Comments on: Why Europe’s crisis can’t be averted

By: Nick_Lowther

Nick_Lowther — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:05:36 +0000

Enough with this misery. Europe has probably turned the corner. Fiscal consolidation is now well underway. See the IMF’s latest report on global fiscal developments:

http://youtu.be/M6HX8A5bfbY

By: Greycap

Greycap — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:00:54 +0000

… the Bundesbank has more reserves than the ECB …”

Could you explain what you meant by this? The latest data posted on their respective websites says that the Bundesbank has about 184 bn euros in reserve assets, the ECB about 683 bn.

By: johnhhaskell

johnhhaskell — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:22:30 +0000

New slogan for the Eurozone: One fool can ask a question that a hundred wise people can’t answer

By: maynardGkeynes

maynardGkeynes — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:05:57 +0000

Did any of these illustrious pessimists happen to mention where they are putting there money nowadays? I could use some advice.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:45:20 +0000

Interesting thesis, but I wonder about your conclusion. If the elites are concluding that nothing can and should be done to avert a fiscal crisis, then are they attending the WEF only for the parties? Well, that and so they can feel important?

@RZ0, that’s also an interesting analogy, and I can see certain parallels. Perhaps the poor can even “exit” the dollar economy by building a separate barter economy. But what you don’t have is the brain drain from one country to another that Felix describes.

By: RZ0

RZ0 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:42:17 +0000

I’m a bit slow on these matters, but it seems the Germany-periphery problem in the EU is like the rich-poor problem in the United States.
Economic sluggishness in the EU is attributable to Germany being too effective at accumulating wealth from poorer nations and refusing to recycle it back to those poorer nations to restart the cycle.
In the US, the wealthiest have been too effective at accumulating wealth from poorer individuals and have refused to recycle it back to poorer people through taxes and transfer payments.