They can't even remember.

Editor,

Germany and France are applying the same logic to Greece that the Republicans are to the United States: exacerbating unemployment by demanding cuts in government spending, thus laying of government workers, and worsening the depression by demanding that creditors be paid 100 cents on the dollar -- now -- rather than stimulating demand by stimulating the economy with fiscal policy.

Everybody knows that monetary policy can only achieve the illusion of recovery by propping up bankers' balance sheets and artificially inflating stock prices. Besides, if the problem is debt that cannot be repaid, peddling the victim more debt is only going to make the unpaid balance bigger.

Also, China is going to own the Monopoly board when this game is over because the Chinese financial sector invests in industry while Western capitalists are so used to gambling on imaginary paper abstractions they can't even remember how to do it.

Re: "Germany and France Back Greece on Austerity Effort" (9/15/2011)