The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
And called it successful adjustment. Matthew Yglesias marvels at European policy makers who consider Latvia a success story. And their satisfaction is indeed something wondrous to behold. Here's a comparison: A few more such successes and Latvia will have no economy at all.
Yglesias: The Latvian Catastrophe
Klaus Regling, chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility, wants you to know that monetary union without fiscal integration is workable after all and he offers, as an example, Latvia:Latvia which has a currency pegged to the euro, testifies to the success of this policy. Contrary to commentators who predicted disaster for Latvia early last year unless it gave up its hard peg - in line with advice from the commission - it did not devalue its exchange rate. A real effective devaluation was achieved through severe cuts in nominal income. Today its economy is growing again. Those outside "experts", who always seem to know what is good for Europe, should take note.So to be clear about this, the Latvian economy suffered a 4.2 percent contraction in 2008. By way of comparison, in the horrible year of 2009 the US economy contracted 2.44 percent. So that was a very bad recession, much worse than the American recession. At this point, so called "outside `experts'" predicted disaster for Latvia in early 2009 unless it devalued its exchange rate. Latvia declined to devalue and its GDP shrunk 18 percent! That's the disaster right there. Overall GDP growth for 2010 is forecast to be slightly negative again. So, yes, Latvia has returned the growth. But the toll was terrifyingly high.
Latvia which has a currency pegged to the euro, testifies to the success of this policy. Contrary to commentators who predicted disaster for Latvia early last year unless it gave up its hard peg - in line with advice from the commission - it did not devalue its exchange rate. A real effective devaluation was achieved through severe cuts in nominal income. Today its economy is growing again. Those outside "experts", who always seem to know what is good for Europe, should take note.
A real effective devaluation was achieved through severe cuts in nominal income.
Oh, here's a German admitting that what Germany did and continues to do is called "real effective devaluation"?
Germany has been cheating on us all along?
by gmoke - Jun 19
by Oui - Jul 6 1 comment
by gmoke - Jun 24
by gmoke - Jun 22
by gmoke - Jun 6
by Oui - Jul 7
by Oui - Jul 61 comment
by Oui - Jul 6
by Oui - Jul 5
by Oui - Jul 4
by Oui - Jul 2
by Oui - Jul 21 comment
by Oui - Jul 16 comments
by Oui - Jun 301 comment
by Oui - Jun 303 comments
by Oui - Jun 295 comments
by Oui - Jun 29
by Oui - Jun 28
by Oui - Jun 281 comment
by Oui - Jun 27
by Oui - Jun 263 comments
by Oui - Jun 26
by Oui - Jun 256 comments