Vox’s Solution to the Financial Crisis in Greece: Write a Check!
Yup, that’s really what Ezra Klein said:
Adam Posen is president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and, like every international economist right now, he’s glued to the drama in Greece. There is, he says, a simple solution to the crisis: the Northern European countries should write a check and end it. But they won’t, and in a conversation on Monday, he told me why.
This the leftists’ solution to everything: write a check. They think, apparently, that money equals value.
It’s a simplistic mindset, and one that is wholly and completely wrong. But this mindset is not something that can be refuted in a few words. Basically, either you understand economics (and therefore why this is a moronic opinion) or you don’t.
Klein doesn’t.
I thought I had posted this this morning — but I hadn’t.
Patterico (3cc0c1) — 7/1/2015 @ 6:36 pmEzra is objectively a moron.
JD (3b5483) — 7/1/2015 @ 6:47 pmSimilar: You can help your drug-addicted nephew by giving him money for rehab. Also, you can end blackmail by paying off the blackmailer.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 7/1/2015 @ 7:13 pmor also similar– give terrorists jobs. I miss Marie Harf. She and Ezra both wear librarian glasses to make them look smart and both say really really stupid stuff. Of course it’s worse because Marie gets paid from taxpayer dollars. (But in reality, probably Ezra does too.)
elissa (a14152) — 7/1/2015 @ 7:24 pmWhy doesn’t Ezra himself go ahead and write the check for Greece? It makes about as much sense as his idea.
edoc118 (b91ab7) — 7/1/2015 @ 7:27 pmWell, it would solve the immediate problem. If the northern European countries pay off Greece’s debt then it won’t owe it any more. Crisis over. And lenders can prevent the crisis from recurring by simply cutting off Greece’s credit, the way a bar cuts off a bum. If they lend them money again they deserve to get stiffed.
Milhouse (a04cc3) — 7/1/2015 @ 7:39 pmBecause Ezra doesn’t have that kind of money. They do. They could write a check and pay off the Greek debt, just as easily as Donald Trump could pay off my debt. They just don’t see any reason why they should.
Milhouse (a04cc3) — 7/1/2015 @ 7:41 pmThe Greeks should borrow some forensic accountants from the IRS to trace where the E200 billion loan money went. Then they should set up a guillotine in Constitution Square and run the top 1000 recipients of that money — politicians and their families and cronies — through it. That would greatly improve the morale of the country, and they could get back to where they were before cellphones and BMWs, and maybe some day hold their own heads up again.
nk (dbc370) — 7/1/2015 @ 7:48 pmHow dare you!! Have you any shame? At long last, have you no decency? The very idea that you think Ezra, poor, misunderstood Ezra should actually put his own wallet on the line. That idea was conceived with you, the typical unwashed prole in mind. YOU are supposed to fork it over, not Ezra.
Bill H (2a858c) — 7/1/2015 @ 10:32 pmI think it’s actually a brilliant idea. It will give Europhiles a chance to show their love for socialism in a meaningful way. Tax deductible too!
Which sparks another idea: a site like Match.com for the homeless and the people who feel sorry for them. A person with an extra room could find the perfect match and take a homeless person off the street. Problem solved.
Patricia (5fc097) — 7/1/2015 @ 10:35 pmThat reminds me- I need to take my good kitchen knives in and get them sharpened.
Bill H (2a858c) — 7/1/2015 @ 10:37 pmKlein set himself up as a policy wonk by learning the jargon of policy wonks, which was good enough for WaPo. But he began to believe it himself, even as every single outcome he asserted would flow from Obamacare failed to happen, and almost every harm he claimed was baseless fear has happened. GE’s far-left CEO Immelt funded him for this bigger propaganda venture, which has been a joke so far.
You see, Ezra, the rest of Europe already wrote the checks. Greece took the money and refuses to pay it back. They refuse to even do what they promised to do in exchange for extensions and huge debt relief in 2010-11.
Estragon (ada867) — 7/1/2015 @ 10:49 pm2010 called. They want their €110,000,000,000 prescription back.
