The Baseline Scenario

What happened to the global economy and what we can do about it

German Finance Minister Confirms What We Have Been Saying

The Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics/Secondary SourcesĀ today juxtaposes:

1. Peer Steinbruck, the German Minister of Finance, saying that Germany will not engage in “extensive debt financed-spending or tax-reduction programs.”

2. My posting, from yesterday, which makes the point that a big fiscal stimulus in the US strengthens the incentive for our major trading partners to free ride, i.e., not to engage in their own extensive debt financed-spending or tax-reduction programs.

Looks like we are still on at least this part of our baseline.

Written by Simon Johnson

December 23, 2008 at 11:53 am

Posted in Commentary