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Thanks to Germany it's 2008 all over again

A 'German problem' in Europe

The greatest swindle of modern times is the massive ‘bait and switch’ perpetrated on the publics of Europe by their governments on behalf of their banks. What we refer to today as the ‘European Sovereign Debt Crisis’ began largely as a private sector financial crisis when too big to fail banks got caught with too many worthless assets on their books in 2008, write Mark Blyth and Abraham Newman.

Politicians deftly, and all too quickly, turned this into a crisis of the public sector by profligate governments, ironically. While the story of fiscal irresponsibility has some plausibility in the Greek case, it simply isn’t true for much anyone else. In short, ballooning public debt is a consequence of the financial crisis, it is not a cause of it. It occurred when the debt of the private sector was transformed into public sector debt via bailouts, lost revenues, lower growth, and higher transfers...

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Find in this article:

	To get the causality right
	Disastrous result for Europe’s periphery
	It’s time to commit to European solidarity

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The new German parochialism / The global social crisis

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WDEV Recent Issues

Issue 6/Nov-Dec 2011
G20: Wrong forum for development + German aid under Niebel + London contra FTT + Food speculation: How it works
Issue 5/Sep-Oct 2011
The global social crisis +++ Thanks to Germany it's 2008 all over again +++ Nepal: Second chance for Maoists
Issue 4/Jul-Aug 2011
Non-FDI modes of international production + Bail-out 2.0 for Greece + Europe: Tobin tax on the move
Issue 3/May-Jun 2011
Survey on trade union rights violation + BRICS on the new IMF director + Greece and the euro + Green Economy for LDCs?
Issue 2/Mar-Apr 2011
LDC-IV in Istanbul +++ Reforming the global monetary system: Whick role for the IMF +++ Escalation of food prices +++ Remittances and development
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