Letters to the Editor – 09/06 – ECB easing, D-Day, Best of Twitter
ECB easing
[Re: ECB easing must damage growth, Friday]
If central banks are to have any responsibility, it is for the nominal side of the economy, that which they can affect. Since the crisis, nominal GDP (NGDP) growth has remained stunted in the euro area. The tragedy is that the measures announced by the ECB will likely be insufficient to restore NGDP growth to its pre-crisis trend, and as such will be sniffed at by investors who do not consider the package potent enough. Mario Draghi has hinted at asset purchases. And if he truly wishes to do “whatever it takes” to save the currency bloc, then he should commit to them with full force.
Name withheld
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D-Day
[Re: Our leaders have forgotten the spirit of D-Day, Friday]
The events of 70 years ago in Normandy happened in a world in which our priorities were clear cut, but not absolute. The free world was fighting the evils of Nazism, but it was doing so in alliance with a Soviet Union that was, in many ways, just as brutal. So while I agree with John Hulsman that we need to rediscover the power of simple ideas in foreign policy, I also think that we need to get real about our capacity to change the world. Western excitability about the Arab Spring, for example, was probably not in our best interests.
Richard Morgan
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BEST OF TWITTER
So the IMF has changed its mind on UK fiscal policy again, and now back the government’s strategy.
@MrRBourne
Debt to GDP ratio in Italy. 2010: 119 per cent. 2014: 133 per cent.
@ianbremmer
According to Populus, 49 per cent of Con voters are 65+ compared to just 28 per cent of Lab ones.
@MSmithsonPB
Can’t imagine Ed Miliband thinks he can win after Euro results and Newark.
@DouglasCarswell