Re: German finance minister says the stimulus plans are a bit stupid

On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:38:18 -0000, "DVH" <dvh@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

And laughs at Brown's tax cut.

It seems to me that Steinbrück is showing a refreshing absence of hysteria
by contrast. Nobody's asking why the US and UK are throwing so much money at
the bloated financial services industry. Nobody's asking precisely what it
is intended to achieve, beyond vaguely hoping it will improve interbank
liquidity. And nobody's asking how we will know if it's worked or not.

Reading Steinbrück makes me wonder if Brown, Darling, Paulson and Bush have
gone doolally.

"Theil: You're facing a lot of criticism inside and outside Germany,
particularly from France and the EU Commission, that you should do more to
fight the crisis.

Steinbrück: We have a bidding war where everyone in politics believes they
have to top up every spending program that's been put to discussion.

just so...

I say
we should be honest to our citizens.

'honest'?? 'new' labour???? he's being ironic.... a german no less!!!

Policies can take some of the sharpness
out of it, but no matter how much any government does, the recession we are
in now is unavoidable. When I look at the chaotic and volatile debate right
now, both in Germany and around the world, my impression and concern is that
the daily barrage of proposals and political statements is making markets
and consumers even more nervous. Still, Brussels is pressing for a joint
European approach. For a while the position in Brussels and a few other
places has been "We're now very much for setting up large-scale spending
programs, but we're not really going to ask what the exact effects of those
might be. And since the amounts are so high, well, let's get the Germans to
pay because they can." Ms. Merkel and I are trying to calm them down a bit
just now, and understandably that's getting us criticized.

What is wrong with the stimulus proposals?
The speed at which proposals are put together under pressure that don't even
pass an economic test is breathtaking and depressing. Our British friends
are now cutting their value-added tax. We have no idea how much of that
stores will pass on to customers. Are you really going to buy a DVD player
because it now costs £39.10 instead of £39.90? All this will do is raise
Britain's debt to a level that will take a whole generation to work off. The
same people who would never touch deficit spending are now tossing around
billions. The switch from decades of supply-side politics all the way to a
crass Keynesianism is breathtaking. When I ask about the origins of the
crisis, economists I respect tell me it is the credit-financed growth of
recent years and decades. Isn't this the same mistake everyone is suddenly
making again, under all the public pressure?"

http://www.newsweek.com/id/172613

i've seen other 'reports' of this and similar....

the lefties where-ever they skulk are trying to use this problem
as a means to extend the statism....

getting the banks fluid is essential....
they are trying to ride other wholly unrelated games on the back
of that.........
eg car bail out in the us, or energy nationalisation in the uk...

it's obvious the banks must remain fluid....
anything else should be analysed separately...

regards

--
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energy, education, politics, etc 1,552,396 document calls in year past
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