How To Squeeze Greece (XII): "Weimar and Greece, Continued"
Paul Krugman (NYT Feb 15)
Try to talk about macroeconomics, and you’re sure to encounter accusations that your policies would turn us into Weimar Germany ...
Thinking about this led me to an interesting question. We know that part of the reason large postwar reparations were such an unreasonable and irresponsible demand was the dire, shrunken state of the German economy after World War I. So how does Greece compare? The answer startled me:
Austerity, it turns out, has devastated Greece just about as much as defeat in total war devastated imperial Germany. The idea of demanding that this economy triple the size of its primary surplus is … disturbing.
Try to talk about macroeconomics, and you’re sure to encounter accusations that your policies would turn us into Weimar Germany ...
Thinking about this led me to an interesting question. We know that part of the reason large postwar reparations were such an unreasonable and irresponsible demand was the dire, shrunken state of the German economy after World War I. So how does Greece compare? The answer startled me:
Austerity, it turns out, has devastated Greece just about as much as defeat in total war devastated imperial Germany. The idea of demanding that this economy triple the size of its primary surplus is … disturbing.
gebattmer - 2015/02/20 18:16
Trackback URL:
https://gebattmer.twoday.net/stories/1022400139/modTrackback