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| Europe |
| Too much austerity led to Nazism: Austria central bank head |
| 2012-06-21 |
| [Al Ahram] Austria's central bank head has issued an unusually stark warning about too much austerity, amid the eurozone's debt crisis, saying such an approach contributed to the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. "The single-minded concentration on austerity policy (in the 1920s and 30s) led to mass unemployment, a breakdown of democratic systems and, at the end, to the catastrophe of Nazism," Wald Nowotny said in comments confirmed by his office on Wednesday. The remarks were initially made at an event on Monday in Vienna. Germany in particular has championed painful spending cuts to balance budgets and reduce debts as the principle way of restoring investor confidence in eurozone members' solvency and ending the bloc's sovereign debt crisis. But as evidenced in recent elections in Greece, too much emphasis on cutting spending is hugely unpopular, and new French President Francois Hollande wants to water down Berlin's austerity drive with more focus on generating growth. British historian Niall Ferguson and US economist Nouriel Roubini drew a similar historical parallel to Nowotny in the Financial Times on June 8, attacking Germany's "wait and see" approach to the eurozone crisis. German policy, they wrote in a joint opinion piece, "risks a repeat of precisely the crisis of the mid-20th century that European integration was designed to avoid." The said: "We find it extraordinary that it should be Germany, of all countries, that is failing to learn from history." They also said: "Fixated on the non-threat of inflation, today's Germans appear to attach more importance to 1923 (the year of hyperinflation) than to 1933 (the year democracy died)." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #14 Socialists led to NAZISM Dum Komf. |
| Posted by: newc 2012-06-21 22:46 |
| #13 Reporters laughed when Pelosi said she could have had Rove arrested whenever she liked . “I’m not kidding. There’s a prison here in the Capitol … If we had spotted him in the Capitol, we could have arrested him.” They do have their dreams and fantasies which often get confused with reality. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2012-06-21 15:32 |
| #12 Credit Anstalt ring a bell Wald? Austerity did them in? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2012-06-21 11:49 |
| #11 Don't point out the obvious guys. It will just confuse the stupid people. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2012-06-21 10:27 |
| #10 My bad , Socialist. |
| Posted by: Dale 2012-06-21 09:55 |
| #9 I recall the expression Socialism Democrat conferred upon Europe. Well we have that here now. I'd bet you many loyal Democrats will refuse to vote since they have no home to go to now. |
| Posted by: Dale 2012-06-21 09:53 |
| #8 Let's just call Nazism what it is: National Socialism. There! That doesn't sound so bad now, does it? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2012-06-21 09:41 |
| #7 Anti Democratic. Expansionist. Third Way disguised Marxist. Protectionist. The EUSSR doesn't have to go far to emulate 1930s Germany... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-06-21 09:12 |
| #6 BP & (g)romky, I, too, thought that the humiliation and looting of the ToV were the major issues. Those are what led to the rise of a leftist, nationalist dictatorship (aka Naziism). Hmmm, leftist dictatorship in Europe? Now why does that sound familiar? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2012-06-21 08:41 |
| #5 Funny, here I was thinking it was the Treaty of Versailles. |
| Posted by: gromky 2012-06-21 08:11 |
| #4 This is true but the left really fears nationalism. They (I have been told) believed that the route cause of nazism was nationalism. With the EU breakup nationalism will happen. That is why Europe and here fought the Tea party. They feared its strength. True grass routes not controlled like a union. |
| Posted by: Dale 2012-06-21 07:46 |
| #3 Why would anyone dare question a statement originating from a "central bank" which links conservatism with nazism? [snark off] |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-06-21 06:34 |
| #2 Pathetic creatures . All of them are increasing the debt. |
| Posted by: Phaith Grique4599 2012-06-21 06:25 |
| #1 and there I was thinking it was forcing Germans to pay France and other foreign countries vast amounts of it's GDP. Eurobonds anyone? |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-06-21 06:21 |