Financial Times (September 13)
Mario Draghi and the ECB have done their part, but “Germany will wait until it is too late before providing a measurable fiscal stimulus.” This is the optimal “time for Europe to invest in its future,” with low inflation, zero cost of borrowing and fiscal surpluses. “German leaders know this,” but fear alarming “the good burghers of Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt. Were recession to provoke a full-blown euro-zone crisis, Berlin would of course act…. But do not expect Germany to dispatch the fire brigade before the flames have fully taken hold. What a waste.”
Tags: Borrowing, Crisis, Draghi, ECB, Euro zone, Fiscal stimulus, Germany, Inflation, Recession, Surpluses
Financial Times (November 24)
“A careful, calibrated fiscal adjustment to return a government to sustainability is one thing. A brutish insistence on running surpluses well into the future is quite another.” The EU should avoid “choking off a nascent recovery in the Greek economy and setting back the cause of reducing its debt burden.”
Tags: Calibrated, Careful, Debt burden, EU, Fiscal, Government, Greek economy, Recovery, Surpluses
Euromoney (January Issue)
“US claims that Germany’s external surpluses are hindering global recovery are inaccurate and unjustified…. The complex reality is that Germany’s relative export success is not built on beggar-thy-neighbour policies or on the imposition of unnecessary austerity on its neighbours. It is founded domestically on higher productivity, better investment and substantial labour market reforms.”
Tags: Austerity, Beggar-thy-neighbour, Exports, Germany, Investment, Labour, Market reforms, Productivity, Recovery, Surpluses, US
