From Report on Business in The Globe and Mail (April 23):
“Political upheaval, deteriorating economic conditions and mounting public anger threaten to bury Europe’s unified austerity plan.”
From The Atlantic (April 24):
Spain is Doomed: Why Austerity is Destroying Europe
Nearly a quarter of Spain’s population is unemployed. Half of its youth are out of work. And it’s only going to get worse. Spain is supposed to trim its deficit by some 5.5 percent of GDP over the next two years. That’s not a recipe for growth. Just ask the IMF, which downgraded its projections for Spain’s economy back in January.
What matters for a nation is its GDP. That’s a country’s equivalent of personal income. If Spain’s GDP is set to fall for the foreseeable future – and it is – then who would want to lend to Spain? The markets gave their answer – practically nobody! – and the ECB (European Central Bank) was forced to fill the void by giving Eurobanks free money to then invest in sovereign debt. Yields came down. European policymakers declared “Mission Accomplished.”
But now the free money is gone. It’s unsurprising that Spanish borrowing costs are surging again.
Unsurprising to everybody who isn’t a Eurocrat, that is. Consider this mind-boggling quote from the chairman of the euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker: “I invite financial markets to behave in a rational way. Spain is on track.”
On track? For national bankruptcy, yes. But for recovery, absolutely not. Juncker’s quote betrays a fundamental misreading of what is making markets anxious. He thinks markets shouldn’t worry because Spain is going to follow through on its budget cuts. But markets are worried that Spain is going to follow through on its budget cuts. Austerity would almost certainly shrink the economy and make the country’s unconscionable unemployment even worse….
To crib from Keynes, Europe’s policymakers have blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the workings of which they do not understand. They’re not evil. But they’re almost certainly wrong. Rather than consider the possibility that the economy might work differently than they think, they have settled on a simple message: the beatings will continue. Unfortunately, morale will continue to not improve. Eventually, you have to think leaders in Europe’s beat-up countries will begin to wonder if life might be better outside the euro zone. Hopefully, the ECB will come to its senses first.
