As Germany?s bloody minded refusal to contemplate anything that might stop the Euro?s galloping advance towards disintegration, more and more sane voices are adding themselves to the clamor that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! And not only must something be done, but quickly and not at Frau Merkel?s slow and laborious pace.
Her ideas of first making strict rules to punish all those nasty deviants from budgetary rectitude through a schoolmarmish mentality may be all very well for one who hasn?t a clue how economies work. But does she really believe she has the luxury of time ahead of her?
A recent article in the Economist screams out about the imminent danger of the bust up, urging that ?pigheadedness? should stop! Now what a term to apply to Germany! PIG headed? In all its wisdom and spot on analysis here, I do believe that the newspaper has made one mistake. When it says that (among other things) even the new government in Spain which is firmly committed to reform and austerity has made no difference to the markets and rising debt costs.
But surely, just how could this dogmatic ?commitment to austerity? be calming to the markets in any way? What the markets really want to see is growth and not recession which is what austerity inevitably produces. And in this case, with a vengeance! Look at Greece if you have to, though it is an ugly sight.
Ultimately, I fear, neither Frau Merkel, nor the EU Commission (joke?) nor any other players are going to come up with a solution. Somehow the forces of the bursting economic bubbles will provide the solution themselves despite the leading players? best or worst efforts. What will that be? Interesting.
And as is the Chinese proverb goes, woe to the person living in interesting times!
But isn?t it interesting that the more interesting the times, the less imagination and spunk our ?leaders? seem to have?
The Economist Article: http://www.economist.com/node/21540255 for which I have Chrys to thank for bringing to my attention.