Austerity Replaces Economics With Disciplinarian Ideology

Ludger Schuknecht's insistance on continued austerity is merely a discipinarian's argument, which has already been proven wrong time and again. 

The letter in today’s Financial Times, "Jointly Agreed Strategy is Good for Germany and Europe," from Ludger Schuknecht, the Director General of the German Ministry of Finance, will likely live in infamy. In any case, frame it for your children as a symbol of the folly of mankind. In the sternest terms, Mr. Schuknecht chastises Martin Wolf for demanding a reversal of fiscal austerity. Why? “The public and markets have been led to believe in short-term measures for far too long.” Goodbye to Keynes, and even Friedman.

Moreover, he argues, “it is expansionary policies and weak fiscal positions that created the current problems of high debt and low competitiveness.” Of course, the Eurozone deficit was only 0.5 percent of GDP before the crisis. In Spain, fiscal policy was clearly restrained before the crisis. Few could argue the European Central Bank practiced loose monetary policy over these years.  

According to Mr. Schuknecht, we need “a combination of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms.” And all of this with the goal of rebuilding confidence. How can we be hearing this again, after the failure of austerity in country after country?  Now even the conservative Spanish government is admitting failure.

Evidence is not the issue here. Surely the impressive IMF research on the failure of austerity time and again cannot be simply dismissed. But dismiss it Mr. Schuknecht clearly does. Heaven forbid we introduce Eurobonds, which will undermine the confidence being built.

Clearly the German government sees confidence somewhere, but it is surely not in the financial markets.

I long to ask Mr. Schuknecht what he believes caused the Great Depression. He may have written about this somewhere; I assume he thinks uncertainty and government spending were the causes. I wonder if he can point to one credible case where austerity worked without a concurrent devaluation of the currency.

But such arguments do not seem to turn on evidence or theory.  They come from the stern gut of a schoolmaster, and they come from a nation that has yet to suffer the consequences of the current crisis. The inability or refusal to see ahead is the sure sign of an ideologue. But I think this is not even ideology; it is the instinct of the disciplinarian. And it is mixed with a desire to diminish government. Another rap on the knuckles with the ruler will bring confidence, confidence will bring investment, and investment, prosperity. We were told the same in the 1930s, but never mind all that.  

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick is the Director of the Roosevelt Institute’s Rediscovering Government initiative and author of Age of Greed.