As Martin Wolf says in the FT this morning:
One definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Germany's determination to impose a fiscal hair shirt on its eurozone partners did not work in the “stability and growth pact”. Is it going to work in the “treaty on stability, co-ordination and governance” agreed last week? I doubt it.
Spain has already broken ranks on this new agreement - within days of it being signed.
Amusingly it looks as though the Netherlands will too.
It's dead in the water - as to be complied with as a Greek promise to deliver austerity.
But Germany still demands the impossible. Time for them to dump Merkel, I think. Her illusory belief that all of Europe can behave like Germany is the biggest threat to European recovery there is. And since no one else will stand up to her we have to hope the German people will.
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Actually I came to the conclusion some time ago – I might have commented on this blog – that Merkel was past her sell-by date. Germany should have remembered how it was the recipient of Marshall aid after WW2. To impose such a degree of austerity on the Greek people is extremely cruel and bad economics. Anyone who has visited Greece will know that Germany has benefited from exporting to this country and Merkel should have stated this to her electorate.
Did you know that Marshall Aid was dependent on kicking out communism? There was major communist support in West Germany, Italy and Greece before aid was accepted. Yugoslavia retained communism and were hence debarred. British communists were not considered a threat, hence no aid for us.
My friend wrote a good piece on this for the Morning Star some years ago – I’ll ask him for a copy for my records.