The Germany That Said No

Weeklystandard ^ | 10/30/2010 | CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL

[newheart]

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

Let's hope you're right.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Canada — or more specifically, PM Stephen Harper, deserves a lot of credit for the G20 results. Canada was the host nation & Harper visited leaders in advance, to advocate for the austerity option.

Obama wanted to brow beat other nations to increase deficit spending. Canada went into deficit in 2009, for the first time in over a decade. The main reason was the intense pressure to support Obama’s “stimulus package”. Harper knew this was politically necessary — but, bad economics.

Obama wanted to coerce the G20 to support more deficit spending. He got a resounding “NO!, NIEN!, NON!” as an answer.

BTW, when Canada switched from a faux-Keynesian policy of perpetual deficits, to a policy of surplus budgets, and debt reduction — we experienced the same higher growth & lower unemployment as Germany. We also experienced lower interest rates, lower inflation, and, eventually, more money available for spending on government programs. The later has made debt reduction popular, even amongst leftists. They don't like seeing money going to “greedy bankers”, for interest payments.

[Lexinom]

I’ll take that trade.

[montag813]

I guess they learned their lesson about propaganda and brainwashing unlike NFL/NBA/MLB/NCAA fan idiots.

Hey...NFL fan idiots are not nearly as bad as NBA fan idiots!

[CharlieOK1]

I think that is what Krugman’s entire theory is based on. Why not spend infinite sums if you are going to get a $1.60 muliplier?

[wolf78]

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.

That is a misunderstanding. Germans love two things:

a.) Being right. Imperial German poet Geibel once famously rhymed: "Macht und Freiheit, Recht und Sitte, klarer Geist und scharfer Hieb zügeln dann aus starker Mitte jeder Selbstsucht wilden Trieb, und es mag am deutschen Wesen einmal noch die Welt genesen!" (Force and freedom, justice and moral standards, clear mind and sharp blow rein in from the sturdy center every wild selfish impulse, and thus the german way may heal the world some day).

Never try telling a German how to do something.

b.) Politely getting along. Compromise is an art form in Germany. E.g. gay marriage and abortion are total non-issues in Germany. They were settled in the 80s/90s (abortion is illegal but will not be punished if certain conditions are met / civil unions but no marriage) and that's it.

Therefore Germans liked Clinton but thought Carter was a moron. They loved Bush sen. but not Bush jr.. They liked Obama when he campaigned as a moderate. The don't like being lectured by Obama.

[jpl]

Why not spend infinite sums if you are going to get a $1.60 muliplier?

Precisely! It's a simple question, and there's no sensible answer to it. Only an ivory tower college professor could believe nonsense like this.

[Cacique]

btt

[Rummenigge]

Who actually likes beeing told what to do by drive-by consultants of wall street ?

[Euroconservative]

Great post.

Many like to think that a US liberal democrat (abortion at 24 week, gay marriage, massive amnesties for illegal aliens, overtax the rich and big corporations, endless public stimulus...) look like a european centre-right conservative. Not true at all.