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People are getting pretty annoyed with the never ending struggle to fix the economic and financial problems of the Eurozone. I liked this quote:
These two quotes from the IMF actually point to the problem itself: the belief that technocrats can “run” an economy. These statements are almost nonsensical when you think about it: if they could do these things they say that need to be done, why haven’t they already done them, and if they have done them, why haven’t they worked?
Ouch. The problem is really pretty simple: you can’t live above your means forever – eventually you have to pay the piper, which means living below your means for long enough for things to balance out. This ain’t rocket science. Tyler Cowen gets it right:
When it comes to “failure to remedy the euro crisis,” as opposed to initial causes, let’s look long and hard at “unwillingness to consider solutions which admit that citizens’ standards of living will fall.” That’s not socialism, but it is one pernicious form of modern interventionism and you will find it very much here in America too.
It’s the last part that’s worrisome.
Related articles
- IMF slashes world outlook (business.financialpost.com)