Dustin (2a8be7) — 7/1/2015 @ 11:11 pmMay I point out the supposed expert, Posen, is the one who said “write a check”. Not Klein.
kishnevi (91d5c6) — 7/2/2015 @ 5:56 amAnd the truly ignorant/ wierd thing is again Posen…that comment about Mississippi and Alabama owing California and New York, and how that debt is covered by the Feds. I am not even sure what that means. And I suspect that if anything, it is CaliYork that owes AlaMiss…
Although actually Posen’s main point is probably true: Germany knew it was feeding an addict’s habit, and went ahead and made risky loans anyway. So why shouldn’t Germany eat the loss if Greece declares bankruptcy?
kishnevi (294553) — 7/2/2015 @ 5:59 amHere’s an even better question: Why won’t the Greeks grow up and face economic reality?
Bill H (2a858c) — 7/2/2015 @ 9:42 amLying, thieving Greek politicians; way, way bloated bureaucracy; horrible business environment strangled with red tape; liberal nanny-state ethos inculcated in the young now pushing 40. What do you think of a country with 25% unemployment which imports immigrant labor with the promise of citizenship because no Greek wants to carry bricks or pick olives?
nk (dbc370) — 7/2/2015 @ 9:53 amHere’s an even better question: Why won’t the Greeks grow up and face economic reality?
Because they don’t have to. they are still spending other people’s money.
They are about to attempt to extort more money by threatening to leave the West and join Putin.
We should let them go.
gahrie (12cc0f) — 7/2/2015 @ 1:19 pmIt wasn’t actually Ezra that said that: It was the “economist” he’s interviewing.
Having taken an economics class or two in college, which, perhaps Ezra should have done, I understand this very well: Anything an economist tells you is essentially an opinion. They may have some numbers to back them up, but, as we see with the jobs numbers, these can be finesses, altered or just plain made up to suit the biases of whoever wants to use them.
And no matter how many times a Keynesian witnesses failure, it’s never the fault of his theories; The problem is always that not enough of someone else’s money was spent.
arik (02de93) — 7/2/2015 @ 2:28 pmMilton Friedman said that you learn everything economists know in econ 101. After that, everything you learn in other classes are just guesses.
As far as opinions, other than wrong ones Mr. Posen wouldn’t have any.
Steve57 (4c9797) — 7/2/2015 @ 4:35 pmMy Econ 101 professor was a follower of Friedman. Which would help to explain how and why I came to that opinion. And the fact that real-life experience has borne him out as correct are why I have continue to believe it.
arik (02de93) — 7/3/2015 @ 3:14 pmNoting crazy about writing off debts. But I don’t think Ezra is the one saying this. The article attributes it to Posen
Abe (4aae12) — 7/3/2015 @ 3:26 pmTo everyone saying Ezra didn’t write this:
The headline says:
“There’s a simple solution to Greece’s problems, but Europe won’t try it”
That headline appears on Vox’s site.
Patterico (3cc0c1) — 7/3/2015 @ 4:43 pmWhat is the problem in writing a check for the Greek bailout? Sounds like a good plan.
cashing the check on the other hand ….
seeRpea (0cf003) — 7/3/2015 @ 5:14 pmWhat would be the problem with cashing the check? The people who’d be writing it are good for it. The only problem is why should they write it? They didn’t become rich by giving money away.
Milhouse (a04cc3) — 7/3/2015 @ 5:15 pmThe only reason I can think of for writing off a debt is so you can recognise the loss on your tax return. But sovereign nations don’t pay taxes, so what’s in it for them?
Milhouse (a04cc3) — 7/3/2015 @ 5:16 pmre #20: do to a fluke, I learned micro economics before macro economics.
seeRpea (0cf003) — 7/3/2015 @ 5:17 pmmakes a huge difference in how you approach economic thoughts and plans. also convinced me quite early on that i couldn’t handle the lying salespersonship to pull off making a living from being an economist.