When Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, met Pope Benedict in Berlin last week, it appears that their conversation focused more on Mammon than on God.
“We spoke about the financial markets and the fact that politicians should have the power to make policy for the people, and not be driven by the markets,” Ms Merkel said after the talks. “This is a very, very big task in today’s time of globalisation.”
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[blockquote] “We spoke about the financial markets and the fact that politicians should have the power to make policy for the people, and not be driven by the markets,â€[/blockquote]
Ms. Merkel exhibits the fundamental flaw of Keynesian economists and social-government politicians everywhere.
Even if it was axiomatic that “politicians should have the power to make [economic] policy [and manipulate the market]” ( and it is certainly not), they don’t. They won’t. They never will. The markets [i]are[/i] the people.
Trying to tame the inflation/recession roller coaster with interest rate manipulation or fiat cash infusions merely ramps up the amplitude.
The most that governments can do is free the markets (people) to generate wealth, while trying to insure that the excesses of the the Bourse, such as unrestricted naked short selling, hugely under-capitalized hedge fund insurance schemes, and failure to insure that traders will face consequences for rash decisions and malfeasance, are limited. Only then, if even then, will there be enough wealth available for harebrained social engineering schemes.
Lacking that understanding, I fear that another round of the centuries old European wash cycle is inevitable.