act only under german duress?

"Didn't say that. I said that neither understands national accounting. Which is true."

"National accounting" has nothing to do with taxation levels. The higher levels of taxation in the scandinavian countries or (somewhat) Germany is the result of prefered policies. As Bofinger pointed put, you can't run a good state on the tax levels of the US or Ireland. That has nothing not with current account balances; Ireland is running a surplus and a big budget deficit.