Tag Archives: Germany
German Reunification
Jan 27, 2018
Posted by on This week on Facebook: Mainly for the benefit of my children, I should like to point out that German reunification refers to that of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall,which led to Tag der Deutschen Einheit. This is not the same as Bismarck’s German Unification of 1850 to 1871 nor is it the 1938 Anschluss. Read more of this post
Seeking Keynes – The Treaty
Jan 9, 2013
Posted by on A previous post Seeking Keynes – the cake introduced John Maynard Keynes and his book The Economic Consequences Of The Peace. Keynes wrote the book in 1919 following his resignation from the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, when it became evident that there was no hope of substantial modification in the draft Terms of Peace. The following is a condensed version of selected parts in which Keynes considered the nature of Europe and the Treaty of Versailles.
The Flawed Euro
Jun 23, 2012
Posted by on A fundamental flaw in the initial design of the euro made it unlikely that it could ever succeed and the determination to continue with economic policies, particularly in response to the global financial crisis, have made recovery from that crisis more difficult. A single monetary policy dictated by and serving the needs of the most powerful parts of the European economy, would be less appropriate for weaker parts of the European economy. The Greeks believed that their membership of the euro-zone was the entry ticket to the prosperity that the stronger members enjoyed. Encouraged by the apparent guarantee of support from those stronger members to take advantage of the asset inflation created by easy Europe-wide credit, ignoring the potentially damaging concentration of productive capacity in Europe’s industrial heartland that a single economy made inevitable. In the longer term, when the periphery of the wider European economy began to slow down – even to close down – this was bad news even for the central core, whose markets would be less buoyant and whose obligations to weaker members would be likely to increase – because the euro would eventually handicap the whole European economy. Read more of this post