The members of the eurozone and the EU have apparently decided that they must heroically rescue Greece, that this is better than having the IMF do it. Senior figures in Brussels feel that the latter alternative is unthinkable. I am a little confused about why. Martin Wolf writes in the Financial Times this week that to bring in the Fund “would demonstrate that this is not a true union at all.” But the EU and EMU and not true fiscal unions. If the citizens of Germany and other more successful countries were willing to bail out the Greeks, then fine; the EMU would be ready to be a fiscal union. But they are not; so it is not. Given that reality, what is wrong with something that “demonstrates” it?
Author Archives: jfrankel
Limit Tax Expenditures
The National Journal asks for views on a recent proposal from Len Burman . I couldn’t agree more with the idea: we need to limit tax expenditures.
With regard to the politics, one would have to see whether the phrase “cut tax expenditures” polls more like the phrase “cut expenditures,” which I assume polls well, or like the phrase “raise taxes,” which of course polls horribly. I have no idea. But at least there is a hope of breaking through the mindless artificial “Taxes versus Spending” rhetoric that dominates Washington.
Lag in Job Numbers Behind GDP Growth is No Worse than in Past Recoveries
At first glance, the job numbers of the last week seem to offer a mixed and confusing picture. On the one hand, today’s headline from the Bureau of Labor Statistics certainly sounds like good news: the unemployment rate finally dropped below 10.0% — to 9.7%. On the other hand, today’s establishment survey of employment, which most of the time is a more reliable measure than the unemployment rate, still shows job change numbers that are negative. Furthermore, recent numbers on claims for unemployment benefits have been discouraging.
