NP - Germany Won't Budge on Austerity: Economic Suicide is Character Building

[alice malice]

But if I were a German, I might ask:

What about the fact that the US has recovered, albeit, slower and
weaker than it might have if Washington had not used austerity
measures, and the fact that this recovery,  has, despite austerity,
made steady progress on reducing debt, and its costs, improved
employment, while keeping wage inflation at zero,  its competitive
positions in global markets, despite a strong dollar, has managed,
with its American partners, chiefly Mexico and Canada, to  turn its
greatest weakness, dependence on foreign energy, into its greatest
strength, cheap energy, and is now on-shoreing, and in-sourcing, as it
continues to automate, and grow, its knowledge economy, even as it
wastes so much on its stupid wars?

In other words, the US has austerity and, while its people are
suffering a great deal under it, its economy is the only one that is
still in a steady recovery. So why should Germany do what the US says
it must when the US doesn't practice what it preaches? And, the US,
with austerity,  is in better shape than Europe.

It's in better shape for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is
that lower oil prices are good for the US, and the US a domestic
consumption driven economy.

Very different in Europe.

In the US, we have cleaned up the banks and the balance sheets and we
have, well, a dynamic economy that is super resilient and this is not
the case in Germany or in the EU.

Germany and the rest now face a recession and a weaker currency, this,
as  the incredibly low rates (negative), benched off the US low rates,
are set to rise as the US unwinds its QE.

Europe is screwed. And Germany is only doing what it needs to do to
get in a better position to recover over the longer term.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l