While the Fed was flooding the world with dollars that EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN stupidly said would create hyperinflation (which it didn’t), the Europeans were actually implementing a plan that was almost exactly like the one the Republicans wanted for the US… Cut spending to the bone, cut benefits to the needy, ‘tighten the belt’ and raise interest rates to stop inflation from killing us all. Here, the Republicans only got about half of what they wanted and as a result, our recovery has been building strength month after month.
Europe, meanwhile, has been a disaster. Now, the Europeans are doing what we did and the only reason I’m pointing this out (it’s really not a political thing) is because now, as they have since the credit crisis and crash of 2008, the obstacle is Ze Germans. Specifically, Jens Weidmann at the German Bundesbank. He’s been all over the place whining. THIS is my favorite part…
Mr Weidmann also said that the ECB’s Governing Council, of which he is a member, was more concerned about a prolonged period of low inflation rather than “broad-based deflation”.
The depth of dumb here is stultifying. Using food as an analogy, inflation is like unsweetened tea… no one really likes it, but you can still drink it. Deflation is like being stabbed in the head with a jackhammer while Jens Weidmann stands there, watching, eating an apple that’s clearly started to turn.
The best thing that could happen to the economy in Europe is for Jens Weidmann to take a vacation for a few decades. He’s the reason unemployment is still so unreasonably high and the economy is so bad in Europe.