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So put one guy in charge of monetary, fiscal and bunko? How about we clip the cajones of the financial sector instead and drive the vigorish rate down to zero?
Ordoliberalism takes Germany as exemplar (optimized model).
Wolfgang Schäuble wants to export the German model to the whole EZ. and the countries that can't cut it yet should take a timeout and reform themselves so they can compete with the big boys.
It's German exceptionalism for the EZ — and eventually for the world.
Ordoliberalism is in competition with Anglo-American neoliberalism as the model of globalization. An ordoliberal EZ could compete in size with the neoliberal US and US. The ordoliberal EZ and the neoliberal US and UK could continue to dominate the world even with the rise of a coalition of emerging nations that is in the process of being built through BRICS.
Schäuble believes that in the end, German ordoliberalism would become the dominant political and economic force globally. He is a political economist par excellence. These folks think big.
BTW, it's a big reason that the UK will leave the EU and move closer to the US politically and economically. Can't have feet is separate boats and the US and UK are bound by common heritage. The UK has never been Continental and won't become Continental anytime soon, any more than Russia is Western European and won't become Western European.
It's also why the EZ is doomed. Eastern Europe will never become Western Europe either. Different cultures based on ways of thinking, feeling and valuing that add up to different ways of being.
The problem is that beggar-thy-neighbor export-driven economies which inflict wage and demand deflation upon themselves are not morally superior.
This insanity is not older than 10 years, Germany used to be a nation I (as European) admired, but their greed and high-ground moralism makes me want to puke now.
Is too bad because originally part of the ordoliberal doctrine was way more balanced alternative to the crazy "greed is good" free-market insanity of the USA (and later on the corrupt drive City of London in the UK, an other country I admired for it's balanced approach between socialism and capitalism until a few decades ago started to go to shit).
it's a sign of times that they all have been infected by this parasite in one way or an other, but the German variant that historically happens to come back to dominate the rest of the European mainland from high-moral grounds (if not outright racist and xenophobic) is particularly disgusting. But you can always rely on the good German to do what is done by their own corrupt elites unfortunately, right?
It's a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around his way of thinking. It seems that he's trying to force political union via economic control, taking away the opportunity for corruption to seek rent, be it corruption from the people, business or politicians. Except for a close circle that he controls, that is. Once that is done, then redistribution will proceed according to his rules and principals.
I don't think it is just Schäuble. There's a reason that he's in the position he is in. Many if not most Germans agree with him. They can't figure out why if Germany can be so successful "following the rules," why others can't. It must mean that they are not "following the rules." Of rules and order.
My mother was Austrian (born in the era of the Hapsburgs). I totally get this. It's a cultural thing.
Of course, it's not just a German thing, nor does it affect all Germans either. Moreover, it's a conservative thing in general since conservatism is heavily "moral," where debt is bound up with guilt.
But Germans tend exemplify this mindset culturally, at least older German and Austrians. The traditional Germanic mindset tends to be obsessed with duty, responsibility, and order. I don't know about the younger generation now. Bu the people in power like Schäuble are mostly older generation and fit the profile.
Not that these are bad things, of course. But they can become bad when excessive. Aristotle held that virtue is "hitting the mark" as the balance point between excess and defect. But the Germanic mind has a psychological tendency toward OCD. There's an obsessive quality about "cleanliness being next to godliness," for example.
This brings up the question, what about people like von Mises and von Hayek, who were anti-state classical liberals rather than ordoliberals. The tipoff is in the "von." They were aristocrats in a democratic age and they disdained "the rule of the rabble," which they believed would lead to disorder. If there was no longer a titled aristocracy that wielded power then there could be an aristocracy of wealth wielding power to prevent the rabble grabbing wealth and power, which they equated with "socialism." They would regard ordoliberalism as a compromise with socialism that would tend toward socialism over time, e.g., through social democracy.
Right Tom, I believe the young people is not as conservative in that respect, but is true it still is a deeply rule and order based society probably, still. As I said, I think ordo-liberalism wasn't by itself a bad doctrine when you get out of it the crackpot stuff (like the money-scarcity thing, the debt is bad stuff, etc.).
Let remember Germany isn't either a paragon of purity either, is one of the country that more times has defaulted in the two past centuries and caused a lot of damage. Maybe sometimes driven by that collective OCD excess you point out.
We will see how it will end up this time, maybe we can recover a more balanced view, it wasn't as bad just 10 or 15 years ago. The developed world has really degraded on the last two decades, it has drink too much 'free market' kool aid.
Every German I have discussed politics with has displayed their peculiar ordoliberal credentials.
I have had quite a few German friends over the years, all were cosmopolitan, well travelled, middle class and living a good part of their lives in the English speaking world.
I dare not imagine how the monolingual Germans left back at home think. Quite extreme to my viewpoint, I guess.
11 comments:
"because every major crisis has structural causes and these aren’t being addressed when there’s suddenly enough money again"
LOL!
Enlightening article, Tom!
I'd be interested in hearing your take on it.
