The EUobserver has a very good report that I think supports my take on this first round of stimulus bills in Europe. No direction whatsoever in them. A few quotes:
"Much more could be done in the areas of energy- and climate," said Jakob von Weizsäker from Bruegel to the Danish weekly.Now Keynes once proposed that it'd make sense to pay people to bury printed money and then dig it up again. But I'm not sure we're in an entirely identical situation. We don't have a gold standard and haven't crossed into deflation, yet. And there are limits to our resource use that played a role in bringing us to the current crisis. This makes it more palatable that we are spending only half of what the US will spend this year. We might spend the next half, which we will come around to, in a less foolish manner.
The financial aid packages reflect a traditional and outdated way of thinking by European governments, he pointed out.
[...]
"The picture is the same everywhere. Rescue packages are designed to give us our old lives back", said Staffan Laestadius, professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. "It is all about saving jobs in the car industry".
The next round of stimulus plans needs to be European, and green.
(hat-tip to Fran at eurotrib)
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2 comments:
DJ Nozem,
I hope you give yourself time to read and comment on the report, available on Brugel's web page.
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