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The Germany That Said No
Weeklystandard ^ | 10/30/2010 | CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL

Posted on 11/02/2010 8:04:57 AM PDT by listenhillary

"You won’t find a lot of Keynesians here,” explained one German economic policymaker in Berlin in September. That will not be news to anyone who has spoken to his counterparts in Washington. In their view, Germany is a skulker, a rotten citizen of the global economy, the macroeconomic equivalent of a juvenile delinquent, or worse. It is a smart aleck in the emergency ward that is the global economy. It is a flouter of the prescriptions of the new Doctor New Deal who sits in the White House.

Germany has been scolded, even browbeaten, by Obama administration officials, from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on down, for saving too much and spending too little. It has refused to stimulate its economy as the United States has done, on the grounds that the resulting budget deficits would not be sustainable and the policies themselves would not work. Administration officials have not been the only ones to warn the Germans about the path they’re on. On the eve of last summer’s G‑20 summit in Toronto, the economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman gave an interview to the German business paper Handelsblatt in which he said that, while Germany might think its deficits are big, they are peanuts “from an American viewpoint.” Germany cannot say it wasn’t warned.

And now the consequences of Germany’s waywardness are clear. Germany’s growth in this year’s second quarter was 2.2 percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis. That means it is growing at almost 9 percent a year. Its unemployment rate has fallen to 7.5 percent, below what it was at the start of the global financial crisis—indeed, the lowest in 18 years. The second-biggest Western economy appears to be handling this deep recession much more effectively than the biggest—and emerging from it much earlier.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economics; germany; keynesian; keynesianism
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Wish that we had done the same.

FTA The stimulus pleas of the Obama administration fell on deaf ears in Berlin. Guess whose economy is growing faster.

1 posted on 11/02/2010 8:04:58 AM PDT by listenhillary
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To: listenhillary

Deutschland ja; Amerika nein.


2 posted on 11/02/2010 8:10:54 AM PDT by Clint Williams ( America -- a great idea, didn't last.)
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To: listenhillary

Has obamma’s financial policies ever worked in the past? I think not! Why does he insist his way is the right way, when history has proven otherwise? Surely his advisors and he himself cannot be this stupid?


3 posted on 11/02/2010 8:11:51 AM PDT by rawhide
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To: listenhillary

Germany reminds me of America in the 1950s/1960s. 100% more common sense.

They do not appear to be brainwashed idiots like Americans who watch TV. I guess they learned their lesson about propaganda and brainwashing unlike NFL/NBA/MLB/NCAA fan idiots.


4 posted on 11/02/2010 8:11:53 AM PDT by Frantzie (Imam Ob*m* & Democrats support the VICTORY MOSQUE & TV supports Imam)
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To: listenhillary
Somehow the only adult at the drunken frat party wakes up the next morning early and without a hangover. I wonder how that happened.

and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman gave an interview to the German business paper Handelsblatt in which he said that, while Germany might think its deficits are big, they are peanuts “from an American viewpoint.” Germany cannot say it wasn’t warned.

Once again Krugman serves as a perfect negative indicator. Ask Krugman what he would do and then do the exact opposite and you'll do well.

5 posted on 11/02/2010 8:15:13 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Dems' response to 11/2: Do not go gentle into that new day,Rage,rage against the coming of the dawn!)
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To: listenhillary

Only a complete and utter fool would put any credence in this Keynesianism garbage. It has never worked one time anywhere it has ever been tried. It’s nothing but a lefty religious belief that is completely immune to facts and results.


6 posted on 11/02/2010 8:15:39 AM PDT by jpl (It's "My Big Fat Deadly Greek Riot", coming soon to a bankrupt socialist state near you.)
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To: All

It appears the NHL is acceptable. Go Hawks!


7 posted on 11/02/2010 8:16:15 AM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: listenhillary

Is Obama A Keynesian?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_23Nt5XumaU&feature=related


8 posted on 11/02/2010 8:22:46 AM PDT by ari-freedom (Vote for Robert Turner for Congress and kick out that Weiner!)
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To: listenhillary

Friggin Krauts have always been like that.


9 posted on 11/02/2010 8:25:24 AM PDT by bkepley
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To: listenhillary

Having lived with Germans, BO could not have acted worse than to try to browbeat them to spend more money. When you do that, Germans dig in their heals and get very stubborn. He may have gotten great reviews for his Berlin victory lap, but then he ruined it later by bringing up their real passion, holding on to their cash.


10 posted on 11/02/2010 8:26:30 AM PDT by kittymyrib
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To: listenhillary
Maybe everyone ought to mind his own business and buy his own drinks.

Excellent analogy.

