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Flawed Role Model: Germany's Finances Not as Sound as Believed - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
Jens Weidmann, the president of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, warns that the tax cuts at least will have to be offset elsewhere in the budget. "Germany mustn't lose any time in balancing its budget," he says.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Nov 23rd, 2011 at 06:46:20 AM EST
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Uh... isn't inflation the mandate for the Buba? Monetary policy, not fiscal? You would never hear talk like this from the Riksbank.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Wed Nov 23rd, 2011 at 12:28:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well
... the ECB is already so far down the road of telling governments what to do and what not to do in the fiscal and structural reform domains, that one is hardly surprised by yet another lecture on budgetary policy from the Eurotower.  Traditionally, continental European central bankers speak very little about monetary policy in public, and are often unwilling to engage in public debate or answer questions about their monetary duties, but carry on endlessly about budgetary and structural reform matters.  It's always easier to speak about things you have no responsibility for, that are not part of your mandate and about which you probably don't know very much.
Weidmann belongs to a proud tradition of Continental Central Banking.

To err is of course human. But to mess things up spectacularly, we need an elite — Yanis Varoufakis
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Nov 23rd, 2011 at 12:30:31 PM EST
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