US is right to criticise Germany on its economic policy
The US government could not have chosen a better day to attack Germany for pushing the eurozone into deflation. Hours after the US Treasury published a report that was highly critical of Berlin’s large current account surpluses, fresh statistics showed that inflation in the eurozone fell to 0.7 per cent in October, a four-year low.The US is clearly not in a position to lecture any country on economic policy making. For weeks, Congress has flirted with a US default, which would have been calamitous for the global financial system. This game of Russian roulette may well resume next February, when the US is expected to hit its debt ceiling again. Yet, the faults of the messenger do not invalidate what he has to say. While the blame for the eurozone’s disinflation does not rest with Berlin alone, the US Treasury’s analysis is both correct and timely....MORE
...After buttressing the single currency with its conditional bond-buying scheme, the ECB has done little to stop inflation undershooting its target of close to (but below) 2 per cent....
