>That sounds rational. But why they refused to support
> him in public ? There was no Wall Street manager nor a
>US politician, who ever said in public, Lafontaine is
>right. Instead they supported the absurd central bank
>cult, saying a rate cut is necessary, but unfortunately
>not possible, because the german finance minister demands it
>and endangers the political independance of the ECB council.
I didn't know that U.S. politicians had strong views of the appropriate amount of independence from national governments of the ECB.
I do know that last January 30, Bob Rubin said (among other things) that:
"The international system cannot sustain indefinitely the large imbalances created by the disparities in growth and openness between the U.S. and its major industrial trading partners. We can contribute to this rebalancing by continuing to strengthen our fundamentals and by working to increase our far too low savings rate... The other industrialized countries can contribute by acting to achieve higher rates of domestic demand-led growth..."
Now saying that "other industrialized countries can contribute by acting to achieve higher rates of domestic demand-led growth" is a polite way of saying: CUT YOUR INTEREST RATES NOW!!
Brad DeLong