An amusing public fight is taking place, with Germany and the European Central Bank on one side and France on the other. I’m not sure whether this calls for a surrender joke or a wry reference to the Iran‐Iraq war and how it would be nice for both sides to lose, but I will demonstrate uncharacteristic maturity by instead focusing on the policy implications.
The French, not surprisingly, are wrong. They have been badgering the European Central Bank to mimic the mistakes of America’s Federal Reserve by creating too much liquidity in order to artificially lower interest rates.
Germany is on the side of the Central Bank, which wisely has focused on maintaining the value of the currency (which helps explain why the dollar has been falling compared to the euro). As part of this spat, the head of the European Central Bank very publicly pointed out the wretched state of France’s bloated government budget. The EU Observer reports:
European Central Bank (ECB) chief Jean‐Claude Trichet has said that France’s public finances are in “very great difficulty.” “In 2007, according to statistics from the European commission, France will be the country spending the most in public expenditure in relation to gross domestic product, not only within the eurozone but among the 27 members of the European Union”, Mr Trichet told Europe 1 radio on Sunday (23 September). On top of that, “the development of France’s public finances has on average been significantly worse than that of other European countries”, he added. …Mr Trichet’s comments also come as a reply to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has repeatedly criticised the ECB lately on a number of points, notably for not cutting interest rates. …Mr Trichet, who has also repeatedly stressed the need for the ECB to remain independent from any political pressure and has been riled by Mr Sarkozy’ comments, pointedly took Berlin as an example of a government which has managed to lower its public expenditure. Currently, Germany’s public spending is nine percentage points of GDP lower than that of France, which has to “adapt faster”, if it wants to benefit best from a global economy, Mr Trichet said.