Merkel criticises US over crisis

[Duke Nukum]

Merkel criticises US over crisis

By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin and Nikki Tait in Brussels

Published: November 26 2008 23:11 | Last updated: November 26 2008 23:11

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, turned the tables on her international critics on Wednesday by accusing the US and other governments of making “cheap money” a central tool of their economic management, thus planting the seeds of a similar crisis in five years.

“Excessively cheap money in the US was a driver of today’s crisis,” she told the German parliament. “I am deeply concerned about whether we are now reinforcing this trend through measures being adopted in the US and elsewhere and whether we could find ourselves in five years facing the exact same crisis.”

There have been calls from outside Germany for it to beef up fiscal support, but Ms Merkel has been wary of raising public borrowing to stimulate demand, fearing that the extra income could boost Germans’ savings rate, which is already high.

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[Eupher]

Merkel's hesitancy is understandable, most especially because she's a scientist by trade - chemistry, actually. I believe she has a doctorate in that discipline.

And she's true to her quasi-conservative style by expressing this kind of opposition -- but having grown up in communist East Germany (and having had a pretty cushy lifestyle for someone living in that country, indicative of someone who toed the party line), she's just a wee bit out of her element, methinks.

After all, the State did the thinking for her. She's been pro-democracy only since 1990, a relative newcomer.

I have to say, however, that she's pretty slick. She beat the shit out of Schroeder in the 2005 elections, and that was no easy feat.

[Jim]

no it was vote buying and willful disregard for financial common sense on the part of the democrats.

[DumbAss Tanker]

no it was vote buying and willful disregard for financial common sense on the part of the democrats.

They aren't mutually exclusive.  Government guarantees for mortgages based on zero ability to repay is just another face of free money, not all that different from just running the presses for an extra shift every week.