Category: EMU

Balanced budget tax cuts

In his press conference yesterday, Mario Draghi said the following:

Within the Stability and Growth Pact, one could do things that are growth-friendly and also would contribute to budget consolidation, and I gave an example of a balanced budget tax cut. Reducing taxes that are especially distortionary, where the short-term multipliers could be higher, and cutting expenditure in the most unproductive parts, so mostly, actually not mostly, entirely, current government expenditure.

There are at least three possible interpretations of this statement.

1. Draghi genuinely thinks that balanced budget multipliers are negative, which I find hard to believe. A balanced budget tax cut under current circumstances would be contractionary, not expansionary; at least, that is what we teach our students.

2. Draghi genuinely thinks that the Eurozone’s problems right now are on the supply side, and that tax cuts will help address these problems. I also find that hard to believe. The major problems facing the Eurozone right now are pretty clearly on the demand side.

3. Despite its nominal independence, the ECB is in fact the most politically constrained of the major central banks. If Draghi is going to push the ECB towards QE, and question the overall fiscal stance of the Eurozone, he has to come out with this sort of stuff from time to time, to appease the Germans.

I find the last of these three explanations entirely plausible, and it helps explain the ECB’s poor performance in the crisis to date. But why should a nominally independent central bank feel that its hand are tied in this way? Ultimately, perhaps, because the Eurozone is not a political union, and because democratic legitimacy resides at the level of the member states. This means that exit from the Eurozone is always an option, even if it is not openly acknowledged.

Another reason to think that monetary union without political union is a bad idea.

France

Paul Krugman asks whether anyone thinks that Hollande has the faintest idea about how austerity is going to fix the French economy, in a context where France is clearly facing a huge demand-side problem.

I guess this is the latest statement of what the French are thinking. They recognise that there is a demand side problem in Europe, and hope that someone else (the ECB, and European institutions who might promote European investment) will address this. And they hope that if they do things that the Europeans like, then this will lead not only to saner European macroeconomic policy, but to investment by French companies as well:

“Je souhaite… que chacun prenne ses responsabilités”, poursuit Michel Sapin. “Le gouvernement a pris les siennes, je souhaite que l’Europe le fasse aussi. Mais il faut que les entreprises prennent les leurs.”

I sort of understand what is going on politically. One thing that strikes you about France is how partisan the politics there are. There are some — typically on the left — who think that demand is all that ever matters, and others — by no means all on the right, since VSP’s are to be found right across the spectrum — who think that supply is all that matters. So the government is trying to say that both demand and supply matter, and is describing this in terms of a bargain: if we are tough on spending and all the rest, then the French private sector and “Europe” should do their part, and invest.

But what if, as appears to be the case, the big reason that French companies are not investing is a lack of demand? And what if the Germans simply refuse to budge on macroeconomic policy, as seems likely? Is French policy simply going to consist of saying “pretty please”, or do they have a credible threat to move things along?

Threatening to leave the euro if things keep going the way they are might just do it (what would be the political point of the euro without France?), but does anyone see Hollande credibly threatening that? Does anyone see him credibly threatening anything? And what is his Plan B if Eurozone macroeconomic policy remains essentially unchanged? Does he even have one?

In the mean time, austerity in France will continue to hurt the French economy. How high in the polls does the FN have to rise before Hollande realises that what he is doing is neither prudent nor responsible, but incredibly dangerous?

And how long before the French political system is willing to acknowledge, publicly, that Montebourg’s warnings do not reflect a particularly “left wing” view of economics, but would be regarded as plain common sense by most macroeconomists?

 

 

Mody: Did the German court do Europe a favour?

Here.

Orphanides: the Eurozone crisis is political

Here.

Money quote:

European Institutions also face the risk of political capture by the governments of specific member states that could misuse the crisis for local political gain.

 

Too early to call the end of the eurozone recession…

…says the CEPR Business Cycle Dating Committee, here.