Paul Krugman - New York Times Blog 12 de novembro de 2013 , 01:26 1 Comentário Falta de reciprocidade da Alemanha

November 12, 2013, 1:26 am 1 Comment

Germany’s Lack of Reciprocity

Huge tensions over the ECB rate cut, with a split on the board and many German economists protesting. As usual, a lot of it is about the perception that those lazy southern Europeans are getting a free ride:

A commentary by the chief economist of the financial weekly Wirtschaftswoche called the decision a “diktat from a new Banca d’Italia, based in Frankfurt”.

Why can’t those Italians etc. pull up their socks the way we did?
What Germans — economists as well as the general public — still don’t seem to get is how much Germany’s success at emerging from its late-90s doldrums depended on a somewhat inflationary boom in southern Europe. And they therefore also don’t realize how much damage Germany is imposing by refusing to allow higher eurozone inflation.
Here’s core inflation since the euro’s creation:
Eurostat
Germany was able to achieve large gains in competitiveness without deflation, because Spain and others were willing to accept inflation well above 2 percent. But now the eurozone has overall core inflation below 1 percent, which means that Spain can only achieve internal devaluation through crippling deflation:

The Germans, in other words, aren’t asking the southern Europeans to emulate them; they’re demanding that they accomplish a feat Germany never had to manage, and which hardly anyone has ever managed.