An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Thursday, August 13, 2009
European economy contracts by only 0.1% in Q2...and we mock them for being Socialists!
The European economy clearly outperformed the U.S. economy in the second quarter--and has been outperforming it for some time based upon total output and employment. We mock them for being Socialists, yet, their policies are producing higher levels of wealth than ours. And imagine if their governments had the ability to credit bank accounts as we do here? Remember, countries in the Eurozone are functionally like states within the U.S. so they cannot just pull money out of the air like the Federal Gov't can. Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the rest of the Eurozone member states are constrained, yet, their social support systems sustain output, incomes and living standards to a higher degree than what we see here. Our blind, "Free market capitalism" mantra is so worshipped in this country, that even when it produces a weaker result we stand ready to die by it.
don't forget about :
ReplyDelete1. the ECB 600 billion stimulus that was sneaked in after they complained about our stimulus "crass" kenysian project as well as ALL THE SUBSIDIES THAT WENT TO THEIR FACTORIES OVER HERE THAT THEY BENEFITTED FROM very same "crass" stimulus of the USA !!!
2. the fact that the dollar was swapped by the FED to prevent their EURO from going down the tubes.
3. etc
Goog,
ReplyDeleteIt often seems that sometimes we are helping them (help themselves) more than we are actually helping ourselves...
Clintonian economics left us with a surplus. Bush spent it under the guise of "tax payer off the hook"
ReplyDeleteWhat were left with was a weak dollar and an economy that spinned out of control with unsustainable growth based on a foundation of derivative products that had no true secured collateral against the bets it was making.
Now, we require a means to spend without weakening the dollar.
France and Germany supposedly don't have much exposure to the toxic assets, or is that true ?