Austerity Promoters In Europe Give Way To Keynsian Spending Advocates

By Cornelius Nunev


Break the euro and acknowledge austerity has been a disaster? That's an excellent horror, suggests Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, tongue planted firmly in cheek. People and businesses aren't shelling out in the wake of government belt-tightening, so something has to give.

The vote revolt

France and Greek held political elections on May 6, and both nations showed a strong support for candidates who were against austerity policies. Many people have lost their jobs in European nations due to revolts over the conditions. The "unwashed masses" are done with austerity measures proposed and passed now, although a new policy has not been passed, according to Krugman.

Franois Hollande's defeat of French President Nicolas Sarkozy was painted in ominous tones by The Economist, which considers Hollande's turn from malfunctioning orthodoxy to be "rather dangerous." However, from an economic standpoint, Sarkozy's strategies - passed in close tandem by neighboring political ally Chancellor Merkel of Germany - clearly weren't working, says Krugman. Two years of austerity have done nothing but grind to the public, and the voters had enough.

Strategies need to be changed

Slashing spending and getting rid of jobs might mean something if real results were soon to follow. Yet when nothing but misery became of austerity - business and consumers didn't spend more because they couldn't - all the policies did was make the economic depression worse.

Ireland was among the nations that did austerity measures, although it did these measures simply to help the country's standing in bond markets. This was something anticipated to work, and the press called it success despite the belief that it really was not. In fact, Ireland's borrowing costs stayed very high while all other borrowing in nations decreased a ton.

The next place for Europe

Europe itself would not be doing this badly without the euro, according to Krugman. He believes that Greece, Spain and Ireland would not be hurting Europe as a whole if they had their own currency. Iceland let the krona banks fail, and now it is starting to recuperate again. Cost-competitiveness could possibly be restored, and countries could export based on devaluation of currency.

Killing the euro would be disruptive for a time and an utter defeat for the idea of the European Union. But Europe as a whole would not be financially compromised. Krugman wonders whether there is one more way out, via an economic road once paved by Germany. By trading with nations facing an inflationary boom, countries with above-normal inflation can experience a trade surplus compared with its struggling neighbors, provided interest rates are low.

The European Central Bank would need to focus on economic growth rather than inflation if anything were to work.




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