Bill Mitchell — Germany has a convenient but flawed collective memory

It is clear that Germans have convenient but very flawed historical memories.

They focus on the 1920s (Wiemar) and forget the early 1930s recovery (Keynesian-style).
They focus on the lazy Greeks and puff themselves up with the self-importance of their perceived frugality and forget or don’t even know about the London Debt Agreement 1953.

But neo-liberalism has actively tried to suppress historical understanding and when facts are inconvenient they seek to redefine them.

I will write in coming blogs about the growing democratic fightback against austerity and neo-liberalism. But it is now clearly evident in a number of jurisdictions and levels of government.

Just as social democratic forces emerged in the late C19th to combat the growing excesses of an unfettered capitalism, we are once again witnessing people-power.
What form it will take and how successful it will be remains to be seen. But it is happening.

And Bill doesn't even bring in Lend-Lease and the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe after WWII. Germany was rebuilt based on the generosity of former enemies that it had committed aggression against, not to mention not imposing harsh reparations for punitive damages.

And in a comment, Bill reminds, "The ECB has infinite resources to buy all the debt and write it off without any further consequences for Germany or the other nations. Only the Greeks would be better off." For example, the Fed bought up the dodgy MBS that were on the banks' books to prevent their insolvency during the crisis.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog

Germany has a convenient but flawed collective memory
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia