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Greece: Of paupers and taxes | 143 comments (143 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Isn't it rather obvious (none / 0)
Old De Gaulle brinkmanship.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Feb 17th, 2013 at 08:48:11 AM EST
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Re: Isn't it rather obvious (none / 0)
So, we discount De Gaulle because he was De Gaulle, Pompidou because he was Pompidou, Giscard because he was Giscard, Mitterrand because he was Mitterrand, and Delors because he was Delors, and conclude "France" has nothing to do with anything?

I distribute. You re-distribute. He gives your hard-earned money to lazy scroungers. -- JakeS
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Feb 17th, 2013 at 09:49:17 AM EST
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Re: Isn't it rather obvious (none / 0)
No we don't. But De Gaulle's very personal diplomacy at the time of the Six is rather different from what followed.

If your argument is that France is and has always considered itself central to the "European project", that is not debatable. If you are saying France = Germany, no difference, then that is debatable.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Feb 17th, 2013 at 10:37:26 AM EST
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Re: Isn't it rather obvious (4.00 / 6)
I am saying, if you take a long enough view, "the European project" has been so wedded to "sound money" and "common sense economics" that it's been "not even wrong" for at least the last 80 years.

The major (i.e., policy relevant) macroeconomic strains of thought today, Aust(e)rianism, Keynesianism and Monetarism originated in Continental Europe, Britain and the US respectively. That should tell us something: Continental Europe is the home of harebrained "common sense" economics.

Yes, France had the Physiocrats, Italy has been big in Chartalism/Circuitism, there are Marxian economists all over Europe.

I distribute. You re-distribute. He gives your hard-earned money to lazy scroungers. -- JakeS

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Feb 17th, 2013 at 11:01:41 AM EST
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Re: Isn't it rather obvious (4.00 / 5)
When "neoliberalism" was launched at the Colloque Walter Lippman in Paris in 1938, there's no doubt that Continental Europeans were there in number, including French ultra-liberals (mostly from the corporate sector rather than theorists), the Austrians (von Mises and Hayek), and the future German Ordoliberals Rüstow and Röpke. There were also Brits and the eponymous American convenor Walter Lippman. The Mont Pèlerin Society that grew out of the Colloque was also international in flavour, with a strong American contingent. There was considerable interaction and exchange between elements of different European countries including Britain, and the US. This is not to say that Austrianism (and ordoliberalism) weren't Continental European, but I see a more international ultra-liberal movement -- in its theorising, its support from big capital, and its effects -- than you seem to.

A second point is that, if "sound money" goes way back, the precise project of a single currency in Europe dates practically speaking from the demise of Bretton Woods, and claims (at least the legend does) a U Chicago Canadian as its "father", Robert Mundell.

Mundell: OPTIMUM CURRENCY AREAS

It was with great regret that I felt compelled to distance myself on this basic policy issue from teachers and good friends like James Meade, Milton Friedman, Harry Johnson, Gottfried Haberler, Fritz Machlup, Lloyd Metzler and Arnold Harberger and others who supported flexible exchange rates. I found myself among such diverse company as Lord Robbins, Sir Roy Harrod, Jacques Rueff, Edward Bernstein, Robert Triffin, Otmar Emminger, Rinaldo Ossola, Charles Kindleberger, Guido Carli and Robert Roosa--and some of them would later become defectors. Of course I was happy to be in the company of all the great economists of the past who, with the possible exceptions of Fisher and Keynes, were vigorously opposed to flexible exchange rates between countries with inconvertible currencies.

Among the supporters of flexible exchange rates were a couple of Austrians (Haberler and Machlup). Among the fixed-rate crowd, a couple of Brits and an American.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Feb 17th, 2013 at 12:14:51 PM EST
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Greece: Of paupers and taxes | 143 comments (143 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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