If coronavirus sinks the eurozone, the 'frugal four' will be to blame

https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/mar/31/solidarity-members-eurozone-coronavirus-dutch-coronabond

by rickdeveloper • 6 years ago

14 15 6 years ago

jsiepkes2• 6 years ago

I don't know if this is typical of UK journalism, culture or if it is just The Guardian's way of doing things but the article is filed as a normal (economic) news piece yet the whole thing is filled with opinions of the author. Even the very headline of the article is an opinion.

ajayh• 6 years ago

The Guardian's Comment is Free section is opinion. It's a blog.

jsiepkes2• 6 years ago

I'm kind of confused about what you are saying; When I click on the link I land on a page where the "News" tab is highlighted and beneath it the sections "Business > Economics" are printed in bold. Looks like a news article to me? I don't see anywhere that this is actually a blog post?

runawaybottle• 6 years ago

What is the larger point of this Eurozone now days? The Netherlands sound a lot like Britain.

skrtskrt3• 6 years ago

The Euro was a massive mistake.

Economists can barely agree on how monetary supply works in a single country's economy, why not stitch a bunch of them together and see how it goes?

If you believe even a small part of Modern Monetary Theory has any value, tying multiple sovereign nations to the same currency is simply not an option.

ebg132• 6 years ago

The Euro was a massive mistake. Economists can barely agree on how monetary supply works in a single country's economy, why not stitch a bunch of them together and see how it goes?

EU members are exactly like states in the USA. They each have their own independent economic interests, their own independent sets of laws governed by central overriding principles and legislation, and they share a currency.

So you may as well be saying that the US Dollar was a massive mistake.

skrtskrt3• 6 years ago

Steve Keen is a good source on this:

https://braveneweurope.com/steve-keen-the-delusional-leaders...

https://braveneweurope.com/steve-keen-the-euro-is-a-suicide-...

contravariant• 6 years ago

Well it's not like economists are totally unaware what effect the Euro would have. It's been known for quite a while that you can't have a fixed exchange rate, free capital movement and independent monetary policy.

tonyedgecombe2• 6 years ago

At the video conference, the eurobond motion came up against the eurozone’s “frugal four” – Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland – who argued that the issuance of a common debt instrument would punish the countries that had saved for such a rainy day, and encourage further fiscal mismanagement by those who did not.

Politically this seems impossible to fix. Even though those countries gain by the weakness of the Euro they will never agree to the transfers necessary to fix it. It's unpalatable to their electorates.

inshadows• 6 years ago

Care to elaborate for economics novices why would the issuance of coronabonds/eurobonds strengthen Euro?

Is it because foreign investors would seek Euro to invest in new lucrative bonds? Any other factors?

tonyedgecombe2• 6 years ago

why would the issuance of coronabonds/eurobonds strengthen Euro

Care to elaborate where I actually said that?

If coronavirus sinks the eurozone, the 'frugal four' will be to blame

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