Follow up na prejšnji post o nemški injekciji strupa. Kot piše Bloomberg, Nemčija kljub znižanim napovedim gospodarske rasti in kljub večinskemu prepričevanju s praktično vseh strani neomajno vztraja pri začrtanem cilju – pri uravnoteženju proračuna, namesto v dodatnih investicijah v infrastrukturo. S slednjim bi pomagala sebi in drugim, da spodbudijo rast. Retorika je fenomenalna in strogo legalistična: Nemčija mora vztrajati pri spoštovanju sprejetih pravil. Če bi Nemčija odstopila od njih, bi tudi ostalim dala razlog, da naredijo isto.

Če izvzamemo akte etničnega čiščenja, mislim, da v novejši zgodovini svet še ni videl tolikšnega egotripa in Wahnsinna na enem kupu: tudi če vsi crknete, tudi če mi propademo, od začrtanih pravil ne bomo odstopili. To resnično meji na akt globalnega gospodarskega terorizma, če si smem sposoditi to frazo.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers that Germany won’t raise public spending to stimulate the economy even after her government slashed growth forecasts for this year and next, a party official said.

Europe’s biggest economy will probably grow by 1.2 percent this year and by 1.3 percent in 2015, marking respective drops from 1.8 percent and 2.0 percent forecast in April, the Economy Ministry said today.

Merkel, addressing a closed-door meeting of members of her Christian Democratic Union-led bloc in Berlin today, vowed that her government will pursue its balanced budget goal regardless of the outlook, according to the CDU official, who asked not to be named because the session was private.

“We’re agreed in the German federal government that we must stay the course even in difficult times,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters in Luxembourg today after a meeting of European Union finance ministers.

A separate party official who attended the Berlin meeting told reporters later that Merkel said it’s more important than ever for the EU to hold to its rules and that Germany’s stance is crucial. If Germany deviates from its fiscal position, it would give other countries a reason to do likewise, she said.

“This, in a word, is silly: Germany should borrow money and invest in infrastructure to boost growth,” Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels, said by phone. “Merkel and others have invented a story about how Germany always had an austere budget. Yet in postwar history, Germany has repeatedly shown far more fiscal policy flexibility to lift growth.”

Vir: Bloomberg