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Back to Buiter

08.03.2010
Ian McMaster
Ian McMaster
Editor-in-chief
Commenting on global business issues
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  • Britain
  • budget deficit
  • euro
  • eurozone
  • Greece
  • Maverecon
  • Willem Buiter
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When the great man talks, it pays to listen. Or, in this case, to read.

The man in question is Willem Buiter, now chief economist at Citigroup. In his previous incarnation he was a professor at the London School of Economics — and the most entertaining and outspoken blogger on economics, via his Maverecon blog on the Financial Times website.

When Buiter took up his new post on 1 January, he stopped writing the blog, because he would no longer have the independence to write exactly what he thought, under the cover of "academic immunity".

Academics, wrote Buiter in his final post last December, "have no duty other than to state the truth as they see it" and can be "undiplomatic, blunt, tactless and outspoken in ways that are unacceptable in the wider world — the world of grown-ups."

Last week, however, saw two contributions from Buiter that helped to ease the withdrawal symptoms that some of us have been suffering from.

First, in the Financial Times, he wrote an article comparing Britain's dodgy finances to those of dodgy Greece and dodgy dodgy Enron. "Among industrial countries", said Buiter, "Britain’s economic fundamentals are uniquely awful."

Spot the difference  Illustration: Bernhard Förth
Spot the difference Illustration: Bernhard Förth
He argued that both Britain and Greece "need 8 to 9 per cent of GDP-worth of permanent fiscal tightening". The big difference between the countries, he said, was that "Greece cannot deliver that without external support because its society and polity are deeply divided" and "its institutions of governance are weak". Britain, on the other hand, should be politically capable of "imposing a timely burden-sharing solution".

The second fascinating Buiter contribution was an interview in Handelsblatt. Here he argued that the euro would survive the current Greek crisis as long as it imposed strict conditions as well as offering help. "I don't believe Angela Merkel would survive if she simply transferred money to Athens," he wrote.

Buiter also argued for a form of European fiscal authority, with the ability to raise taxes, borrow money, and help and discipline member states who get into trouble.

This degree of political union, he said, was the only way to ensure the survival of the European currency union in the longer term. A start on such a fiscal authority could be made next year, Buiter argued, with the right to raise taxes and capital likely to take "five to ten years".

That might sound wildly optimistic to most observers of euro-bureaucracy, but it surely the right way to go if future euro-crises are to be avoided.

Chef-Volkswirt(in)
In seinem früheren Leben; hier: davor
offen
Schutz
Universitätslehrkräfte
direkt, unverblümt
Beiträge
lindern
Entzugserscheinungen
zweifelhaft
Grundlagen der Wirtschaft
ganz besonders schlimm
argumentieren
Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP)
Haushaltskonsolidierung
Staatswesen
Regierungsinstitutionen
einen baldigen Plan zur Lastenteilung durchsetzen
überleben, überdauern
auferlegen
überweisen
Haushaltsbehörde
Steuern erheben
disziplinieren
Grad
gewährleisten
Währungsunion
längerfristig
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