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As does the EU.
by davrosthedalek 10y ago
As does the EU.
- atmosx 10y ago> As does the EU. Are you trolling? What kind of mechanism does the EU have? How does Germany have such a high surplus if such a mechanism is in place?!
- davrosthedalek 10y agoIt has TRADE surplus. You were talking about funds. There is a substantial amount of money flowing from Germany, France and others into less fortunate countries via EU governed programs.
- atmosx 10y agoNo I'm talking about TRADE surplus.
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoBut EastLondonCoder and davrosthedalek were not talking about trade surplus. You are yelling at them for saying something that is true, because they're not talking about what you think they're talking about.
- nickbauman 10y agoNot the same kind of money, though. This is money that is part of the problem. The money goes in and the debt goes up twice as much. Not the same as the California example above.
- Tomte 10y agoTrade surplus is neither evil nor a problem in itself.
- crdoconnor 10y agoTrade surplus without a safety valve (the ability to devalue a currency) is very much a problem since it leads to unsustainable debt buildups. Germany should be running a trade deficit with the rest of Europe right now but it refuses to.
- nickbauman 10y agoUnless your currency policy is fixed by those you buy from. That's the fundamental problem here.
- nickbauman 10y agoIt has some sharing, but it's not enough. For example, California sends 180 billion in tax revenues to the fed while accepting approximately 30 billion in federal spending. In the EU this kind of thing occurs only in the single digit billions.
- davrosthedalek 10y agoIndeed. The problem is that populist politicians in "paying" countries can use this as an argument for an EU exit. See Brexit. It's hard to sell to pay billions, especially if stuff like hours/week, retirement age etc. are often nicer in those countries that need the money.
- crdoconnor 10y agoThe problem is that the populists are able to make that argument at all. Most establishment politicians in Europe are trying to be as much like Weimar as possible in all the wrong ways (austerity, wage repression, pension slashing, privatizations, etc.).
- RobertoG 10y agoYou are going to need to be more precise there.