Ten Cannots

Global Economy, On the cover, Sin categoría

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

William J H Boetcker’s Ten Cannots

More Merkel, Better Europe

English, Global Economy, Merkel, On the cover

“However the Germans vote on 22 September, Berlin’s attitude to the EU is not going to change much” – Charles Grant

Two weeks ago, Angela Merkel and Peer Steinbrück , leading candidates for German Chancellor,  held an election debate on TV. It was a quiet event, without fanfare or big accusations. There were no negative comments to the policies of budget cuts, rather the opposite. Commenting this with German friends, they told me: “The obsession with the so-called austerity is a problem in other countries, here people understand that budgets must be balanced”. Continue reading More Merkel, Better Europe →

Debt Is Still The Problem

Global Economy, On the cover, Sin categoría
“The debt compromise is like eating a Satan sandwich” Emanuel Cleaver

Yesterday I heard again a sentence that tends to be repeated frequently: “Deficits support growth”. It assumes with his claim that increasing deficits helps economic recovery, rather than see that such recovery is much slower and fragile precisely because of the large deficits and the cost of financing them with taxes. Continue reading Debt Is Still The Problem →