Thursday, March 13, 2014

Austerity Proponents Give In To New Suggestions

By Cornelius Nunev


Break the euro and admit austerity has been a disaster? That's a great horror, suggests Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, tongue planted firmly in cheek. People and companies are not spending in the wake of government belt-tightening, so something has to give.

Seeing revolt signs

France and Greek held political elections on May 6, and both countries 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 circumstances. The "unwashed masses" are done with austerity measures proposed and passed now, although a brand new policy has not been enacted, according to Krugman.

The Economist explained the defeat of French President Nicolas Sarkozy by Franois Hollande. Sarkozy's decisions were not really working, according to Krugman, although The Economist points out that it could be dangerous to turn as Hollande intends to do.

No longer working yet

The austerity measures were started in an attempt to try and get results in the tough economy. The problem was that people could not spend more because they did not have the money with all spending reduces and job eliminations. The economic depression just got worse with the measures.

Ireland was among the countries that did austerity measures, although it did these measures simply to help the country's standing in bond markets. This was something expected 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.

Where Europe can go from here

One suggestion Krugman gives is to allow the euro to be abolished. He believes that if nations could export depending on the devaluation of the currency, it would be much better. Iceland let banks fail, leading it to recovery. Krugman believes that Europe would not be in such a bad place if there were not so many troubles in Greece, Spain and Ireland financially because of the euro.

There may be problems for a while when the Euro is killed, but eventually Europe would become whole again and would be better than ever. Krugman does point out that the European Union would become obsolete with the change. He also states that one option that could help every person is having countries with increased inflation helping their neighbors out through trade. He believes this might really help everyone's economy.

If which were to work, and the European Central Bank were to change its focus from inflation to economic growth, the chance for real change could emerge, Krugman argues.




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