Stiglitiz: a austeridade como crime

O último post de Joseph Stiglitz, prémio Nobel de economia, no Project Syndicate, é um gritante apelo aos lideres europeus para cessarem uma política "criminosa" que está a destruir a maior economia do mundo e o capital humano da sua juventude, logo a destruir parte do capital humano da próxima geração europeia:

• So many economies are vulnerable to natural disasters – earthquakes, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, tsunamis – that adding a man-made disaster is all the more tragic. But that is what Europe is doing. Indeed, its leaders’ willful ignorance of the lessons of the past is criminal.
• The pain that Europe, especially its poor and young, is suffering is unnecessary. Fortunately, there is an alternative. But delay in grasping it will be very costly, and Europe is running out of time. 
• If the euro survives, it will come at the price of high unemployment and enormous suffering, especially in the crisis countries. And the crisis itself almost surely will spread.

O espectro de uma união financeira incompleta e sem credor de ultimo recurso continua a limitar as opções

• Europe as a whole is not in bad fiscal shape; its debt-to-GDP ratio compares favorably with that of the United States. If each US state were totally responsible for its own budget, including paying all unemployment benefits, America, too, would be in fiscal crisis. The lesson is obvious: the whole is more than the sum of its parts. If Europe – particularly the European Central Bank – were to borrow, and re-lend the proceeds, the costs of servicing Europe’s debt would fall, creating room for the kinds of expenditure that would promote growth 

No mesmo dia, Merckel reafirmou a sua politica de austeridade para os países do sul da europa, como a única alternativa possível.

(Itálicos da nossa responsabilidade)

(Adição: de um post do Free Exchange, no The Economist:

• The austerity is there. If it isn't working out as many expected, that's either because what they expected was unreasonable, or because the central bank isn't doing its part.)