So put one guy in charge of monetary, fiscal and bunko? How about we clip the cajones of the financial sector instead and drive the vigorish rate down to zero?
Deutschland über alles
Ordoliberalism takes Germany as exemplar (optimized model).
Wolfgang Schäuble wants to export the German model to the whole EZ. and the countries that can't cut it yet should take a timeout and reform themselves so they can compete with the big boys.
It's German exceptionalism for the EZ — and eventually for the world.
Ordoliberalism is in competition with Anglo-American neoliberalism as the model of globalization. An ordoliberal EZ could compete in size with the neoliberal US and US. The ordoliberal EZ and the neoliberal US and UK could continue to dominate the world even with the rise of a coalition of emerging nations that is in the process of being built through BRICS.
Schäuble believes that in the end, German ordoliberalism would become the dominant political and economic force globally. He is a political economist par excellence. These folks think big.
BTW, it's a big reason that the UK will leave the EU and move closer to the US politically and economically. Can't have feet is separate boats and the US and UK are bound by common heritage. The UK has never been Continental and won't become Continental anytime soon, any more than Russia is Western European and won't become Western European.
It's also why the EZ is doomed. Eastern Europe will never become Western Europe either. Different cultures based on ways of thinking, feeling and valuing that add up to different ways of being.
Putin is warning about this.
The problem is that beggar-thy-neighbor export-driven economies which inflict wage and demand deflation upon themselves are not morally superior.
This insanity is not older than 10 years, Germany used to be a nation I (as European) admired, but their greed and high-ground moralism makes me want to puke now.
Is too bad because originally part of the ordoliberal doctrine was way more balanced alternative to the crazy "greed is good" free-market insanity of the USA (and later on the corrupt drive City of London in the UK, an other country I admired for it's balanced approach between socialism and capitalism until a few decades ago started to go to shit).
it's a sign of times that they all have been infected by this parasite in one way or an other, but the German variant that historically happens to come back to dominate the rest of the European mainland from high-moral grounds (if not outright racist and xenophobic) is particularly disgusting. But you can always rely on the good German to do what is done by their own corrupt elites unfortunately, right?
Thanks, Tom.
It's a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around his way of thinking. It seems that he's trying to force political union via economic control, taking away the opportunity for corruption to seek rent, be it corruption from the people, business or politicians. Except for a close circle that he controls, that is. Once that is done, then redistribution will proceed according to his rules and principals.
I don't think it is just Schäuble. There's a reason that he's in the position he is in. Many if not most Germans agree with him. They can't figure out why if Germany can be so successful "following the rules," why others can't. It must mean that they are not "following the rules." Of rules and order.
My mother was Austrian (born in the era of the Hapsburgs). I totally get this. It's a cultural thing.
Of course, it's not just a German thing, nor does it affect all Germans either. Moreover, it's a conservative thing in general since conservatism is heavily "moral," where debt is bound up with guilt.
But Germans tend exemplify this mindset culturally, at least older German and Austrians. The traditional Germanic mindset tends to be obsessed with duty, responsibility, and order. I don't know about the younger generation now. Bu the people in power like Schäuble are mostly older generation and fit the profile.
Not that these are bad things, of course. But they can become bad when excessive. Aristotle held that virtue is "hitting the mark" as the balance point between excess and defect. But the Germanic mind has a psychological tendency toward OCD. There's an obsessive quality about "cleanliness being next to godliness," for example.
This brings up the question, what about people like von Mises and von Hayek, who were anti-state classical liberals rather than ordoliberals. The tipoff is in the "von." They were aristocrats in a democratic age and they disdained "the rule of the rabble," which they believed would lead to disorder. If there was no longer a titled aristocracy that wielded power then there could be an aristocracy of wealth wielding power to prevent the rabble grabbing wealth and power, which they equated with "socialism." They would regard ordoliberalism as a compromise with socialism that would tend toward socialism over time, e.g., through social democracy.
Right Tom, I believe the young people is not as conservative in that respect, but is true it still is a deeply rule and order based society probably, still. As I said, I think ordo-liberalism wasn't by itself a bad doctrine when you get out of it the crackpot stuff (like the money-scarcity thing, the debt is bad stuff, etc.).
Let remember Germany isn't either a paragon of purity either, is one of the country that more times has defaulted in the two past centuries and caused a lot of damage. Maybe sometimes driven by that collective OCD excess you point out.
We will see how it will end up this time, maybe we can recover a more balanced view, it wasn't as bad just 10 or 15 years ago. The developed world has really degraded on the last two decades, it has drink too much 'free market' kool aid.
Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel have been a disaster for Germany. Really started in early 00s with the Hartz reforms and recession.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartz_concept
Every German I have discussed politics with has displayed their peculiar ordoliberal credentials.
I have had quite a few German friends over the years, all were cosmopolitan, well travelled, middle class and living a good part of their lives in the English speaking world.
I dare not imagine how the monolingual Germans left back at home think. Quite extreme to my viewpoint, I guess.
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