Europe's Austerity Madness

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/opinion/krugman-europes-austerity-madness.html?hp

So much for complacency. Just a few days ago, the conventional wisdom was that Europe finally had things under control. The European Central Bank, by promising to buy the bonds of troubled governments if necessary, had soothed markets. All that debtor nations had to do, the story went, was agree to more and deeper austerity — the condition for central bank loans — and all would be well.

But the purveyors of conventional wisdom forgot that people were involved. Suddenly, Spain and Greece are being racked by strikes and huge demonstrations. The public in these countries is, in effect, saying that it has reached its limit: With unemployment at Great Depression levels and with erstwhile middle-class workers reduced to picking through garbage in search of food, austerity has already gone too far. And this means that there may not be a deal after all.

Much commentary suggests that the citizens of Spain and Greece are just delaying the inevitable, protesting against sacrifices that must, in fact, be made. But the truth is that the protesters are right. More austerity serves no useful purpose; the truly irrational players here are the allegedly serious politicians and officials demanding ever more pain.

Consider Spain's woes. What is the real economic problem? Basically, Spain is suffering the hangover from a huge housing bubble, which caused both an economic boom and a period of inflation that left Spanish industry uncompetitive with the rest of Europe. When the bubble burst, Spain was left with the difficult problem of regaining competitiveness, a painful process that will take years. Unless Spain leaves the euro — a step nobody wants to take — it is condemned to years of high unemployment.

But this arguably inevitable suffering is being greatly magnified by harsh spending cuts; and these spending cuts are a case of inflicting pain for the sake of inflicting pain.

First of all, Spain didn't get into trouble because its government was profligate. On the contrary, on the eve of the crisis, Spain actually had a budget surplus and low debt. Large deficits emerged when the economy tanked, taking revenues with it, but, even so, Spain doesn't appear to have all that high a debt burden.

etc...








Y sí, ya se que Krugman es un tío totalmente equivocado, y además responsable de la actual sitaución.

No como los que diseñan las pautas de actuación ahora, que como se ve están siendo realmente efectivas!!  :rolleyes:


Por cierto, anticipándome a la respuesta, pego un comentario a la noticia que me hizo mucha gracia:

CitarIt is always interesting to read the comments in the NY Times. For only here can you get to read 200+ opinions of conservative armchair economists--who think they learned enough in their Econ 101 class taken 32 years ago to tell a celebrated, Nobel Prize-winning professor from Princeton University (that bastion of liberalism) that he's totally wrong. It helps me to understand why wars, revolutions, terrorism, etc., are inevitable. We've been doing Reagan for 30+ years under ALL US administrations to-date, and most people agree, whether they blame Clinton, Bush, or Obama—that this country, and, to a great extent this world, is in the toilet. I will personally volunteer to count the heads as they roll off the guillotine if it happens in my lifetime.

También me gusta el final del comentario  :tongue:

Cita de: R3 McEnroe en 29 de Septiembre de 2012, 01:41
Y sí, ya se que Krugman es un tío totalmente equivocado, y además responsable de la actual sitaución.

No como los que diseñan las pautas de actuación ahora, que como se ve están siendo realmente efectivas!!  :rolleyes:

Pues si lo sabes... ¿para qué sigues dandole crédito al personaje aun...?

...te recuerdo además aquella propuesta suya para salir de la crisis, fingiendo el Estado una invasión extraterrestre...

...lo peor de Krugman es que alguien pueda seguir tomandole en serio aun...



Entiendo que dice: "La austeridad ha ido demasiado lejos en España..."...  :preg: :preg:





¿Ha debido Rajoy recortar por fin la estructura monstruosa del Estado, y no nos hemos enterado...?  :grin:

¿de qué coño de país habla el alucinado este de Krugman...?

Cita de: brazolatigo en 27 de Septiembre de 2012, 17:04
Francamente, si te zurran los antidisturbios es que eres giliberzas.

Con alejarte del follón te ahorras los golpes.

Ahora, si te pones en tercera fila encarándote a la policia, ves que se está armando y te quedas ahí plantado con cara de pasmado luego no te quejes.

Cuando veo a los manifestantes recibiendo no puedo dejar de pensar que son retrasados.

Igualito que a los pasajeros que apalearon sin tener nada que ver ni con la manifestacion, es que mira que quedarse en el anden esperando su tren no debe de ser de personas normales, debe ser de giliberzas.

Claro claro, es que seguir dándole credibilidad...

mucho mejor dársela a los que llevan 4 años hundiendo Europa... o a ti, que seguramente sepas más de economía que Krugman  :grin: :grin:

Que dijo una tontería? pues anda que no se te leen a diario a ti ni nada  :grin: :grin:

Lo dicho, el comentario que posteé viene que ni pintado  :smiley:

El estado reduce el número de funcionarios pero no el de altos cargos.

http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2012/09/29/actualidad/1348931174_721452.html

Normal, es mucho más importante que haya altos cargos que gente trabajando...
Como sigan así igual tienen que coger ellos un ordenador y hacer algo  :quot: