11 | May | 2012 | New Economic Perspectives

Daily Archives: May 11, 2012

New York Times Reporters Embrace the Berlin Consensus and Ignore Krugman and Economics

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Mitch Green | 15 comments

The New York Times’ coverage of the euro zone crisis continues to exhibit two related flaws. First, it is overwhelmingly written from the German perspective – the Berlin Consensus that is driving the crisis. Second, it continues to ignore economics. Paul Krugman, the NYT’s Nobel Laureate in economics, has been explaining the economics of the crisis for years in his weekly NYT column. We know that Berlin either doesn’t read or comprehend what Krugman has been trying to explain, but it is remarkable that so many of the NYT reporters covering the euro zone crisis share their failure to read or comprehend.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, euro, germany, krugman, new york times

Mario Draghi’s Vision of The Future European Worker

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Stephanie Kelton | 2 comments

By Klaus Hagendorf

Below is a statement from the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi (Press conference, Barcelona, 3 Mai 2012):

“What does this growth compact mean? It refers to a variety of ideas that have been expressed in a number of places, and I certainly don’t claim any patent on this concept. But, if one had to summarise, it means basically three things. First of all, there must be a continuation of structural reforms in all the economies of the euro area. These structural reforms are different for different countries, but one can find some common themes. The first common area is the set of structural reforms in product markets. Our minds go back to the need to complete the single market as a first step, and to increase competition. You have to reform the product markets and the labour markets together, because you have to have more competition in both. Labour market reforms have three features: first they should increase flexibility, second they should increase mobility, and third, they should also increase equity in the labour market. Now we basically have a situation which is imbalanced against young people. Youth unemployment rates are going up and this is because of distortions in the labour market at the present time. You also want to make sure that you have an unemployment insurance system that makes these mobility and flexibility requirements realistic.”

When economic experts talk this way about the necessary measures to assure the exit from the economic crisis, I can’t help it but get the impression that what these “experts” have in mind looks something like this:

The Future European Worker – mobile, flexible, ready for everything at an affordable price.

Following the daily news there come protests from all sites. My studies in the MIME project have led me to the clear answer: Against this doctrine we have to wage the strategy of “Controlling Capital.” To learn more, please visit http://eurodos.free.fr/mime or http://eurodos.free.fr/cocnet