Prominent French economist says Germany should leave the euro | 47 comments (47 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re:French economist: Germany should leave the EZ (none / 0)

Actually, Germany would be better off, because exports are costs and imports are benefits. Germany would get more benefits for its costs.

Would suck to be a rentier in that economy, but fuck the rentiers.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Nov 28th, 2013 at 01:42:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:French economist: Germany should leave the EZ (none / 1)

That would suggest that leaving the Euro would be much better for German workers than for large German investors. Given that lowering wages has been a decades long goal of German conservatives, such a development would give those running policy in Germany a significant incentive to compromise to maintain the Euro, were their membership in the EZ to be threatened.

But it doesn't answer the question of what would cause Germany to want to leave the Euro.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Nov 28th, 2013 at 02:04:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:French economist: Germany should leave the EZ (4.00 / 2)

Well, I do realise that costs would be reduced.

Still, I strongly doubt that a doubling of the currency would be harmless for the export, so to maintain their sacrosanct trade surplus they would have to gut their consumptions outright.

And the whole point of having a trade surplus is to invest it. So that would make very little sense if the exchange rates eat it up.

The whole German model becomes moot without someone to pay for their mercantilist policies.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Thu Nov 28th, 2013 at 02:27:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:French economist: Germany should leave the EZ (none / 0)

And the whole point of having a trade surplus is to invest it. So that would make very little sense if the exchange rates eat it up.

This again is straight out of Hobson's Imperialism. For the British investor class in the second half of the 19th Century excess profits from British factories were invested in India, which Britain controlled directly. For Germany the Eurozone, as currently constituted, provided the same benefits and serves the same purpose. And, so far, the Troika has been a lot cheaper for Germany than all the colonial regiments Britain used to maintain in India.

I'll bet the Irish, Portuguese, Greeks, Italians and Spaniards never thought they were hiring an imperial master when they joined the Euro-zone, not to mention France. Maybe no one noticed because they did not have to learn German.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Nov 28th, 2013 at 02:43:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:French economist: Germany should leave the EZ (4.00 / 2)

"I'll bet the Irish, Portuguese, Greeks, Italians and Spaniards never thought they were hiring an imperial master when they joined the Euro-zone, not to mention France. Maybe no one noticed because they did not have to learn German. "

Germany did not have a trade surplus then.

But indeed, had the Schröder policies been spelt out clearly ahead of the integration, it's unlikely that it would have gathered much support in Europe. The point was felt to be strengthening the European model (of decent social protection, for a start), not killing it, which is the apparent target at the moment.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Thu Nov 28th, 2013 at 03:25:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Prominent French economist says Germany should leave the euro | 47 comments (47 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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