Either the Obama administration economic planners are like the souse described in the article or they know exactly what they are doing and believe that until every nation runs out of money they will not be able to foster the chaos necessary to usher in the supposedly beneficent utopia they think will fill the vacuum of that societal disorder. Sadly, history suggests that the most likely way that vacuum will be filled is with totalitarianism. The Germans know that all too well.

11 posted on 11/02/2010 8:32:55 AM PDT by newheart (Please don't shoot at the thermonuclear weapons. --Vic Deakins)
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To: newheart
This was good...

German policymakers do think the United States is misguided as a matter of economic reasoning. “We think they’re wrong,” says one top official. “We think you don’t get the multiplier they say.” The multiplier is the measure of how much economic activity results from emergency government spending. Discussions of the multiplier were at the center of the debates over the Obama stimulus plan. Christina Romer and the president’s other economic advisers argued that the multiplier would be around 1.6—the government would create $1.60 worth of economic activity for every dollar it spent. At those rates, who can afford not to stimulate? “Our research says the multiplier is more like .60,” says the German official. If he is correct, then a stimulus plan can actually deaden an economy rather than stimulate it. If he is correct, you might have been as well off to have taken the stimulus money and thrown it away.

12 posted on 11/02/2010 8:38:57 AM PDT by listenhillary (A very simple fix to our dilemma - We need to reward the makers instead of the takers)
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To: listenhillary

sfl


13 posted on 11/02/2010 8:42:53 AM PDT by phockthis
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To: listenhillary

“Germany has been scolded, even browbeaten, by Obama administration officials, from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on down, for saving too much and spending too little. It has refused to stimulate its economy as the United States has done, on the grounds that the resulting budget deficits would not be sustainable...”

And from that idiot, Barack Obama, in May, ‘09:

“The long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable. We can’t keep on just borrowing from China or borrowing from other countries. We have to pay interest on that debt and that means that we’re mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”


14 posted on 11/02/2010 8:43:28 AM PDT by flowerplough (Thomas Sowell: Those who look only at Obama's deeds tend to become Obama's critics.)
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To: listenhillary
you might have been as well off to have taken the stimulus money and thrown it away.

Absolutely right. Which means the Obama approach is even worse than the traditional Keynesian belief that you can stimulate the economy by burying money in fields and then paying people to dig it up. The Obamanomics approach is more like stacking it all in a pile (in a Union hall somewhere) and setting it on fire. Poof.

15 posted on 11/02/2010 8:49:29 AM PDT by newheart (Please don't shoot at the thermonuclear weapons. --Vic Deakins)
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To: listenhillary
Think of the global economy as a big, glitzy barroom. The Obama administration sold the stimulus (successfully) to Congress and (unsuccessfully) to the public at large as a way of getting us more drinks. But, in a global economy, what we are doing is standing rounds for the entire establishment. U.S. policymakers have come to realize that if other patrons don’t start standing rounds, too, we’re going to run out of money soon. Hence the tendency to cast the nonstimulators as a bunch of ungrateful jerks. Germany is suggesting a different view: Maybe everyone ought to mind his own business and buy his own drinks.

I'll drink a pint of Oktoberfest Hacker Pschorr to that!

16 posted on 11/02/2010 8:52:18 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: newheart

Excellent example of how to facilitate the return of the 12th Iman.

NOW, since grown ups know that fairy tales are cute, we’ll pass on the stupidity & run a country properly.


17 posted on 11/02/2010 8:53:11 AM PDT by bayouranger (The 1st victim of islam is the person who practices the lie.)
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To: listenhillary

The Obama administration blew $860 billion on stimulus and the unemployment rate now stands at 9.6% and anemic GDP growth of 2%. Germany spent 0 on stimulus and their unemployment rate stands at 4% and GDP growth annualized at 9%.’Nuf said


18 posted on 11/02/2010 9:03:30 AM PDT by chuckee
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To: listenhillary
Keynesianism and the magic multiplier rubbish is easily demolished with a couple of simple questions: since pretty much everyone agrees that economic growth is a good thing, if there really is a positive "multiplier effect" and government spending truly grows the economy, then why wouldn't you advocate enormous government spending ALL of the time, and why would you ever want to put a limit on that spending?

The Keynesians can't possibly come up with answers to those questions that make any sense in the real world.

As Albert Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results, and the Keynesians utterly qualify as insane.

19 posted on 11/02/2010 9:07:39 AM PDT by jpl (It's "My Big Fat Deadly Greek Riot", coming soon to a bankrupt socialist state near you.)
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To: listenhillary

The German people love Obama.How about an even up trade.We will take Angie Merkel and we will send them Obama decked out in lederhosen.


20 posted on 11/02/2010 9:07:57 AM PDT by chuckee
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