MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
France calls for more Euro solidarity, otherwise the EU project is “unsustainable”
Widening differences over economic policy among Euro area countries are “unsustainable” and could undermine the currency union itself, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday.“There isn't enough solidarity in the Euro-zone,” Le Maire told reporters on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring meetings. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesA truly astounding example of socialist superior enlightenment.
Apr 13th, 2019 - 11:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We need more solidarity, you need to do things the way we want you to.
Frenchmen: Us, do things your way? No, that isn't solidarity, that is domineering.
We don't have money, so we want you to spend your money. And we want a say in how you spend that money that you don't want to spend.
Our spending turned out to be unsustainable so from that we conclude that you doing the opposite, not spending money, will also be, “unsustainable”. ???
And we “promise” that we will get our finances in order, and “get results”, and when we do, we will spend our money too. We promise.
No, you shouldn't wait until we get our finances in order, to spend your money on “solidarity” projects.
Germany: Do we get to spend our money in our country?
Frenchmen: No, you have to spend it in other countries so there is “solidarity”.
Germany: Which outside countries should we spend that money in? The poorest ones?
No, you should spend your money in France. And we will tell you how, to protect our sovereignty (never mind solidarity in this case)
Do we get to tell France what to do with their money, too?
No, that would impinge on France's sovereignty.
After all, even though us Frenchmen have no money left, as you can see from the above reasoning, we are very smart, advanced thinkers.
Isn't spending yourself broke an example not of smart thinking but of shortsighted stupidness?
No, we are smart thinkers.
That is why we now have regular weekend riots each Saturday all over our country about how we need to spend piles of money we totally don't have. Because we are so enlightened about national finances. You should listen to us.
“The problem with socialism is it runs out of everybody else's money”.
Until it finds yet another pile of money that doesn't belong to them to pillage.
Socialist Moral:
“They have money, it is only moral that they give a big part of it to us to spend, on whatever.”
The Euro was a mistake from the beginning. Tying strong economies like Germany's to weaker ones like Greece and Spain was always going to cause problems. Germany has benefited from the currency union keeping prices for their exports low, allowing them to sell more and generate a huge surplus. But if they want the Euro to survive, closer integration and even funnelling money to the poorer members will be unavoidable. The US states all use the dollar, which means a place like Alabama can't devalue their currency in order to compete more effectively with New York. But this only works because all states share the burden and the richer ones subsidise the poorer ones. For Europe, the alternative would be going back to the old national currencies, or at least splitting the Euro into two, with a stronger and weaker version for different countries.
Apr 14th, 2019 - 10:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0@Bushpilot
By my reading of the article, it sounds like Le Maire wants Germany to spend money inside their own borders, to prop their economy and stop it falling into recession, which would have a knock-on effect on the others. And he also said France should pursue economic reforms and shore up their finances, which doesn't sound like he approves of unsustainable spending. Is there anything objectionable in that?
Maybe this article doesn't have as much signifigance as the way it is presented makes it seem to.
Apr 14th, 2019 - 02:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But, no. I don't see anything objectionable to someone not approving of unsustainable spending.
So, why is there a need to put their books in order? Is this a very dominant objection?
Why aren't they in a position to pre-empt a coming recession themselves?
How does somebody that has trashed their house now turn around and say, “we will now tell you how to run your house”?
Does the german finance ministry have any fiscal acumen that can be applied to pre-empting a recession? Can their judgements on this issue be more trusted than those of the french finance ministry? (demonstrations every Saturday)
Germany and the Netherlands need to spend hard cash, they need to do something real. France just needs to be “determined” to be able to do so “one day in the future”, “with results”.
Nice piece of thinking there.
“You give hard cash, I give words, so I should be telling you what to do”.
“No, I don't have to give hard cash too, I don't have any anymore, a situation which completely validates my standing to be telling you what you are doing wrong with your cash.”
However, France also has a viable military which means a very expensive military. I'm glad they have a military, I don't object to that either.
The U.S. is no great example of fiscal acumen either. And they have opinions on what Germany should do with their Geld too.
“Why aren't they in a position to pre-empt a coming recession themselves?”
Apr 14th, 2019 - 08:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Perhaps they think the status of Germany will have more effect than anything they do themselves? It's well known that recession in America can have severe adverse effects on other countries, though I don't think Germany is *quite* so influential.
“Does the german finance ministry have any fiscal acumen that can be applied to pre-empting a recession?”
There certainly are some lessons to be learned from Germany, by France and even the US. For example, the emphasis on practical, vocational education over academic degrees. But Germany has a strong export-based economy. It's impossible for every country to do this; someone has to be buying those exports. Ensuring they have a market is one of the big advantages for Germany in EU membership, and they signed up for those responsibilities voluntarily. And as you say, talk is cheap. There is nothing stopping Germany turning around and telling France to pass their own reforms before they will spend a cent.
There is strength in unity. Unity against “what” needs to be defined. Whatever is unsustainable can be rectified.
Apr 15th, 2019 - 12:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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