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

[alice malice]

But you've got your policies confused. Austerity is a budget policy, a
fiscal policy, so austerity is a policy that is driven by an obsession
with De-leveraging, with reducing debt, with balanced budgets. So
austerity calls on governments to cut spending and/or raise revenue
(taxes and fees). This is fiscal policy.

Easy or loose money is a monetary policy.

When can the Euro zone do to make money easier? The currency can go
lower vs the dollar, but this carries risks. Rates are negative or
moving to negative (real rates). They have run out of weapons.

Also, it may be the case, that at this point in the game,  that all
this easy money is deflationary.

It's a very difficult problem to solve. And the problem is compounded
by the complexities of the geo-politicals and the global economy.

It is much easier for the US, with better balance sheets, a
restructured banking system,  the dollar, and with a domestic
consumption economy, of consumers who have jobs and receive little
support from government, and now with oil, to use monetary policy to
inject growth.

Germany is key to all of Europe's problems but not the cause and not
the solution.



On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 8:19 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> Laregest influence = policy driver.  Tell those countries forced into
> austerity that money is easy.
>
>
> On Tuesday, October 14, 2014, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> But if austerity is a monetary policy, how can Germany be at fault?
>>
>> Sure, Germany has an influence on the Bank, a large influence, and it
>> is the largest economy in the EU, but it can't set monetary policy.
>>
>> Moreover, monetary policy in the EU is not tight but loose or easy.
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 6:16 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Austerity: tight governmental monetary policy, with the immediate goal
>> > of
>> > reducing deficit spending/balances, out of fear of debt (but for no good
>> > reason), assuming (wrongly) that debt will produce unstoppable
>> > inflation.
>> >
>> > On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 4:19 PM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> How does one define austerity? The word is tossed about by all sides,
>> >> but at cross purposes and no serious definition is agreed upon. Is
>> >> Germany doing enough? Is France, Italy, Spain ...doing enough? Is a
>> >> political and fiscal solution feasible? What of the Bank? The Germans
>> >> are paying a dear price for the political failures of other nations
>> >> and for the geopolitical conflicts, the sanctions and so on. Now, it
>> >> is close to a tipping point.All of this is good for the US, as the US
>> >> is unwinding its massive QE, and US rates are being driven lower, the
>> >> dollar higher. Well, that's the weight of an Empire. Germany must see
>> >> this and it must make them angry, but pawns and knights are not
>> >> queens. That's the game, Germany is responsible, with the Russians,
>> >> for the chess board, so it goes.
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 9:07 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > Clearly this response shows the weakness of the Euro: the "Union" is
>> >> > a
>> >> > farce.
>> >> >
>> >> > But Germany won't be able to stand alone for long.  If Europe is
>> >> > screwed, so
>> >> > is Germany.
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 3:53 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
>> >> > <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On 12.10.2014 12:09, alice malice wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> 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.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Amen!
>> >> >>
>> >> >
>> >> -
>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>> >
>> >
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l